The Vastalimi Gambit - 02 by Steve Perry

Author:Steve Perry [Perry, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

The trap was set, and the Cutters were about to spring it. It had been laid out using the basic idea Singh had offered: A barge was loaded with a secret cargo in such a way that any opposing military with half a brain and the barest intelligence unit could not have failed to notice it. As it left the dock headed downriver for a seaport five hundred klicks away, there was no air support, and only one boat with a few soldiers acting as escorts, an easy target.

Too easy a target, and if the Masbülc mercs didn’t look at it askance, they’d have to be completely stupid. Cutter thought that they would upgrade their CO, and anybody worth his component elements wouldn’t be in a hurry to go for the bait. They’d look around.

The convoy of wheeled vehicles, for which more efforts had been expended to load and get it rolling secretly, was on the move, using narrow, back roads. The convoy had a few more guards, but not enough to stop any real effort to take it. And the work to keep it secret was enough, maybe, to convince somebody that was the intent.

They had sat down and worked it out to the nth detail, and their main force of ground troops, eighty strong, and just shy of the legal limit, was already in place. Cutter and his staff, with Singh, were taking a hopper to a hidden staging point. The attack, were it to be a surprise and successful, could only be launched through a narrow window, and that’s where CFI would be, waiting. If the Masbülc fly buzzed in, they would swat it.

Nancy, the best pilot they had, flew their hopper, and they kept it low and slow as they headed for the stage.

His field team wore shiftsuits, which gave them advantages, and the slow ride rocked them into a semidoze, at least it did Cutter. He wouldn’t be leaving the hopper, nor would Formentara; they’d be monitoring the action from there. He would rather be in the thick of it, but Jo was too good an XO to allow him to take the risk most of the time. Now and again, he could coax her into letting him into the action, but that happened less and less. He understood. Commanders were supposed to lead from the rear; getting killed was bad for the business.

Singh was a newbie but not totally green. He had gone with them on sorties on Ananda, demonstrated his courage and a basic skill, but he need seasoning, so they kept him close. After his initial action and kill, the team had talked about their first hot actions, mostly to help him get past it.

Eventually, most of the team had stepped up to tell their tales, then or later.

They had been interesting stories. Wink, Jo, Gunny, Gramps, even Kay. Cutter hadn’t heard some of them directly, but public spaces in his camps were usually under electronic surveillance. Say something in the yard, chances were somebody could hear it if they wanted to bother.

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