The contingent now controlling the intersection consisted entirely of 
girls, some eleven or twelve years old. There were several dozen of them, and 
they had apparently taken the objective by force from a smaller group of Fists, 
who could now be seen lying in the shade of some mulberry trees, hogtied with 
plastic rope. Probably three-quarters of the girls were on guard duty, mostly 
armed with sharpened bamboo stakes, though a few guns and blades were in 
evidence. The remaining quarter were on break, hunkered down in a circle near 
the intersection, sipping freshly boiled water and concentrating intently on 
books. Hackworth recognized the books; they were all identical, and they all 
had marbled jade covers, though all of them had been personalized with 
stickers, graffiti, and other decorations over the years.