Striking The Balance by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0345405501
Published: 2009-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

258 WORLDWAR: STRHUNG THE BALANCE

get the bomb up to the front either by truck with reinforced suspension or by horse-drawn wagon, which is slower but might be less conspicuous. If we have to, I suppose we can send it up in pieces and assemble it where we'll set it off. The beast is five feet wide and more than ten feet long, so it comes in a hell of a big crate!

'Mm, I'll have to think about that,'Bradley said.'Right now, I'm inclined to vote against it. If I understand correctly, if we lose any of the important parts, we could have all the rest and the thing still wouldn't work. Is that right?'

'Yes, sir,' Groves answered. 'If you try to start a jeep without a carburetor, you'd better hope you're not going farther than someplace you can walk.'

Bradley had dirt all over his face, which made his grin seem brighter Page 524

and more cheerful than it was. 'Fair enough,'he said. 'We'll do everything we can to keep from having to use it - we've got a counterattack laid on for the Kiowa area, a little bit south of here, for which I have some hope. The Lizards had trouble on the plains southeast of Denver, and they still haven't fully reorganized in that sector. We may hurt them.'He shrugged.

'Or, on the other hand, we may just force them to concentrate and become more vulnerable to the bomb. We won't know till we try.'

Groves brushed clinging dirt from his shirtfront and the knees of his trousers. 'I'll cooperate in any way you require, sir.'The words didn't come easy. He'd grown used to being the biggest military fish in the pond in Denver. But he could no more have defended it from the Lizards than Bradley could have ramrodded the Metallurgical Laboratory project. Bradley waved for his adjutant, a fresh-faced captain. 'George, take General Groves back to the University of Denver. He'll be awaiting our orders there, and prepared to respond to the situation however it develops.'

'Yes, sir.' George looked alarmingly clean and well pressed, as if mud knew better than to stick to him or his clothes. He saluted, then turned to Groves. 'If you'll come with me, sir---2

He had a jeep waiting. Groves had hoped he would; his office was most of a day's ride away by horseback, and he was so heavy that neither he nor most horses enjoyed the process of equitation. He glanced skyward several times on the way back, though. The Lizards made a point of shooting at motor vehicles and those who rode in them. He managed to return to the university campus unpunctured, though, for which he was Page 525

duly grateful.

That evening, a great rumble of gunfire came from the southeast, with flashes lighting the horizon like distant lightning. Groves went up to the

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