Hero (28 page)

Beyond the dirty glass, he could see Stuarti waving goodbye, then beckoning to Matteotti, but then the skimmer turned and moved away and he couldn't see them anymore.

Ari looked over at Dov Ginsberg. The big, ugly man didn't look any different. Maybe he didn't know what it was like to love somebody, or maybe he didn't care.

Shimon Bar-El was eyeing him curiously over a lit tabstick. "There's all kinds of warrior's reflex," he said without any preamble. "Seems you got one, eh? Trouble is, that I don't quite know what to do with you. I can't read you out after this—you played it just right and took the town. Can't fault you for that.

"On the other hand," he went on, flicking ashes onto the floor, "you fucked up twice as an enlisted striker, so even if your head
is
on straight, you've got a problem reputation. Can't put you back in the ranks."

Tetsuo lit a tabstick and picked up the theme. "He sure as hell can't let you keep your commission and give you a company, or even a platoon—same reason. An officer has to have earned his command, and the consensus among Metzadans is that you haven't." Tetsuo smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile, and it wasn't a report. "You would have made it easier on all of us if you'd gotten yourself killed, you know."

Ari looked from Tetsuo to Dov. "I suppose that still could be arranged." His hands were loose and empty on his lap, but if Shimon ordered Dov to kill him now, just maybe Ari could get his gun out and a bullet into the bastard. He would surely try.

"That's always a possibility." Shimon considered the glowing coal of his tabstick. "There's another choice. Since Avram Stein was killed, I find myself minus an aide-de-camp. The TO calls for a captain in that slot. Now," he said, holding up a hand, "don't speak too soon. You'll be on probation; all this will mean is just another chance.

"Or chances. Operation Triumphant is still running, and Generale Prezzolini has a real interesting job for the regiment. In another forty-eight hours, you'll be back in combat, right beside me. And Dov.

"Now, assuming you do get through the next couple of weeks alive, and we get our asses off this dirtball, you're still not safe. Next time we get an opportunity, you'll be presented as our specialist in commanding foreign troops, and get another chance to either build up a reputation. . . ."

"Or get killed," Ari said.

"Or get killed." Shimon shrugged. "One or the other will happen eventually, I bet."

"Or both," Tetsuo said.

Shimon waved him to silence. "Do we have a deal?"

Ari looked at him long and hard. It wasn't that he had any choice, but a real officer would have made the three of them sweat for a while, and Ari was going to spend the rest of his life impersonating a real officer.

"Deal," he said.

Yes, he was a spare part, newly machined, and put into a place where he would never quite fit. But if you had a part that didn't quite fit, you could always force it into place.

"You've got yourself an aide, General."

Shimon and Tetsuo visibly relaxed. Dov didn't look any different. Dov never looked any different.

They rode in silence for a while, then Tetsuo spoke up. "Ari? I'm sorry about the girl. I take it she meant something to you."

Yes, he wanted to say, she did, I loved her, and she's dead now. But that wasn't what the role called for.

"No big deal," Ari Hanavi said, feeling colder inside. "Doesn't matter."

"One more thing."

"What
is
it?"

"You going to tell Benyamin the whole story?"

Ari nodded. "I won't lie to Benyamin. Yes, I'll tell him everything."

"And what do you think Benyamin will say?"

Ari shrugged. "I don't think he'll say anything. I think he'll just smile."

He suddenly felt very old. He shut his eyes, leaned back, and tried to sleep.

Glossary

The following military terms may be of some interest and use. Some are standard terms, some are exclusively Metzadan, and some are standard terms that have been changed for the exigencies of the Metzadan situation.

[-]
: Map notation for a tank, or a group of tanks.

1LT:
Abbreviation for First Lieutenant, the middle-level company grade officer. The Metzadan insignia is two silver bars, worn on each shoulder or at the collar points. First lieutenants serve in low-level staff positions, command platoons, or are company commanders or execs.

