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‘Yeah, we did a real beautiful job here. Had the shits under sky-spy surveillance from soon after they’d left you, knew exactly where to wait for them.’ Lippincott spat out slivers of wood and pieces of lead, examined the end of the pencil then went at it again. ‘I even had a battery of 155mm cannon south of Goldbach assigned to me, to give Blindfire support with rocket-assisted Copperheads, but I didn’t use them, didn’t need them. Yeah, my tanks did a real neat job, took out all eighteen of those commie wagons in under an hour.’

‘How many?’ It was a superfluous question, Revell knew he’d heard correctly. ‘I said eighteen. What’s the matter with you, you had your fingers elsewhere when they should have been in your ears?’

‘No, my hearing’s OK, Colonel, and so is my counting. It was twenty-three tanks that kept going when we hit the rear of the column. If my subtraction is up to scratch as well, that leaves five commie tanks unaccounted for.’

‘They could still be in there.’ Lippincott indicated the inky darkness of the Zone, to the east of the autobahn.

‘And maybe they’re not.’ Revell was looking westwards, where a broad glowing band across a wide arc of the horizon marked the city of Frankfurt. ‘And if they’re not, then all hell is about to break loose.’

FOURTEEN

‘They’ll do it.’ Lippincott took off the headphones and handed them to the major. ‘They don’t like it, but they’ll do it. As soon as Corps HQ have confirmation the commies are in the city, you’ll be given their location and a general nuke alert will be sounded.’

‘That should keep the civvies nicely tucked up underground, out of my way, while I get on with it.’ And Revell had thought the fighting over! ‘You’re not coming with us, Colonel?’

‘You trying to rile me? No I’m not fucking coming. Command want me to take what’s left of this rag-bag of armour and do a sweep in the Zone, just in case those commies are still stooging about near here… I ain’t gonna find the shitty buggers, all I’m gonna do is spend a long uncomfortable night hauling tanks out of ditches and streams and getting bad tempered. One thing’s for sure, no crappy arse ticker at HQ is going to think to call me off when those wagons do turn up elsewhere.’

There was nothing that Revell could say to that. The colonel was most probably right, and agreeing with him wasn’t going to help matters. ‘We’ll lift the moment that laser target designator is on board.’

‘OK, I’ll get out of your way.’ Deliberately not seeing the offer of assistance from Hogg, but looking at him as he turned to use the step, Lippincott paused. ‘You guys won’t have heard. Seems someone stole a general’s car today. There’s a hell of a witch-hunt going on at HQ. Haven’t seen a block long, big, black and shiny Caddy have you?’

‘Not us, Colonel.’ Hogg was a shade too fast with the denial. ‘Fine, fine. And I know you’re telling the truth, Lieutenant, cause you’re not smiling anymore.’ Taking another step down, Lippincott paused one last time. ‘I’ve always kinda hankered after a Cadillac. Fact is, I’m so keen to have one, I wouldn’t even mind if it’d had a re-spray.’ Hogg and Revell exchanged glances. A voice floated to them from the darkness outside.

‘Powder blue would be nice.’

‘What did happen to it?’ Curiosity got the better of Revell, when commonsense told him not to get involved.

‘It was Burke who’d been listening, and now chipped in. ‘You want to know about a black staff car.’

‘I’m not sure…’ Hogg thought about it. ‘You know, I can’t even remember where I left it… Yes, alright, tell me.’

‘I saw the front end sticking out of an alley in Budingen, after the battle. There wasn’t a scratch on it’

‘Thank God. For a moment…’

‘…but that was all there was, Lieutenant, just the front.’

‘You know this Colonel Lippincott.’ Hogg passed his hand over his eyes. ‘Think he’d like the car by instalments? Piece at a time?’

‘Don’t worry about it. We have other problems at present’

‘It’s here, Major.’ Dooley lifted in the laser designator, making tight work of the equipment’s forty-seven pounds.

‘Take us up.’ Slamming the door and securing it, Revell joined the flight crew. The pilot’s face was just visible, lit by the glow from luminous instruments. This bus isn’t equipped for fancy manoeuvring in the dark. I hope you’re not expecting any hot-shot flying.’

‘No, like before, take it easy. When we find our target you can drop us off ahead of it. From then on we’ll find our own transport, and you can go back to hauling freight, if that’s what you still want to do.’

‘You mean I’ll be finished? Hey, now that’s good news. I’ve aged ten years today.’ The pilot touched his face ‘Does it show?’

‘In this light you look like you died last week.’

‘Thanks, Major. That was a real tonic’

Above the cockpit the front engine faltered and ran raggedly for a moment. The nose dipped as the co-pilot played with a selection of fuel switches.

‘It’ll be that pump again.’ As the engine picked up, the pilot trimmed the Chinook back to an even keel. ‘Marvellous, isn’t it? All day I haul spares for tanks, guns and fixed wing aircraft; best part of a month I’ve been waiting for this old bus to be fixed.’

Cohen squeezed in. ‘I think this is it, Major.’ He pointed to a scribbled line of figures on his board. ‘That’s the map reference. There’s been no military confirmation, but the civilian switchboards have been jammed for the last five minutes, calls to the army and police.’

‘Where is this?’ Revell took the appropriate map from a rack and checked the references against it. ‘If it is them, then they’re lost, they’ve screwed up on the last lap.’

‘What’s at this place we’re going to; any girls?’ The pilot turned the Chinook on to the heading he was given.

‘No, it’s warehouses, not whorehouses. A nice industrial area, ideal for us. Long straight roads, with plenty of hiding places just off them.’

‘So long as there’s room for me to put down without having my blades play cat’s cradles with power lines, I’m happy.’ As the pilot took the engines up to their maximum revolutions, the whole fuselage vibrated.

Dooley was happy too. Sitting close to Andrea, he could feel the warmth of her body gradually working through the several layers of clothing that separated them. The trembling of the craft made his backside tingle and kept his mind on the lower portion of his anatomy – and hers. He wondered if the sensation did anything for her.

It was rather like being inside a giant vibrator… now there was a thought. At intervals he would grin and grimace to the others, and nod to the girl as she rested with her head against a stack of empty pallets, mouth slightly open, moist lips framing perfect teeth, her closed eyes showing off the long dark lashes. She was younger than he usually went for, but a couple of quick ones would be so good. He could have murdered Ripper when he disturbed her by sitting down opposite, catching her feet with his.

‘Say, that was real clumsy of me. I’m sorry, I truly am.’ Andrea’s eyes opened and looked at Ripper, and then right through him. Hell, she was playing hard to get. Still PFC Billy J Ripper was not about to be put off. Show an interest, that was a ploy that had always worked back home. ‘You German?’ No answer, just the same unwavering gaze from those gold-flecked brown eyes. ‘You remind me of a girl I used to go with…’

‘Then you have had one?’

Now why’d she say that, was she getting at him? Heck no. Press on boy, she’ll weaken, try the experience trick. ‘Sure I’ve had one, had a whole load, why I’ve…’

‘Then you had best stay in practice, it would be a shame to see so much talent wasted.’