“Run, sergeant!” I shouted. “I’ve got to talk to him as soon as possible.”
The stout sergeant upped the pace, and within a minute I had reached Williams’s position. “Hello, colonel. Come to wish me luck?” Williams asked.
“Lieu—” I had to stop myself, remembering Williams’s promotion. “Captain… Mike, you need to call off this attack.”
Williams frowned. “Why? The air support’s supposed to hit Teatime Hill any second now.”
“The Chinese are going to see the attack coming,” I said. “They’ve got thermal scanners. A goddamn sniper almost hit me coming down the street just now. They won’t be surprised by the attack. They’ll cut you guys down.”
Williams’s face paled. “Jesus.” He understood immediately what would happen. I felt a moment of relief, thinking that Williams couldn’t possibly order the attack now.
“Have you told General Brown?” Williams asked.
“I tried, but he wasn’t listening. It’s up to you now, Mike.”
A dark look came over Williams, a thousand-yard stare. He was quiet for a few seconds. Then, he said quietly, “I have my orders, colonel.”
Incredulous, I said, “Your orders are insane. They’re based on the flawed assumption that it’s 1945 and no one can see in the fog.”
Mike, shook his head. “Still, those are my orders.” He looked me right in the eyes. “I’m not going to be a coward again, sir.”
We both knew exactly what he was talking about — his moment of weakness during the bayonet attack. I did my best to find the right words.
“Mike, you’re not a coward. I saw you fight on Farmers’ Ridge. Don’t let one second on Teatime Hill define your life. Don’t let Brown send you to a stupid, pointless death.” I couldn’t stop my voice from cracking a little. Williams had a promising life before him. There was just no reason at all to throw it away.
Just then, an explosion sounded on Teatime Hill, and a sonic boom was audible in the sky. “That’ll be the air support,” Williams said.
“Just one explosion, though,” I said. “Only one plane got through, and it had to aim through the fog and rain.”
Williams sighed. “It’ll have to be enough.” He checked his rifle, then looked up and met my eyes. “I can’t live the rest of my life wondering if I’m a coward, sir.”
My chest burned watching the disaster unfold. I wanted to punch Williams, try to snap him out of the idea that he needed to prove himself. I didn’t want the last memory that Mike had of me to be an insult. “Alright, Mike. Just remember: if it looks like the attack’s failing, you call your men back. I’m going to bring up the reserves to occupy the Coffee Line. We’ll try to cover you if you need to retreat.”
Williams nodded. “Thanks, Tom.”
I couldn’t fully blink away a tear. “I’m damn proud of you, Mike. You’re wrong, but you’re a gutsy bastard, and I’m going to make sure your parents know.”
I saluted him, then ran as fast as I could for the elementary school. On the way, I tried to think what else I could do to help. What are Barker and McCormick doing right now? Maybe they could create some disruption that would make it easier for Williams and his soldiers to retreat back to the Coffee Line if — when — the attack failed.
“Lieutenant Barker, this is Concitor,” I radioed.
My former subordinate responded quickly. “Barker here, what’s up, sir?”
“We have a major problem,” I began…
Chapter 8: Barker
After Captain Concitor finished describing the problem, I radioed back, “We’ll do what we can.”
Concitor answered, “Understood. I’m moving the reserves up to hold the Coffee Line after the Chinese break the attack. Good luck, out.”
McCormick looked at me with a neutral, guarded look on his face. “You heard all that,” I observed. “We have to go help them,” I said.
“The attack is beginning in the next couple minutes,” McCormick said slowly. “We’re three miles away.”
I argued, “So it’ll take 25 minutes to get there. All the more reason to leave right now. The battle probably won’t be resolved quickly. If we hit Teatime Hill from the northwest, we can allow Williams and his men to retreat in good order. Hell, we might even crack the defenses so that Williams’s attack has a chance at success.”
McCormick shook his head. “The attack is going to collapse quickly. If we run the three miles quickly, we’ll be going too fast to detect Chinese patrols before they see us. Then we might get taken by surprise. They’ll pin us down, call in reinforcements, surround us, and wipe us out. Hell, if we get unlucky, a single PLA squad could take us all down.”
He sounded like my grandmother. “A lot of things could go wrong. We’re in a dangerous business. But there are American soldiers who are going to be slaughtered if we don’t help them. We owe it to them to run a few risks to try and save them.”
The former Knight took a deep breath, and said condescendingly, “We aren’t just ordinary American soldiers. We’re a unique strategic asset. We can’t waste our lives on a mad dash to save ordinary soldiers.”
I snorted. “Well, why the hell should we waste our lives to save ’ordinary’ Taiwanese civilians? What the fuck are we doing in this war if not to save ’ordinary’ people? When did you decide you were too good to care about ’ordinary’ people?”
McCormick’s face turned red at me calling out his elitism. “Don’t change the subject, Amy. The war hangs in the balance. We can swing it to victory, but we have to be alive to do that.”
Feeling the anger rise in me, I said, “I don’t have time to stand around and argue about it, Clay. I’m taking the Airborne squad to help the Airborne soldiers. If you’re too scared to fight, you can just stay here.” With that, I jogged over to the Airborne squad to tell them their new orders.
McCormick said to my back, “We need the squad for operations here.”
“Well write to President Gates and ask very politely and maybe he’ll give it to you,” I spat back. “But those are my soldiers until someone senior to me tells me that they ain’t. And you’re just a sergeant.”
I heard a click behind me and saw that McCormick’s rifle was up and raised right at my head. “The President’s too far away, so I’m just going to tell you for him. You aren’t taking those soldiers.”
I walked up to within a pace of him, the end of his rifle touching my helmet. “You gonna shoot me, Clay?”
He stood motionless for a moment. “Don’t do this, Amy. I’m not going to shoot you,” he said as he lowered the rifle, “but I’m not going to help you. I’ve given up too much, seen too many friends die for this war. If I have to choose between you and winning the war, I choose the war.”
“Hard to win a war if you don’t fight.” I walked away from McCormick and told the squad, “We’re going to go save some of our friends.”
Most of the soldiers looked uneasy after McCormick’s threat to shoot me, but enough nodded back at my announcement that I felt confident they’d follow me.
I took off a fast jog and I heard the squad following along behind me. Looking back, one last time, I saw McCormick had lowered his rifle. Ivanov and Dietrich were just arriving on the scene, asking their friend what had happened. McCormick looked right at me, and where I expected to see anger, I saw only sadness.
The battle started just a few minutes after I had started the squad running to the west. I aimed the squad at the sound of the battle, slowing down periodically to allow my squad to catch up and to listen for any enemies in the area. I was the point man, so to speak, and I tried my best to keep my eyes swiveling to find any dangers.