‘Because?’
‘Bose Ikard is pouring plausible but false hope into the ear of the King. He’s saying that the Axis in general and the Swiss in particular are sealed up tight against Bosco, that either the mountains or the Maginot Line will keep him out. He’s telling him the lands the Redeemers have already taken may be considerable but that things are not as alarming as they appear. The territories they have conquered have nothing much in the way of resources worth having and so the trouble of occupying them with Redeemer forces will consume more Redeemer blood and treasure than they can possibly gain from occupying them.’
‘He has a point,’ said Cale.
‘Indeed he does – but our point is different. If we are to believe you, then Bosco will come because he must, now or later. But if it’s later then we will lose all credibility. It will appear that Ikard is correct – the Redeemers have taken land that’s more trouble than it’s worth and are barred by axis defences from taking any more. Bosco can’t go forward, he can only go back. If we warn them about the attack through Arnhemland it will stop Bosco and it will look as if Ikard is right and we are wrong. We’ll decline into a kind of nothing.’
‘So you’re going to let the Redeemers in.’
‘Exactly. You disagree?’
‘It sounds a bit clever dick to me. But you might be right. I’ll have to think about it.’
‘If you have a better idea let me know.’
‘I will.’
But half an hour after he’d left, Cale was pretty sure Vipond was right. The question was what if the Redeemers weren’t held at the Mississippi? What if they crossed over and kept on coming? The mountains that protected them from anyone getting in would be the mountains that stopped anyone from getting out. The only exit was through the Schallenberg Pass and Bosco was ready to shut that tight as a cork in a bottle.
That evening Vipond and IdrisPukke were trying to browbeat Arbell Materazzi in the same course.
‘You must persuade him,’ said Vipond.
‘He won’t be told and that’s that. If I tried to persuade him I’d make him a good deal angrier at me than he is at you – and he’s pissed off with you, I can tell you.’
‘Don’t be so vulgar.’
‘Then don’t tell me to make an enemy out of my own husband.’
‘She has a point,’ said IdrisPukke. ‘We don’t want to send him where we can’t get him back.’
‘He’s not at your beck and call anyway,’ she said, angry now herself. ‘He’s not a pipe for you to play on.’
‘I stand corrected,’ said IdrisPukke, touchy himself.
‘Besides, you think Thomas Cale is your saviour and ours. Are you so sure?’
‘You did pretty well out of him, you ungrateful madam.’
‘If he hadn’t come to Memphis I’d never have needed rescuing. I’m not ungrateful.’
‘I’ve never understood the “not” in front of “ungrateful”,’ said IdrisPukke. ‘It doesn’t mean grateful, does it?’
‘All right,’ she said, ‘I’m a thankless bitch. But wherever he goes, everyone says it, a funeral follows. He was the cause of us losing everything. You think you’re clever enough to make use of him to destroy the people you hate – and he’ll do it. And he’ll take you with him. And my husband and my son.’ She stopped for a moment. The two men said nothing because there was no point. ‘You should have more trust in Conn. He can be a great man if you can make friends with him again.’
‘It doesn’t look like we have much choice,’ said Vipond the next day when they met up with Cale and Vague Henri to discuss what should be done next. ‘We must let the pig pass through the python.’
The two of them started sniggering at this like two naughty schoolboys at the back of the class. ‘Grow up!’ he said to them, but it only made them worse. When they eventually stopped, Cale told them what he thought.
‘I know everyone thinks I’m not good for anything but murder – but this is a wicked thing we’re doing here.’
‘So I’m told,’ said Vipond.
‘What if we’re wrong? What if someone finds out?’
‘You think you’re the only one with reservations? I have the reputation for being a wise man, despite the fact that I lost an entire empire while I was supposed to be its steward. But my experience is still worth something, I think. Great powers, and the men who rule them, are like blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in deadly peril from the other whom he assumes to have perfect vision. They ought to know that all the policies of great powers are made of uncertainty and confusion. Yet each power fears that the other has greater wisdom, clarity and foresight – although they never do. You and I and Bosco are three blind men and before we’re finished we’re probably going to do a great deal of damage to each other and to the room.’
Twelve days later the Redeemers raced across Arnhemland in less than thirty-six hours and destroyed the first army of the Axis in five days, the eighth army of the Axis in six days and the fourth army of the Axis in two days. The problem was that all the armies guarding Arnhemland and those backing it were increasingly poorly equipped in terms of experience and weaponry, all the best soldiers and equipment having been reserved for the expected line of attack on the impressively well-guarded Maginot Line. These were soldiers who would have had a good chance of either checking or at least slowing the advance of the lightly armed first attack by the Redeemers but having been cut off from all means of resupply were obliged to surrender without much more than a cross word. This all happened with such speed that Vipond had every reason to fear that he had indeed been too clever by half and that his decision to say nothing was not only wicked but foolish. Temporary rescue of a sort came from an unexpected source.
Artemisia Halicarnassus is already a name long forgotten – but of all great men of military genius never given the credit they deserved she was, perhaps, the greatest. Artemisia was no Amazon or Valkyrie – she was barely five foot tall and was so concerned with her appearance, with her banded painted toenails and elaborately curled hair, that one surly diplomat had described her as more pansy than feminine. In addition she spoke with a slight lisp, which many thought to be an affectation but was not. Along with her tendency to seem easily distracted (due to boredom at the dullness or stupidity of what she was listening to), and her habit of interjecting ideas that seemed merely to have drifted across her mind in the way soft clouds move with a light breeze, there was no one who could look past her appearance and manner to recognize her original and penetrating intelligence. As it happened, the collapse of the armies of the Flag, and the almost as quick defeat of the Regime of the 14th of August that lay in reserve behind, created an extraordinary and definitely once in a lifetime chance for Artemisia to show what she was made of.
Halicarnassus, which had its northern boundary formed by the Mississippi, was unusual in its geography in that, unlike the other countries that bordered that great river, Halicarnassus was a place of limestone gorges and awkward hills. Seeing the terrible collapse in front of her and realizing the vast numbers of retreating soldiers would be slaughtered as they were pinned up against the northern bank of such a difficult to cross river, she emerged from Halicarnassus with the small army left to her by her husband and, spreading her troops like a funnel, managed to guide large numbers of fleeing soldiers into the temporary safety of Halicarnassus. There she re-organized the terrified troops and arranged for as many as a hundred and fifty thousand to be evacuated across the Mississippi – a mile wide at that point. In the ten days that the rescue took she fought in Halicarnassus itself to slow down the advancing Redeemers. For three weeks Halicarnassus bulged alone into the Redeemer army as it reached the banks of the Mississippi and murdered the thousands of soldiers she had not been able to protect who were trapped by the river around Halicarnassus. Eventually Artemisia was forced to withdraw and cross the river herself. It is not recorded if she expected to be greeted by cheering crowds, the ringing of church bells and the holding of many banquets in her honour. If so, she was to be disappointed.