The men convened in the middle of the bridge after five minutes. Connor and BB helped Mickey to the road surface. “Thanks, colonel,” he said—almost shyly. “Thanks, captain,” he added. He shook himself loose from the harness and untied the nylon rope from the steel pipe.
“Whatcha find out, Top?” asked Connor while the others gathered around.
“Well, sir, it’s a bit difficult to see under there, but some of those girders are pretty spattered with pigeonshit and they’re starting to flake rust, but my guess is that this bridge could stand another ten or twenty years if it’s untouched. I’m not sure we have enough explosives to drop it in the river, colonel.”
“I found the same thing, sir,” added BB. “At the north abutment, there’s some serious rust on the bearing plates, but there’s a lot of material left. It’s a solid connection, colonel.”
“Captain Daubney, what about you?” asked Connor.
“It’s a sturdy bridge, colonel—built to last, but it’s possible to bring it down.”
“How would you go about it, captain?”
“It’s supported by a single arch, sir,” said Daubney, pointing skyward. “We could set small charges at the apex of each of the two arches and split them. It’s the most vulnerable point on the bridge.”
“You sound skeptical of your own plan, captain.”
“Yes, sir. There are two flaws, colonel. One is that we don’t have a remote detonator—we’d have to set a fuse and I’m not sure we have one long enough that would allow whoever lit it to get away safely.”
“What’s the other flaw, captain.”
“The other flaw, colonel, is that engineers build bridges with double and triple redundancy. Sure, the top of that arch is its weak point, but I can’t guarantee that severing it would put the bridge in the river.”
“Edgars? Anything to add?”
“No, sir, except that the bridge is rusting away. But I’m with the first sergeant, colonel—it’s gonna take a decade or two for this thing to fail.”
“Okay, guys, it was worth the effort to try, but I think we gotta give up our hope of destroying this bridge. Let’s move out.”
“We’re ready to go, sir,” answered Mickey for all of them.
“Okay, good. Captain Daubney, same setup. Assign a two-man team for front guard and two two-man teams for rear guard. Change ’em out every hour.”
“Yes, sir.”
The five men walked briskly to where the main force was and as Connor passed by John McLeod, he said “you’re with me, major.”
“Okay, colonel.”
The two men walked south at a quick pace, John McLeod leading his horse. The front guards sprinted past them and were eventually lost in the shadows of each side of the road. If they did their job right, Connor would have trouble spotting them.
“That’s a bit disappointing, Mac.”
“What’s that, John?”
“Not being able to blow the bridge.”
“It doesn’t matter. It would have slowed Phoenix down, but it wouldn’t have stopped him. If we can keep moving ahead of him, we’ll be okay.”
“Whatcha find out back there, Mac? Why’d you decide to leave the bridge?”
“Well, if we had enough explosives, I would’ve tackled it, but we don’t have enough to put it down and I’m not willing to take the chance with the last of our C4.”
They continued their easy stride chewing up the miles. The entire unit, except the front and rear guards, kept pace with the two. The speed of their pace was beyond the stealthy comfort level usually kept in unknown territory. The upside was that they made good time throughout the night, stopping only for brief rests and slowing only for sounds that weren’t immediately identifiable.
It was Marty’s second turn at front guard when he returned to Connor’s position at a fast trot.
“Mac, there’s a town over the crest of the next hill.”
“Yeah, I thought it might be coming up, Surf Boy. Let’s go take a look. Captain Daubney, call a halt, set a couple of perimeter guards, and I want you to join me for a little recon on top of that hill. Get BB, Roger, and Mickey to join us. John and Surf Boy can come with us, too. Captain, you can catch up. Let’s go.”
They double-timed it to the top of the hill and studied the town with night vision binoculars. Captain Daubney and the rest of the team reached them thirty seconds later.
“What town is this, colonel?” asked the captain.
“It’s Perryopolis, captain,” answered Connor, studying the signs along the road only a few hundred yards away. Trespassers will be shot. No questions asked read one. Turn around now and you won’t die said another.
“They’re a friendly bunch,” grumbled Mickey. “What are we walking into here, sir?”
Connor smiled as he studied the distant town. “That’s a quaint little town, Top. Well, it used to be.”
“How much distance do you think we put between us and Phoenix, colonel?” asked McLeod.
“We got some breathing room for now, major.”
“Yeah, colonel, I’m sure we have some breathing room, but how far do you think we’re ahead of them?” asked Captain Daubney.
“We made about twenty-five miles so far, captain. Pretty damn good march. Make sure you all let your men know I’m pleased.”
“They’re used to traveling, colonel. Are we going down there?”
“No, captain. We rest here. We’ll break for four hours sleep here while you, Surf Boy, BB, Mickey, Roger and I go check out Perryopolis before we move on past.”
“Where do you think Phoenix is now?” asked Marty. He came closer after hearing his name mentioned.
“I’m not sure, Surf Boy. Way I figure it, they’re probably trying to regroup somewhere on Route 51 heading south like us. We tried to throw ’em off our trail with hoof prints and footprints leading in other directions, but I’m sure their trackers figured that out quick enough. Hey BB?”
“Yeah, Mac?”
“You estimated, what, those tracks might slow ’em down for about an hour?”
“Yeah, if that.”
“I figure they’ll try to regroup at the Route 51 intersection,” suggested Connor.
“If I may speak some of that ‘psychobabble’?”
“C’mon, John. Say what you have to say.”
“Psychologically, they’ve had some serious setbacks in the last twenty-four hours, especially this evening. Several major negative emotional disruptions have occurred that even a psychopath like Phoenix will have to accommodate. And, I venture to say this was probably the first night that army’s ran straight through without setting camp. Sleep deprivation may come into play.”
“Yeah, go on,” said Connor.
“If they’re sending men up that road, um, Route 51, trying to catch us like you thought and they had to redirect those trucks and equipment off side roads and back on, yeah, that intersection of Route 51 and Brownsville Road is a good spot to reconvene for so many men. Of course, I imagine they’ll send an advance unit of those horse riders once it’s light out.”
“I agree. I’ve been wondering why they didn’t use them after we took our shots at them in Pittsburgh. Any other thoughts?”
“I think Phoenix’s army was in full tracking mode back in town. They hadn’t met up with any resistance or a force to challenge them,” said Captain Daubney. BB nodded in agreement.
“Good point. Sure, but it had to have pissed them off,” said Connor.
“Oh, I bet it did. But, I bet Renaldo’s little stunt did more to piss him off than Phoenix has experienced in a long, long time. A true psychological blow to his frail ego,” said John.
“Colonel,” interrupted Mickey. He lowered his nightvision binoculars and held them out for use, “put your eyes on either side of the road that leads to that gate, sir.”