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Project Gutenberg's Hunter Patrol, by Henry Beam Piper and John J. McGuire

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Title: Hunter Patrol

Author: Henry Beam Piper and John J. McGuire

Release Date: June 21, 2006 [EBook #18641]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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 Transcriber's Note

This etext was produced from Amazing Stories May 1959. There is no evidence that the copyright on
this publication was renewed.


HUNTER PATROL
By H. BEAM PIPER and JOHN J. McGUIRE
Many men have dreamed of world peace, but none have been able to achieve it. If one man did
have that power, could mankind afford to pay the price?

At the crest of the ridge, Benson stopped for an instant, glancing first at his wrist-watch and then back
over his shoulder. It was 0539; the barrage was due in eleven minutes, at the spot where he was now
standing. Behind, on the long northeast slope, he could see the columns of black oil smoke rising from
what had been the Pan-Soviet advance supply dump. There was a great deal of firing going on, back
there; he wondered if the Commies had managed to corner a few of his men, after the patrol had
accomplished its mission and scattered, or if a couple of Communist units were shooting each other up in
mutual mistaken identity. The result would be about the same in either caseтАФreserve units would be
disorganized, and some men would have been pulled back from the front line. His dozen-odd UN
regulars and Turkish partisans had done their best to simulate a paratroop attack in force. At least, his
job was done; now to execute that classic infantry maneuver described as, "Let's get the hell outa here."
This was his last patrol before rotation home. He didn't want anything unfortunate to happen.

There was a little ravine to the left; the stream which had cut it in the steep southern slope of the ridge
would be dry at this time of year, and he could make better time, and find protection in it from any