Side Show (27 page)

Joe started sliding forward. Flat on the ground, he didn't have a clear avenue of fire at the Heggies. First squad was directly in the way. He had only gone about two body lengths before he heard the engines of the Heyers fire up behind him. The APCs started forward, but they didn't open up with their splat guns until they were close enough that they could be certain of firing well over the heads of Echo. By that time, the Heggies were starting to withdraw, moving away to the left, east, at an angle, away from Echo and from the company they had initially ambushed.

"Into the mixers as they come by," Lieutenant Keye ordered. "It's express time again."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

South and east of the 13th, the main Accord perimeter was shrinking again. During the night, and on past dawn, a Schlinal attack pushed the northern end south by nearly twenty kilometers. The pressure was constant, with full coordination among infantry, armor, and air. General Dacik had no choice but to withdraw the troops in the northern end of the semicircle before they could be cut off. Even then, a few units were isolated and either neutralized or captured.

"If they break through," Dacik reminded his staff, "there's nothing to stop them simply rolling up our entire line."

It was mid-afternoon, and they were gathered in the general's basement headquarters, now no more than forty kilometers from where the heaviest fighting was going on.

"There's a Heggie column—forty Novas backed up by at least two regiments of infantry—trying to advance along the ocean now," Colonel Lafferty said. "They're not having much luck. We're holding them at the Galilee River."

"For how long?" Dacik demanded.

"For as long as they insist on keeping tanks on the point, General," Lafferty said. "We blew the approaches to the only place they can possibly get tanks across. They'll have to bring in engineers and waste a lot of time repairing the damage, and we're able to keep their heads down. There's no alternative crossing for fifty klicks inland."

"I'm afraid that's not good enough." Dacik looked around the table, moving his glance slowly from one officer to the next. "It's time to throw all the dice at once."

That brought heads up. Through the last day and a half, Operations and Intelligence had been trying to find holes in the Schlinal defenses and a plan to exploit them. Every alternative they had managed to come up with had more holes than a colander.

"Which option, General?" Colonel Ruman, Dacik's operations officer, asked.

Dacik got up from the table and walked to the large mapboard hanging on the wall. "A variant of Zero-Three," he said. "Variant mostly because of the changed circumstances on our right." He shrugged. He was looking at the map now, not at his staff. The others waited for him to continue. They waited for several minutes before he did.

"On the right, we'll stage an orderly withdrawal, but as fast as we can manage without letting it turn into a rout. Get as many of the support units moved ahead of time, beginning as soon as this meeting is over. Get them back, and get engineers preparing new positions. Just before sunset, we make it look as if we're being routed, but again, we have to make sure the appearance doesn't become the reality." He turned away from the map just long enough to make sure that he had everyone's attention.

"As soon as the Heggies respond, and even
they
shouldn't need more than thirty minutes to pour in after us, we start the breakout. Here, and here." The first point Dacik indicated on the map was nearly to the southern end of the Accord foothold. The other was almost precisely in the middle of the flattened semicircle that represented the perimeter.

"Ninth SAT will handle the punch on the left. We'll use both of the other SATs in the middle, and follow them through with everything we can spare. Left and right. We try to roll up the Heggie lines before they rip us apart." He turned and looked at the others again. After a pause, he said, "Questions? Comments?"

"It looks like about even odds who rolls up whom," Lafferty said. "If we slip up on this, even a little, there won't be any second chances."

"I'd suggest that you move your headquarters prior to the attack," Colonel Ruman said before Dacik could respond to Lafferty's comment. "Besides the obvious fact that this site will probably fall within an hour after we start this, command and control is going to get... dicey, at best. We need to be located somewhere where we can avoid getting bagged by the Heggies and yet stay close enough to the main action to respond to whatever happens."

"A mobile CP has already been set up, ready to move, Colonel," Captain Lorenz said.

Dacik nodded. "We'll move here." He turned and pointed to a spot on the map again. "Right behind the central breakout. It might not be any safer there than here, but it will sure keep us on top of the situation."

"When do we move?" Ruman asked next.

"Local sundown, which will be 1907 hours tonight, according to CIC. That's the time for the staged retreat on the right. The exact timing for the breakout may change, depending on how the withdrawal goes, but—temporarily at least—it should start exactly one hour later, 2007 hours."

"Preparatory bombardment or air strikes?" Ruman asked.

"Nothing to give them any warning. We'll have Wasps up and Havocs in position covering the withdrawal from the north, but no site preparation at either of the breakout locations."

"Diversions?" Lafferty asked.

Dacik glanced from Lafferty to Ruman. "Ru, I think we'll pull in the left end, just a little, beginning fifteen minutes after the start of the movement on the right. They have secondary positions prepared?"

"They should have, General," Ruman replied. "I'll check."

"Just that little bit then, and maybe"—he turned and stared at the mapboard again—"a patrol in strength... here." He stabbed at the position. "That's about halfway between the two places where we're actually going to attack, and it's where the Heggies pulled out one of their units."

"How much strength for the patrol?" Ruman asked.

"A battalion. With cover from a single battery of Havocs if they run into trouble."

Dacik walked back over to the head of the table but didn't sit.

"It's not going to be pretty, gentlemen, and... well, Lafferty might have been optimistic with the odds. But we have to do something, and there won't be any cavalry to the rescue to bail us out. Anything gets done, we've got to do it ourselves."

"What about the 13th?" Ruman asked.

Dacik frowned. He had
almost
forgotten them. "They're in deep trouble. There's precious little we can do to help them but win this fight here tonight, or make such an effort that the Heggies
think
we might win." He stared down at the table and his frown deepened. "It looks as if the Heggies have turned at least four regiments against the 13th—ten, maybe as many as fifteen thousand men. That's really the only thing that gives us a chance. Even if we mop up everything here, we might still lose the 13th."

