“I’ll need you to take overall charge of the ground operation that follows the wag,” Ryan told him.
“Won’t Gloria be in charge of that?” J.B. asked.
Ryan shook his head. “It’s best if she and Tammy come with us. They’re good fighters, and they’ll rally the Gate from the front when we get the sec doors open. They can then lead different branches of the attack from within, as I figure that we’ll have to split into factions once we get down past the second level. If this redoubt is anything like the one they left, then it’ll be even more of a maze than they are usually.”
“That’s four of the suits gone,” the Armorer said. “Three to fill.”
“Not me,” Jak said suddenly, shaking his head as he looked at the uniforms. “Two things—feel shit to be in lead, and too small for these.”
The albino lifted two of the suits. They were the smallest, and were obviously the ones that would be taken by the Gate queen and her second in command. The other suits were all much larger and would swamp the wiry Jak.
“Good point,” Ryan agreed. “I figure you’d be better helping J.B. anyway. It’ll take two of you to keep an eye on this amount of ground forces.”
“Okay, three suits left, then,” Mildred murmured. “Who else?”
J.B. broke in before Ryan had a chance to speak. “If I’m not going to be in the front line, then I reckon you should take Jon.”
“Jon? Why?” Ryan queried. From the surprise in his voice, the name of the young Gate Armorer was the last that would have occurred to him.
“He’ll be invaluable in assessing the weapons they’re bringing up on us…and he knows those laser blasters better than any of us, me included. I tell you, Ryan, you’ll need someone with the touch who can make a quick decision about which weapons will do the job. Especially if you need to get through sec doors without causing too much damage to the structure or the people in an enclosed space.”
“Okay—he’s in,” Ryan agreed. He had known J.B. too long, and trusted his old friend’s ability to judge another Armorer too well, to argue with the choice.
“So who gets the final two places, lover?” Krysty asked.
“I figure you and Dean,” Ryan stated. “You’re good fighters, I know you, and between you there should be no problem with any of the onboard comp equipment, or taking over driving the wag if either me or Mildred have to be away from the wheel. I don’t know if Gloria, Tammy or Jon have ever driven a motorized wag, let alone one like this,” he added. “We can’t find ourselves fucked because they don’t know how to put a wag into reverse!”
“That’s a good point,” Mildred noted, adding, “but mebbe you should put it a bit more delicately when you tell Gloria.”
“Yeah, mebbe avoid fight before start,” Jak said with a rare glint of humor in his cold, red eyes.
Ryan agreed. “Okay, but you get the point. So we now know where we are. If we get ourselves together and wait for Gloria and Tammy to—”
“We are, perhaps, not quite as ready as you think, friend Ryan,” Doc piped up. He was leaning heavily on his cane, and looking down at the ground as he spoke, but there was a hardness in his tone that none of them had heard for a long while.
“What’s up, Doc?” Mildred asked, feeling suddenly and inappropriately absurd at her turn of phrase.
Doc looked up at all of them, not answering her directly but sharing his gaze with all of the companions. “I am not content with the arrangements,” he began. “In fact, I think it would be fair to say that I have an intense displeasure at the manner in which any claim I may have to be a part of the initial bridgehead has been summarily dismissed without my even getting a hearing.”
“Doc, what are you taking about?” Dean asked, studying the old man’s face. It was pale, spangled with a sheen of perspiration and the mane of hair that fell about his face only accentuated the darkening patches beneath his bloodshot eyes. He seemed more lined and pale than usual, and he resembled someone who had long since bought the farm but refused to lie down. Which, perhaps, was exactly what he was at this time. His eyes blazed into the companions, driven by some inner fire that was consuming him, even though his body was racked with agonies.