Part 24 (1/2)

The big Californian looked at him in pretended awe. ”A poet no less,”

he said.

”Shut up,” Homer said. ”What's the news?”

The fact of the matter was, he was becoming increasingly impatient of the continual banter expected of him by Cliff and even the others. As original members of the team, they expected an intimacy that he was finding it increasingly difficult to deliver. Among other things, he wished that Cliff, in particular, would mind his att.i.tude when such followers as Guemama were present. The El Ha.s.san posture could be maintained only in never to be compromised dignity.

Bey had once compared him to Alexander, to Homer's amus.e.m.e.nt at the time. But now he was beginning to sympathize with the position the Macedonian leader had found himself in, betwixt the King-G.o.d conscious Persians, and the rough and ready Companions who formed his bodyguard and crack cavalry units. A King-G.o.d simply didn't banter with his subordinates, not even his blood-kin.

Cliff scowled at him now, at the sharpness of Homer's words, but he made his report.

”Our old pal, Sven Zetterberg. He's gone out on a limb. Because of the great danger of this so-far localized fight spreading into world-wide conflict--says old Sven--the Reunited Nations will not tolerate the combat going into the air. He says that if _either_ El Ha.s.san or the Arab Legion resort to use of aircraft, the Reunited Nations will send in its air fleet.”

”Wow,” Homer said. ”All the aircraft we've got are a few slow-moving heliocopters that Kenny brought up with him.”

Dave Moroka snapped his fingers in a gesture of elation. ”That means Zetterberg is throwing his weight to our side.”

Homer was on his feet. ”Send for Kenny and Guemama and send a heliocopter down to pick up Bey and rush him here. He shouldn't be more than a day's march away. I wonder what Elmer is up to. No word at all from him. At any rate, we want an immediate council of war. With Arab Legion air cover eliminated, we can move in.”

Cliff said sourly, ”It's still largely rifles against armored cars, tanks, mobile artillery and even flame throwers.”

All the old hands were present. They stood about a map table, Homer and Bey-ag-Akhamouk at one end, the rest cl.u.s.tered about. Isobel sat in a chair to the rear, stenographer's pad on her knees.

Bey was clipping out suggestions.

”We have them now. Already our better trained men are heading up for Tema.s.sinine to the north and Fort Charlet to the east. We'll lose men but we'll knock out every water hole between here and Libya. We'll cut every road, blow what few bridges there are.”

Jack Peters said worriedly, ”But the important thing is Tamanra.s.set.

What good--”

”We're cutting their supply line,” Bey told him. ”Can't you see?

Colonel Ibrahim and his motorized column will be isolated in Tamanra.s.set. They won't be able to get supplies through without an air lift and Sven Zetterberg's ultimatum kills that possibility. They're blocked off.”

Jimmy Peters was as confused as his brother. ”So what? to use the Americanism. They have both food and water in abundance. They can hold out indefinitely. Meanwhile, our forces are undisciplined irregulars.

We gain a thousand recruits a day. They come galloping in on camel-back or in beat-up old vehicles, firing their hunting rifles into the air. But we also lose a thousand a day. They get bored, or hungry, and decide to go back to their flocks, or their jobs on the new Sahara projects. At any rate, they drift off again. It looks to me that, if Colonel Ibrahim can hold out another week or so, our forces might melt away--all except the couple of hundred or so European and American educated followers. And, cut down to that number, they'll eliminate us in no time flat.”

Homer Crawford was eying him in humor. ”You're no fighting man, Peters. Tell me, what is the single most fearsome enemy of an ultra-mechanized soldier with the latest in military equipment and super-firepower weapons?”

Jimmy Peters was blank. ”I suppose a similarly armed opponent.”

Homer smiled at him. ”Rather, a man with a knife.”

The expressions of the Peters brothers showed resentment. ”We weren't jesting.”

”Neither was I,” Homer rapped. He looked around at the rest, including Bey and Kenny. ”What happens to a modern mechanized army when it runs out of gasoline? What happens to a water-cooled machine gun when there is no water? What use is a howitzer when the target is a single man in ten acres of cover? Gentlemen, have any of you ever studied the tactics of Abd-el-Krim or, more recently still, t.i.to? Bey, I a.s.sume you have.”

He had their attention.