Vortex

  Pretoria to the Cape Province had been Emily’s suggestion. A damned good one, he thought wryly.

  Assuming they lived long enough to tell somebody about it, the details of Kruger’s rebellion against his government would make an exciting story-a kind of modern-day anabasis with the 20th Cape Rifles standing in for Xenophon and The Ten Thousand, Vorster’s troops playing the vengeful, pursuing Persians, and with assorted independent Boer commandos in the roles originally held by wild Anatolian tribesmen.

  At any rate, Ian felt sure the classical analogy would amuse Kruger himself. God knows, they all needed something to laugh about.

  The Afrikaner soldier had pushed his men hard over the past several days, evidently determined to put as much distance as possible between Pretoria and his battalion. They’d driven only at night, taking side roads and back-country lanes to avoid towns that might harbor informers or AWB loyalists. Vehicles that broke down were ruthlessly stripped of all useful spare parts and supplies and then abandoned. Where ffic battalion’s quartermasters couldn’t buy or beg enough gasoline or diesel fuel, they’d stolen it. One constant, unchanging set of orders governed every action and every decision: move and keep moving. Don’t stop. Don’t give Vorster’s hunters

  an immobile target. And don’t blunder into unnecessary combat.

  Last night’s march had been by far the worst of all. Warned by scouts of a sizable government force garrisoning the road junction at Vryburg, they’d been forced west and north over a rugged chain of hills and ridges separating the Cape Plateau from the Kalahari Basin. And stretches that could have been covered in minutes on a freeway took hours to traverse on the narrow, unpaved tracks available to them.

  So far, though, Kruger’s insistence on speed and discretion had paid off.

  They’d come more than four hundred kilometers without stumbling into any government roadblock or time wasting firefight. Not bad, Ian thought. Then he remembered the maps he’d seen. They were still at least seven hundred kilometers from the nearest American or Cape Province outposts. Plenty of time yet for disaster to strike.

  Beside him, Emily suddenly muttered something in her sleep and rolled over onto her stomach. He put down his pen for a moment and softly stroked her hair. She sighed once, moving closer.

  Suddenly, and with surprising intensity, he found himself praying, please, God, no matter what happens to me, protect her. Surprising, because he’d never been especially religious. His ambitions had already gotten Sam Knowles killed. He didn’t want them to cost Emily her life or her freedom.

  A polite cough warned Ian that someone else was near. He looked up from

  Emily’s auburn hair and saw Commandant Henrik Kruger standing outlined against the rising sun-his pale gray eyes and weather-beaten face a mask of unreadable shadow.

  “I hope I am not interrupting, meneer?” Kruger kept his own voice low, as though he, too, wanted to avoid breaking into Emily’s rest. But Ian could hear the carefully controlled bitterness in his words.

  My God, the man’s still hopelessly in love with her, he realized.

  Suddenly embarrassed, he took his hand away from Emily’s hair. There wasn’t much point in ramming the loss down Kruger’s throat-especially not after he’d already risked so much to save their lives. Ian shook his head and gestured to the ground.

  “Take a pew, Kommandant.”

  “My thanks.” Kruger squatted on his haunches, still with his back to the sun. He cleared his throat, sounding strangely tentative.

  “Your companions are resting, then?”

  “Yeah.” Moved by an unexpected urge to pick a fight with this man from

  Emily’s past, Ian nodded toward the still, silent, companionable figures of Matthew Sibena and the Afrikaner sergeant lying asleep back-to-back.

  “Too bad that’s as close to real peace as you people ever get.”

  Kruger smiled sadly.

  “Yes.” Then he shrugged.

  “Who knows, meneer. Perhaps this hellish war of ours will do the trick. Perhaps those who still hate each other will finally weary of all this blood and pointless waste.”

  The Afrikaner shrugged again.

  “And perhaps I am dreaming foolish dreams, eh?” He grew more businesslike.

  “In any event, such things are beyond our control for the moment. We must concentrate on staying alive from day to day. True?”

  Ian acknowledged the point with a rueful nod.

