The Eternal War

CHAPTER 56

2001, outside Dead City

The British troops were up and mustering at dawn with the noisy clatter of equipment and belt buckles, the thudding of boots on pressed soil, the barking of parade-ground voices. Liam watched with guarded fascination as they scrambled quickly to assemble into ranks by platoon, by company, until he was looking at three hundred soldiers, rows of red tunics and crisscrossing leather belts shifting gently as chests heaved for breath. White pith helmets in endless ranks, their pointed peaks shadowing the eyes of hardened faces that looked like they’d seen plenty of action.

Liam was impressed by their discipline and efficiency. If they fought half as well as they mustered, he wondered how a war anywhere in this world could last long in the face of such a military machine as the British army.

McManus had confided in them last night that this regiment, the Black Watch, was actually considered one of the finest in the British army: an elite regiment that had experienced combat on every continent in the world … and had been chosen to field-trial the newest generation of experimental eugenic units.

Speaking of which, he watched the hunter-seekers moving out of the camp at a trot as the last of the tents and camp equipment was being rolled up and stowed into the large saddlebags of the baggage huffaloes. The hunter-seeker that had chatted briefly with McManus last night — ‘George’ — exchanged a polite nod with the captain as his pack moved out last. They broke from a trot into a loping gallop as they spread out in a loose line across the weed-strewn field and finally, several minutes later, disappeared a quarter of a mile away into the dead and overgrown outskirts of the suburban fringe of Baltimore. Liam could just make out a line of backyards, bordered with rotting and leaning picket fences; falling-down shanty homes; abandoned carts; and rusting automobiles of an old-fashioned coach design, their spoked wheels tied to the ground by thick brambles and briar.

McManus issued orders to the junior officers and NCOs before joining Liam and Bob. ‘They should locate the eugenics soon enough. Did you see how quickly they set off? I believe they already have the scent.’

Liam nodded. ‘Are you sure, Captain, they won’t descend into some sort of, well … some sort of bloodlust when they find them?’

He shook his head. ‘They may be eugenics, but they are also members of the British army. They’ll behave.’ He pulled down the brass mouthpiece from the earpad at the side of his helmet.

‘Captain McManus here … we’ve just sent the hounds in. And we’re now moving out towards the city.’ He gave a crisp nod at the response over the earphone. ‘Yes, sir.’

Up above them, Liam could see the carrier slowly circling high, catching the first dawn rays along its shimmering copper hull. It was seeing the sun a good hour before they were going to feel the warmth of it on their own faces.

‘Right, then,’ said McManus. ‘We’ll get our lads moving in so we’ve less ground to cover once they’ve pinpointed a location.’ He smiled. ‘We’ll find them this morning, don’t you two worry.’

Liam nodded. Given how quickly those baboon-dogs had crossed the hard-scrabble field, he actually felt quite confident they were going to find them. It was whether they were going to find them in one piece that was worrying him.

The walrus-moustached sergeant bellowed for the troops to move out, and section by section they peeled out of their rows to join the back of the lengthening column moving down the broken tarmac of what was once the main road leading into the city.

‘You chaps want to walk or ride?’

‘We’ll walk,’ said Liam.

‘Jolly good,’ he said, tightening the strap of his helmet. ‘Well, no point hanging about, then. It’s only beggars and desk clerks you’ll find at the rear of a ruddy column!’