Hammer's Slammers by David Drake

Author:David Drake [Drake, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-11-28T03:02:20+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

"Let's get out of here," Koopman said.

Charles Desoix's heart leaped in agreement - then bobbed back to normalcy when he realized that the Slammers officer meant only to get out of the Consistory Room, onto the porch where the air held fewer memories of the immediate past.

Sure, Koopman was the stolid sort who probably didn't realize how badly things were going... And Charles Desoix wasn't going to support a mutiny, wasn't going to desert his employers because of trouble that hadn't-if you wanted to be objective about it-directly threatened the United Defense Batteries at all.

It was hard to be objective when you were surrounded by a mob of perhaps fifty thousand people, screaming for blood and quite literally tearing a man to pieces.

They were welcome to Berne-he was just as crooked as the bull-horn had claimed. But. . .

"What did you say, Charles?" Anne asked-which meant that Desoix had been speaking things that he shouldn't even have been thinking.

He hugged her reflexively. She jumped, also by reflex because she didn't try to draw further away when she thought about the situation. Major Borodin didn't appear to notice -or to care.

The courtyard was deserted, but the mob had left behind an amazing quantity of litter-bottles, boxes, and undefinable scraps; even a cloak, scarlet and apparently whole in the light of the wall sconces. It was as if Desoix were watching a beach just after the tide had ebbed.

Across the river, fires burned from at least a score of locations. Voices echoed, harsh as the occasional grunt of shots.

Like the tide, the mob would return.

"We've got to get out of here," Desoix mused aloud.

"She'll leave," Anne said with as much prayer in her voice as certainty. "If she stays, they'll do terrible things to. . . She knows that, she won't let it happen."

"Colonel wants me to hold if there's any chance to keep Delcorio in power," Koopman said to the night. There was a snicker of sound as he raised his faceshield, but he did not look at his companions as he spoke. "What's your bet on that, Charles?"

"Something between zip and zero," Desoix said.

He was careful not to let his eyes fall on Anne or the major when he spoke; but it was no time to tell polite lies.

" 'Bout what I figured too," the Slammers officer said mildly. He was leaning on his forearms while his fingers played with a dimple in the rail.

After a moment, Desoix realized that the dimple had been hammered there by a bullet.

"I don't see any way we can abandon our positions in defiance of a direct order," Major Borodin said.

The battery commander set his fingers in his thinning hair and squeezed firmly, as though that would change the blank rotation of his thoughts.

He took his hands away and added hurriedly to the Slammers officer, "Of course, that has nothing to do with you. Captain. My problem is that I have to defend the city, so I'm in default of the contract if I move my guns.

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