Jump Pay (25 page)

Dem stayed on the stairs. There was very little wire coming toward the reccers. Apparently, there were only two Heggies still shooting. Dem got one of them. The other ducked around a stack of crates and ran. Before Dem reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard a door slam. He went to cover behind the nearest stack of crates, on the floor, his rifle out, covering two aisles while he waited for the rest of his men to get down the stairs and into position.

That was easier than I expected,
Dem thought, but he wouldn't say it. There was still enough superstition in the man that he would not "jinx" the team by voicing such optimism.

"Let's give this place a quick scan," Dem said as soon as his team was in place. "See what's here. Make sure there are no more Heggies waiting to surprise us."

They spread out along the wall where the stairway was, then worked their way across to the other side, two or three men to an aisle. They paused at each intersection to make certain that there were no enemy soldiers on the cross aisles, then went on through the next section. Since they never came under fire, the operation only took a couple of minutes.

"Lot of munitions here," Fredo observed after they had finished and set men to watch the two exterior doors and an inner door that they suspected led to another underground tunnel complex. Dem had kept Fredo close to him. Gariston was still woozy from the medpatches, unable to do much with one useless arm, but he insisted on taking part. "We gonna blow it the way we did at the first place?"

"We might have trouble getting out of the way this time," Dem said. "Let's rig it, in case we get a chance."
Or in case we get to the point where getting out doesn't matter,
he thought.

—|—

Basset three exploded before it got off its first round on the new fire mission. It had been hit right under the front lip of its turret. Gun and turret had flipped off, backward. There was no need to wonder about the fate of the crew. They didn't have a chance.

"Those Novas are too damn close," Simon Kilgore said as he brought Basset two to a stop so that Karl could fire. At close to maximum range, Eustace didn't want to fire on the move. There were friendlies too close to the target coordinates, on two sides.

"They're Dingo's responsibility for now," Eustace said after the round was out and Simon had the Fat Turtle moving again. "Let's make sure we get
our
job done."

The howitzer moved left seventy-five meters, then pulled back fifty. Long before Simon brought the Havoc to a halt again, the next round was in the chamber and the targeting computer needed only the last few decimal points to correct its aim. That round went out and the Fat Turtle started to move again. This time, the jaunt would be a little longer, to a place no closer than two hundred meters from any of its previous firing positions. A
good
Havoc driver really didn't need the help of his navigating computer to keep away from previous firing positions, but most used it at least as a backup.

Basset two got off two more rounds before they were switched to a new target—and allowed to move farther back from the canal.

—|—

Echo Company had moved two hundred meters south in its attempt to outflank the Heggies defending the roads leading from the airfield to their main base, but there were still Heggies in front of them.

"Get your heads down," Joe warned his platoon. "Artillery fire coming in."

At first, the Havocs concentrated on the sections of the Heggie defenses that blocked the two roads, and the area between those roads. Then the line of incoming shells marched farther south. The explosions were placed about twenty meters apart. Havoc targeting systems were
good
. Since the kill radius of a Havoc HE round was more than twenty meters, that left a fifty percent overlap.

"Up and at 'em!" Captain Keye ordered as soon as the artillery blasts moved farther south. Echo got to its feet and moved forward, shooting on the run.

They covered more than half of the distance before a few of the Heggies recovered from the barrage and started shooting again. The Schlinal fire was light and uncoordinated now, though. Echo kept moving. Keye did not waste time explaining why. He knew about the incoming Schlinal fleet but had not shared that knowledge with anyone in the company but his executive officer and the first sergeant.

There was a low rampart of rocks and clay, only a meter high, in front of the Heggie defenders. Numerous gaps had been blown in that by the artillery barrage. The few Heggies who remained on the line were quickly overwhelmed by Echo and, farther along the line, by the other three companies coming in from the airfield.

"Back behind the wall," Keye ordered as soon as enemy resistance at the line ended. "We've got to wait for the others to get in position."

