“Yes, well, you can write a letter to my sergeant when all this is over. Come on, let’s get cracking.”
Phillips assembled his team outside the camp.
“All right, gentlemen. Now remember your orders. Use pin-down fire if you can, and shoot to disable, not to kill. I’d much prefer to avoid casualties. They are our allies in there. All right, let’s go. Corporal Harris on the right, Chivers on the left, and I’ll lead the centre. Wire cutters at the ready. Go, go!”
They broke from cover and ran forward, to be greeted by an immediate rattle of machine-gun fire. Phillips had no choice but to throw himself to the ground.
Buck called, “Get down! Fall back!”
“How many down?”
Buck glanced around. “Three already. Wounded only. They’re shooting to disable too.”
“That’s not much comfort, Sergeant. We’ve only made, what, ten yards? And we’re pinned down by those machine-gun nests. It’s like the bloody Somme.”
“This isn’t going to work, is it, sir?”
“But we don’t have much choice. All right, men, get ready again—”
There was a tremendous explosion.
Phillips said, “What the—what’s that? Are they shelling us?”
“No. The base isn’t equipped for that. And look, sir, that’s not a shell crater.”
“Then what?”
Another huge explosion. Dirt showered over them.
Phillips said, “My God. That time it was inside the compound. That wasn’t our boys, for sure.”
Buck pointed. “I saw it that time, sir. It’s like it just burst up from under the ground.”
“Like a mine?”
“Something like that. But there are no mines around here.”
A blur of light shot overhead, shrieking.
Buck stared. “Doctor Jones called that a ‘Grendel,’ didn’t he?”
“I don’t like the look of this, Sergeant. Fall back, fall back!”
The detonations were like approaching footsteps.
Jones said, “Hear that, Godwin? The bangs getting bigger and bigger? That’s the Magmoids, man. They’re hitting back at the base—at you. So it begins.”
“Let them come. My strategy is panning out.”
“I actually believe you’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Godwin? Makes up for all your failures, does it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You were involved in Suez, weren’t you? Tremayne told me. What a cock-up that was. The end of empire—and the end of your career too? You’re just a poor boy from the north of England, aren’t you, Godwin? Who had to make his way in an armed force ridden with class and privilege. Chip on your shoulder, have you? You’re just a sad little boy who wants to get back at the bullies who tormented you.”
“Oh, this is all—hot in here, isn’t it?”
“What?”
Godwin stood, pushing back his chair. “Will you join me in a drink, Jones?”
The air was full of Grendels now.
Phillips, dug in as best he could with his troops, said, “Up there, corporal. Two rounds if you please.”
The corporal obediently fired; the bullets sang through the Grendel without effect.
Buck ran up, breathless. “Sir.”
“Situation, Sergeant?”
“Well, the British are shooting at the Americans, and the Americans are shooting at the British, and we’re both shooting at these—ghosts. I’ve had word from SHAPE. All the other Project Hades bases, worldwide, are under attack. Just like this. From underneath. There’s no sign of ordinance. No shells or mines. Just explosions. Somehow they can make the ground just burst open under you.”
“I suspect Professor Tremayne or Doctor Jones would say these are seismic effects, Sergeant. You can feel it in your gut. And we can’t do anything about those Casper-the-Friendly-Ghosts up above. I suspect they are only spotters, anyhow. The explosions follow where they have been hovering about.”
“Yeah. But how do you strike at something that comes at you out of the ground?”
“This is war, isn’t it? Man against the Magmoids. Sounds like a bad B-Movie, doesn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know, sir. I go for romantic comedies myself. Doris Day, Rock Hudson—”
“You have hidden depths, Sergeant.”
The Grendels screamed and swooped lower.
Orderlies hurried into the tent with boxes of gear.
“Ah, the calculators!” Tremayne opened a box, selected a specimen, and began happily turning its handle. “Ever used one of these beauties, Winston? Here are the registers, the carry key, and to perform the computation you turn the handle. Now, what we’re going to perform is a deconvolution integral.”
“Professor, I got kicked out of school long before O-level maths.”
“Well, that’s of no consequence to me, your mind seems more than adequate.”
“It does?” Winston felt unreasonably pleased. “So what’s a deconvolution integral?”
“The principle is simple. We’re going to take all this data and try to separate out the signal from the background noise. All right?”
“What do I do?”
“Just multiply this list of numbers by that list, and total up the products. All right?”
“I guess so.”
“The sooner our battery of clerks gets here the better, but we can make a start. Off you go!”
The truck rushed down the A-road to the refugee camp. It was a fast trip as the road was now being kept clear by police and military, though the refugees still clustered to either side.
When she got to the camp Thelma had identified, Clare wasn’t surprised to find Hope Stubbins, sitting on a canvas chair, at the centre of operations.
“Police Constable Baines. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Winston told me I’d find you.” Clare glanced around. This had evidently been an improvised soup kitchen, with big tureens, mobile gas stoves, and tin plates, but soldiers were now packing the stuff up. Outside, people milled around, picking up blankets from the ground and waking reluctant children. “They’re moving you?”
“Ay, well, they say we’re a bit too close to the fighting at Aldmoor. Clare—how’s the lad?”
“Winston’s fine.”
“He’s back at that base, is he?”
“Yes. There is fighting, but he’s well away from it. He’s working with a professor.”
“Is he now? He always was a bright lad.”
“Listen, Mrs. Stubbins, I need your help. The army wants office clerks who can work a calculating machine. There must be a few in this crowd.”
“Office lasses, eh? Well, there’s Mabel over there for a start. She works at the Baltic, don’t you, dear? And little Annie there works the turnstiles at Saint James’ Park. How do you fancy cuddling up to a few soldier boys?”
The girls laughed.
“Thanks, Mrs. Stubbins. What about the rest of you—where will they take you?”
“Oh, they’re not telling us that. Miserable business, like. To move once is all right, and you think you’re through with it, and you get settled, you know? Then you’ve got to do it all again. Hard for the bairns.”
“Will you be all right?”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. Listen. Just tell them buggers in the Army to get this lot put a stop to, all right?”
“I’ll get the trucks ready.”
“Clare.”
“Yes?”
“You couldn’t leave us a walkie-talkie? I’d like to know what’s going on with Winston.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Another crash rattled the room.
“Do you know, I think I’ll have another. You sure you won’t join me? You look like a G&T man to me.” Godwin walked to a cabinet at the back of the room. “I always keep a decanter. Visiting officers, you know.”