March Upcountry

within its banks. The artificial island supported the remains of a burned gazebo, just a few charred sticks succumbing to the Mardukan saprophytes, and the barest outlines of a road paralleling the river it overlooked.

The Hurtan wasn’t a huge river by any stretch, but it was big enough. And the current was noticeable, which was unusual in the swamp.

“No way,” D’Len Pah said. “Flar-ta swim, but not that well.”

Their raised elevation also permitted a view of the low mountains or high hills where their intermediate objective lay. They seemed to be within easy reach, no more than one day’s march.

If, that was, they could get across the river.

“We could go upriver,” Roger suggested. “Look for a crossing point. Was there a ford?” he asked Cord, who shook his head.

“A ferry.”

“We could build a raft. . . .” Pah started.

“Huh-uh,” Pahner said, cutting everyone else off. He’d been staring at the river and its far bank thoughtfully.

“Bridge it?” Kosutic asked.

“Yep,” the company commander replied. “And we’ll belay the pack beasts across. Pah,” he turned to the mahout, “the beasts can cross on their own, but they have a problem with the current. Is that it?”

“Yes,” the mahout said. “They’re good swimmers, but we can’t ride them while they swim, for if we fall off, we’ll drown. Swept downstream, without us to guide them, they might panic and drown as well.” He clapped his true-hands in agitation. “You don’t want us to lose any, do you?”

“No, no, no,” Pahner said soothingly. “But we will cross this river. Right here.”

“Why tee pock do I have to do t’is?” Poertena demanded as he took off his boots.

“Because you’re from Pinopa,” Kosutic told him. “Everyone knows Pinopans swim like fish.”

“T’at’s stereotyping, t’at is,” the armorer snapped. He struggled out of his filthy chameleon suit and stood in his issue underwear. The flexible synthetic material made for an adequate swimsuit. “Just because I’m from Pinopa doesn’t mean I can swim!”

“Can’t you?” Julian asked in an interested tone. “Because if you can’t, it’s going to be funny as hell when we throw you in.”

Dogzard sniffed at the two of them, then walked down to the water’s edge. She sniffed at it in turn, then hissed and walked away. Somebody else could swim that river.

“Well, yes,” Poertena admitted.

“Fairly well, right?” Kosutic asked. She did have to admit that it was stereotyping. There could be a Pinopan who couldn’t swim. It would be like someone from the planet Sherpa, which was basically one giant mountain chain, being afraid of heights. It could happen, but it would be like being afraid of oxygen.

“Well, yes,” the armorer admitted again, sourly. “I was on a swimming team in high school an’ you’ve gotta believe tee competition was pocking pierce. But t’at’s not tee point!” he continued in protest.

“Right. Sure. Anything you say,” Julian soothed as he tied a rope around the diminutive Pinopan’s waist. “One sacrifice to the river gods, coming up!”

Roger shook his head at the good-natured wrangling going on below his tree and took his rifle off safe. The river appeared placid, but no one intended to settle for appearances.

The rifle normally mounted a three-round magazine to save weight, given how heavy the big magnum rounds were, but the manufacturer also offered a ten-round detachable box magazine as an option. Roger had never understood why anyone who could hit what he was aiming at would need ten rounds—unless, of course, he was trying to kill main battle tanks—but two of the ten-round boxes had come with the rifle, and he’d brought them along without really thinking about it.

Now that he was down on Marduk, he’d discovered that his original contemptuous opinion of the option had undergone considerable modification, and he snapped the first, fully loaded ten-round box into place, then slid an eleventh round “up the spout” before he closed the bolt. He also had additional standard magazines laid out on the broad branch in front of him, a box of ammunition opened on his belt, and Matsugae stood ready to reload empties for him on the fly, but even all of that wasn’t enough to banish his fear that he might run out of ammo as the day wore on.

Marine sharpshooters were scattered in other trees along the river, but more and more, it was Roger the company depended on when an accurate shot was needed. The time he’d spent big game hunting was coming to the fore, as he invariably placed his big bone-smashing bullets in vulnerable spots.

Julian climbed into the tree next to his and Matsugae’s and unlimbered his bead rifle.

“You really ought to have one of these,” the NCO noted, gesturing with his chin at the ammunition scattered across the tree limb. “Fifty in a magazine beats three—or even ten—all hollow.” The sergeant pulled one of the dual magazines out of the bead rifle and replaced it with one filled with armor piercing. “And now I’ve got a hundred.”

“Tell you what,” Roger said good-naturedly as he flipped his “smoke pole’s” selector switch from bolt action to semi-auto. “What do you want to bet that I get more of whatever comes along than you do?”

Julian considered himself a fair shot, but he recognized it as a tough bet to win. The prince, for all his other faults, was no slouch with that big-game rifle. The entire company had seen ample proof of that, but the Marine couldn’t resist.

“Okay. Fifty credits?”

“Three hundred push-ups,” Roger retorted. “Fifty credits doesn’t mean a thing here, and it’s peanuts to me on Earth. But three hundred push-ups is three hundred push-ups.”

“Done,” Julian agreed with a smile. Watching as the little Pinopan gingerly lowered himself into the water. “But who’s gonna judge?” he asked.

“One hundred and twenty-six,” Julian grunted. “One hundred and twenty-seven . . .”

“Come on, Julian,” Sergeant Major Kosutic said. “He beat you fair and square.”

The sound of bugling flar-ta and the occasional crack of a bead rifle could still be heard in the distance as the elaborate bridge system was disassembled.

After Poertena had taken the lead line across, the company had swung into gear with a vengeance. The first rope bridge was being tautened within twenty minutes, and a security team went swarming across it. In another half hour, two more rope bridges were in place, and the flar-ta were being belayed across.

The first bridge was a simple affair: two taut ropes, one above the other and about a meter and a half apart, strung between trees on either side of the river. The ropes were tightened by tying a metal ring into the side over the river and then running the end of the rope through the ring. A fire team then pulled the rope as taut as possible, and a quick release knot was tied into it. Another rope was run above the first, and then the two lines were lashed together. The resulting bridge was crossed by holding onto the top rope while shuffling across the lower one.

The flar-ta crossing was, inevitably, a bit trickier.

That was what the two additional bridges were for. Unlike the personnel bridge, they were single lines, and the Marines attached metal clips to them, then ran a rope from one clip to a sling around each pack beast’s middle. Another rope was run from the pack beast to the far shore, and a third ran from the beast to the near shore.

Even if the entire company had grabbed onto the far rope, there would have been no way they could have managed the beast’s crossing with raw muscle power. But as it turned out, a simple trick permitted a single fire team of five to pull the beast across the river.

The rope to the far side was first bent around a tree, then back on itself. The team’s members held the doubled up rope in their hands as the beast was coaxed into the water, and as slack came into the rope, they pulled it through. But whenever the big beast balked and tried to draw back, they clamped their hands around the rope. The steadiness of the tree and the friction of the clamped rope prevented even the powerful flar- ta from backing up.