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They would refuel in the air a strike of twelve attack planes launched from an
Imperial carrier well out to sea. The attack planes would attack the nearest
enemy airbase, making it unusable. Then they would fly air cover over the
dragon base while the ground troops did their work.
The attack planes would not have the range to return to their carrier after
that. So their pilots would bail out at low altitude, to land among the Battle
Group and be picked up by its mobile troops. They would fly out in the assault
transports along with the rest of the surviving raiders.
As many as half the raiders might become casualties. All the vehicles would
also be left behind, carefully booby-trapped, to lighten the transports for
the flight out. But in return for three hundred men and two hundred vehicles,
the ability of the Red Flames of Russland to wage genetic warfare would be
destroyed for many years.
No one seemed to doubt that this was a fair trade.
No one seemed to doubt either that Lieutenant Colonel Richard Blade should be
in command of the raiding force. By Imperial Special Order he was given the
acting rank of full colonel. After that he settled down to the grueling
routine of training his handpicked six hundred for their great day.
He hardly had a moment to spare for Rilla during that time. He did observe
that she seemed both happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because the dragon
base to her meant the corruption and perversion of the great discoveries she'd
made in genetics. Now it was about to be destroyed. Sad, because in that
destruction would die many who had been her friends and colleagues for years,
and she could not be totally indifferent to their fate. Blade thought it was
perhaps just as well that he and Rilla were not seeing much of each other now.
It was certainly good that she was not going on the raid herself.
Blade did have time to consider one amusing fact about his position. He'd been
quite certain that Englor would offer him no opportunity to rise swiftly in
rank and status. Yet here he was, risen from recruit to full colonel in only a
few months, given one of the choicest assignments possible for an officer of
his rank.
Perhaps this was not quite so great a rise as one from slave to prince. But no
man could say that Blade had not risen, and many in Englor were saying he
would rise farther still if he lived long enough.
Chapter 23
Six hundred soldiers have to learn only so much in order to carry out even the
most complicated operation. Even training for fifteen hours a day, six days a
week, comes to an end sooner or later. Then there's nothing left to do but
load the men aboard whatever is taking them to battle.
The night before Strike Force Blade took off, R took Blade out to dinner. It
was a hasty dinner-too hasty, for the food and the wine both deserved a
leisurely appreciation that neither man could afford to give them. Like the
rest of the Strike Force, Blade had forty-eight hours' leave, and from the
restaurant he would be joining Rilla. R obviously knew this, but was so much a
gentleman about Blade's personal affairs that it was impossible to tell if he
approved or disapproved. That was one more quality that R
shared with J.
The dinner lasted long enough for R to become more talkative than usual.
Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps it was the frustration at having to leave the
rest of the fight against the dragons to younger men who would go where he no
longer could. Whatever was working inside him, R said a great deal, almost
certainly much more than he'd intended.
Blade did not remember much of it. He had an excellent memory, but he could
also forget things when it seemed wise. One thing he didn't forget, and he
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knew afterward that he couldn't have forgotten it if he'd wanted to.
"You know something, Richard?" said R. "I had a son."
That was a surprise to Blade. He sensed that R was not expecting any reply,
just continued attention.
"Yes, I had a son. He was an Independent, like you, like me. He went off to
Rodzmania on an assignment, like you. Only he didn't come back. That was ten
years ago. If he'd lived, he would have been about your age, I think."
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