With a self-satisfied smirk, Scully was using an ash rake to drag the steak from the furnace. Each man in the company was given a part-burned slab weighing about a kilo, and a large ladleful of soft cooked vegetables. Nothing else would have roused them from sleep.
‘All ready to move, Major.’ Hyde’s report was rendered almost indistinct by the massive bite of sirloin he was chewing. ‘I’ve checked them over.’
‘Right. I’ll want that one.’ He indicated an APC whose turret-mounted Bushmaster cannon had been supplemented by a pair of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles instead of the more usual twin TOW launch boxes.
‘So you are going, then?’ There was no pleading in Voke’s voice but he could not keep his disappointment out of it.
‘Not far. I want to meet the commander of that Rapier battery. If we’re going to hold this valley then we’d better get our acts together.’
Voke’s wide grin exceeded by a considerable margin any he’d produced so far.
‘We need to buy time.’ Revell looked up. The cloud ceiling was down even lower. The topmost towers of the castle were now hidden for much of the time. ‘It’s what they push up by road we have to worry about most, at present. If we can push that stone bridge down that should hold them for a while.’
Voke looked at the map. The old mill was marked in also. ‘Of course when we blow the top off the castle much of the wreckage will fall onto the road, and of course the way into the valley will be blocked at the same time. It would take the heaviest earth-moving equipment some time to make them passable even for tanks.’
‘That’s fine, but I’d like to hold them off a bit farther away than on our own doorstep. Have your men throw an assortment of mines and demolition gadgets aboard a truck. We’ll try to get to the bridge before them and see if we can’t blow it up in their faces.’
‘No problem, Major.’ Voke called in Dutch to one of his men, who immediately dashed for the church. ‘Before the order came to complete the setting of charges and evacuate we had prepared such a load. There was no point in unloading so we parked it under camouflage behind the church.’
As he finished speaking there came the bellow of a powerful diesel engine starting, and out from between the buildings came the great slab front of a Scammel eight-wheeler.
Revell was relieved to see it was a version with an enlarged crew cab. ‘Perfect. Sergeant Hyde, pick two of our bunch and take two of the lieutenant’s men as well…’
‘I have two who are good with explosives, and can speak some English,’ Voke butted in.
‘Okay.’ Revel cast an eye over the partially sheeted load on the Scammel’s long cargo deck. ‘And grab a fifty-calibre for the ring mount and take a couple of Stingers if you can find the room. We’ll blow the castle in…’ He glanced quizzically at Yoke.
‘It is ready now. The detonator box is in the timber yard.’
‘…one hour, so you’ll have to shift. We daren’t leave it longer.’
‘I’ll take Burke as driver, and Ripper. I’d like Andrea, as well. She’s got the best eyesight and her accuracy with a grenade thrower could make all the difference if we run into trouble.’ He watched the major’s face at mention of the woman, but saw nothing to betray any emotion.
‘Fine.’ The word did not come easily. Revell would have preferred her to stay with him. As he said it he saw her climb into the cab and struggle with the weight of the heavy machine gun Ripper handed up. ‘Remember, one hour. Once the fort comes down and blocks the road in, the only way back will be through the minefields. It’s not really an option; I’ve seen them.’
From a low growl as it idled, the motor sent its exhaust note rising in volume until with a last stab at the gas pedal Burke sent a spout of carbon-laced smoke high above the vehicle.
Not waiting to watch it go, Revell turned away. He pointed to the Bradley. ‘Thorne, driver. Clarence and Carrington in the turret.’ He paused, and held the map out toward Voke.
‘I know you didn’t have time to show me everything, but I made some notes in the margin of things we might need. If they’re not already up there, can you move them inside an hour? If not, we’ll have to manage without. Minutes after we press the button I want us tucked up inside.’
Scanning the spidery writing, Voke nodded. ‘The grenades are there in large quantity, and terminal-guided rounds for the mortars.’ He pursed his lips. ‘I should have thought of thermal imagers, and I’ll see if I can find some drum magazines for that ferocious . shotgun of yours. Fire extinguishers and NBC suits and respirators I have not seen here, but with so many… I will put as many men as I can spare on to searching for them.’
‘Do your best. You seem to have everything under control.’ Revell added that, feeling the lieutenant deserved a pat on the back, but more especially because he had appeared so crestfallen at having those omissions brought to his attention. It must be hard for him too, to hand over when this might have been his first independent command in a combat situation.
It took the young Dutch officer only a moment to regain his spirits. As Revell boarded his transport he could already hear an indecipherable gabble of orders being yelled. As the door closed Scully risked a traumatic amputation and shoved a huge slab of steak into his hand. It was nearly cold, but his teeth were in it almost before he’d registered the fact.
Not taking the chance of bogging in the water-logged fields, Thorne stuck to the side road to the farm. Even so there were sections where the tracks slewed out of line when the loose surface failed to offer traction.
There was no conversation over the internal circuit, only the sounds of energetic chomping and swallowing. Revell welcomed the silence. It let him finish the food, and gave him a little time to think. He would rather have taken longer over his steak. How the hell Scully had done it he couldn’t imagine; it tasted as good as the best he’d ever had. But then field rations made you feel that about any food eaten immediately after you’d been on them for a prolonged period.
For the short drive to the farm he’d almost relinquished responsibility. Thorne was a driver who could be trusted, though he was not a patch on that goldbricker Burke. And Clarence and Carrington in the turret were a duo he’d back against the best from any nation. So he could sit back, enjoy the aftertaste of the meat and relax. Relax – it was in truth a word whose meaning he’d virtually forgotten, and a practice he’d long gotten out of. Strangely apt that they were going to a farm. In just a few hours some, or most, or perhaps all of them would have bought one.
What they were doing was crazy, Revell knew that. Stark raving mad. Everything they knew, the type of barrage, the Spetsnaz infiltrator, the determination of the crew of that scout car to take a prisoner: they all pointed to a fixed determination on the part of the Warpac forces to capture the valley and all it held.
And to oppose them, what could he offer? A fifteenth-century castle, a hundred elderly pioneers, his own thirty or so battle-weary men, and one small RAF air-defence battery.
Why the hell was he bothering, why… He broke his train of thought as he sensed that both tracks had begun to slip, then heard water cascading against the steel-covered aluminium hull. For a moment the APC skidded bodily sideways, then the tracks found their grip again. It took him a few moments to regain his train of thought.