Chapter 56 Saint
Saint
Ihate this kind of fight.
You can’t see the enemy.
You can’t hit him.
You can’t even prove he’s there.
I walk down Main Street slowly.
The afternoon sun makes everything look normal.
Too normal.
The café windows glow warm.
The bakery smells like cinnamon and sugar.
Miller’s store stands dark and boarded.
A ghost waiting for paperwork to decide its future.
“They’re being outspent,” Wolf says quietly beside me.
“They’re being outmaneuvered,” I reply.
That’s the real problem.
Money is only a weapon if you know where to point it.
At the end of the street, Laney stands near the truck with the baby.
She rocks the carrier gently while talking to Mrs. Whitaker.
For a moment the scene looks peaceful.
Like a town living its life.
But I know better.
This place is under attack.
Just not the kind people recognize.
I watch Laney for a moment.
Then something settles in my chest.
A decision.
“We can’t just defend,” I say.
Wolf glances at me.
“We have to disrupt.”
Trigger steps off the curb behind us.
“How?”
I look down the street again.
At the businesses.
At the roads.
At the systems quietly being tightened around the town.
“At the people who are being leaned on,” I say.
I turn back toward the others.
“We start making their quiet war…”
I pause.
Because sometimes the simplest strategy is the most effective.
“…very loud.”