Gray noticed that Diania was still looking at him, a curious expression on her face. He probably hadn’t spoken a dozen words to her since that fine breakfast on Respite-but they were shipboard now, damn it! She shouldn’t even be here!
“Can’t, Boats,” Matt finally said, still looking forward. “I wish we did, but we just don’t have time to go in the yard. Mr. Palmer was just here with the latest”-he paused-“and things are getting desperate in the west. You know most of it, but now it looks like Keje’s going to go up against those Jap-Grik battlewagons in a straight-up fight with his flat-tops. What a damn mess! If he loses, not only could it cost us all our carriers in the area, but Pete and the entire expeditionary force will be cut off!
“On the good side, sort of, it looks like Jenks has made it to the Enchanted Isles in time to salvage the situation there, but there’s going to be a fight…”
“And all this fighting is too far away for you to do anything about,” Sandra said quietly.
“No!.. Well, yes, damn it, but we’ve still got that Jap ‘can’ out there, full of real bad Japs, and we’re all there is. We can’t help Keje or Jenks or anybody right now, except the people that ship has killed-and still will, if she’s not stopped. This is our fight, and nobody can do it for us. Our scouts are keeping an eye on her and she’s still headed southwest, but if she gets away now, we might never find her.”
“Okay,” Sandra said, “but just so long as Hidoiame hasn’t turned into your white whale.” One thing she and Matt discovered during their brief honeymoon was that both enjoyed Melville.
Matt snorted, and when he turned to look at Sandra, the intensity that must have been growing in his green eyes was already fading.
“No,” he said with a crooked smile. “The only white whale around here is Earl Lanier, and our peg-legged Filipino is more than a match for him.” His voice lowered. “This is just a job, and my only obsession is you. Maybe I’m a little obsessed with the bigger job of winning the war, but we’re not in the big picture right now.” He raised his voice again so all could hear. “ Hidoiame ’s just another job for Walker and her gallant crew,” he said in a light but serious tone, “but she is our job!”
Indiaa
General Halik’s HQ
General Halik brooded in frustration in the confined space of his bunker. He hated it! He felt like he’d been forced to hide in a hole like vermin, but the enemy aircraft had shown an unerring knack for targeting his command structure when it was exposed aboveground. It seemed the age-old way of moving proudly into battle beneath the streaming banners of the provincial regent were gone forever. The disciplined column of “new” warriors beneath the very banners of the Giver of Life had suffered cruelly as well, and he’d been forced to disperse the suddenly confused “hatchling host” to some degree. They, at least, could adjust, he told himself. They’d been designed primarily for defense, after all, and they could do that wherever they were-but he needed his attacking warriors to mass, and whenever they did that, they were vulnerable. The aircraft alone had forced him to turn this excruciatingly long battle into a series of night attacks, and the unexpected tenacity of his trapped opponent and the added confusion of darkness had caused a disturbing number of even his hardened, “improved” warriors to turn prey! He seethed. Tonight, he promised himself. Tonight will turn the tide!
Runners had come from General Niwa in the south, telling that General of the Sea Kurokawa had finally arrived with the Grand Fleet, and Niwa had received more hatchling warriors. Niwa could now use them to block the tongue, leaving him free to attack the enemy with all his might on the other side of the mountains at Madras. Niwa also promised that “much of what has been confusing will soon be clear,” and all their enemies in India would be under their power. The dispatch left Halik even more confused in some respects, but it remained implicit that he had to gain control of the pass for the victory to be complete.
He stopped his pacing, listening, as his aides accosted an arrival outside. “Let him in,” he said, and General Ugla clanked down the steps and parted the roughly woven curtain that kept dust from entering the bunker-and light from escaping at night.
“Lord General!” Ugla cried, preparing to throw himself on his belly.
“Do not!” Halik said sharply, then paused. “Consider it done, General Ugla,” he continued more softly. “We have much to discuss.”
“Lord General?”
“We must break the enemy tonight,” Halik said. “The battle progresses beyond our view.” His yellow eyes sharpened. “I do not know how it progresses in every way, and that does… concern me, but I believe our part is crucial.” He looked keenly at Ugla. “You were in the highlands on Ceylon and you have seen the fighting here from the very front. You have grown immensely, and I would value your comparisons.” Ugla was born to be a general, but this campaign had raised an awareness of war in him that Halik still strove to achieve-and others, like First General Esshk-might never be capable of. That disturbed him, but excited him as well.
“My lord,” Ugla began, but paused.
“Do not be concerned. I already know what is bad. Our losses have been crippling, and the battle remains set as it was when it began.”
“Then I will add that our warriors that do not lose themselves fight even better now than they did.” Ugla said, then snorted. “The bullet weapons are a great disappointment. Unlike the weapons of the enemy, ours do not work when it rains, or even when the air is wet. Many of our steadiest Uul have died relying on them.”
“Ours will improve,” Halik assured him. “We captured many of the enemy’s arms when we took the southern hill.”
“As you say, Lord. That will be a great help… someday. In the meantime, the enemy has improved as well, even beyond his skill in the highlands on Ceylon.” His crest rose. “Our warriors who have not turned prey do not fear the enemy, but the enemy does not fear us either! How can battles end if there is no fear?”
“They end when we kill them all,” Halik said softly. “And they will fear us soon.”
“Your orders, Lord General?”
“Tonight, we attack with everything! All our reserves, even the hatchlings, will move forward. They will follow behind, but they will not allow the attack to falter. They will kill any that come at them, even our own!”
“We will lose so many,” Ugla said in what approximated dismay for him.
“Yes. We may lose all of the attackers and that is a great tragedy, but it is the defenders that we must leave in possession of the pass!”
“As you command, my lord,” Ugla said, bowing. “But… what of the enemy that remains in possession of yonder hill?” he asked, gesturing vaguely northwest. “We cannot just leave them there… can we?”
“I would desire the warriors who guard them for this push,” Halik said thoughtfully. “The enemy on the hill has been sorely hurt and cannot remain strong. Pull everything away for our assault but those on guard to the north.” He paused. “They will join us as well-after they swarm over the top of the hill. Any of the enemy that escapes will have nowhere to go but toward us here, and they will be erased at last.”
“Very good, Lord General.”
North Hill, west of the Rocky Gap
March 20, 1944