Ring of Fire III(14)

“No, we’ll leave them as is.” He fought down the urge to look around for himself. Unless junior officers gave you reason not to trust them, you had to take their word for things like this or you’d undermine morale.

Instead, he just nodded. “Let’s go, then. Bruno, what’s the situation at the gate?”

Shortly after the fighting started, a few squads of artillerymen had seized the nearby gate that led out of the city walls to the east. That had been easy enough, since the gate was held by a platoon of still-loyal soldiers. As soon as Tom had driven off the enemy besieging the barracks, he’d ordered von Eichelberg to send most of his mercenaries to bolster the gate’s defenders.

“Everything’s quiet, sir,” replied von Eichelberg. “According to the last report, at least.”

That report would have been carried by a mounted adjutant. There were a handful of them attached to the artillery units. The USE army still didn’t have enough radios to provide them to many units smaller than battalions, unless they had special duties like the artillery. Most down-time officers weren’t really comfortable with the gadgets, anyway. So almost every unit larger than a company had at least one mounted adjutant ready to serve as a courier.

Tom motioned for the radio operator to come over to him. “Let’s go then,” he said.

It would take a few minutes to get hundreds of men with their wagons, guns, and other gear moving. Tom had enough time to send a message to Bamberg.

The radioman unlimbered his equipment. Once he was ready to start transmitting, Tom gave him the message:

Bavarians over-running Ingolstadt. Colonel Engels murdered. City cannot be held. Withdrawing what remains of regiment into countryside.

He wondered if there would be ever be a follow-on message. There was no way to know yet. Within a day or two, Tom and all of his men might share the same fate as the colonel who had once commanded them.

Well, no. Whatever else, they wouldn’t be murdered in their sleep.





Chapter 6





Once he realized who was coming—that had been a tense few seconds, until he recognized the women—Stefano was immensely relieved. Before they’d even arrived at the airship, he’d already begun deploying the envelope.

Trying to, rather. It really wasn’t a job for just one person.

Dina Merrifield and Amanda Boyd hurried over to help.

“Where is Hank?” Stefano asked, trying not to sound exasperated. The help of the girls—no, women—was appreciated, but neither Dina nor Amanda was large. Siers was big and there was quite a bit of muscle under the fat. That muscle would be useful at the moment.

Thankfully, it had been a cold and dry January night, with a clear sky. In damp conditions, the envelope had a nasty habit of absorbing moisture which not only reduced the lift but made it more difficult to deploy.

“He’s hurt,” Dina said. “Broken leg, we think, and he’s still unconscious.”

Stefano broke off from the work long enough to look at the other people who were now arriving. A small man he didn’t know was struggling with a wheelbarrow, heavily loaded with...

Sure enough, Hank Siers. He looked more dead than alive, although that might be an effect of the moonlight. One of his legs had been bound up in some sort of crude splint.

Bonnie Weaver was with him. Behind them came another group of women. He recognized all of them. The wife of the American artillery officer—she was also the sister of the former prime minister—was bringing up the rear, with a shotgun in her hands and a very fierce look on her face.

Mary Tanner Barancek was there, he was relieved to see. He was less relieved—considerably less—to see that her fearsome aunt was with her, along with the two women she seemed inseparable from. The three of them were something called “auditors.” Stefano wasn’t sure what the term signified, but he knew that a number of people viewed their comings and goings with considerable trepidation. They were police officials of some sort, apparently.

Mary came over to help also. Within a short time, the envelope was ready and Stefano began the process of filling it with air driven by the fan that would maintain pressure in the envelope during flight. This air was cold, not hot, and would not provide enough lift for the craft to actually fly. But it would fill out the envelope and get it prepared for the hot air to come.

That process was finished in a few minutes. While the envelope was filling out, Stefano used the time to operate the control surfaces and engine tilts to make sure they were functioning properly. Then he lit the pilot lights for the burners.

Now came the moment Stefano had been dreading. As soon as they were ignited, the burners would light up the entire area. The flames would be bright and visible even in broad daylight. At night, despite the moon in the sky, they would be like beacons.