Sloan Wilson - Ice Brothers

“That’s the assumption I’ve been going on.”

“One thing we could do is to ask for not just one air strike, but several. There’s a chance we might bomb them into surrendering. That would save a lot of lives.”

“But I don’t think it will happen. Their primary job is to get out weather reports. If they’ve prepared underground shelters, enough could survive any number of air attacks to keep a weather station in action.”

“All right. Surrender is unlikely but still possible if we make things tough enough for them. So our job is to hit with the greatest possible shock while they’re still dazed by the bombs.”

“My idea is to sail right into the mouth of that fjord with all our guns firing. We’ll have a land force ready to hit them from behind the minute they start shooting at the ship.”

“How many Eskimos do you think you can recruit?” Nathan asked.

“Thirty or forty anyway. They’re not so hard to persuade. And we can let about half our men go with them.”

“If only half the Germans survive the planes, and if they are trained troops, they could kill us. They could find cover from the ship’s guns — remember, we’ll be fighting in their back yard. They’ll concentrate on the land force and wipe it out. There won’t be much the ship can do. If the hunter-killer is still in action, you’ll have your hands full without even worrying about the men ashore.”

“What else can we do?”

“The greatest power of this ship is in all those depth charges in the hold, something like three tons of TNT. Our problem is to put it where it will kill Germans.”

“How are we going to throw three tons at them?”

“We have the Danish launch and the whaleboat. Figuring a way to steer them in there by radio might be a little too fancy to be reliable, but if we figured the tide and the current right, we might be able to drift them in. I can rig all kinds of fuses.”

“If we could blow those boats up near them, it would make a hell of a diversion, even if we couldn’t get them close enough to do any real damage.”

“We’ll have to see how close their installations are to the bank of the fjord and how far in. An Eskie might even take one in under cover of darkness, moor it and escape in a kayak. I’m just mentioning possibilities. There’s another one that may prove more practical. If the Krauts’ main attempt has been to protect their base from air attack, they probably have put it at the bottom of a ravine, where Lightnings can’t come in and strafe really low. That would be effective against planes, but leave them highly vulnerable to caveman tactics.”

“You want to throw rocks at them?”

“No, I want to roll stones, or in our case, depth charges.”

“I’ve thought of that. If the terrain really turns out to be right.…”

“We could work out variations on the theme. In certain kinds of situations, we might let a sled loaded with fused charges coast down a slope.”

“Or we could get Eskies to plant charges down there ahead of time at night.”

“That would be risky for the Eskies, but it might work. Okay, we should be able to deliver charges so that we can ring the bastards with really massive explosions the minute after the planes disappear. That should confuse the hell out of them. Then if you sail in the mouth of the fjord with all guns going and a ground force attack from the other direction, we might produce the kind of shock that actually will get them to surrender. There’s at least a chance that we can pull this thing off without losing a man.”

“O.K. That’s good, Nathan. Now we got to set all this up—”

“We don’t want just to wait for Peomeenie to come back. All he’s going to tell us is details. Our main job will be to move men and all those heavy charges thirty miles over the ice where we can lie waiting for the planes to strike. If the weather’s bad, we might have to wait days. We’ll need advance bases.”

“The Eskies will help us do that.”

“Then there’s a technical job of rigging all those fuses, figuring out the exact times. No one can do that but me.”

“I can’t quarrel with you there.”

Nathan took a deep breath. “Skipper, the law requires you to stay aboard your ship during a battle. I want to be in charge of everything else.”

“All the ground forces?”

“Yes.”

“I was planning on putting Guns and Boats in charge of the land force.”

“A commissioned officer should be with them.”

“I was planning on sending Williams—”

“He can’t rig fuses. Neither can Guns or Boats.”

“Can’t you prepare all the gear in advance?”

“I may have to guess the amount of time it takes a depth charge to roll down a cliff, and set the fuses accordingly. I’ll have to be there.”

“I’m not sure I want to run this goddamn ship all alone.”

“You’ll keep enough crew to man the guns. The whole thing will probably be over, one way or another in about ten minutes if we set it up right.”

“You want to be in charge of training the Eskies?”

“I want this to be my baby, right from the start.”

There was a moment of silence while Paul drained his coffee mug. “I’ve got to put it bluntly,” he said finally. “You’re a smart man, Nathan, but I’m not sure you’re too good at handling men.”

“I have an idea that the Eskies might respond better to someone who isn’t too damn military.”

“How about Guns and Boats? Can you handle them?”

“Yes. I’ve grown up a little.”

“How are you going to handle Guns if he tries to fuck every man, woman and child ashore instead of training anyone?”

“Tell him you’ll break him down to seaman and give him permanent galley duty if I don’t give him a good report. Don’t let him have any booze, not even a beer. And give me three seamen who can tie him up if he gets really out of hand.”

“I think you’re getting the idea. All right, the whole shore operation is your baby. I don’t mind saying the ship is all I want to worry about. I’m a sailor, not a marine.”

Nathan laughed. “One of my big ideas was to join the marines. They turned me down. I have an idea they didn’t think marines should be Sheenies with PhD degrees.”

“Looks like they missed a good bet. If I were a real Kraut, I don’t think I’d want to be up against a Sheenie with a PhD and three tons of TNT.”

“I don’t want to get cocky. Maybe none of this stuff will work. But Paul, for the first time I can see how I can really fight. Maybe it’s corny, but I’m getting a sense of power. I don’t feel so much like a victim anymore.”

“Don’t let it go to your head. What’s your first step?”

“I’m going to get GreenPat to send a Lightning to go after that ski plane.”

“And after that?”

“I want to go ashore and stay there until I get the Eskies organized. I want them ready by the time Peomeenie gets back.”

“Get Brit to find you a place to stay — maybe Swanson’s house. Take any five men you want with you, including Boats and Guns. Can Flags stand routine radio watch?”

“He’s smart and I’ve shown him enough to get by.”

“Take some rifles and as much canned stuff as Cookie can spare you. The Eskies should get a taste of their pay. Use Brit as an interpreter. She’s so much on our side now that she damn near scares me. She wants to kill all the Krauts single-handed.”

“I’ll give her one,” Nathan said without a smile. “The rest are mine.”

Before Nathan went ashore, he got confirmation from GreenPat that a Lightning would arrive at Angmagssalik at dawn the next day to try to catch the ski plane. Word of this spread quickly to the forecastle. The men of the Arluk had named the ski plane “Hans” and began to bet on how long he could survive attack by one of the Lightnings, which had eight guns to his one if he had any at all, and which was at least four times as fast as a light plane. Some bet that Hans wouldn’t last ten seconds, while Cookie maintained he might survive for ten minutes by ducking in and out of narrow ravines. The meeting of the two planes, if it actually occurred, promised to be a memorable spectacle. A half hour before daybreak the next day, the crew gathered on the forecastle and the flying bridge, coffee mugs in hand. The betting now was on whether either plane would actually appear, or which plane would show up first, and on whether the Lightning could locate the ski plane and pounce on it before it could make a getaway, perhaps by making an emergency landing on some snowy slope on the other side of the mountains.