“Typical ratfuck,” Jonas muttered. “Ninety klicks is too far for a change of base even when everybody knows what he’s doing.”
Hula Girl started down the slope. Cortezar deliberately broke away the gully rim to ease the angle. Sand and pebbles, some of them big enough to whang like bullets against the skirts, blasted ahead of the car in a spreading cloud.
“We going to be able to talk to these people?” Frosty asked. He had to use helmet intercom for Jonas to hear the question over the fan noise.
“The CO, Major Lebusan, spoke good Standard,” Jonas said. “The rest of them, I dunno. Probably not.”
Most rich people on Sulewesi were well educated and spoke Standard, the interstellar commercial language. Most rich people also managed to stay out of the military, at least the part of the military that might have to do some fighting. A few of the Slammers learned languages for fun, but nobody aboard Hula Girl knew more Malay than was necessary to ask for sex or a drink.
Cortezar slowed to a halt beside the command vehicle and cut the fans. A small man covered his face with a spotted bandanna until the dust had settled, then stepped forward. He wore a saucer hat with gold braid and his uniform was tailored; he’d probably been dapper some twenty hours earlier at the start of the march.
“I am Major Lebusan,” the local said. “Can you fix my vehicle? That would be best.”
“We’re not mechanics, major,” Sergeant Jonas said. He swung a leg over the bulkhead.
“I’ve worked on diesels,” Cortezar said as she climbed out of the driver’s compartment.
“We’ll take a look then,” Jonas said. He jumped to the ground. “Frosty, you keep an eye on the sensors, will you?”
Panchin took that as clearance for him to leave Hula Girl also. The ground would feel good for a change, and it’d be nice to have more elbow room than there was in the fighting compartment.
A burly man with a full black beard walked over to Panchin. He wore a ripple-camouflaged uniform of a style Panchin hadn’t seen before. The holster across the center of his chest held a heavy sidearm with a folding stock.
“I Dolgov,” the man said, extending a big hand to Panchin. Panchin took it, expecting—correctly—that Dolgov would squeeze hard as they shook. “Zaporoskiye Brigade. Tanks!”
Dolgov pointed to the tank being towed. “Electrics all go out, poof! Kaput. These Sulewesi monkeys, they not real mechanics. Good for nothing monkeys!”
Panchin wondered how well the Zaporoskiye maintenance section would do with Hula Girl if she broke down. The range in sophistication was no greater. Of course, the locals didn’t seem able to repair their own command vehicle. Aloud he said, “We’ll guide you to the firebase. Somebody there can fix you up, right?”
“Yah, monkeys,” Dolgov said, shaking his head morosely. He spat into the night.
Before Panchin could figure out whether that was a “yes” or a “no,” Jonas called, “Hey Panchin! Get over here, will you?”
He nodded to Dolgov and joined the group around the command vehicle. Cortezar had stepped away and the locals were closing the engine compartment again. A gas lantern hanging from a cable hook on a fender threw white light across the ground and nearby personnel from their waists down.
“You double-checked the base coordinates, didn’t you?” Jonas asked bluntly. “The major here says it’s grid A27, 4-4-9, 1-3-0.”
“Negative!” Panchin said, feeling cold inside. He had checked the coordinates in the TOC before Hula Girl left Trident Base, though. “A-2-7, that’s a roger, but the block was 6-2-1, 5-2-5.”
Major Lebusan took off his fancy hat and slapped it angrily against his thigh. His uniform was green with a touch of mustard yellow. Though the major wore short-sleeved field kit except for the hat, an array of medal ribbons spilled from his left breast to his right.
“That is not right!” he said. “Look, I show you!”
He snapped his fingers. An aide handed him a clipboard holding a map covered in clear plastic. Panchin and the sergeant both bent to read it. The crayon markings on the plastic were in cursive Malay script, but the circle drawn over Knoll 45/13 on the printed map was clear enough.