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The bridge still stood.
"Shit. Didn't they use enough C-big?" Nail said.
"It's not that," Valentine waited, hoping for the structural integrity to fail. The bridge still stood. "They used plenty. They just used it all at the bottom of the bridge, where it meets the pilings. Spread it out too much, too. They tore up the track good, that's all. On a truss bridge the load is all borne by the joints at the top. If they'd just blown out the tops of the span we passed under, it'd be in the river."
A mortar shell landed in the water astern of them.
"This boat trip's gonna get cut short," Nail predicted.
The barge edged toward Big Rock Mountain. Valentine felt it shudder. The soldiers went to the rail, concerned.
"We're aground!" someone shouted.
"Shit!" Nail said.
"Okay, just wade, swim, whatever," Valentine shouted. He ran forward, leaving Nail for the moment.
"Out of here. Over the side ... just go!" he yelled. "Manfred, help the women. We need stretcher-bearers. Who wants to carry?"
Part evacuation, part shipwreck, they got the soldiers and some of the supplies overboard. Valentine stayed with the wounded until the stretchers were ashore. The water helped deaden the effect of the mortars; they did little more than create brief fountains of water as they exploded.
"There's still a lot of cargo on the barge," Zhao said, dripping from the armpits down.
"Forget it. We need to get up the hill."
It was easier said than done. The hillside rose two hundred feet at a 3:1 grade, where it wasn't a cliff. There was an old switchback road going up the side. Valentine sent up the stretcher-bearers in groups so they could replace each other. He stood among the trees at the base of the hill, watching the mortars drop shells into the barge. The Quislings seemed to be taking strange pleasure in wasting shells on the wreck, rather than dropping them on the hillside where they might do some damage.
He heard a heavy tread, and looked up to see a mountain of muscle.
"Good morning, Ahn-Kha," he said.
"I'm glad to see you, my David. It's been a long night."
"For both of us."
"Post and Styachowski arrive?"
"Styachowski is at the Residence now. Post is still unloading the second run."
"What's the TMCC doing about it?"
"At first light I heard some shooting, far to the north. My guess is two patrols ran into each other."
"So you don't think they've figured out where we are?"
"They'll know soon, my David."
"What do you think they'll do?"
"I leave outthinking them to you. I just try to outfight them."
"If you had to outfight me right now?" Valentine asked, looking across the river. He could just see the tip of the crane building the Kurian Tower, though he supposed the construction schedule had been set back.
"I'd try you soon, before you could organize. Today, tonight."
"Wouldn't hurt to pretend you're giving the orders across the river. Let's get up the hill."
* * * *
