Alarm of War (7 page)

“I don’t know Zavareei and Skiffington is FOF,” she said, a little more sharply than she intended. In the back of her mind a voice was screaming at her that time was running out. They had to get going!

“Kara Zavareei is a high energy type who will keep her troops motivated and moving,” Brill replied easily. “And Skiffington is ten feet behind you, looking fine. If we have to break through enemy defenses at the bridge, put his platoon out front.”

Emily turned. Grant Skiffington was standing there with a nonchalant grin, eating a ration bar. “Sergeant said I could finish the maneuver with you,” he said, explaining his rebirth. “And I hope you don’t mind if I took one of your ration bars. Haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

Her staff problem resolved, Emily took stock of logistics. The Company’s biggest problem was immediately evident. Even after the extra “ammunition” had been passed out, there were still twelve soldiers without working batteries to power their rifles. Others had only a few shots left. They had depleted their batteries at the rifle range. Emily thought furiously, then, borrowing an idea from Hiram Brill, called for the four fastest long-distance runners. When they stepped forward, she took them aside.

“We are about four miles from the camp as the crow flies, she explained. “You take the truck back up the road about a mile. That will put you closest to the camp. Leave the truck there, in case Red Company has more ambushes set up. Cut through the fields to the camp and beg, borrow or steal as many batteries as you can find. Field rations, too. Don’t load your packs too heavy, because you’ve got to catch up to us. Come back a different route and don’t go near the truck. If the enemy sees it, they’ll stake it out.”

She showed them on the map which route she intended to take, and gave them one of the radios, along with code words in case Red or Green Companies were listening in on Blue’s designated channel.

As soon as the runners had left, she assembled the Company. “Listen up, everybody!” she said loudly, conscious that her soft voice did not carry well. To her ear she sounded ten years old. She held up the map. “We are marching cross-country, skirting this big swamp and these hills. Maybe twenty miles or a little more. It is rough country and it will be slow going, but we should make it to Killarney Bridge in plenty of time. The key is stealth. If we can get there unseen, we’ll have a huge advantage. Red and Green will have some patrols out, but I am betting that most of their forces are tied up either defending the bridge or setting up ambushes along the river road.” Emily paused to take a breath. The troops in Blue Company watched her intently.
Please,
she prayed silently.
Let me do this without screwing up too badly.

“I’ve sent runners for more food and ammo. With luck they’ll catch up to us in four or five hours. For now, everyone get a drink of water and have something to eat. If you are carrying a water bottle, share it with someone who doesn’t have one. Fill it every time we pass a stream. We leave in ten minutes.”

Emily called together the platoon commanders and Brill spread his map out on the ground. She pointed a hill directly overlooking Killarney Bridge. “I am calling this hill ‘Sunflower.’ If I were Red and Green, I would have people up there with binoculars. It gives a good view of the river road and some view of this area as well. We are going to have to stay in woods and dead ground until sunset. The enemy will certainly have occupied it. If we are to attack the bridge, we are going to have to take that hill first.”

They discussed the best route, finally decided on skirting between the two swamps, then entering a large ravine that ran close to Sunflower. Emily sent out flankers and scouts, armed with binoculars and radios. She warned them to stay off the radio except in extreme emergency. She tried to reach Gold Company without success. As the rest of Blue Company moved out, Emily checked her watch. The Gold Company convoy had to be at Four Corners in less than twenty-one hours.

The day was hot. Much hotter than she had expected. Water was going to be a problem. They crossed two small, dusty stream beds before they reached the gap between the swamps. Even the swamps had retreated under the summer sun, leaving vast sheets of hard-caked mud. Everyone was sweating and they were rapidly going through what little water they had. The Company slipped through the gap between the two swamps, then turned north. Well off to the east, they could see the hill Emily dubbed “Butterfly,” beyond which would be the river road. She tried to reach Gold Company again; still no luck. Somewhere ahead of them was Sunflower and the Killarney Bridge.

Five hours later, as they crept through a stand of pine trees, one of the scouts ran back to them, flushed and breathless, to report an enemy patrol less than a mile away, crossing the open ground in front of the forest.

