Savages by James Cook Read Free Book Online

round up nine hundred more, and then march them all the way here from Alliance territory. Even working around the clock it must have taken them at least a week.”
    “They could have rigged them in advance,” Gabe said. “Hid them somewhere within a couple days’ march.”
    “That sounds more like the Alliance’s way of doing things,” Jonas said. “And we know the KPA, or ROC, or whatever the hell they call themselves have been in-country for well over a year. Plenty of time to move men and equipment to Alliance territory. Could have been staging an attack for months, just waiting for the right opportunity.”
    I considered the possibility. It fit. It fit very well. So the KPA had a presence in Alliance territory. So they rigged the infected and staged them somewhere close. The Hollow Rock patrols only covered a five-mile radius around town, and they could not be everywhere at once. Say the suicide troops were twenty miles away with the artillery. Say the infected were corralled somewhere close by. How long would it take them to move into position? The cannons, when they attacked, were two miles away as the crow flies. I turned to Gabe.
    “What kind of guns were they?” I asked.
    “The artillery?” Gabe said. I nodded.
    “Heavy mortars. Sani 120s.”
    “As in a hundred-twenty millimeter shells?”
    “Yes.”
    “What kind of range are we talking?”
    “Effective out to four and a half miles.”
    I whistled. Two miles was well within range. “How heavy are they?”
    Gabe scratched his three-day growth of beard. “Five hundred pounds, give or take. Not to mention the ammo.”
    I thought back to the artillery emplacement. “The guns were on wheels, and I think I saw a couple of boxy metal things on wheels as well. Probably for ammo. Could they have rolled all that in from, say, twenty miles out?”
    “Very possible,” Gabe said. “It would have been a hell of a lot of work, but it could be done.”
    “Did the recon team spot any animal tracks?” Jonas asked. “Horses, oxen, that kind of thing?”
    Harlow shook his head. “No. I thought of that and had that tracker of yours look around. Hicks, I think his name is. Didn’t find anything but human prints.”
    “So they wheeled the mortars and shells in on foot,” I said. “How many rounds did they fire at the wall? Do we know?”
    Gabe closed his eyes and did his memory trick. If he concentrated, he could remember anything he saw. A useful talent. “Eighteen,” he said after a few seconds. “Six per gun.”
    “Any shells left over?”
    “We found four,” Harlow said. “But more could have been destroyed by the Hellfire.”
    I looked at Gabe. He nodded. “Makes sense. Three guns, maybe thirty shells. Have them on standby no more than twenty miles away. Same with the infected. Plenty of places to hide hordes out there. Spread ‘em out over a few miles in small clusters. The order comes down maybe a day or two ago, and they move into position.”
    “Which brings us back to the question of timing,” I said. “Riddle me this: why attack Hollow Rock? Why not attack the convoy directly? Or Fort McCray? Wouldn’t they be higher value targets?”
    No one said anything. Outside, birds called to one another over the noise of men running and shouting. A bee hovered briefly in front of the window, then flew away. Gabe looked at his knees and tapped a finger against the side of his jaw.
    “I see where you’re going with this.”
    “Well I don’t,” Harlow said. “Care to enlighten me?”
    Gabe looked at me. There was no amusement in his pale gray eyes.
    “Let’s explore a few known quantities,” I said. “Fact: the attack happened right as more than a hundred troops, as well as heavy armor and helicopters, started an expedition north to deal with border incursions into Kentucky. Fact: the infected and the enemy troops came in on foot. To hit us when they did, they had to set out from no further than roughly twenty miles away. Fact: whatever