2LT:
Abbreviation for second lieutenant, the lowest-level commissioned officer grade in the MMC. The Metzadan insignia is a single silver bar. In many armies, a second lieutenant wears a single
gold
bar, proportioned (and colored) about like a stick of butter, hence the colloquial term "goddamn butter-bar" for a second lieutenant. Second lieutenants generally command platoons, although they may be company execs or the lowest-level staff officers.

administrative:
The opposite of operational. The condition in which soldiers are not expected to shoot anybody, and will be disciplined for flourishing weapons about. Safety rules—involving loading of weapons, speed or altitude of flight, pre-emptive assault on innocent bystanders—are enforced.

aide-de-camp:
General officers have the opportunity to name relatively junior officers as aides. An aide can act as a liaison, personal attendant, secretary, bodyguard and so on—varying quite a bit with the style of the general officer involved. The only common thread is that the aide is an assistant to the general, and not a deputy; he has no authority of his own, but may pass along orders from the general.

APC:
Armored personnel carrier. Anything from a bus with reinforced sides to something that looks more like a tank, complete with main gun. An APC can run on wheels, tracks or fans. The main purpose of an APC is to move soldiers from point A to point B with some protection from fire, particularly small arms fire. One trouble with APCs is that, when there's shooting going on, infantrymen instinctively feel safer inside than outside. They're not.

arty:
Slang for artillery. Also tubes, pipes, cocks.

Barak:
Hebrew for "lightning." The standard Metzadan assault rifle, generally remanufactured to handle local ammunition.

basic training:
The introductory course, designed to turn a civilian into a green soldier.
Not
a Metzadan usage; the Metzadan term is "school."

bat:
Short for battalion. Never used for battery.

battalion:
In an artillery unit, a group of three or more batteries under the same command. In an infantry unit, a group of three or more companies under the same command; a military organization of anywhere from about 700 to about 1200 officers and enlisted men.

battery:
A group of artillery pieces, of the same type and caliber, under the same command. Generally, a battery consists of six artillery pieces, operated by about fifty officers and enlisted men.

battery three:
An order for each piece in an artillery battery to fire three times at the same target.

battle shock:
Either quickly or slowly, getting shot at wears people down. You can figure an average of about 150 days of combat for most citizen soldiers before they're burned out and used up. Even if they're the good guys.

beaten fire zone:
The territory that a weapon actually hits when fired. An autogun is usually the piece under consideration; the beaten fire zone tends to be elongated along the range axis (as opposed to the traversing axis) for reasons that are left as an exercise for the student. Cover is by definition not in a beaten fire zone, though concealment may be.

bounding overwatch:
A sensible sounding maneuver which calls for two units to move by leapfrogging each other, usually at each other's flanks, separated by some distance perpendicular to the axis of travel. The lead elements take up hasty positions, signaling the trailing element to go forward and find their own hasty positions, and then switching off. Not really a good idea in relatively settled circumstances, but not bad when you expect that the enemy is on the run and won't have the time or inclination to set up a decent ambush. Other major problems are in maintaining control of the units, signaling accurately without arousing the enemy's suspicions, and making sure that when and if contact is made, the heroes to the rear at that time do
not
shoot at their teammates. (See
friendly fire
.)

brevet:
A temporary promotion (or, in the MMC, possibly a demotion), used to make the promoted senior to officers who would otherwise be senior to him. If you want Second Lieutenant Shwartz to be able to order First Lieutenant Silverstein around, one easy way is to temporarily make him Captain Shwartz. Metzadan liaison officers, and frequently their enlisted assistants, are almost always brevetted to at least the same grade as their contacts in the hiring force. (See
negative brevet
and
French brevet
).

cadre:
The permanent personnel at an installation or training unit, not expected to lead their trainees into combat. More colloquially, soldiers engaged in training other soldiers.

