“Probably unnecessary, but go for it,” Mike said. “Among other things, if we get hit hard there’s nobody to call. And, yeah, that bothers me.”
“There’s a room down the hall that has a bunch of junk in it,” Vanner said. “You could put in a pretty good command room there. There’s enough room, that’s for sure. Run some commo through the walls and you’d be set. All in one nice neat little position. I could train up some of the ladies to make decent CIC personnel; they’re already doing well at map reading.”
“You probably won’t get hit heavy,” Adams said. “But if someone starts dropping mortars on your head, it would help to be at least one level down.”
“Go for it,” Mike said. “Good idea.”
“Your wish is my command, Kildar,” Vanner said, waving his coffee mug in salute.
“How’d you run the satellite phone down there?” Mike asked after a moment’s thought.
“We set up an antenna and a booster box at the antenna farm,” the former Marine said. “If you’ve got the codes, you can connect direct to the Iridium relay satellites in geosync, and I do. Took a firmware hack on the hardware, but that was easy enough. Just a spare chip I had lying around and a few lines of code.”
“Did you understand any of that?” Mike asked when the commo specialist was gone.
“Something about an antenna,” the chief said, shrugging. “It works, don’t fuck with it.”
“What happens when it breaks?” Mike asked.
“Call Vanner back over,” the chief said, with another shrug. “Or somebody like him. You’re probably going to need a commo geek around anyway.”
“More permanent residents,” Mike sighed. “I didn’t think this all the way out. Everything made so much sense when I came up with this brilliant idea. Little did I know…”
“Yours not to reason why,” Adams said. “Yours is but to get out there and act like you have a clue what is going on.”
Chapter Twenty
The weapons issue and zero was going well.
Each of the Keldara had been issued a weapon and taught to find and memorize the serial number. After that they were run through a brief class on aiming and trigger control, then taken down to the range. There they were taken to the line and walked through zeroing the weapons. Since the leaders had already been issued and zeroed, they acted as firing coaches when the militiamen actually fired. Since they hadn’t really been drilled in safety, Mike had insisted on a trained firer at each position. But between the team leaders and all the trainers assisting the Keldara were being run through the firing quickly.
“We’ll be done before noon,” Adams said, looking at his watch. “A couple of hours for training in stripping and cleaning and we’ll be done.”
“Just as well,” Mike said. “They’re going back to the family bosom for the weekend, so they should get off early today. Plenty of time to stress them after the festival.”
“Kildar,” McKenzie said, walking over. “The lads have asked about getting off early today, something about this festival that’s coming up. Apparently there’s a bit of work to get ready.”
“We were talking about that,” Mike said, nodding. “Figure we’ll cut them loose at sixteen hundred.”
“I can live with that,” the Scot said. “What is this festival anyway?”
“You know about as much as I do,” Mike said. “I just got here in the winter. All I’ve picked up is that it’s a planting festival, more of a spring festival. Not Easter, that was a couple of weeks ago and they barely noticed it except to go to church. And apparently the Sunday celebration this week will be at the homes.”
“Mayday was two days ago,” McKenzie said, frowning. “But this falls in the time of Beltane. That can be any time from Walpurgis to May Third or so.”
“Beltane?” Adams asked.
“Celtic celebration,” Mike said. “Falls between the spring equinox and midsummer. It’s going to be interesting to see how they celebrate it.”
Over the sound of the firing, Mike heard a heavy truck in the distance and turned to see the cement mixer headed over to the gravel pit.
“Been a while since I looked at the dam,” he said, waving at Adams. “They don’t get released until the weapons are clean. Then they can go.”
“Works,” the chief said.
“I’m going to go check on Meller and Co.,” Mike added, getting back in his Expedition.
The small stream was dry, a combination of the lack of snowmelt and a small dam and channel that had been cut to divert it to the main stream to the south. Later the channel would be reversed to bring the heavier stream over.
Where the stream had been there were now wooden forms, marking out the weirs that would control the flow of the water. At the moment it was just the wooden outline and a small amount of concrete poured into the bottom. Some of the older Keldara were moving the concrete around so that it would be even across the bottom while the mixer went back for another load.
Meller was down in the form with the others, spreading the concrete with a wide metal shovel. They had to work in and out of the reinforcing metal rods that had been laid down in the bottom of the foundation trench.
“Hey, Kildar,” the engineer said, grinning. He had been standing on a platform to keep out of the knee-deep concrete, but he’d still managed to cover himself in concrete splatters. “Going good.”
“How long to fill the first forms?” Mike asked.
“At this rate, a few days,” Meller replied. “No problem with layering, though. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to keep going during the festival. The concrete truck drivers aren’t from around here so that’s no problem. But I’m going to have to hire a few laborers from town to help while the Keldara are off.”
“Not an issue,” Mike said. “Since we’re paying the Keldara for this, paying laborers isn’t that big of a deal. The militia are getting off early. Any problem with letting the guys go?”
“Nope,” Meller said. “I’d already arranged for shifts through the night. We’ll have to keep pouring until this section is done so we don’t get layering. But the guys to replace them are standing by. They’re going to get here at seventeen hundred.”
“What about you?” Mike asked. “You’re not going to work straight through the pour are you?”
“Prael and I are trading off,” Meller said. “I’ll be around for part of the festival. Did you know there’s a bonfire?”
“No,” Mike admitted.
“They’re gathering the wood for it tonight,” the engineer said. “That’s why they want to leave early.”
“I wonder if I should help?” Mike mused. “Kildar and all. Or do I sit up on my throne and watch?”
“Only one way to find out,” Meller pointed out. “Ask.”
Choosing who to ask was the question on Mike’s mind as he drove over to the Keldara compound. Father Ferani was oldest but there was more deference paid to Father Kulcyanov, which was why Mike always addressed him first. However, in this case, he probably wanted to talk to Father Makanee. He just got along with the guy better than the others, maybe because he was a tad younger. Or maybe it was just that they looked alike enough to be brothers.
He pulled into the compound and got out, digging in his safari jacket pocket as the children gathered around. He’d ordered a bunch of bags of hard candies and made it a habit to pass them out to the Keldara kids whenever he came to the compound. He’d pointed out that it was only once a day, and one per kid, but it made him popular with that segment of the Keldara, at least, and something of the effect wore off on the older Keldara.