Larry Bond - Vortex

“Take a pew, Kommandant.”

“My thanks.” Kruger squatted on his haunches, still with his back to the sun. He cleared his throat, sounding strangely tentative.

“Your companions are resting, then?”

“Yeah.” Moved by an unexpected urge to pick a fight with this man from

Emily’s past, Ian nodded toward the still, silent, companionable figures of Matthew Sibena and the Afrikaner sergeant lying asleep back-to-back.

“Too bad that’s as close to real peace as you people ever get.”

Kruger smiled sadly.

“Yes.” Then he shrugged.

“Who knows, meneer. Perhaps this hellish war of ours will do the trick. Perhaps those who still hate each other will finally weary of all this blood and pointless waste.”

The Afrikaner shrugged again.

“And perhaps I am dreaming foolish dreams, eh?” He grew more businesslike.

“In any event, such things are beyond our control for the moment. We must concentrate on staying alive from day to day. True?”

Ian acknowledged the point with a rueful nod.

“Good. That is what I have come to talk to you about. After all, I would not want the chronicler of my deeds left ignorant of what we face.”

Despite himself, Ian grinned. Kruger could take a verbal punch and throw one back without flinching. Plus he didn’t take himself too seriously.

It was hard to dislike a guy like that-no matter how awkward things got around Emily.

Kruger’s news wiped the grin off his face. They were almost out of fuel.

The long, unplanned detour around Vryburg had virtually drained the battalion’s gas tanks and spare jerry cans. And Genyesa’s lone service station didn’t have the thousands of gallons needed to refill them. The 20th Cape Rifles had come to a sudden, screeching halt in the middle of nowhere.

“Christ! So what do we do next?”

Kruger frowned.

“The only thing we can do. I’m sending special teams to each of the surrounding towns and villages. With luck, they’ll be able to obtain enough fuel to get us moving again.”

He spread his hands.

“In the meantime, the rest of us can only dig in here and wait… and pray.”

Ian felt himself grow cold. Until now, the battalion had stayed undiscovered and alive by staying mobile. Now they’d lost their only edge against the forces arrayed against them. His hand strayed back to Emily’s hair.

Henrik Kruger watched them both in silence.

DECEMBER 23-44TH PARACHUTE BRIGADE REACTION FORCE, KIMBERLEY, SOUTH

AFRICA

Two hundred and fifty kilometers south of Genyesa, helicopters circled high over the urban sprawl of open-pit mine museums, factories, and homes known throughout South Africa as “the diamond city.” Other helos practicing assault landings hovered low over the soccer fields now serving as a headquarters for Maj. Rolf Bekker and his paratroops. Most of the Puma and

Super Frelon troop carriers sat motionless on the ground, surrounded by small groups of fully armed soldiers on five-minute alert.

Maps cluttered the walls of Bekker’s command tent. Each showed a fifty-by-fifty-kilometer piece of the Cape Province’s northeastern corner.

Grease pencil notations indicated loyalist garrisons holding important towns and road junctions. They blocked every road going west or south-every road but one. Voices crackled through a high-powered radio set up in one corner.

“Roger, Zebra Four Four. Good work. Out. ” Twentyfive-year-old Capt. Kas der Merwe pulled off his earphones, his eyes shining with excitement.

“We have them, Major! Reconnaissance units report sighting small enemy units.

Here. Here. And here!” He checked off several villages in a wide circle around Genyesa.

“And all of them are apparently gathering as much fuel as they can carry!”

Bekker nodded thoughtfully.

“Petrol. I knew that would be Kruger’s

Achilles’ heel. They’ve run out of petrol.” He leaned closer to der Merwe’s map and tapped Genyesa.

“The Twentieth has to be laagered somewhere close to there.”

The younger officer tapped the radio mike he still held clutched in one hand.

“Shall I ready our strike force?” He measured distances with a quick, practiced eye.

“We can reach the village in less than an hour.”

Bekker laughed.

“No, Captain, you have it backward. This is not a fox hunt. We are too few for such a thing, and besides—he smiled thinly-“I do not entirely trust the abilities of all my hounds.

“No, we must model this operation on a lion hunt. The Citizen Force units and commandos will act as our beaters -driving these traitors south .. toward us. When we face Kruger and his troops, we will face them on ground of our own choosing. Near there.” He circled a spot on the map labeled Skerpionenpunt-Scorpion Point.

Der Merwe looked troubled.

“But how do we know they will come? They may not be able to collect enough petrol even to make it that far. “

Bekker shook his head.

“I’ve heard of this man Kruger. He’s a tough soldier. A real Boer. Don’t you worry, der Merwe, he’ll find a way to get his people south.”

The major’s handsome face twisted into an ugly, sardonic smile.

“And we will be there waiting for them.”

Rolf Bekker contemplated his plans in growing satisfaction. For the time being he would seek victory in his own mission. The rest of Vorster’s shrinking domains would have to look after themselves.

DECEMBER 24-NABOOMSPRUIT

The setting sun fit a battlefield crowded with scenes of death and destruction.

Gen. Antonio Vega looked down out of his Hind gunship at the still-smoldering ruins of Naboomspruit. Burnt-out vehicles blocked almost every intersection, and mangled corpses littered every stretch of open ground. Shell craters pockmarked the highway south.

Naboomspruit and its defenses had fallen to the Cubans.

Better late than never, he thought angrily. Fuel and ammunition shortages caused by Boer commando raids on his supply lines had forced him to postpone his assault against the town. They’d also forced him to send several valuable units back north along the highway in what would probably be a futile effort to crush the elusive commandos. Units he could have used in the battle for Naboomspruit.

It had taken his troops and tanks several hours of hard fighting to clear the Afrikaner-held town, but the outcome had never really been in doubt.

The Boer defenses had been strong but brittle, and once he’d broken through their front line, they hadn’t had any reserves left to launch a counterattack.

Vega had also been forced to fight without a reserve. He hadn’t liked that very much. Combat units held back for use in the right place at the right time were all too often the margin between victory and defeat, but he hadn’t had any choice. His casualties had simply been too high in the six weeks since he’d crossed South Africa’s frontiers.

the Hind gunship landed on the northern edge of Naboomspruit, near a small cluster of officers who stood shielding their eyes from whirling sprays of rotor-blown grit.

Vega debarked to a chorus of greetings and salutes, most of which he ignored. Instead, he walked directly over to Vasquez, who stood off to one side.

“Let’s have a look at these secret weapons of theirs, Comrade.”

With Vasquez at his side and the rest of his officers trailing along behind, he walked about a hundred meters to what appeared to be just a low mound of dirt-at least until one looked closely.

The earthen mound had a regular, shaped appearance, and as they curved around to approach it from the front, Vega saw the long barrel and large muzzle brake of a G-5 155MM artillery piece poking out through a gap in the front.

Vasquez nodded toward the mound.