the area’s peninsular nature. Which, I am sure, is obvious to all of us.
“Accordingly, A Company, under Commander Holland, will now detach itself from the main body, cross the river at any practicable point, and proceed to occupy southern New Jersey. Garvin, you will take over the First Platoon of A Company, and act as Commander Holland’s Aide-in-the-Field. You will be accompanied by as many armored cars, under the subsidiary command of whatever junior officer Commander Eisner appoints, as the commander feels such a detachment will require. You will draw supplies and support weapons within Commander Holland’s discretion, and will provision from the land, carrying a basic ration for emergencies. Is that clear?”
Holland and Eisner nodded. Garvin, as an NCO, said, “Yes, sir.” He kept his face blank, Berendtsen’s orders made him, in effect, superior in command to whoever the Armored officer would be. They also gave him the duties of a full Lieutenant. He had known, of course, that Berendtsen would someday make him an officer in spite of his many refusals to accept the rank. But now he wondered. Why had Berendtsen waited until now to exercise this elementary circumvention? Up to now, this had looked like a standard mop-up. Now a new factor had entered the circumstances, and Garvin wondered what it really was.
Berendtsen resumed. “Very well. You will send patrols into every town of significant size, and establish communications posts. Liaison is to be maintained by radio with the Camden-Philadelphia Garrison Office, for the purpose of transmitting regular reports. You will set up new garrisons at Atlantic City, Bridgeton, and in the former naval installations at Cape May.”
Berendtsen looked up from the map. “Those are your objectives. You will, of course, pursue our standard occupation and recruitment policies. As usual, hereditary officers in communities surviving around former military installations are to be handled carefully.”
He stopped, and something crossed his face briefly, too rapidly for Garvin to read.
“The Philadelphia garrison commander has reported that the area is only sparsely populated, no penetration having been made by any civilian groups since the dislocation of the old Philadelphia organization six years ago. 1 am told that there was never an opportunity for Philadelphia to conduct large-scale resettlements in the area.
“For this reason, I am sending only one company. However, the Philadelphia garrison had probed the area only lightly, in spite of whatever generalized conclusions the commander may have drawn. The commander, as you have no way of knowing, is a man sent out from New York to replace Commander Willets.” He smiled dryly. “For that reason, I am augmenting the company with the armored detachment, and staffing it with my best men. Commander Eisner, I’ll ask you to bear these remarks in mind when you detail your own officer.
“A few final orders, which I’ll confirm in writing as soon as my clerk has them typed. Be sure you have them before you leave, Commander Holland. As follows: You will maintain radio contact with Philadelphia and New York, but you are an entirely independent command until the area has been completely occupied and assimilated into the Republic. Once this has been accomplished, the Southern New Jersey Command will be subordinated to the Philadelphia Military District, and will be subject to orders from the Philadelphia garrison commander. Until such time, you are on record as a detached unit of the Army of Unification in the field, and are subject only to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief.”
Garvin tried to find something readable in either Berendtsen’s or Holland’s faces, but failed.
Berendtsen didn’t trust his Philadelphia commander, that was sure. And his third-person reference to himself as Commander-in-Chief seemed unnecessarily oblique.
More and more, Garvin began to suspect that there was something wrong. Perhaps the AU had grown to proportions which kept Berendtsen from personally supervising the entire organization, but the Philadelphia garrison was an important one, and it seemed inconceivable that an undependable man had gotten the post.
“Any questions?”
Garvin kept silent, as did the two commanders.
“Suggestions?”
“I’d like to take that detachment in myself, sir,” Eisner said. Life in New York, uneventful as it must inevitably be, held no attraction for him. The New Jersey operation offered an extra month’s action.
Berendtsen shook his head. “I’d considered sending you,” he said, “but I want you in New York too much.”
Eisner’s brows twitched, and the man’s face, unaccustomed to masking his thoughts, showed his plain doubt.
“I’m sorry,” Berendtsen said flatly.
“Yes, sir,” Eisner answered.
“All right, then,” Berendtsen concluded, “You’re dismissed—and good luck.”
Garvin followed the two commanders out of the trailer, while the clerk’s typewriter hammered an accompaniment from their orders—their disquieting official orders that plugged all possible loopholes…against what?
And the wind that keened between the tents seemed stronger now, and more piercing than it had been at reveille.
Berendtsen watched the company roll out, missing them already. He could feel the gap in the Army almost as surely as if a chunk had been cut out of his side. But there was no help for it.
Perhaps he should have gone in with the whole Army. He’d been tempted to. But the men were close to home—the New York ones, anyway—and they wanted to get back. The rest of them were looking forward to a spree in the city. For some of them it was the first real let-up in six years.
And he had no good reason, really, to be as much nagged as he was. Whatever was going on in Philadelphia was probably local political maneuvering. Holland’s company could handle anything New Jersey might have to put up. Especially with the cars along. And if they got into a serious jam, they could call on Philadelphia. No matter what was going on there, they’d have to turn out garrison on call, whatever they thought of it.
Perhaps he should have taken the Army into Philadelphia.
What for? Just because Willets had suddenly turned noncommunicative and finally gone back to New York? Willets was an old man by now. Old men developed odd quirks.
He wanted no part of politics. He’d decided that a long time ago, and he couldn’t change now. Under no circumstances could he begin dabbling with the internal affairs of the Republic. He had no desire to become a military dictator.
Why should there be any reason for him to be a military dictator?
What was going on in the back of his mind?
He turned away and went back into his trailer, throwing himself on his bunk and staring up at the ceiling.
He’d cut Holland loose. Given him a completely independent command. Why? What had made him decide he might not be in control of the Army much longer?
Was this it? Was this the end he had always somehow felt, waiting in the future, waiting for him to live as he had to, do what he had to, until he finally caught up to it?
Why had he kept Eisner with him?
Why was he Theodore Berendtsen?
The Delaware had picked up heat at its headwaters, and the warmth was running southward with the river. The last cold air mass of the year had spilled over the mountains in the west northwest to meet it, had been deflected slightly by the rising warmth to the north, and was now rolling into Delaware Bay like a downhill tide, picking up speed in its southwesterly mean direction while spinning slowly. Like a scooping hand, it gathered up condensed moisture from the warmer air above the bay, and hurled patches of fog and gusts of cold into the face of the marching column.
Akin to all the troop movements of the Earth’s long military history, the column moved forward at the pace of its slowest element—the 100 thirty-inch strides per minute of the rifle platoons. Garvin sat motionless atop one of the two armored cars spotted between the Second and Third Platoons, his boots braced against a cleat, watching the column’s forward half-snaking into the cold and fog, while his body vibrated gently to the labor of the car’s throttled- back motors. His hands and face were coldly slick, but he stayed where he was rather than drop into the