  “Good. That is what I have come to talk to you about. After all, I would not want the chronicler of my deeds left ignorant of what we face.”

  Despite himself, Ian grinned. Kruger could take a verbal punch and throw one back without flinching. Plus he didn’t take himself too seriously.

  It was hard to dislike a guy like that-no matter how awkward things got around Emily.

  Kruger’s news wiped the grin off his face. They were almost out of fuel.

  The long, unplanned detour around Vryburg had virtually drained the battalion’s gas tanks and spare jerry cans. And Genyesa’s lone service station didn’t have the thousands of gallons needed to refill them. The 20th Cape Rifles had come to a sudden, screeching halt in the middle of nowhere.

  “Christ! So what do we do next?”

  Kruger frowned.

  “The only thing we can do. I’m sending special teams to each of the surrounding towns and villages. With luck, they’ll be able to obtain enough fuel to get us moving again.”

  He spread his hands.

  “In the meantime, the rest of us can only dig in here and wait… and pray.”

  Ian felt himself grow cold. Until now, the battalion had stayed undiscovered and alive by staying mobile. Now they’d lost their only edge against the forces arrayed against them. His hand strayed back to Emily’s hair.

  Henrik Kruger watched them both in silence.

  DECEMBER 23-44TH PARACHUTE BRIGADE REACTION FORCE, KIMBERLEY, SOUTH

  AFRICA

  Two hundred and fifty kilometers south of Genyesa, helicopters circled high over the urban sprawl of open-pit mine museums, factories, and homes known throughout South Africa as “the diamond city.” Other helos practicing assault landings hovered low over the soccer fields now serving as a headquarters for Maj. Rolf Bekker and his paratroops. Most of the Puma and

  Super Frelon troop carriers sat motionless on the ground, surrounded by small groups of fully armed soldiers on five-minute alert.

  Maps cluttered the walls of Bekker’s command tent. Each showed a fifty-by-fifty-kilometer piece of the Cape Province’s northeastern corner.

  Grease pencil notations indicated loyalist garrisons holding important towns and road junctions. They blocked every road going west or south-every road but one. Voices crackled through a high-powered radio set up in one corner.

  “Roger, Zebra Four Four. Good work. Out. ” Twentyfive-year-old Capt. Kas der Merwe pulled off his earphones, his eyes shining with excitement.

  “We have them, Major! Reconnaissance units report sighting small enemy units.

  Here. Here. And here!” He checked off several villages in a wide circle around Genyesa.

  “And all of them are apparently gathering as much fuel as they can carry!”

  Bekker nodded thoughtfully.

  “Petrol. I knew that would be Kruger’s

  Achilles’ heel. They’ve run out of petrol.” He leaned closer to der Merwe’s map and tapped Genyesa.

  “The Twentieth has to be laagered somewhere close to there.”

  The younger officer tapped the radio mike he still held clutched in one hand.

  “Shall I ready our strike force?” He measured distances with a quick, practiced eye.

  “We can reach the village in less than an hour.”

  Bekker laughed.

  “No, Captain, you have it backward. This is not a fox hunt. We are too few for such a thing, and besides—he smiled thinly-“I do not entirely trust the abilities of all my hounds.

  “No, we must model this operation
on a lion hunt. The Citizen Force units and commandos will act as our beaters -driving these traitors south .. toward us. When we face Kruger and his troops, we will face them on ground of our own choosing. Near there.” He circled a spot on the map labeled Skerpionenpunt-Scorpion Point.

  Der Merwe looked troubled.

  “But how do we know they will come? They may not be able to collect enough petrol even to make it that far. “

  Bekker shook his head.

  “I’ve heard of this man Kruger. He’s a tough soldier. A real Boer. Don’t you worry, der Merwe, he’ll find a way to get his people south.”

  The major’s handsome face twisted into an ugly, sardonic smile.

  “And we will be there waiting for them.”

  Rolf Bekker contemplated his plans in growing satisfaction. For the time being he would seek victory in his own mission. The rest of Vorster’s shrinking domains would have to look after themselves.

