Mercenaries

<p><strong>Mercenaries</strong> - four new tales by John Fraser</p><p><br></p><p>Mercenaries: soldiers of fortune conottieri knight errants ... Soldiers have always been paid somehow; a wage? ... or by their own practices of looting enslavement often taking it out on others for vengeance or pleasure taking prisoners and ransoming - hostages. Yet people who soldier for the money </p><p>are singled out and looked down on ... and yet however you do it losing whether done for money or the cause is never pleasant. Being a prisoner or dead gives no material credit whether you are a courageous altruistic type or needy and conscripted. Now with people's wars mass invasions and </p><p>generalised hostilities - everyone is a soldier. At least everybody suffers like a soldier not all bear arms. Many are also mercenaries - have been would like to be. They are like samurai who cut the personal risk by doing deals with similars - momentarily the enemy.  </p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>Mercenaries </em></strong>concerns attempts by mercenaries to engage more mercenaries to carry out humanitarian work. Maybe it ought to work. It should be clean. What can be accomplished tying political aims to cash? Suppose the aims are impeccable....  </p><p><br></p><p>The short concluding pieces <strong><em>Round Heaven Square Earth</em></strong> <strong><em>Hope </em></strong>and <strong><em>Stop</em></strong> are illustrations of how political schemes might be achieved by force of will without the cash. All our modern realities and their dilemmas are treated here.</p>