Gordon R Dickson by Tactics of Mistake (epub)

Author:Tactics of Mistake (epub)
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

14

* * *

Cletus went in with the first wave of six transport craft, which circled eight miles upstream from Two Rivers and dropped their jump troops on both sides of the two river valleys. A reconnaissance aircraft, swinging low over the jungle in the darkness following moon-set, two hours before, had picked up the heat images of two large bodies of Neulander troops waiting for dawn in both the river valleys, five miles above the town. Another, smaller, reserve force was camped just below the mouth of Etter’s Pass—but its numbers were slight enough so that the Dorsais could disregard any counterattack from that direction. Cletus watched the flares of the jets from the jump belts of the descending men, and then ordered the pilot of his transport ship to fly low above the river, heading downstream from the town.

A quarter mile below the town, the river curved to the right, and it was just around this curve that the response came from the M5’s. The transport ship came down and hovered above the water, and the turret of one of the huge submarine dozers rose blackly from the dark waters.

Cletus went down an elevator sling to the turret, and the hatch in it opened. Wefer stepped out. Together they stood on the slight slope of the wet metal casing below the tower.

“Here we are, then,” Wefer said. “Three of us, just like the doctor ordered.” Under his black hair, his friendly, pugnacious face was excited in the dim light. “What do you want us to do?”

“The Neulander troops—and their regular troops,” said Cletus, “are concentrated in the two river valleys a few miles above the town. They’ll be pushing down those valleys and into the town along the flatland below the river bluffs. But I don’t think they’ll be trying to come at the town from this downriver side. So you ought to be able to work without being seen.”

“Sure, sure,” said Wefer, sniffing the chilly dawn air like a hunting dog. “But what do you want us to do?”

“Can you plow up the bottom of the river just below the town, to raise the water level in and above the town?”

“In this little trickle of a river?” answered Wefer. “No trouble at all. We’ll simply raise an underwater ridge at some point where the river bluffs on either side come straight down to the water’s edge. The water has to rise to get over it. How high a dam? How much do you want to raise the water level?”

“I want the water six feet deep, a mile above the town,” Cletus said.

For the first time, Wefer frowned. “Six feet? A full fathom? You’ll flood the town itself. That flat spot between the rivers that the town’s built on can’t be more than six or eight feet above water level on both sides. You’ll have another four to six feet of running water in the streets. Do you want that?”

“That’s exactly what I want,” said Cletus.

“Well…of course there’s plenty of solid buildings there in the warehouse district for people to climb into,” said Wefer.

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