Grisha.”
“In more ways than one! Okay, I want a radio operator, a desk that I can actually use from this position, a telephone, and some routing boxes for papers, whatever. If I can’t be in the field I’ll do what I can from here.”
“You were wounded in the line of duty, Colonel Grigorievich,” she said with feeling. “Nobody will think you are shirking if you’re flat on your back in a hospital bed.”
“I know Malagni can handle—” he was looking at her face while speaking and what he saw there stopped him. “What?”
“Oh, Grisha, I thought you knew.” She told him about the epic man-to-man contest, how both sides had stopped fighting to bear witness, and how it ended.
“Things were moving so fast,” he said. “When we dropped on Chena we just watched for muzzle flashes and didn’t pay attention to anything else.” Grisha stared through the wall; Wing wondered what he was seeing. “Malagni is really dead, that is so hard to believe. Do we know the name of the man who killed him, who he killed?”
“Bennie Amos from Venetie said the
The blood seemed to drain from Grisha’s face in seconds. “Did he have a scar on his right cheek, a big one?”
“Yeah, made him look even more fierce, they say. I was too far away for detail like that, and, afterward, I had other things to do.”
Grisha relaxed and his color returned to normal. “He’s the bastard that almost killed me on the trek from the slave camp. I’m the one that gave him the scar, that day on the trail when Nik and I ran into Valari’s ambush. Crepov was the man I cut.”
“Small world, isn’t it?”
“I was afraid of that man, knew he would hurt me some day. I just didn’t know how badly.” He sniffed and rubbed his left eye. “How soon can you get me a desk?”
“Today. How soon can you marry me?”
When he grinned like that she knew how he looked as a boy. “Don’t you want a husband who can carry you over a threshold or jump over a broom at your side?”
“I want to marry you before you can get away from me.”
“Well, for the next two weeks you know exactly where I’m going to be. It won’t be much of a wedding feast, and our first night together will probably lack a lot of the things I had in mind, but you get a holy man in here and I’ll marry you this afternoon.”
“You have a deal, General Grigorievich.”
“Colonel,” he said, still smiling. “I’m just a colonel, remember?”
Wing snapped her fingers. “I knew there was something else I had to tell you. The War Council of the Dena Republik promoted you to general as soon as they heard about your actions yesterday. And I think they’re working on a suitable medal to go along with the two stars.”
“I’m a brigadier general? Does that mean I’ll be stuck behind a desk for the rest of my career?”
“It means you’re in charge of the Dena Army, Grisha.”
89
Captain David Thiessen hoped their intelligence was correct, he was taking a big chance pulling Task Force 1 this far north. The weather in the Newfoundland Basin seemed to work hard to earn its reputation.
“Pure crap,” he growled as the bow of the aircraft carrier nosed into another mountain of green water. But they had managed to launch a recon bird three hours earlier before the weather changed yet again. Now he was worried they wouldn’t be able to get Lieutenant Todd back onboard in one piece.
The quartermaster striker on headphones piped up, “Captain, the radio room reports sightings from Prowler 1.”
Prowler 1 was Lieutenant Todd in his Hellcat.
“Tell them to put it on the bridge speaker.”
“Aye, aye.”
A burst of static issued from the speakers on either side of the bridge and then the lieutenant’s voice said, “—six ships with her.”
Captain Thiessen picked up his microphone and clicked for attention.
“Sam, this is the captain. Please repeat your report, we didn’t get the first part on the squawk box.”
“Yes, Captain. I have sighted HMS
“Well done, Sam. You sure it’s the
“Positive, Captain. I went aboard her in ’82 when I was an ensign.”
“Just the battleship group with no birdfarm?”
“I have seen no aircraft carriers other than the Big E, Captain.”
“Good work, Sam. The weather out here is getting worse by the minute, so I want you to fly into Reykjavik and land there.”
“Captain, I’ll be interned, the Danes aren’t in the war.”
“I know, Sam, but you’ll still be alive. And don’t forget, the place is crawling with good-looking, buxom blondes who appreciate sailors.”
Lieutenant Todd laughed. “Aye, aye, Captain. I’m just sorry I’ll miss the fight.”
“So noted, Lieutenant,
The officer of the deck, Lieutenant Commander Stephens, watched his skipper with a gleam in his eyes. “We going to engage the limeys, Captain?”
Captain Thiessen grinned. “Bet your ass, Louie. But we’re going to wait and nail them when they come out of the storm, all beaten to shit and their brightwork dulled. Quartermaster, steer west, southwest, half speed, notify the task force.”
90
“What have you done to us, Lieutenant?” Rudi Cermanivich’s voice possessed sharp claws that ripped into Jerry’s aching semi-consciousness.
“Don’t shout,” he mumbled. “M’head hurts.” He tried to raise his hand to his throbbing neck but couldn’t move his arm; either arm. He cracked his eyes open and nearly wept at the intense pain riding the light waves into his nervous system. Tightly wrapped bonds proved to be his own parachute shroud lines.
Without looking he knew his pistol was gone. So the Russians had come looking for Rudi after all. He swung his painful gaze around and found Rudi still in his willow litter, firmly tied with more shroud line.
“What’s happened?” Jerry whispered.
“I thought you would know. When I wake up I am in this, this cradle—”
“Litter, I made it for you. So I could move you.”
“As you will, litter. Did you also truss me into it like a Christmas goose?”
“No. I suspect—”
“Ah, both of our guests are awake.”
Jerry looked up, borderline fearful to see who owned that massive, booming voice.
A bald, muscular giant looked back at him. Wearing soft leather clothing like the woman Jerry had seen somewhere in his past, the giant seemed sprung from the earth. The worked hide covering his chest boasted resplendent beadwork depicting a creature eating the tail of an identical, but darker, creature which in turn was