Most of the men were already moving behind the slight cover offered by the remains of the Heggie rampart when they came under fire again, this time from right at the edge of the nearest row of buildings inside the enemy base. From the start, this fire was heavier than what Echo had experienced from the outer line, but it still was not coordinated. A flurry of gunfire would come from one section of the Heggie defenses, aimed in the general direction of Echo, but—as often as not—too high or too low.

"Looks as if they're not certain where we are," Joe whispered to Mort. They were next to each other, speaking with visors up. Behind one of the surviving sections of the outer rampart, they were sheltered from direct fire.

"Maybe they're not," Mort said. "Those night-vision goggles they use—just infrared, right?"

Joe nodded.

"Temperature must still be within a couple of degrees of body temp," Mort said, "at least of what would be apparent through our clothes and gear. Heggies probably aren't seeing too clearly. Broad, fuzzy patches. All they'd have to go on is movement, at least until the moons come out."

Joe looked at the sky. "Any idea when that'll be?"

Mort had none.

Before the two could speculate any further, Joe had a call from Izzy Walker. All of the platoon sergeants were on the link.

"Sit on this for now," Walker started. "Until the captain or I say different. This info is just for you." That was enough to assure the attention of all of the platoon sergeants. Walker told them about the new Schlinal fleet coming toward Tamkailo. "If our ships can't stop 'em, these new Heggies will be in orbit in less than three hours. They could be down on top of us forty-five minutes later. Before that happens, the general wants us inside this base and the Heggies there out of action."

"What about the rest of the army coming up from the south?" Joe asked. "They gonna get here in time?"

"I don't have any idea," Izzy admitted. "We're gonna have to play this as if they won't."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Not even General Dacik had any idea whether or not his units would be able to link up before the new Schlinal forces arrived. The 5th and 8th SATs had established costly bridgeheads north of the canal. Both had managed to expand their perimeters enough to allow some units of the two light infantry regiments to cross. They had taken heavy casualties—and inflicted even heavier casualties on the Schlinal forces trying to hold them back.

But then the advance ground to a halt.

"I don't understand it," Colonel Ruman said. "We've always been able to crack a Heggie line when we put enough pressure on them."

"These Heggies have obviously been told that reinforcements are on the way," Major Olsen said. "'Hold on, help is coming.'" He paused, then added, "'If you don't hold on, you'd better be dead, because there'll be a reckoning afterward.' That's how it would go in their army."

Dacik nodded. "If what we know about the Heggies is accurate. The people who might give us a different story don't usually end up as prisoners."

"Still, if we don't break this line pretty soon, we might as well forget it and start worrying about defensive positions to meet the reinforcements," Ruman said. "If we don't do something, we'll be up the creek. We sure as hell don't want Heggies on both sides of us."

Dacik stared at his mapboard while he thought. The map gave him no clues. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked up.

"You're right," he said. "We've got to do something in a hurry—concentrate on breaking through at one point instead of trying to force both bridgeheads. Bull through no matter what it costs. We'll leave the 5th to defend the eastern bridgehead and put both LIRs behind the 8th. Well, not quite everything. Leave one battalion of the 34th on the north side of the canal with the 5th. The rest to spread out to cover the rest of the south side of the canal. Use all of our Havocs and Wasps to blast a hole through the Heggies and cover our flanks until the 8th really gets moving."

"The air is ours now, General," Olsen said. "At least until the Heggies manage to bring in new fighters. If this fleet is carrying any. The last of the Boems that were here are down. The ones we didn't shoot down had to land because of dry batteries, and there are no fresh batteries at the airfield for them. The 13th blew the chargers and drained or destroyed the batteries that were waiting. They've been destroying the fighters that came in as well."

Dacik nodded slowly. "We'll use the 13th's Wasps to hunt tanks. The rest to cover the breakthrough and provide whatever support we can spare for the 5th. How long will it take to get the 97th in position to cross over behind the 8th?"

