[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"As battle op, Bill will rank just below you and above any other officer in
the field with you, except myself."
Arvid and Bill looked at each other.
"Battle operator?" said Eachan.
"That's right," Cletus answered him. "Don't look so surprised, Eachan. This is
something we've been headed toward from the start, with the reorganization and
retraining of the men."
He looked back at Arvid and Bill. "The marshal, or vice-marshal, and the
battle operator," Cletus said, "will form a general commander's team. The
battle op is the theoretical strategist of that team and the vice-marshal is
the field tactician. The two will bear roughly the same relationship to each
other as an architect and a general contractor in the construction of a
building. The battle op will first consider the strategical situation and
problem and lay out a campaign plan. And in this process he will have complete
authority and freedom."
Cletus had been watching Bill in particular as he spoke. Now, he paused. "You
understand, Bill?" he said.
"Yes, sir," he replied.
"Then, however" Cletus' eyes swung to Arvid "the battle op will hand his
strategical plan to the vice-marshal, and from that point on, it'll be the
vice-marshal who has complete authority. His job will be to take the plan
given him, make any and all alterations in it he thinks it needs for practical
purposes and then execute it as he sees fit.
Page 124
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
You understand, Arv?"
"Yes, sir," said Arvid, softly.
"Good," said Cletus. "Then you and Bill are released from your present duties
as of now and you'll begin immediately on your new jobs. The world I'm giving
you to start with is the Dorsai here, and the
first force you'll be working with will be made up of the women and children,
the sick, the injured, and the average men."
He smiled a little at them. "Then get at it, both of you," he said. "None of
us has any time to waste nowadays."
As the door to the office closed behind the two of them, a wave of the fatigue
he had been holding at bay for a number of days and hours now suddenly washed
over him. He swayed where he stood and felt
Eachan catch him by the elbow.
"No it's all right," he said. His vision cleared and he looked into Eachan's
concerned face. "I'm just tired, that's all. I'll take a nap and then we'll
hit things after dinner."
With Eachan walking guardedly beside him, he walked out of the office-study,
feeling as though he were stepping on pillows, and went up to his bedroom. The
bed was before him; he dropped onto its yielding surface without bothering
even to take off his boots & And that was the last he remembered.
He awoke just before sunset, ate a light meal and spent half an hour getting
reacquainted with his son.
Then he closeted himself in his office with Eachan to attack the pile of paper
work. They sorted the correspondence into two piles, one which Cletus had to
answer himself and one which Eachan could answer with a few words per letter
of direction from him. Both men dictated until nearly dawn before the desk was
cleared and the necessary orders for the Dorsai and off-world troops were
issued.
The interview in the study next day with the Newtonian chairman, Walco, was
brief and bitter. The bitterness might have gone into acrimony and the
interview prolonged unduly if Cletus had not cut short
Walco's scarcely veiled accusations.
"The contract I signed with you," said Cletus, "promised to capture Watershed
and the stibnite mines, and turn them over to your own troops. We made no
guarantee that you'd stay in control of the mines.
Holding onto them was up to you, and to whatever agreement you could make with
the Brozans."
"We made our agreement!" said Walco. "But now that they've suddenly been
reinforced by fifteen thousand Alliance and Coalition troops, courtesy of this
fellow deCastries, they're refusing to honor it.
They claim they made it under duress!"
"Didn't they?" Cletus said.
"That's not the point! The point is, we need you and enough troops from the
Dorsai, right away, to match those fifteen thousand soldiers from Earth that
the Brozans're holding over us like a club."
Cletus shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm facing unusual demands on my
available mercenaries right now. Also, I'm not free to come to Newton,
myself."
Walco's face went lumpy and hard. "You help get us into a spot," he said, "and
then when trouble comes, you leave us to face it alone. Is that what you call
justice?"
"Was justice mentioned when you signed us to the original contract?" replied
Cletus, grimly. "I don't remember it. If justice had been a topic, I'd have
been forced to point out to you that, while it was your funds and experts who
developed the stibnite mine, that was only because you were in a position to
take advantage of the Brozan poverty that was then keeping them from
developing the mines themselves. You may have a financial interest in the
mines, but the Brozans have a moral claim to them they're a Brozan natural
Page 125
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
resource. If you'd faced that fact, you'd hardly have been able to avoid
seeing their moral claim, which would have to be recognized by you,
eventually " He broke off.
"Forgive me," he said, dryly. "I'm a little overworked these days. I gave up
long ago doing other people's thinking for them. I've told you that neither I,
nor an expeditionary force of the size you ask for, is available to you right
at the moment."
"Then what will you do for us?" muttered Walco.
"I can send you some men to officer and command your own forces, provided you
contract to let them make all the military decisions, themselves."
"What?" Walco cried out the word. "That's worse than nothing!"
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]