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any further casualties. Thirdly, a dimension of fatigue was beginning to surface. Most of the men were working with less than four hours of sleep. As Kendall was stepping back up on the riser, those same men sat dejectedly in a semicircle of folding chairs. |
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Sergeant Kendall had rejuvenated the area map used in the first briefing session. It was taped to the wall again. |
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By this point, much of the spring had gone out of Kendall's step. He paced back and forth in front of his maps, sporting a two day stubble and looking for all the world more like a fugitive than an officer of the RCMP. |
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"Okay," he began hesitantly, "we made it through the night without any further incidents. We made it because we were organized, we were careful, and we followed our plan. It's important that everybody keep that in mind, because that's going to be the thing that gets us through this whole nightmare." |
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As it turned out, Kendall was just getting warmed up. From there he went on to inform us another sweep was being organized. "We'll follow the same routine we used in our first sweep, the only exception being that Constable Hawkins will head up the team coming in from the western boundary." |
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One or two of the men still had enough energy to mumble minor protests. |
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