“There are only a couple of places they could have come from in those numbers.” Revell watched as the column gradually passed them and was swallowed by the moonless night. “Either the Russians are emptying the smaller camps or they’re rounding up the people their chemical weapons have driven out of the city and herding the whole population out into the countryside.”
“I get the feeling that the food we saw on the trucks and those poor devils are to get together somewhere but it’s not like the Reds to provide supplies on the scale we’ve seen, on any scale in fact.”
“Could they be concentrating the refugees for some reason? Clarence had sat quietly thinking through the unusual events. “If the starving families living in the hedgerows hear that the Ruskies have a big food dump somewhere, then they will all head for it, fast.”
“Kind of scuttles your plan for burning the bomb in these parts Major. Unless you want to risk nuking three sparrows, two voles and a few thousand displaced persons.”
Toying with the broken strap on the pack, Carson tried not to look triumphant.
“Seems like it will have to stay with us for a while yet.”
Their Russian prisoner had surreptitiously monitored the exchange and could stay out of it no longer. He had flinched when the Geiger counter had become more active. “The civilians count for nothing Major. Leave the bomb here, burn it. Or bury it if you want to not run the risk of it detonating before we are at an optimum distance. On a minimum yield setting the worst those people have to face is the potential fall out, perhaps the danger of some flying debris. That is if they even halt near here, perhaps they will not.”
“After your fumbling around in there,” Carson indicated the backpack, “there is no guarantee I will be able to select a low yield.”
“I knew this area.” Boris had brought up a map onscreen. None of the symbols revealed anything out of the ordinary. “A year ago I came here when my division had been in battle and taken heavy casualties. It was regarded as a quiet sector, being used to rest and re-equip depleted Russian infantry division. It was so quiet that I was able to desert from here. I found the opposing American formations to be in much the same condition.”
“So we assume that if we bump in to a Russian unit it is likely to be poorly armed green replacement troops, conscripts most likely.” Sergeant Hyde looked at the screen, examining the indicated network of narrow country roads around a little village at its centre.
Boris hunched lower in his seat as he was crowded by the officer and NCO.
“Christ.” Ripper muttered under his breath. “I hope our pet Commie doesn’t have much of that sort of information literally at his finger tips. If the Reds ever grab this wagon and plug in to the board they’re going to find out a lot of useful information real fast.”
“Don’t worry, the board is rigged for destruction if it seems likely to fall in to enemy hands.” Sergeant Hyde had asked that question in the past. “In fact it will even go up in their faces if it is captured and they actually try to use it.” Ripper gave the Russians back a sour look. “Yeah, but he’s not rigged for destruction, is he.”
Andrea lifted up the pistol with explosive bullets and made pretence of aiming it at Boris. “Yes he is.”
Hauling himself up and out through a roof hatch, Clarence pulled his sniper rifle up after him and began to use the night vision ‘scope to pan the countryside, examined the ground out as far as its high powered lenses would permit.
“Major, come here and have a look at this. There’s a village surrounded by open farmland about a kilometre ahead. At least it should be open farmland.”
Scanning the area Clarence noted a small hamlet surrounded by huge fields, dotted with broad patches of woodland. “It looks as if that village is the refugees destination. There are trucks there, and more arriving.”
“At this distance, with them having no substantial shelter, our bomb will wipe those fields clean as a pool table.” There was no need for Carson to look for himself. He knew the highly trained sniper would be correct about the distances involved and his own knowledge told him what could happen.
“Get that skirt fixed.” Revell decided on a course of action that went against his common sense. It was likely there was nothing they could discover that reconnaissance aircraft or drones would not eventually uncover anyway but something, some intuition, told him that time might be an important factor. He knew that NATO over-flights had become rarer since Soviet missile batteries had started appearing along the southern front in large numbers. With vast areas to cover, this chunk of countryside would be way down on the list of priorities for the depleted NATO air forces.
“While we are being repaired and before we’re ready to get away in a hurry if we need to, we’ll put out a patrol for a closer look.” Revell pulled out a grubby sack from under a bench and began rummaging thought the odds and ends of civilian clothing it held.
“Oh great. Not enough we’re carting an ’A’ bomb about the countryside. Now you want us to go for a stroll in to a Ruskie prison camp.” Ripper watched as the Major selected an old coat and a threadbare scarf.
Burke passed down the compartment. “Usually I’m happy to stay here while you lot go off on expeditions,” he made sure he did not brush against the two bulky packs, shuffling sideways past them. “This time I think I would rather be joining who ever goes. Being around those things is starting to freak me out.”
Outside he climbed on to the engine housing to reach the toolbox he had fitted at the reclamation depot. “Now I have to hang around the damned thing while others wander off to a respectful distance.”
“Could be worse.” Dooley took a long handled wrench and began to loosen the bolts securing the ride panels. He wiped each first with an oily cloth to reduce the squealing of the distorted metal as it resisted his efforts. Right under the trees it was so dark he had to work by feel alone, unable to see inches in front of his face. “Anything happens to Carson then you’re the only one among us with mechanical skills. I never thought to hear myself say it, but we can’t afford to lose you.”
The land was clean, uncontaminated by the chemicals that had saturated the Zone that commenced just a short distance away. Corporal Thorne pulled together the civilian rags that concealed his uniform; tugging at them where they bulged over the pistol and grenades with which he had armed himself. Not that it was unusual for refugees to carry weapons but the Russians were highly aggressive towards armed civilians and if they caught them the consequences were inevitable and swift.
Hyde had seen his officer’s face when he had paused before accepting Andreas volunteering to go with the patrol. Though Revell tried never to make any public display of feelings for the girl the effort was imposing an obvious strain on him when she took some extra risk. Hyde knew that one day Revells’ protectionism towards her was going to lead them all in to trouble.
It was Thorne who made up the last member of the patrol. As usual he wore a bizarre combination of cast-off civilian clothing that only a long time resident of the Zone would have worn. It blended khaki shorts over ragged jeans, old boots whose laces had been replaced with frayed string and a filthy dark blue windcheater topped off with a chequered Arab style scarf.
Libby had volunteered but it had taken no thought on Revells’ part to turn him down for this job. Somewhere in the Zone was his girlfriend Helga. He missed no opportunity to look for her and once in so large a camp he would have been lost to them.
The countryside they made their way through was well maintained, or had been until fairly recently. Although the area was covered in trees that should have provided masses of firewood, it was the gates and fences that had been pillaged. Even with the war on their doorstep the farmers had ploughed and sown with meticulous care until the very last moment. Now their work was all wasted, with the local boundaries of the Zone becoming so fluid it was too dangerous to stay and wait for a harvest they might never be able to bring in or would be contaminated if they did.