Intrepid

Kris gave Jack her present assessment. ''He's going to be looking for us there. If we take up positions in the dug-out area and he deploys to flank us, we'll be stuck in place. They haven't shown us any artillery, but even a couple of small mortars could pound that area, and we'd be stuck taking it. These green locals would break and be mowed down as they ran.''

Kris could almost hear Jack nodding along with her as she finished. ''So, if we skip that, where do we hit him next?'' he asked, as soon as she fell silent.

''Don't laugh until I get this all out, okay?'' Kris said, maybe a bit defensively. ''I've been collecting goats. Goats and pigs, Jack. I'm thinking of staking them out in the diggings, covering them enough so that Thorpe can't get a clear visual on them from orbit but can get a heat signature. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that our Colonel Thorpe and his stalwart hands will look pretty silly after launching a full-scale flanking attack on our barnyard leavings.''

Jack chuckled. ''Oh, that would be embarrassing. And if we did a little battlefield preparation here and there, he might have a casualty or two to show for his effort.''

''I'd rather not use explosives,'' Kris said. She wasn't ready for the affair to get deadly. Not yet.

''Don't worry, I've got another tangle web. Oh, and some of the farmers I've recruited are out digging holes here and there in the sod. Not too wide and not too deep, but if someone isn't looking and steps in one, they are going to have a sprained ankle or busted leg.

''When Cortez heads north in the morning, I expect he'll end up with a couple of those to slow him down.

''I'm looking for Short Stop Three,'' Kris said. ''There are a couple of options. We can talk more when we join up tomorrow.''

''Sleep tight. See you tomorrow. Hard to believe that this time we're following a plan that's actually working.''

Kris signed off as well, with Jack's words still fresh in her ears. A plan that works. Amazing! But further back in her head was an old commander's warning from OCS. ''No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.''

This time hers had. So far.

Was that good? Or did it just mean that when everything fell apart, it would be all the bigger mess?

Now Kris had so many volunteers and Marines that she had to spread them out among three homesteads. For most of the day it had taken two or more farms to hide them in whenever Captain Thorpe came over.

Tonight, this dispersion meant that she couldn't talk to most of her recruits. Their morale and skill set would be a great unknown for her tomorrow. She did not like that.

The good news was that tomorrow morning, Jack and Lieutenant Troy would rejoin her. She'd have her command together for the first time since they dropped.

The bad news was that she'd have them all together, and that would make hiding them all the harder. Well, at least she'd get a good look at them. Thorpe had been very quiet since he first fired his big lasers at the Fronour farmhouse. Now that she was concentrating her troops, would he risk another shot?

New battle, but the same old worries. Kris rolled over, tightened her bedroll around her, and went to sleep. There would be plenty of time for worrying in the morning.

28

Colonel Cortez mopped his brow; his handkerchief came away sopping wet. He glanced at the sky. It was still two or more hours until noon. Good Lord, but this place was hot.

''Man down. Medic!'' came the shout from his right flank. For the fifth time this morning, Cortez signaled the column to a halt. Major Zhukov pointed at one of the pull carts and aimed them off the road and to where a clump of psalm singers gathered around one of their own who was baying like a stuck pig.

''Watch your step,'' Zhukov ordered. ''Bust your leg, and we'll just leave you.'' The hostage pullers went at a slow walk, eyes fixed on the ground. One did a hop and skip that caused the cart to slow. Maybe it was a snare, maybe not. No way to tell.

Major Zhukov turned to Colonel Cortez. ''This is not working. We're just reacting to them, sir,'' he added.

''Tell me something I don't know,'' Cortez snapped. He glanced at his deployment; it was standard. First Company was scattered widely in a van a klick ahead. Second was to his left, across half a klick of recently cut cropland. Third covered his right, spread out halfway to where the stinking swamp lay … but never more than a half klick out. The Guard was strung out behind him, with the hostages and handcarts mingled in. Half of the carts now carried a trooper moaning his splinted leg.

Casualties kept adding up for a battle not yet started. Cortez didn't know much about the Longknife girl, but from what he saw, she was very good at driving good officers crazy.

Cortez squatted in the shadow of a handcart and projected a map of the road ahead of them. Major Zhukov, still standing, edged the toe of his boot in to highlight a section.

''Yeah,'' Cortez grunted in agreement. ''Yeah, I would probably set up an ambush there, too.''