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the defensive fighting positions ready. There was no chance of using
mechanical excavators, and the Engineering Corps were stationed in Fort
Necessity.
The squaddies had only their digging tools at their disposal.
Gobber and Napper dug a three-man fighting-pit, with a firing platform. Mounds
of earth and sandbags provided
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
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184
frontal cover. As far as defensive positions went, it was nothing special.
Burke, on seeing his squadmates' handiwork, looked incredulous.
"We've not all gotta fit in there, have we?"
Gobber cut himself another quid. "Y'know the old joke, Sprog. If y'know of a
better 'ole:" He stuck the plug of tobacco in his mouth, letting Mackay finish
the quotation.
"Go to it."
Their break was all too short; much still needed doing. As one of the
platoon's machine-gunners, Gobber oversaw the assembly and installation of the
position's gun. His team had been issued one of the heavy machine guns: a big
fifteen-
millimeter 'slurp-slicer'. It was a bipod-mounted, belt-fed monster of a
weapon, almost large enough to qualify as an automatic cannon, Gobber Jenkins
eyed the gun with something approaching lust.
"Beats my LSW hands down, I tell y'," he drooled. "Y'seen the size of the
rounds this bastard chucks out? I've wanted t'be behind one o' these f'
yonks
."
"Wouldn't want to be in front of it," observed Napper.
"Yeh," chuckled Jenkins, positioning himself behind the weapon. "Bdddddddr.
Bdddddddr!"
"GOBBER JENKINS, STOP ARSING ABOUT AND GET ON
WITH YOUR WORK! I CAN SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
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"Sorry, Sarge." He looked at his comrades, fondling the gun in a way that,
were any of the men familiar with the term
'ballistophile', would consider it a gross understatement of
Jenkins' feelings for his new weapon. "What're we gonna call her?"
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
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185
* * * *
It was only with the greatest of reluctance and under protest that Kate
Sinclair evacuated her house on Riverside.
She had initially refused: her family, under one name or another, had held the
land here for generations, and she had convinced herself that her coven would
be able to do something on the psychic plane to help turn back the invasion.
Captain Letts' attempts to persuade her otherwise were doomed to failure: each
of his arguments dashed itself to pieces against her resolve like ships
against an iceberg. In danger of losing his cool, Letts considered trying to
clear Kate and her people out by force, but one look at her steely blue eyes
was all he needed to know that none of his men would dare. Even someone as
stolid as him knew of her reputation:
she was rumored to be a witch. If he tried to oppose her will in this matter,
he would lose. He might be scared away, suffer a fainting fit or, more likely,
find him and his men on their way back to Fort Laurie, having suddenly given
up on the idea of moving her out.
Letts resorted to the sneakiest trick of his career. If he could not talk the
matriarch into evacuating with everyone else, perhaps her cousin Aristotle
might.
"Letts to House One, Letts to House One: how do you read me, over?"
"House One here. What's up, Letts?"
"We have some civilians reluctant to evac, Sir."
"So? Shove 'em on the trucks. Don't bother me."
"It's a Ms. "
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
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186
"
Miss
," interrupted Kate, icily.
"Miss Kate Sinclair."
Captain Sinclair sighed loud enough to be heard on Letts'
radio. "Why am I not surprised? Okay, Letts, I'll handle it.
Pass me over."
"Hello, Aristotle," said Kate with diminishing patience.
"Just do as he says, will you, Kate? I haven't the time for this."
"I think you know the answer to that well enough, Aristotle
Sinclair. And even if you don't, you know me well enough.
We're staying put. We've business here, and even then we need to watch over
Nipa."
"Nipa? What's up with Nipa?"
Kate paused, unsure of how she should break her news to her cousin. "She's ...
still unwell. And it isn't some little something."
"We've got a convoy of ambulances going out. Can't you put her on one of them?
The medics at Delta can take care of her."
"No, they can't. They really can't."
"Kate, don't be awkward. I'm not in the mood."
"Awkward, nothing. Nipa's ... Nipa's not well, but she'll recover and this
isn't anything the Medical Corps can cope with. This ... look, this is a job
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for me and the girls. Do you understand?"
Captain Sinclair considered his words as carefully as his cousin chose hers.
"You and the girls?"
Kate was resolute. "That's what I said."
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
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187
"Right. Can she be moved, and can you do this at Camp
Delta? Riverside ain't safe. Regardless of how many men I
have, I can't keep the house covered."
"We can look after ourselves, Aristotle."
"While you're looking after Nipa?"
A lengthy pause, from Kate this time. "If we have to."
Long hours of poker against the likes of Trence and Dane had sharpened Captain
Sinclair's perception. "There's more to it than that."
"Oh, really
."
"Yeah. I reckon this ain't about you and the girls being able to look after
yourselves any more than it's about Nipa."
"Aristotle Sinclair, are you accusing me of lying?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]