  DECEMBER 24-NABOOMSPRUIT

  The setting sun fit a battlefield crowded with scenes of death and destruction.

  Gen. Antonio Vega looked down out of his Hind gunship at the still-smoldering ruins of Naboomspruit. Burnt-out vehicles blocked almost every intersection, and mangled corpses littered every stretch of open ground. Shell craters pockmarked the highway south.

  Naboomspruit and its defenses had fallen to the Cubans.

  Better late than never, he thought angrily. Fuel and ammunition shortages caused by Boer commando raids on his supply lines had forced him to postpone his assault against the town. They’d also forced him to send several valuable units back north along the highway in what would probably be a futile effort to crush the elusive commandos. Units he could have used in the battle for Naboomspruit.

  It had taken his troops and tanks several hours of hard fighting to clear the Afrikaner-held town, but the outcome had never really been in doubt.

  The Boer defenses had been strong but brittle, and once he’d broken through their front line, they hadn’t had any reserves left to launch a counterattack.

  Vega had also been forced to fight without a reserve. He hadn’t liked that very much. Combat units held back for use in the right place at the right time were all too often the margin between victory and defeat, but he hadn’t had any choice. His casualties had simply been too high in the six weeks since he’d crossed South Africa’s frontiers.

  the Hind gunship landed on the northern edge of Naboomspruit, near a small cluster of officers who stood shielding their eyes from whirling sprays of rotor-blown grit.

  Vega debarked to a chorus of greetings and salutes, most of which he ignored. Instead, he walked directly over to Vasquez, who stood off to one side.

  “Let’s have a look at these secret weapons of theirs, Comrade.”

  With Vasquez at his side and the rest of his officers trailing along behind, he walked about a hundred meters to what appeared to be just a low mound of dirt-at least until one looked closely.

  The earthen mound had a regular, shaped appearance, and as they curved around to approach it from the front, Vega saw the long barrel and large muzzle brake of a G-5 155MM artillery piece poking out through a gap in the front.

  Vasquez nodded toward the mound.

  “Each gun emplacement is completely roofed over, Comrade General, and open only in back and in front. The

  Boers knew we could only attack from the northeast, so the opening in front is limited to that arc.”

  Vega nodded his understanding. Thus concealed and protected the G-5 was a powerful antitank weapon. Used as an indirect fire weapon, it could fire a high-explosive shell forty kilometers. Used in a direct fire mode, it far outranged the 115mm cannon mounted on his tanks.

  Vasquez walked forward far enough to lay a proprietary hand on the G-5’s monstrous barrel.

  “As you suspected, Comrade General, the Boers were short on ammunition. They wanted to make every shell count. But these guns aren’t normally rigged for antitank work, so they have separate projectiles and charges.” He inclined his head toward the sandbag-covered magazines visible behind each gun position.

  “That makes them fire more slowly than ours. And even a one fifty-five millimeter shell will not stop one of our tanks every time.”

  Often enough, though, Vega thought moodily, surveying a field crowded with wrecked T-72s and BTR-60s. Still, the Afrikaner decision to use their G-5s as antitank weapons explained the lack of artillery fire during his approach march. It also indicated a growing sense of desperation. No commander used towed artillery that way unless he had no other option.

  Abruptly, he turned toward Suarez.

  “What are our casualties?”

  The colonel consulted his leather-bound notebook.

  “We lost twenty-eight vehicles-ten of which can be repaired.” He cleared his throat.

  “Plus about a hundred and fifty men killed, with another two hundred seriously wounded. We believe enemy casualties were very heavy, almost twice ours.

  “

  Vega sighed. He’d won another victory, and at what Havana would call a reasonable cost. But any price was high when he was this poor in resources. He looked south, wondering if the American Marines fighting their way inland from Durban were faring any better.

  CHAPTER Bloody Ridge, Bloody Forest

  DECEMBER 25-MOBILE HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED

  EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, NEAR THE OCEAN TERMINAL, DURBAN

  Trailed by a small security detachment of fully armed U.S. Marines, Lt.

