“Sir.” The Captain was standing nearby and came over. “If I get down to those bushes on the right-hand side of the bridge, I should be able to throw a mental shield out over the main part of the bridge that may disrupt the mentalist’s control over the suicide bombers. It will become a battle of power between how far I can reach and how far their mentalist can reach.”

He paused and thought about what would happen in such a circumstance. It would depend upon the strength of the enemy mentalist to a large extent, he expected.

“Do we have someone that speaks Japanese?” At the Captain’s nod, he continued. “If you have someone that has a loud carrying voice, have your Japanese speaker coach them in how to yell out, “Throw the bombs in the river and run to our side.” It will completely disrupt their plan, hopefully.”

The Captain thought about it for a few moments. “I see. You’re hoping that your mental influence will break their control long enough for them to obey our instructions and wander to our side of the bridge where they will be out of range of the Japanese mentalists.”

“That’s the idea, sir. I have no idea of how many I’ll be able to affect, but if the Japanese keep forcing them across the bridge, more and more of them will come under my control or at least my shield that will free them from the Japanese mentalist’s control. Can I suggest we have a few snipers placed on the roofs to pick off those who choose to carry the bombs across the bridge anyway? There’s no guarantee that freeing them of the mental controls they are under will necessarily make them happy to follow our instructions.”

“No, I guess not. Particularly with Japanese, they tend to be a bit more fanatical than some.” The Captain commented, turned away, and began giving orders to his assembled underlings to get things happening.

Andrew turned back and resumed contemplating the bridge. After a minute or two, the Captain rejoined him.

“You know, it would pay to have some troops ready to organize the refugees into those open areas, the tennis courts over here to the left and the parkland there to the right behind those trees so the Japs across the river can’t see them. I think if we break them up into small groups, it will work well in case the odd bomber makes it through.”

The Captain nodded. “Good idea.”

The Nuzeeland officer took a few minutes to study the ground where Andrew had pointed and then called over a couple of Lieutenants and began issuing more orders.

“I’ll go downstairs and head for that scrub as soon as your man with a loud voice turns up.”

Fortunately, the Japanese were still busy organizing, and nothing happened over the next few minutes. A large Kiwi Sergeant turned up at the entrance of the building.

“You’ll be Harris, then?”

“Yeah, mate. You’re the one with a loud voice?”

“Parade ground voice is what they call it, bro. I hope this idea of yours works.”

“If you’ve got the Japanese words down right, it should work well. It’ll depend on how powerful the Jap mentalist is and how fanatical the Jap women and children are.”