“We can take them out!” Skiffington said. “We can lay an ambush and they’ll never know what hit them.” He looked thrilled at the prospect of a fight.

Emily shook her head. “Our target is the bridge. As long as they don’t know where we are, we’ve got a chance. One radio call from this patrol and they would swarm all over us.”

They sat and waited for ninety minutes until the patrol left the area. Skiffington grumbled and chaffed at the inaction. Emily was glad of the rest. The water was almost gone and many in Blue Company were painfully thirsty. They had at least ten more miles in front of them and she wasn’t sure all of them would make it.

Then they caught a lucky break. While they were waiting, the four runners sent to fetch supplies caught up to them. They carried full packs bulging with ammunition and food and collapsed to the ground, chests heaving.

Emily tore open one of the packs and dozens of battery packs spilled out. A second pack had two hundred ration bars and the third pack had more batteries.

“And a special surprise,” one of them, Odackal, said. Emily made a “tell me” gesture. Odackal smiled and opened his haversack to reveal bottles and bottles of water. Emily felt a rush of relief.

“Oh, thank God!” she exclaimed. “I could kiss you!”

“Hmmm…Really?” Odackal raised one eyebrow in amused question.

Emily snorted. “Just a figure of speech.”

“When we got to the base, we were all dying of thirst, so we figured that a little water wouldn’t be a bad idea.” He looked sheepish for a moment. “On the way back I had to drink two bottles just to keep going.”

“You did great.” Emily distributed the ammunition and made sure everyone had some water. By the time they finished, it was full dark.

Cookie joined her then, carrying a map. She calculated they were ten or twelve miles from Killarney Bridge. “Moon will be up soon, enough light to travel, at least for a few hours. We could be at the bridge by dawn if we push.

Emily smiled. They had ammunition, food and enough water to keep them going. And they had not been spotted by the enemy. They could do this. They could take Killarney Bridge with hours to spare.

• • • • •

Eight hours later, Emily sat back in despair. There was no way she could take the bridge by assault. None at all.

They had reached the top of Sunflower just before dawn, only to find four Green Company soldiers sound asleep. They were “killed,” then woken and told to stay off the ridge so that their comrades on the bridge would not see them Flashing Orange Forever. One of them had a radio, which Emily gave to Kimball. “If anyone calls looking for a report, just tell them you don’t see anything,” she ordered.

Now Emily lay atop the ridge, binoculars to her eyes, studying the bridge through the first light of dawn. Cookie and Hiram lay beside her, touching hip to hip. The other platoon leaders waited just behind them.

“I would kill for a cup of coffee,” Hiram grumbled. He swung his binoculars the length of the bridge. “My, my…they have been little busy little beavers, haven’t they?”

Emily stifled a curse. The bridge was small, only the length of a football field, and only one lane in each direction. The Green and Red soldiers had dragged tree trunks and rocks to block off both ends of the bridge, rendering them impassible to the trucks in the convoy. Also, at each end of the bridge there were two roughhewn bunkers, built from more logs, with firing slits cut into them. Blue Company was armed only with the Bull Pup laser rifles. There were no grenades, mortars or artillery. To take out a bunker they would have to storm it, then physically tear open the bunker walls and kill the defenders. Each bunker was positioned so that it could fire on anyone attacking the other bunker. As they watched, more “enemy” soldiers carried logs onto the middle of the bridge, where they began erecting yet another barricade.

Emily shook her head. It was just too much. Her troops would be swept with fire the moment they started down the hill. Once on the bridge they would have no cover at all and would be charging into fortified positions defended by twice the number of soldiers at her command. It was exactly the type of stupid frontal assault that she had criticized others for. So…so…

So who says it has to be a frontal assault?
What if they by-passed the bridge altogether? But where, and how? She brought the binoculars back up to her face and began to scan the bridge pilings. The pilings were made of cement. They were large, round and dirty. No, she realized, not dirty, but stained. There was a clear water line mark about six feet above the water.

“You’ve got five hours to accomplish your mission, Tuttle,” a voice suddenly said into her ear. “You better get your ass in gear and take this bridge!” Emily turned and saw Sgt. Kaelin lying prone just behind her. Cookie and Hiram had discretely withdrawn.

