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across the town.
Held stood with his hands on his hips until a contingent of soldiers,
led by a man with sergeant's stripes on his uniform, walked up to him.
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The sergeant saluted smartly, even though blood from two wounds on his
left arm was dripping onto the ground.
"Sergeant Raul Dominguez, sir," he said.
"You the commanding officer here, Raul?" Johnny said, sticking out his
hand to shake.
"Yes, sir, I am now. Both our lieutenants were killed in the attack."
Johnny looked around. Dominguez had perhaps sixty or seventy men left
who looked like they were well enough to fight.
"Why don't you get your men to round up the weapons and ammunition, and
a couple of those jeeps over there with the fifty-calibers on 'em?" he
asked. "My partner and I will stay aloft and cover you until you're back
in the town and get your defenses set back up."
"Yes, sir," Dominguez said. Then he turned and barked orders in rapid
Spanish to his men, who scattered and began to pick up machine guns,
grenades, and ammunition boxes that were lying among the dead and
wounded mercenaries.
Dominguez glanced around. "What shall I do with the wounded enemies,
sir?" he asked.
"You got enough men to play nursemaid to a bunch of mercenaries that
were doin' their best to kill you an hour ago?" Held asked.
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"Uh, now that you mention it, sir, I don't."
"Then leave 'em," Held said. "Buzzards gotta eat too."
Dominguez grinned, and Held knew that was the answer he'd wanted, and
probably what he would have done no matter what Held had advised. The
Mexican Army was not known for its humanitarian instincts in the best of
times.
"Yes, sir."
"We'll hang around until we see your men are all safely back in town.
Then we gotta split. Gettin' kinda low on go-juice," Held said.
"You think they'll be back, sir?" Dominguez asked, glancing in the
direction the soldiers had taken when they ran off.
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Held shook his head. "Not today, but they'll get reinforcements and
probably hit you again tomorrow or the next day."
"Can we expect more help from you americanos?" Dom-inguez asked.
Held shrugged. "Yeah, our battalion should be well within distance to
help out by tomorrow, but you fellows look like you were doin' all right
on your own. Now that you got plenty of ammo and time to dig in, I don't
think you're gonna have any problems."
Dominguez saluted again, then turned to make sure his men were thorough
in picking through the weapons and ammunition scattered around the
battlefield.
269
It was almost full dark by the time the Kiowa helicopter that had fled
the battle at Valapraiso landed outside the Presidential Palace at
Mexico City.
The pilot and copilot were brought to the conference room on the third
floor, where Bruno Bottger and Perro Loco and their entourages were
having a strategy meeting.
Bottger and Loco sat side by side, glaring across the desk at the tired,
sweaty men who stood before them, their heads hanging down.
"Give us your report," Bottger ordered harshly.
"We were about to enter the town, Field Marshal, when two Apache
helicopters came at us from the north," said the pilot.
"They had the SUSA markings on them, Herr Bottger," the copilot added.
Bottger glanced at Loco, then back at the two men. "And you didn't stay
to fight?" he asked, scorn dripping from his tongue.
The pilot shook his head. "No, sir. The Kiowa is no match for one
Apache, much less two. The pilot of the Defender tried to fight them,
and was blown out of the sky before he could get a shot off."
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"It appears the dead man was much braver than you two," Bottger said,
his face turning red.
"I thought it more important to save the helicopter, sir," the pilot
said, standing up straight. "I am not afraid to die, but to
270
throw my life away when I have no chance would be counterproductive to
our efforts to win this war."
Sergei Bergman leaned forward to speak to Bottger. "He is correct, Field
Marshal. The Kiowas, and the men with the know-how to pilot them, are
too valuable to us to lose unnecessarily."
Bottger took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. "Perhaps you
are right, Sergei."
He glanced back at the two pilots. "Get yourselves cleaned up and get
something to eat. We will need you again in the morning."
"Yes, sir," the two men said in unison, and saluted before turning to
leave, much relieved they hadn't been shot out of hand.
After they were gone, Bottger referred to a radio report from the field.
"It appears the attack on Valapraiso was completely routed by the
arrival of the American warships."
Loco nodded. "The same thing happened to my men at Ciudad de Valles.
General Enrique Gonzalez states he barely escaped with his life and that
most of his men are either dead or wounded. He desires immediate
reinforcements and better air cover."
"Looks like Ben Raines's men have arrived a bit sooner than we expected.
This is gonna complicate matters."
Sergei Bergman nodded his agreement. "Yes. It means it will be extremely
difficult to occupy the remainder of Mexico in the time frame we first
planned."
Bottger thumbed through the intel reports in front of him. "It seems a
full battalion of troops has been sent to defend Tampico, and a full
battalion to defend Durango."
"Our men will play hell trying to defeat battalions equipped as well as
those of the Americans are," Paco Valdez said from his seat next to Loco.
Loco nodded. "I do not believe it can be done as long as our forces are
divided."
"I agree," Bottger said, his eyes fixed on a map of Mexico.
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"I propose we unify our forces and concentrate on Durango. If I send my
men straight from Guadalajara toward Durango, skirting the mountains to
the west of the city, they can be there in two days' time." He cut his
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eyes to the other side of the map. "And if you order your men that are
south of Tampico to strike directly west, we might be able to catch
Durango in a pincer movement between our two forces."
Loco leaned over to look at the map. "I see. Together, we vastly
outnumber one battalion. If we strike fast enough by having our men
travel all during the night and lay low during the day, we might be able
to catch the defenders of Durango off guard."
"We can transport most of the men still here in Mexico City in our [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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