Hero by Joel Rosenberg Read Free Book Online Page B

puffed for Skolnick. "Kelev Twenty—you've got the assault commando; I'm auto-patching you through to the General."
    "No need; it's okay, Captain. Got three of them knocked down. Others are retreating toward the road. Estimate a total of fifteen. What do you want me to do?"
    You can't pass control of an operation over to somebody who's asking you what to do; the piece named Galil would just have to function as chessmaster a few minutes more.
    "That was a Casa helo overhead, possibly circling for another pass," Shimon said. "Chiabrera says another one from the same flight'll be overhead any second; two more in two minutes. They say they can patch me through for direct control in one minute. Peled's got both Hunters ready, busy acquiring. Call it."

    The pain was a distant thing— no, it was nothing. A chessmaster didn't feel any pain when one of the pieces was endangered. All he had to do was call the right move.
    He puffed for the regimental freak, override mode. "Kelev Twenty to Tel Aviv Ten. Target Casa helo. Perp to the road, eleven o'clock. Green light."
    A minute? A minute was an eternity. The autoguns on a Casa attack helo fire upwards of five thousand rounds a minute. Maybe they were supposed to be a friendly force, but there were three men dead on the ground because the assholes hadn't held their fire as told.
    And that had nothing to do with it. Not a damn thing. It was just data. A chessmaster didn't have any affection for his pieces; he just had to evaluate the danger and react.
    "Tel Aviv Ten. Say again. Request confirmation."
    "I said green light, Colonel Peled. You get that fucking piece off my board. " He leaned hard against the tree. "Burn the bastard down," he added. But his microphone wasn't on.
    "Tel Aviv Ten, roger. Acquired." Peled's voice was crisp and flat. "Rocket away ."High overhead, the world exploded into flame and noise that didn't quite drown out Peled's quiet mutter of " Got him," before the colonel shut off his mike.
    Good: the enemy was on the run; the friendly forces weren't overhead shooting up his pieces.
    Galil puffed for Skolnick. "Kelev Twenty—who'd you leave on flank?"
    "Litvak. And it's clear there. We got one whole prisoner, one injured. Leg and wrist wound. Both secured."
    "Keep the injured one alive; Shimon needs two."
    "Understood. They're pinned down in the ditch across from the burning bus. You want to try for more captures?"
    "No. Finish it."
    "Will do."
    The firing intensified, then started to taper off, punctuated with a triple bang of grenades.
    "I think we got all of them," Skolnick said.
    The chessmaster named Galil leaned back hard against the smooth bole of the tree. His bad leg couldn't support him and his good leg was getting all distant and vague, like the clumsy fingers that couldn't hold the assault rifle any longer.
    He slipped down onto the slimyleaves, the world starting to swim in front of his eyes. He closed them. Just play it blindfold, that was it.
    You didn't have to look to see the pieces.
    He listened to the babble of voices in his headphones for a few seconds.
    "Kelev Twelve Thirty-One. I see three down, none moving."
    "Kelev Eleven Eleven." That was Lipschitz. "Burning helo on the ground north of the bend, maybe four hundred meters. No sign of life."
    "Kelev One Two Three Three. What are we going to do about Slepak? He—"
    "Save it, Twelve Thirty-three."
    "—motherfucker froze—"
    "This is Kelev One Two Three One. I said, save it ."
    It looked like it was settling down; it was time to move to cleanup. Galil puffed for All Hands, and found that he still had override mode. "Kelev Twenty to all units. We're. . . ." The world started to go black around him, but he forced it back to gray. "We are staying operational, but it looks like it's almost over. Don't waste ammo. Everybody except fireteam leaders switch to single shot. Designated sharpshooters only are to fire insurance rounds; everybody else to fire only on active targets. Fireteam leaders, use