"Their first battalion is already across," Ruman said. "Part of the second, as well. The rest of second is spread out along the south bank, from the bridge west to the sea. Third is about half-and-half. Part is marshaled behind the bridge ready to cross. The rest is along the south bank east of the bridge, over to where they meet the 34th."

"How long?" Dacik repeated.

"Could take thirty minutes to get all of second battalion in place to cross the canal. Thirty minutes for third."

"Get them moving now. And I want them
all
ready to cross in fifteen minutes," Dacik said.

Colonel Ruman got busy on the radio.

—|—

In the last hour, Dem Nimz had talked with the ranking reccer in each of the 13th's other recon platoons. First and second recon were now led by men who had been squad leaders three days earlier. Fourth recon was being led by a corporal who had only been an assistant squad leader at the start of the Tamkailo campaign. Four recon platoons: their normal complement was 240 officers and men, 60 to a platoon. The total manpower left was 68, scarcely more than a single platoon. And they were scattered.

They had, at least, all managed to get off of the exposed rooftops. They were inside warehouses and not currently under fire. The Heggies were making no attempt to rout them from their temporary havens. But there was no way for the reccers to escape from the middle of the Heggie base.

"The first thing we have to do now is get together," Dem had told the men leading the other platoons. He ordered the corporal commanding 4th recon to stay put and wait for the rest of them. He told 1st and 2nd to prepare to blow up what they could in the buildings where they were, as 3rd had already done. Blast or burn: the building the 1st platoon was in contained no munitions; the building 2nd was in had some munitions but more of the space was taken up by clothing and other spare gear.

"I've asked the colonel to set up a diversion for us," Dem said the second time he talked to the noncoms leading the other platoons. He
had
spoken directly with the colonel, after pleading with Dezo Parks for the help for five minutes first. "The Havocs will drop a short barrage around us, right in the center of the base. At the same time, our line companies will pick up their fire and make another attempt to get in. While all that's going on, we'll set off our three buildings and make for 4th platoon's hideout." After that... Dem hadn't done much thinking past that. Even trying to get the remnants of the platoons together was likely to be an expensive maneuver. There was a real chance that the Heggies might finish off the 13th's recon detachment completely. Dem hoped that they would be able to link up with the line companies soon, if any of the reccers managed to survive this. For one of the few times in his military career, Dem Nimz wanted as many men around as possible. Men who wore the same uniform he did.

The artillery would be the key. When it started hitting, the reccers would clip their fuses or start their fires and make for the exits closest to the building where 4th platoon was waiting. And hope that the Heggies weren't also waiting for them.

The wait not only seemed long, it
was
long. Dem didn't know how much trouble the colonel had had persuading General Dacik to release the 13th's Havocs for even the few minutes they would be needed for the diversion. More than once, Dem started to call the colonel again. Each time, he held back. Stossen had not given him a specific time, just that it would be as soon as possible.
Wait!
Dem told himself.
You're safe for now.

Men were posted to clip the fuses. The rest were gathered near the exit they would use, spread around just enough to cover the building's other doors. They would wait to spring the door and go out until there were only ten seconds left before the detonations inside the building.

It wouldn't matter if there was an entire battalion of Heggies just the other side of the door. The reccers would go out and to either side, leaving the door open. Even if there were significant numbers of Heggies waiting, a massive explosion channeled through that doorway ought to give them pause.

If it didn't, 3rd recon—and perhaps 1st and 2nd as well—would simply cease to exist.

The artillery rounds started falling. Inside the building, the fuses were clipped. Dem watched the seconds tick away on his visor. Then... "Go!"

Fredo yanked the door open with his one good hand. Dem was the first man through it. He stepped to the right. There were perhaps a dozen Heggies in his immediate field of view. He sprayed a burst from his rifle across the group. Two of his men got out and added their wire to the assault. All of the Heggies went down.