call sign:
A tag name used, particularly during radio communication, which unambiguously identifies the parties to the conversation to each other. Ideally, the call sign is
not
intrinsically meaningful, in order to deny the enemy any information from intercepts or taps, and all requests and reports are encoded. "This is Fragrant Flower Four for Dustbin Three. Armadillo. Turnip. Eat my shorts," could be a request from a squad for more ammunition, an order from the commander-in-chief to attack at dawn, or a report from S4 on the number of condoms in stock. In practice, encoding is widely disregarded, as the convenience of simple communication is allowed to take precedence over the possible negative effects of the intercepts . . . until a disaster happens. Standard Metzadan practice is to keep much real-time communications in clear Hebrew, with a minimum of code, relying on encrypted communication (see
squash radio)
for sensitive matters.

captain (CPT):
The highest company-grade officer rank. The Metzadan insignia is three silver bars, worn on the shoulder or collar points. Captains serve as staff officers or command companies.

captive of war:
A legal term for a war prisoner of the lowest status possible.

Casalingpaesesercito (abbreviation, CPE):
The army
of Casalingpeasa, a nation-state on Nueva Terra.

chief of staff:
The officer responsible for the coordination of the staff work of a major unit—usually a division or larger. A chief of staff of a brigade or smaller can be suspected of being in a makework post; small units usually just have the operations officer, with or without additional people working for him. In most armies, the chief of staff is the number three in the chain of command, after the commander and the deputy commander. The Metzadan policy is that the chief of staff is not in the chain of command.

claymore:
Generic term for a remote-controlled antipersonnel mine, deployed above ground. The original claymore amounted to a curved piece of high explosive with several hundred ball bearings embedded in the convex face, with a well for inserting a detonator, wired to a remote triggering device. When the explosive was triggered by the operator, the ball bearings amounted to a very large and rather scattered group of buckshot. Claymores can also be used in booby traps as opposed to being actively triggered by an observer.

CO:
Commanding officer. The guy in charge.

Colonel:
The highest rank of field-grade officer. Insignia are three silver oak leaves, worn on the shoulder or collar points. Colonels command battalions and larger organizations, under the direction of a general, or serve in staff positions.

comm, commo:
Communications. One of the three major parts of an army unit's mission: move, shoot, communicate. Communications are generally a two-edged sword: the better the commo, the easier it is to tap or intercept. Metzadan communication, being fairly sophisticated (and with real-time being done in Hebrew, a language familiar to few outside of Metzada) is relatively, but only relatively, secure.

CP:
Command post. Normally set up behind the line, as opposed to the listening posts or forward observation posts, set up in front of the line.

CPE:
See
Casalingpaesesercito.

daisho:
The traditional Nipponese paired swords, one long, one short.

deputy commander:
The second in command. He has limited staff duties, and mainly serves as a second, subordinate commander. He's also the
spare
commander, in case the boss gets himself killed or cut off. Generally, he has pretty much unlimited authority to tell subordinate commanders "yes, sure, go ahead" but only limited authority to tell them "no, don't."

dogrobber:
Colloquial for aide-de-camp.

Il Distacamento de la Fedeltà (abbreviation, DF):
The overgrown Casalingpaeasan military police, which has judicial powers.

Exec:
Second in command of a military unit, with staff duties. A combination of deputy commander and chief of staff. Colloquially, the deputy commander.

exit-pill:
A suicide pill.

exsuit:
A one-way waterproof exposure suit, designed to keep a man reasonably warm, and

reasonably dry, in subarctic conditions.

Fairbairn dagger:
A long, double-edged knife, designed solely for close combat, developed by Bruce Fairbairn, formerly Chief of Police of Hong Kong.

firefight:
A small unit encounter with another small unit, when both are interested in closing with and destroying the enemy and neither has much interest in conserving ammunition. The opposite of an ambush, although a poorly executed ambush can turn into a firefight.

forward observer:
The poor slob who gets to sneak up near the enemy and report corrections for artillery fire. He'd better keep his head down; he's the number one priority target of soldiers receiving artillery fire. He is also one of the lads who is religious about using correct radio procedures, and passionately devoted to commo security—because if he says he's on top of Old Smokey, instead of at Point Gimel, he's the fellow who is likely to get a quick cure in the form of enemy reconnaissance by fire.