He turned away. In his mind, that "might" was already "will."

—|—

The 13th ran into one ambush after another. Although they no longer let themselves be bogged down by firefights, each ambush did cost time, even if no more than a few minutes. One company, sometimes two, would be detailed to stop long enough to allow the rest of the 13th to bull through. Until the next one. Each minute that the 13th lost to these delaying actions allowed the other three Schlinal units trying to reach them to get a minute closer to interception.

Just before sunset, the enemy massed all of the Novas it still had in the area for a determined bombardment of the 13th. A half dozen APCs and several support trucks were lost before the 13th's Havocs and Wasps drove the Novas off again. Not more than 10 percent of the men in the hit vehicles survived to be picked up by other vehicles.

The two Heyers carrying Dr. Corey's research team and their SI "minders" were kept near the exact center of the 13th. Gene Abru was with Philippa Corey. They spoke little but stared at each other most of the time.

—|—

Dem Nimz was driving slowly as sunset approached. Somewhere, probably very close, was the Schlinal convoy they had been following. Dem had turned the captured Schlinal truck away from the track at the first distant hint of the enemy, hoping to circle around them without being spotted. The Heggies had stopped for what Dem suspected would be a very short break. The few rest stops that the column had made had all been very short, never more than ten minutes.

At Dem's side, Fredo sat with his rifle muzzle out the left-side cab window. The safety was off, and his finger was over the trigger guard, lightly, ready to move at the slightest provocation. He stared toward the north as if he expected to see the trucks carrying the Schlinal force. They were too far away for that though,
if
Dem had taken as big a loop around them as he thought.

"You still plan to curve back in front of them?" Fredo asked.

"Yes. They're on the shortest track to the 13th. All we have to do is stay in front of them and follow the 13th's tread marks. That way, the Heggies will never know that there's another vehicle out in front of them."

"They wouldn't know if we stayed a couple of klicks over to the side either," Fredo pointed out. "We know where everybody's at, as long as that mapboard still works."

"That couple of klicks might make the difference in our catching up in time."

"In time for what? You think that nine of us are going to affect the outcome?"

Dem just glanced at him for an instant. "We belong there, Fredo. We
belong
there."

—|—

An hour after sunset, the 13th turned slightly toward the north, closer to the river. Thirty minutes after that, 4th recon left their APCs and moved away from them on foot, into the forest. As the rest of the 13th reached the first group of parked Heyers, they too stopped and disembarked. The running was over.

"This is probably the best defensive position we're likely to find," Stossen told his staff when they gathered near his command post. "We've lost too much time to keep running. We've got a fight on our hands. All we can do is choose the ground."

The colonel had already issued his preliminary orders for the various components of the 13th. Everyone was moving into position as quickly as he could. It would take some little time for them all to get situated. Fourth recon was out to try to make sure that the rest
had
that time.

"We're at the extreme range for Wasps operating from behind our lines," Teu Ingels said. "But we can't look for any help from there. It looks like all hell's broken loose back there."

"I talked to General Dacik two hours ago," Stossen said. "Crunch time." He let that hang for a moment. None of the others broke in with any comments. "The next twelve to twenty-four hours will likely tell the tale. Win or lose, the Jordan campaign is near the end. Our job now, besides making sure that those scientists don't fall into enemy hands, is to keep as many Schlinal troops occupied for as long as we can. We do our job right, maybe the general will manage to pull Jordan out of the coals."

—|—

There were a handful of trucks that had backhoes or scraper blades. They couldn't possibly do enough excavation to provide sound cover for every vehicle with the 13th, but they did what they could. Men with shovels worked as well, as many as half of the regiment at a time. More was needed than simple foxholes for the infantry. Positions were arranged close behind the perimeter for the Heyer APCs. Their splat guns could contribute materially, as long as the APCs could be protected. Trenches were dug for them, with the dirt piled up in front and on the sides, lessening the amount of surface accessible to enemy rockets or tanks shells. Camouflaged thermal tarps might help them escape detection as well, for a time. The support trucks for Havocs and Wasps were camouflaged and bunkered also, farther back, in the last stands of trees before the river. The 13th's remaining Havocs were split. Only half were kept with the perimeter that was being hastily established. The three remaining guns of Basset Battery, the one left of Afghan, and one from Dingo were sent on farther east with their support and orders to "get lost"—avoid detection—but stay close enough to help when the fight came.

Joe Baerclau dug his foxhole between first and second squads, working fast even though he took time, frequently, to look up and down the line to make sure that everyone was working, and doing the job right. "We don't have all night," he warned—among other banal cautions.
What
he said wasn't all that important. Every man in the platoon knew what was needed. The platoon sergeant's voice was enough to keep anyone from slacking off.

As soon as he had his own position prepared, Joe started walking the platoon line. There were faint sounds of firing by then, in the distance, where 4th recon was operating. Several of the line companies also had men out beyond the new perimeter, to set mines and listening devices along the most obvious approaches to the 13th's positions. Joe spent as much time looking out beyond the platoon's line as he did inspecting the foxholes the men had dug and the other preparations they had made. Somewhere out there was the enemy.

"First and third squads. We need a line of mines and bugs across the platoon front. Mines at 80 and 120 meters. Bugs at 200."

The two squad leaders got their men up and moving out. The rest of the platoon waited, ready to provide covering fire should that prove necessary. In the meantime, the men continued working. Joe walked back the length of the platoon's section of the perimeter, then walked back to the three Heyers that were dug in behind it. Lieutenant Keye had his command post slightly behind and off to the right, behind the junction where first and second platoons met.

"Your men ready?" Keye asked.

Joe lifted his visor and nodded. "Soon as the men get back from laying out greeting cards, Lieutenant. Any word on how close the Heggies are?"