Executive orders - Tom Clancy [604]
We must stop them, he concluded.
Major, why don't you head on down about ten miles, and you'll see the biggest fuckin' roadblock ever was. Nice job, son, the lawyer from Charlotte told the young man. The major walked off toward his track. Was it that tough? he asked Berman when the Saudi was out of earshot.
I know they killed fifty tanks, and that's just the ones I could see, Berman said, sipping coffee from a metal cup. A lot more coming, though.
Really? the lawyer/lieutenant colonel said. That suits us just fine. No friendlies back of you?
Berman shook his head. No chance.
You head on down the road now, Berman. Ten miles, and then you watch the show, y'hear?
They looked like Americans, Berman saw, in their desert BDUs, their faces painted under the German-shaped Fritz helmets. There were red-shielded lights to point at the maps. It was dark out here, about as dark as a clear sky could get, just the stars enabling him to tell the difference between land and sky. A sliver of moon would appear later, but that wouldn't be much. The screen commander had a command HMMWV with lots of radios. Beyond, he could see a single Bradley, a few troops, and little else. But they stood like Americans and they spoke like Americans.
HOOT-SIX, this is TWO-NINER.
TWO-NINER, SIX, go, the commander took the radio.
We have some movement, five miles north of our position. Two vehicles nosing around right on the horizon.
Roger, TWO-NINER. Keep us informed. Out. He turned to Berman. Get going, Colonel. We have work to do here.
THERE WAS A flanking screen. That would be the enemy II Corps, Colonel Hamm thought. His forward line of Kiowa scout helicopters was now watching it. The Kiowas-the military version of the Bell 206, the copter most often used in America for reporting on traffic congestion-specialized in hiding, most often behind hills and ridges, with just the top-mounted electronic periscope peering about the terrain while the pilot held his aircraft in hover, seeing but not seen, while the TV systems recorded the event, relaying their take back. Hamm had six of them up now, advance scouts for his 4th Squadron, ten miles in front of his ground elements, now lying still thirty miles southeast of KKMC.
While he watched his display in the Star Wars Track, technicians converted the information from the Kiowa scouts into data that could be displayed graphically and distributed to the fighting vehicles in his command. Next came data from the Predator drones. They were up, covering the roads and desert south of the captured city, with one drone over it. The streets, he saw, were full of fuel and supply trucks. It was a convenient place to hide them.
Most important, electronic sensors were now at work.
The UIR forces were moving too fast to rely on radio silence. Commanders had to talk back and forth. Those sources were moving, but they were moving predictably now, talking almost all the time, as commanders told sub-units where to go and what to do, got information and reported it up the chain. He had two brigade CPs positively identified, and probably a divisional one, too.
Hamm changed display to get the larger picture. Two divisions were moving south from KKMC now. That would be the enemy I Corps, spread on a ten-mile frontage, two divisions moving abreast in columns of brigades, a tank brigade in front, mobile artillery right behind it. II Corps was moving to their left, spread thin to provide flank guard. III Corps appeared to be in reserve. The deployment was conventional and predictable. First contact with Wolfpack would be in about an hour, and he would hold back until then, allowing I Corps to pass north to south, right to left along his front.
There hadn't been time to prepare the battlefield properly. The Guard troops lacked a full engineer detachment and the antitank mines they might have strewn to dirty up the terrain. There hadn't been time to prepare