“Well, well, Sergeant Kaelin, and just as I thought you had taken a vow of silence.” She turned back to the river. No doubt about it, the summer’s drought had left the river running much lower than normal.

“Are you paying attention, recruit?” Kaelin demanded.

“Are you egging me on, Sergeant?” she asked mildly, still scanning the river. “Trying to panic me into charging the bridge and getting us all killed?” She looked up at him. “You wouldn’t do that now, would you, Sergeant Kaelin?”

Sergeant Kaelin frowned. “You are running out of time, recruit. If you don’t-” Suddenly Emily, in a surprisingly intimate gesture, leaned forward and put a finger on his lips, silencing him. He blinked in surprise. She leaned in close to his ear.

“You are here as an observer, Sergeant, remember?” she whispered softly. “Just observe. I know what I need to do.” She rolled to her feet and walked away. Kaelin was shocked. If any other recruit had done that, he would have bitten off their head. He watched her go, his surprise gradually giving way to a jumbled stew of mild annoyance and bemusement. Well, by God, he had put her in this situation because he wanted to see what she could do.
This had better be good
, he mentally warned her.

“What do you see?” Emily asked the platoon leaders. The sun was just creeping up and Killarney Bridge was still deep in the shadow of the hill. They all had binoculars trained on the bridge.

“Heavy defenses,” said Lee.

“A lot of targets concentrated in a very small area,” replied Skiffington with relish. “Once we pin ‘em down, they won’t be able to move worth shit.”

“Static defenses,” Kimball said thoughtfully. “We can put a platoon over the river and attack from the flank. They’ll be caught in cross-fire from the side and this hill.”

“Take us hours to pry them out of there,” complained Kara Zavareei, “and we don’t have too many hours left.”

Cookie was counting. “They got most of their men right here, Em, camped out by the bridge. If we can pin them down…”

“And go around!” Emily confirmed. “The river is low. We need to get upriver and find a spot to take the trucks across. Push a feint at them here and cross someplace else.”

Skiffington laughed. “My platoon will go across and attack the bridge from the flank. This will be fun.”

Now, wondered Emily,
where
was Gold Company with the convoy?

Odackal supplied the answer as soon as the platoon leaders had slithered back from the crest of the hill. “Gold Company just called in. They are four miles away. The Company commander wants to hear from you as soon as you’re free.”

Emily radioed immediately. The Gold Company commander was Rafael Eitan. “Are you on the river road?” she asked. “Oh, yes,” he replied. “It took us a while to get here, but now we are making good time. I still have all the trucks, but I am down to seventy three men.”

“Now listen carefully,” Emily said slowly. “I need to know your exact orders.” There was a pause as Eitan considered this.

“Well, I have a convoy of ten trucks, with cargo. I have to get the cargo to a location on the map called ‘Four Corners’ by noon today.”

“And what do you orders say about the Killarney Bridge?”

“Well, it is the only bridge across the river, isn’t it?”

Emily grinned wolfishly. She was right.
Kaelin, you are a devious sonofabitch.
“Okay, Rafael, I want you to drive exactly three miles, then stop. Do you understand? Three miles, no more. And Rafael, do any of your trucks have a winch?”

She left Skiffington and Kimball with their platoons and strict orders to wait for her signal before attacking. “Once you start, you have to keep them occupied for at least three hours.” She looked hard at Skiffington. “No heroic charges, Skiff, you understand? If you get your platoon wiped out, they’ll be able to mob Kimball’s platoon, and then wonder just where the rest of us might be. You need to keep them occupied.”

Skiffington gave her his best devil-may-care grin. “Don’t worry, Tuttle. ‘Prudence’ and ‘caution’ are my middle names.”

“Kick your ass you screw this up, Skiffington,” Cookie said.

• • • • •

Careful to stay out of view of the bridge, Emily led the rest of the Company to the River Road. Cookie’s platoon shucked most of their gear and went ahead at a fast trot, looking for the convoy and keeping an eye out for a shallow crossing. As Emily led her group, Hiram Brill gave her a piece of paper torn from his notebook. “A list of everyone in these three platoons with any engineering or construction experience. We’ll need it to get the trucks across the river.”