They used the gantry to haul The Drunken Bastard aboard the Merciful, a series of straps passing underneath the boat. Chin's people had gone down to the patrol boat to outfit the straps, before returning to the mother ship.
They'd have let the crew come aboard first, for safety's sake, except that not a one of the males had more than three completely functional limbs, except Eeyore, and he was too badly concussed for reliable balance. And none of the girls would leave the men.
The boat lifted out of the water without any sound but that made by the gantry's electric motor. Even the girls were all screamed out. The gantry operator, Mrs. Liu, an itty bitty Chinese woman who smoked bad cigars, and was picking up vernacular from the crew at an amazing rate, kept the boat's long axis parallel to the ship's, as it rose along the side of the hull. Water poured from its hull. She kept it parallel still as she allowed the water to finish draining, then hoisted it above the gunwales and over the cradle designed and built for it. Once there, she reversed lift, letting the thing settle gently down.
As soon as it touched, Chin's crew were all over it, strapping it down and tightening the screws that moved rubber padded blocks of wood in around the mahogany hull. A ladder was produced from somewhere, and more Chinese boarded up it. After that, one by one the Bastard's crew was helped off, Morales on a stretcher, with several worried looking girls following.
Biggus Dickus Thornton was last off, on his own feet but helped by one of the Chinese as his arm was in a sling. He also had his head inexpertly wrapped. Once on the deck-actually on the roof of one of the containers-of the Merciful, Thornton sat down heavily. Kosciusko walked across the container top and squatted down. Chin's people were already erecting the container tops and frame that would hide the boat from casual observation.
"What happened, Chief?" the captain asked.
"Biggest fucking wave you ever saw, sir. Came out of nowhere. I still don't know how we survived it. It just came, nearly swamping us, and then-POOF!-it was gone and we were falling. That's all I know. That, and that Simmons and Morales managed to get the girls to pilot the ship to this rendezvous. And the engines are fucked. I think we did a complete three-sixty roll, but I'm not sure. We'd have been fucked, too," he added, "except that there was a Spetznaz issue medical kit aboard and one of the girls could read Russian. Most of the medical stores we used up."
"They'll do that, I'm told," Ed answered. "Rogue waves, I mean." I really don't want to think about the Romanian girls right now. "Hey look, I have a doctor aboard but she speaks only limited English and has no equipment at all beyond her little doctor's bag. And even that's nineteen fifties technology. Can you and your men wait until we get to Guyana or, better, to Brazil?"
Thornton's face was gray, ashen. He nodded wearily, and seemed almost confused. "I think so. Nothing wrong with us really but some broken bones and a couple of concussions. We oughta be able to wait a few days . . ."
Cruz and Borsakov, standing behind Kosciusko, looked at Thornton, at Morales being carried off, and at a very broken and bedraggled looking Simmons and Antoniewicz. They then looked at each other and shook their heads. "We don't think so," Cruz said. He looked at the Bastard and added, "This heap shouldn't be in the water again until it's refitted. But Art and I can take one of the Hips and fly these guys to Panama City. There are some good hospitals there, English-speaking, even, and I doubt Stauer will balk about paying for the best care. They can fly to Georgetown later. It's maybe . . . three hours round trip to Panama City and back."
Ed thought about it, weighing the options, the issues, and the problems. A Russian chopper in Panama has got to be an unusual event. Flying off a ship that isn't supposed to have any is even more likely to raise eyebrows. But we need these guys on their feet by D-30. If they're worse hurt than I hope, they might not be ready. They might never be ready. It's a risk to send them to shore but . . .
"It's a risk worth taking," Kosciusko said. "Break out a chopper. Land . . . where? Right at the airport?"
"Probably less noticeable than anywhere else," Cruz offered.
"Right. Okay then, land right at the airport. Rent a car. Take them to hospital that way. If it looks like any of them can be released quickly, like within a few hours, wait for them and bring them back. We'll keep it down to ten knots, here."
"Wilco, skipper," Cruz agreed. He was actually senior to Kosciusko, in retired rank, but the latter was skipper of a ship, the former was a Marine, and the captain of a ship is its monarch.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
We become what we do.
-May-lin Soong Chiang
D-85, Assembly Area Alpha-Base Camp, Amazonia, Brazil
The broad dirt path from A Company's camp, generally to the north, to the airfield passed around the outskirts of Central Camp. Phillie was busy inventorying medicines and equipment lest Sergeant Coffee become more unhappy with her, a fate devoutly to be feared. She stopped what she was doing for a moment when she heard the singing coming through the open portal of one of the aid station tents.
. . . d Nächte stand nie der Motor,Wir stürmten und schlugenUnd kämpften uns vor,Mit den Panzerkameraden treu vereint,Immer die Ersten am Feind.
That was odd enough to bring Phillie out of the tent. German? Sounds like German. Sure as shit, there was the armored company, in the same battledress she now wore, marching in four groups, forty files of three and change, the big red-headed guy she knew as George marching by the left flank, all of them singing some bloody awful foreign-Gotta be German.-song. The men in the ranks looked to average somewhere in their early to mid forties, but there were some considerably older ones among them. Sergeant Major Joshua, marching at the head of the column, had to be over sixty, she thought.
Over the singing, George somehow managed to make himself heard. "Column Riiighghght . . . .MARCH!" After another step, the point of the long column turned right, heads erect and arms swinging.
Panzergrenadiere,Vorwärts, zum Siege voran!Panzergrenadiere,Vorwärts, wir greifen an!
Phillie stopped what she was doing and pulled on her camouflage jacket, the same kind as the troops wore though she filled hers out rather differently. I don't want Sergeant Coffee pissed at me anymore, she fretted, as she took the time to button the thing. She clamped the broad brimmed hat on her head. Then it was out the tent door, trailing the marching company. She saw a couple of others following. She assumed it was out of curiosity.
She froze when she heard Coffee's voice, "I thought you were doing an inventory, Nurse Potter."
"I was but . . . "
"Never mind. This will be useful education for you, too."
Phillie breathed a mental sigh of relief. "Now come on," Coffee said, "hurry up and we can fall in on the last platoon."
He ran; she followed. She found it hard to keep in step until Coffee said, "Listen to the stressed beats. That's when your left foot hits the ground." Then he joined the singing.
. . . Wird jeder Feind gestellt,Bis die letzte Festung fällt,Und im Sturm drauf und dran überrannt.
"How do you know the song?" Phillie asked from the side.
"No talking in ranks," he admonished her. "But I used to be his platoon sergeant for a while."
"Whose platoon sergeant?" she asked, ignoring the admonishment.