Alarm of War by Kennedy Hudner Read Free Book Online Page B

their rifles and turned in their seats to keep watch outward.
    The ambush came two miles later. Shots rang out from a copse of woods and the first truck skidded to a halt. Inside men were already screaming from being hit, and two recruits were flashing a cheerful fluorescent orange.
    “
Now
we’re havin’ fun!” Cookie whooped, firing into the woods. Hiram Brill turned to Emily. “Thank God,” he breathed. And Emily surprised herself by thinking:
The road is closed. They’ll have ambush teams all along the road
.
    It was over in fifteen minutes. Skiffington quickly organized his troops and charged into the ambush site. The ambushers – it turned out to be Green Company – faded back into the forest, leaving behind several dead and wounded. The first truck in the convoy had been hit the worst: four dead, ten wounded. Skiffington returned from pursuing the ambushers, grinning broadly, his rifle cradled in his arms. “Looks like we’re going to get some fun out of this day after all,” he told Emily. She glared at him, annoyed that he did not even have the good grace to apologize for his earlier behavior. Skiffington could care less; he was just happy to be fighting again.
    Scowling darkly, Kaelin called on the survivors to assemble in front of him.
    “All right, everybody take a knee and listen up. Lesson of the day: Be prepared!” He glanced around sourly. “You all should know that by now. You think the enemy is going to send you a nice little note, ‘Excuse me, but we are going to attack you tomorrow at noon?’” He shook his head angrily. “Why in God’s name do you think we practiced all those ambushes? You want to take the enemy by surprise! Well guess what, people, the enemy wants to take you by surprise, too! We are training you for war, people! Not for a day at the target range. War! Stay alert or die!”
    He took out a map tacked to a piece of poster board. “Okay, new orders!” He pointed to the bottom of the map. “You are here, about two miles from the main road. The main road leads you due east to the Dunloe River, then follows the river as it curves back north and northwest to the Killarney Bridge. Total distance is forty miles.”
    Emily could see the map. The river road described a huge ‘S’, bending counter-clockwise until it reached the Killarney Bridge, where it then crossed the Dunloe River and turned northeast. They were at the bottom of the ‘S’. It would be a lot shorter to go in a straight line, but the terrain was a mix of bogs and steep hills. Sgt. Kaelin started talking again and she gave him her full attention.
    “Blue Company’s mission is to secure the river crossing for Gold Company. Gold Company is leading a convoy of trucks that have to reach the Four Corners crossroads-” He pointed to a spot two miles past the Killarney Bridge. “For you to fulfill your mission, the trucks have to be at the Four Corners twenty-four hours from now. Enemy forces hold the Killarney Bridge. Channel 3 on your radios have been assigned to you, and Channel 4 to Gold Company. You’ll be able to speak to Gold Company when they are within five miles of you.”
    He turned to Grant Skiffington. “Mr. Skiffington, you have your orders! I will be along as an observer only. You will handle the mission as you deem fit. As a little added incentive, the side that wins the exercise gets two weeks leave before having to start Fleet School.” That triggered an undercurrent of excited murmurs and at least one unabashed cheer.
    To Emily’s dismay, Skiffington ordered everyone back on to the trucks. Emily stepped close to him, speaking in a low voice.
    “Skiff, the road is going to be blocked. They’ll have ambush teams all along it.”
    “And now that we know they’re there, we’ll be ready for them. Relax, Tuttle. Once we blow through their ambushes and get behind them, we’ll have a fast run to the bridge.”
    Emily thought that if she were defending the bridge, she would have ambushes