“Get some rest, you’ll move out at first light tomorrow. Kind of absurd, I know. It’s a demonstration, Abe. A couple of days after we cross back into their territory, Jurak will have word that we are in pursuit. I just hope it convinces him of our resolve, but I doubt it. Once inside their territory again, expect a fight.”
Vincent meditatively puffed on his cigar for a moment and spat.
“Perhaps this isn’t the time or place to say it. The 3rd is a damn good regiment. It was formed during the Great War and still has a few of the old vets in it. A couple of the officers on top, though, can be a bit headstrong, and they are contemptuous of the Bantag.”
Vincent felt uncomfortable with the commander of the army sharing such information.
“You’re just a green lieutenant still fresh out of the academy, but I’ve watched you over the last month, and you’re a good officer. That’s why I put you with the A Troop of the 3rd. You’ll command it. Both the captain and first lieutenant are down with dysentery.”
Abe nodded. It had swept through the regiment on the way back from their assignment and dozens of men were down with it, two having died. It was a common enough complaint in the cavalry.
“Shouldn’t someone of higher rank command A Troop?” Abe asked.
“It’s not a favor to your old man. It’s simply because I think it’s the right assignment for you now. Give you some experience. The troop’s got a good NCO. Trust that Sergeant Togo, he’s a good man. He’ll play along with letting you be the officer, but if he nods to the right, turn right and the hell with protocol. Sergeant Major Mutaka is one of General Ketswana’s old Zulu comrades from the war. He’s one of the best in the army, and he’ll keep an eye on you as well.”
Abe started to ask if his father knew that he was being transferred, but then realized that he most likely did not.
“I know your itch, I had it, too. I hope it doesn’t get scratched too hard, though, the way mine did.”
He looked over, silent for a moment.
“This advance by the cavalry, call it bait, son. Jurak might just stop, turn around, and act like nothing happened at all. Then we’ll withdraw. If Jurak turns and fights, we have a clear cause of war the public will accept. I think he’ll leave a rear guard to slow us down, but will keep on moving southeast to the coast.”
“It’s the Kazan, then. Isn’t it?”
Hawthorne nodded. “Keep safe, Lieutenant. I gave you what you wanted. Just don’t make us both come to regret it.”
“You have your orders, Mr. Cromwell. Are there any questions?”
“No, sir.”
Richard, clutching the heavy, locked briefcase, sealed with a presidential stamp, waited to be dismissed. Andrew hesitated, looking down at the map spread out on the conference table in his office.
“It’s so damn vague,” Andrew said as his finger traced a line out from Constantine and into the Southern Sea. “Here be dragons and unknown lands.”
“Sir?”
“Old maps on Earth. When they didn’t know what was out there, that’s what they used to write in the blank spaces. It’s a vast blank space once past the Cretan Isles. We never should have made that agreement to venture no farther. We wasted fifteen precious years.”
He let his finger run along the line that Cromwell had flown, a full thousand miles farther toward Kazan.
“If what Hazin told you is true, they could be off our coast inside of three weeks.”
“I’d make it at least a month, sir. They have to conserve fuel. An armada that size will go only as fast as the slowest ships.”
“I understand your reasoning, but I have to assume the worst.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Mr. Cromwell, concerning your mission…”
“I volunteered the moment it was discussed,” Richard replied evenly.
“I know. I know the whole routine about honor, duty.” He paused, his hand absently rubbing the empty sleeve.
“Frankly, I’d prefer if you stayed with Bullfinch. There’s a place with his staff if you want it.”
Richard smiled. “I’m the one most qualified to scout.”
“Just because you saw their ships once, at night, and flew one of their airships. I don’t see those as deciding factors for who flies scouting missions. To be blunt, I don’t want to lose you. I’ll need men like you. Second, well, there is the political issue.”
“You mean getting rid of me might be read by some as a message?”
Andrew shook his head. “Damn, I never wanted to get into politics. Being a colonel was straightforward. Even commanding an army in a losing war was easier.”
He turned away and started to pace.
Rumors of what was happening had finally broke. Yet again a senator with a mouth too big and a few too many drinks had spilled the news to some friends in a tavern. From there it had exploded across the city that the mobilization for maneuvers was actually a front for war with the Bantags and that Hawthorne was already leading a punitive expedition into their territory.
Once that news broke, another senator, figuring everything was out in the open, had told the rest to some of his in-laws who had major interests in the market, and thus would profit immensely if a new naval appropriations bill was run through. The insiders made their buys the following morning, then quietly let the other shoe fall. By noon the issue was finally raised by a Chin congresswoman on the House floor, and by dusk it was a firestorm, fluctuating between war hysteria, terrified panic, and renewed rumors of secession.
“We couldn’t have kept it quiet much longer anyhow. What we were doing to the three armored cruisers and five frigates was already drawing notice. I had hoped to keep a lid on it, though, until we had something absolutely positive. Some will whine that I provoked this war as a means of reunifying the country. A lot of questions will be asked tonight at the joint session about why the Gettysburg was beyond the treaty limits.”
Standing by the windowsill, he lightly tapped his clenched fist against the frame while looking down on the crowds milling about in the square. A few protesters had shown up earlier, claiming that the entire crisis was a hoax, one sign proclaiming CROMWELL, TRAITOR BEFORE, TRAITOR AGAIN! An angry crowd of sailors on leave had set upon them, and it had taken half the constabulary force of the city to quell the disturbance.
Several people on the plaza, recognizing Andrew in the window, began to shout, and he drew back, shaking his head and pulling the curtains shut.
“I wonder how many days Lincoln had like this,” he sighed. He fixed his attention back on Richard, as if the commander had just suddenly materialized in the room.
“Yes, Mr. Cromwell. Please consider what I just said.”
“I think it would be best all the way around, sir, if I followed through on what I volunteered for.”
“A statement, is it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right. I know what it means to you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Andrew took his head. “Son, I think in a month’s time this Republic will be in the most desperate struggle it has yet faced. This foe, unlike the old Hordes, is far more insidious, far more seductive, and thus far more treacherous. The Hordes, no matter how hateful their practices, were warriors of honor in their own right. Jurak added a new element, though still honorable in his attempt to split us politically. The message of this Hazin, however, will appeal to far too many. But beneath it, there is a cruelty unimagined.”
“Yes, sir. I knew that from the beginning. I only wish O’Donald had seen it as well before he was trapped.”
Andrew nodded sadly. “Stay alive, Cromwell. This might drag out for years, and I’ll need you.” Andrew let go of his hand.
Saluting, Richard left the room, briefcase clutched tightly in his hand.
Andrew, watching him leave, could only shake his head in weariness and then returned to the preparation of his speech before Congress, asking for a full mobilization to war.