Liberators: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse

45 LE DERNIER COMBAT

In the aftermath of the UNPROFOR headquarters bombing, it was learned that most of the casualties had been support and service-support troops. These were mostly pencil-pushing clerks, paymasters, bakers, supply NCOs, mechanics, and various technicians. There were also two French Directorate of Military Intelligence (Direction du Reseignement Militaire or DRM) agents in the building. Those in the French contingent who survived did so by virtue of being out “on the line” when the bombing happened. These were nearly all regular combat troops. The survivors reacted with predictable ferocity. Their new battle cry was: “Leurs têtes vont rouler”—their heads will roll.

All of their old smiles and feigned civility were gone. The UNPROFOR troupes de ligne were now quick on the trigger and had zero tolerance for insolence. There were more checkpoints, more searches, more raids, more arrests, and much more torture. If anyone had doubted it before, British Columbia was now clearly under the iron heel of military occupation. They even stopped cleaning up their messes, allowing ravens to police the battlefield.

The strong resistance in the western provinces—highlighted by the Williams Lake headquarters bombing—was well publicized in the east, and consequently the level of UNPROFOR brutality was stepped up nationwide.

UNPROFOR’s heightened oppression had a surprising effect: Instead of making people cower, it brought out their courage. French patrols could now expect to be sniped at wherever they went. Any UNPROFOR or RCMP vehicle left unattended would soon be firebombed or at least have its tires slashed. NLR and MOLON LABE! graffiti was spray-painted and penned almost everywhere imaginable.

Nearly everyone felt that there would soon be a general uprising, but that subtle breaking point had not yet been reached.