The Lotus Eaters

Casa Linda, Balboa, Terra Nova

All my life, I suppose, Carrera thought, with a sigh, his eyes glancing back and forth from the printout on his lap to the map on the wall, all my life I've wanted to lead a lot of men in a great, desperate battle. And in this particular case, that battle—the final one, not the one to toss out the Taurans—looks like a losing proposition.

The figures don't lie. On my eastern flank, all those coastal ports along the Mar Furioso—little enough, individually, but collectively enough to support an army—mean I'm going to be facing a corps or two—Zhong or Tauran, but most likely Zhong—and I'll have nothing left to face them with. Everybody else will be committed.

And recruiting is about maxed out. I can finish building the force, and financing it, but that's it. No more. In any case, a regiment of two of men would stand out like a sore thumb in a area full of refugee camps loaded with women and children.

Kuralski's plan of moving the civilians, mostly women and kids, out of Ciudad Balboa to provide a block is a clever one . . . maybe cowardly, but clever. The invaders will have to feed those civilians, and a half million mouths to be fed, at a distance from the ports, makes the logistic problem insurmountable.

For a couple of weeks, until whoever it is forces the civilians to move nearer the ports. Which guerillas could interfere with, maybe even defeat, as long as the guerillas could blend in. Which, being men, they won't be able to.

Women. I've got women troops but no women combatants to speak of. And even if I wanted to raise a tercio of women fighters, who would train them? Who would . . . hmmm.

He put down the print out and stood. Rocking his head from side to side, muttering—thinking out loud, really—he walked up the stairs to his office. There, he used the secure phone to dial Parilla's office.

"Raul? Patricio. I've had a kind of an odd thought. I think it might be useful. See, I want to raise a regiment of women, and, to train those women, a regiment of gays . . . no, I'm not crazy . . . yes, I've thought about it enough . . . trust me . . . yes, I know it might cause a rift with the Church . . ."