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"All units," he said. "Remain in place and look for mines. I don't have to tell you to be careful. Dig in.
Full perimeter defence." Never a mistake to dig, if you had to stop. The books said minefields and other obstacles were primarily useful to pin a force so that it could be attacked.
"Com, patch me through to Command."
"How many?" Peter Owensford asked as Mace finished. Contact. This is it.
"Sir, Miscowsky and his team are under attack by at least a company. Team Z-2 doesn't report. A-1 and A-2 report all nominal. Something coming in-Deighton's under attack. And Laramie."
"Deighton, Laramie and Miscowsky. And Katz doesn't report. Bingo," Owensford said. "Well, we sent them out to find something."
Find it and kill it. Each of the SAS teams carried directional beaming equipment that could feed the team's coordinates, plus an offset, to incoming Thoth missiles. Thoth was normally launched by aircraft kept just at the team's horizon, but in this case there weren't any airplanes for that, so the birds were lofted by solid rockets. That could be expensive if the birds went out and there were no targets, but Peter didn't think that would be the problem here.
"Jamming. We're getting jammed," Mace said.
"Jamming," Owensford acknowledged. "Well, we expected it after the Spartosky. Loft the anti-radiation missiles. And keep lofting Thoth support." Thoth missiles depended on a direct line of sight communication, and employed an autocorrelation system that was nearly impossible to jam, even with brute force.
"Aye aye."
Owensford studied the map. Miscowsky was Z-1, ranging in ahead of the column of Royal troops heading north from the Rhyndakos, Katz with Z-2 likewise. T-l and T-2 were with the central column, punching in directly west from a convenient bend in the Eurotas. A-1 and A-2 with the northern force, pressing southeast from Olynthos.
"They knew where to look," Peter said aloud. He thought about the implications of that. There was only one way they could have known that well. He turned to his adjutant, Andy Lahr. "Andy, they knew where to look. You agree?"
"Yes, sir."
"Jericho. Get the word out, all units, Jericho."
"Roger."
Peter picked up the microphone. "Mace, broadcast to all of your units. Code Jericho. Repeat, Code Jericho. Got that?"
"Roger. Code Jericho."
"Message, Captain." Communications Sergeant Masterson spoke urgently.
Lysander frowned. "I need to talk to headquarters-"
"They're broadcasting, sir. Jericho. Code Jericho."
"Jericho."
"Yes, sir. I got special orders on that one-"
"I know," Lysander said. "All right. Acknowledge."
"Acknowledge Jericho," the comm sergeant said. "I say again, we acknowledge Jericho. All units Task Force Candle Four, command override, your word is Jericho, Code Jericho. I say again, Code Jericho."
Jericho, Lysander thought. Assume that all transmissions are monitored by enemy. Assume that all ciphers and encryptions are compromised. All communication in future to be by code book, or in clear with enemy presumed listening.
"We're getting another," Masterson said. "This one's just for us. Kicker Six, Code Dove Hill. Code Dove Hill."
"Right. Thank you." Lysander touched his sleeve console and typed rapidly. "DOVE HILL."
"ASSUME ENEMY IN GREATER STRENGTH THAN ANTICIPATED." "Be
"SARATOGA," Lysander typed.
"DIG IN AND PUNISH THE ENEMY. UNLIMITED FIRE SUPPORT AUTHORIZED."
"TIGER," he typed.
"GOD BLESS US, THERE'S NONE LIKE US."
"All right," Owensford said. "Code books from here on." And thank God for a suspicious mind. Codes were not convenient. You couldn't say anything you hadn't thought of in advance and put in the code book-or personal data base, as the case might be-but they did have the advantage of being unbreakable. You'd have to capture a pocket computer intact, and even that wouldn't help for long, since the code word meanings changed from day to day and unit to unit.
"Code this," Owensford told Andy Lahr. "Teams A-1 and A-2 are to shift position and maintain radio silence unless attacked. Their primary mission is to get home alive. Relay message to Task Force Till Eulengenspiegel-" the central column "-entrench in place, stand by to call in Thoth, and hurt the enemy."
That wouldn't take long, since the central column was a feint, a company-strength unit making enough radio noise for a battalion. Of course a feint backed by enough callable firepower was more trap than feint…
"Task Force Wingate is to shift to fallback communications and maintain nominal transmission.
Maximum alert; reduce movement, prepare for meeting engagement."
"Righto."
The interlock chimed, and the com technical looked up from his board at the rear of the command-car's hull.
"Sir, priority report from Captain Collins."
"Put him through. Kicker Six, you understand Jericho?"
"Roger Jericho, sir. Sir, I've got multiple detection sensor and tripwire-detonated mine sightings all along my line of advance here."
"Merry times." Owensford looked down at his map; wheeled vehicles could advance through this section of the southern Dales, only about four-tenths of the ground was under forest, but if you counted that and very broken terrain it cha
"Check for command-detonated devices within your perimeter, Ly
"Shit, I never thought-sorry."
"Quite all right," Owensford said with a bleak smile. "We're only four klicks south. You have your orders, Kicker Six. Stand by one." He turned. "Andy, how do I say 'Use explosives to clear mines.
Conserve troops.'?"
"GLOSSARY. HILDEBRAND."
"Got it. Captain, your codes are Glossary, I say again Glossary. Hildebrand. I say again Hildebrand."
"Roger. Glossary, Hildebrand. And TIGER to you, too. Out."
"Andy, check confirmation all units acknowledge condition Jericho," Peter said. "Then get me Task Force Atlas, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton." They were all wearing their Royal Army hats tonight, that was the central reserve, in Dodona. The line there at least was secure.
A wait of a few minutes. "Barton here. Ready to scramble."
"Ready. Scramble." There was a tell-tale sing-song background in his earpiece. "Scrambled."
"Scrambled," Barton confirmed. "OK. I've been following it."
"You get the same feeling I do, Ace?"
"That joyful, tingling sense of anticipation that comes just before you jam your dick into the garbage grinder? Yeah." "How do you figure it?"
"Could be either an agent in place, a pirate tap in the satellite, or both. They know more than we thought, and they've got more force than we expected."
There was no visual link, but it took no imagination for Peter to see Barton's face, cynical grin, toothpick moving rapidly from one side of his mouth to the other. "Status of the reserves, Ace?" "Nominal. Of course we're using up Thoth at a fearful rate, ditto ARM." "Any effect?"
"Sure. Their jamming's just about stopped, and Miscowsky and Katz are having a field day. Between them, they've taken out the equivalent of a battalion." "Think we got all their ante
"Yeah, I agree," Peter said.
Owensford looked at the map again. Four Brotherhood battalions with his Task Force Erwin column in the south, and the reinforced battalion of the First RSI. The same with Task Force Wingate in the north. One company with the feint. The mechanized battalion of the First outside Olynthos with two squadrons of armored cars, ready to back up Wingate. Four companies of Legion troops in Dodona, with all the ground-effect transport that the Middle Valley could provide, fast enough to reinforce either Wingate or Erwin. On the map the advancing columns looked like the jaws of a beast, closing around the south-central Dales. On the ground it was fewer than ten thousand men moving through an area of rough terrain larger than many countries back on Earth.