Huber grabbed the door before it closed; the air puffing from the interior was cool. The man coming out now was Colonel Hammer himself, with Major Kreutzer—the S-4, Personnel Officer—just behind him. Kreutzer’s arm was raised; he was in an agony of wishing he dared to physically restrain his commanding officer.
“Sir!” said Huber, stepping in front of Hammer.
“Not bloody now!” the Colonel snarled. He looked as though he might bull past. Huber braced himself, but there was no contact.
“Sir, you said you owe me,” Huber said, pitching his voice loudly enough to be heard over the sound of vehicles spinning up all around the base. “I’m collecting now. I want to go back to the field.”
Behind Kreutzer were three other officers, trying to catch Hammer before he went off without answering their questions. Warrant officers sat at consoles to either side of the narrow aisle, immersed in their displays.
“Huber?” Hammer said. His face thawed like ice breaking up on the surface of a river. “Via, yeah, you’re going back if you’re able to walk.”
He looked over his shoulder at the personnel officer. “Kreutzer, you wanted a CO for L Company?” he said. “All right, put Huber in the slot. And brevet him captain when you get a chance.”
“No sir!” Huber said. He’d expected the fury in Hammer’s expression, so it didn’t slow him down as he continued, “Sir, I’ve never commanded infantry and this is no time for on-the-job training. Send me back to F-3.”
“You only get away with crossing me if you’re right, Lieutenant!” Hammer said; and smiled again, minusculely. “Which you are this time. Kreutzer, got any suggestions?”
“Yancy in L-2’s senior enough,” Kreutzer said. He shrugged. “We’ll see if she can handle it. There’s not a lot of choice, not now.”
“Not a bloody lot,” Hammer agreed. “All right, and we’ll transfer—Algren, isn’t it? The newbie we put in F-3 to L-2. Get on with it.”
He pushed past Huber. The S-4 locked down his faceshield and passed the orders on, his voice muffled by his helmet’s sonic cancellation field. Huber fell in behind the Colonel, heading back to the surface and an aircar to take him to wherever platoon F-3 was while the movement orders were being cut.
Lieutenant Arne Huber was going home.
* * *
Huber could’ve held a virtual meeting, but for his first contact with F-3 since his medevac he preferred face-to-face. The platoon could still scramble in thirty seconds if they had to; as they well might have to. . . .
Fox Three-eight was straight out of Central Repair and hadn’t been named yet. Until this moment Huber hadn’t seen either the vehicle or its crew, three newbies commanded by a former tank driver named Gabinus who’d just been promoted to sergeant.
Its forward tribarrel, tasked to sector air defense, ripped a burst skyward. One of the newbies jumped.
“Relax, trooper,” Sergeant Deseau said, making a point of being the blasé veteran. “They’re just sending over a round every couple hours to keep us honest. If one ever gets through, then they’ll start shelling us for real.”
Nothing would get through while elements of the Slammers were stiffening the defenses of Benjamin. This shell popped above the northern horizon, leaving behind a flag of dirty black smoke. The sun was low above the trees, though it’d be three hours before full dark. Three hours before the start of the mission.
“For those of you who don’t know me . . .” Huber said. Because Three-three had been knocked out in his absence, eight of the wary faces were new to him. “I’ve been at Central for the past three weeks, and I’m glad to be back with F-3 where I belong.”
“And we’re bloody lucky to have you back, El-Tee,” Deseau muttered. “It’s going to be tough enough as it is.”
It’s going to be tougher than that, Frenchie, Huber thought, but aloud he said, “We’re part of Task Force Highball—” the whole Regiment had been broken up into task forces for this operation; Captain Holcott of M Company was leading Task Force Hotel “—with F-2, Battery Alpha, and the infantry of G-1 riding the Hogs and ammo haulers. We’ll have a tank recovery vehicle, but it’ll be carrying a heavy excavator. If a car’s hit or breaks down so it can’t be fixed ASAP, we combat loss it and proceed with the mission. Got that?”