  Gen. Jerry Craig made his way through the wreckage littering Durban’s waterfront. What he saw was not making him happy. A freshening sea breeze had blown the stench of cordite and sun-bloated corpses inland, but all the clean salt air in the world couldn’t hide the damage inflicted by days of bitter fighting and deliberate sabotage.

  Out in the harbor, oil-coated waves lapped gently against the rusting superstructures of ships sunk to block the main channel. Other burnt-out hulks sagged against the docks themselves, entangled in the torn and twisted skeletons of fallen cargo-handling cranes. Mounds of fire-blackened rubble from bomb-and shell-shattered buildings choked off the spiderweb of streets and rail lines spreading out from the port into

  Durban proper.

  Bulldozer engines, chain saws, and acetylene torches

  ?”

  roared, howled, and hissed as the nine hundred men of Craig’s Marine combat engineer battalion tried frantically to clear paths through the debris. But the sheer volume of work remaining seemed to make a mockery of all their efforts. Although Diederichs’s garrison troops had failed to hold the city, their stubborn defense had left it a smoking ruin.

  Two days after all significant Afrikaner resistance had collapsed, South

  Africa’s largest deepwater harbor remained closed to Allied shipping. And until its docks and access roads could be reopened, Craig’s British and

  American forces would remain dependent on whatever supplies and equipment could be brought in over the beach or by air. Most of his main battle tanks and self-propelled guns were still parked offshore-crowding the decks and cargo spaces of fast transports waiting impatiently at anchor.

  Craig frowned. A few heavy vehicles had been ferried in one at a time by the U.S. Navy’s overworked air-cushion landing craft. Not enough to make an appreciable battlefield contribution, just enough to impose even more strain on a supply system already laboring to provide the fuel, ammunition, and food the expeditionary force needed.

  All of which left the advance inland toward Pretoria in the hands of a few infantry battalions backed by light armor, artillery, and carrier-based air power. He quickened his pace, skirting a trio of bomb craters pock marking the quay side road. His men were pushing forward as fast as they could, but every hour’s delay in opening the harbor gave Vorster that much more time to rush additional troops into the Drakensberg Mountains-a rugged band of steep mountains and forested ridges separating Natal’s lowlands from the open grasslands of the high veld

&nb
sp; The chubby, straw-haired lieutenant colonel commanding his combat engineers saw Craig coming and hurried over.

  “Sir.” He saluted wearily. Sweat stains under his arms and dark rings under his eyes showed that he’d been working side by side with his men for nearly forty-eight hours straight.

  “Colonel. ” Craig casually returned his salute and gestured at the mess visible on all sides.

  “I need your best guess, Jim. How much longer before we can start off-loading here?”

  The younger man stared at the controlled chaos along the waterfront as though seeing it all for the very first time. Three days. Maybe four.”

  His shoulders slumped.

  “My boys are pretty near the edge, General. Some of ‘em are so tired they’re starting to walk right into booby traps a five year-old could’ve spotted.”

  Craig nodded. He’d watched the casualty reports climb steadily. In the two days since Durban had officially been 11 pacified,” the engineer battalion had lost more than ten men killed, with another forty or so seriously wounded. Snipers, explosive booby traps, and fatigue-related accidents were eroding the effectiveness of a unit he was sure to need later.

  He raised his voice as a bulldozer rumbled by, shoving a burned-out car away from the road.

  “We’re bringing in some help from the Cape. Sort of a Christmas present. The One oh one’s putting its engineers on C-141 s right now. Air Force says they’ll be here by the end of the day. “

  It took several seconds to sink in. Then the lieutenant colonel nodded gratefully. The Army air assault division’s combat engineers wouldn’t have their equipment with them, but they could be used to spell his own men. Even without bringing in extra gear, doubling the number of skilled people working might cut up to twenty-four hours from the time needed to clear the port.

  The battalion commander saluted a second time, this time with more vigor and enthusiasm. The news that he’d be getting reinforcements seemed to have stripped years off his age.

  “We’ll get these goddamned docks open

  ASAP, General. You can take that to the bank.”