Tilting the Balance

The captain was half his age; damn near everybody in the Army, seemed like, was half his age. Klein said, “You may think you’re joking, but you’re not. When it comes to maneuver, they got us licked. Their tanks and trucks are faster than ours, and they’ve got those goddamn helicopters to give it to us in the rear when we’re bent over the wrong way. But that doesn’t count for much in city fighting. Here it’s just slugging, block by block, body by body. ”

Mutt’s opposite number for the company’s first platoon was a skinny midwesterner named Chester Hicks. “Puts a lot, of bodies underground, ” he observed.

“Lord, you can say that again, ” Daniels said. “I did some of that block-by-block stuff last fall, and it’s ugly. Even for war, it’s ugly. ”

Captain Klein nodded. “You bet it is. But the brass don’t think the Lizards can afford that kind of slugging any more. When the Germans were blitzing across Russia in ‘41, they got their noses bloody when they went into the towns, not out on the plains. Maybe it’ll be the same way here. ”

“And if it ain’t, so what, ’cause the Lizards drove us back here anyways, ” Mutt said.

“You’re right about that. ” Captain Klein sighed and ran a hand through his short, curly red hair. “We gotta do all we can, though. Go on back to your boys and give ’em the word. ”

Mutt’s platoon was defending a couple of blocks of East 111th Street. Off to the west was the Gothic ornateness of the Morgan Park Military Academy. Daniels wondered if the cadets were in the line somewhere, the way the boys from the Virginia Military Institute had marched out and fought during the States War. He didn’t see anybody who looked like a cadet, but he knew that didn’t mean anything. It was a hell of a big fight.

To the east was an American strongpoint on the high ground of Pullman, and then, east of that, the marsh around Lake Calumet. If the Lizards dislodged his boys, he aimed to fall back to the east if he could. North of 111th Street stood the low, ornate buildings that housed the Pullman car shops. He’d fought through blocks of factories before. That was even worse than the trenches had been back in France, but Captain Klein was right about one thing: digging determined troops out of a warren like that would cost the Lizards plenty.

Some of the platoon’s foxholes and bits of trench were on he south side of 111th, some on the north. Some were literally in the middle of the street; bombs and shells had torn big holes in the asphalt.

Dracula Szabo waved to Daniels as he came up the broken sidewalk. Szabo was wearing the chevrons Mutt had cut off his own sleeve; Mutt’s old squad belonged to him now. Mutt was sure the men would get on better than most: as long as there were supplies to scrounge, Dracula would figure out how to scrounge them.

Now he said, “Took ya long enough to get back, Sarge-uh, I mean, Lieutenant. You’re lucky we still got more o’ what I came up with. ”

“Not more fancy booze? ” Mutt said. “I told you a dozen times, if it ain’t beer or bourbon, I ain’t interested-not real interested, anyways, ” he amended hastily.

“Better’n booze, ” Dracula said, and before Daniels could deny that anything was better than booze, he named something that was, or at least harder to come by: “I found somebody’s stash o’ cigarettes: ten bee-yoo-tee-full, lovely, cartons of Pall Malls. ”

“Goddamn, ” Mutt said reverently. “How’d you manage that one? ”

“C’mere an’ I’ll show ya. ” Proud of his exploit, Szabo led Daniels to one of the battered houses on the south side of 111th Street, then down into the basement. It was dark down there, and full of cobwebs. Mutt didn’t like it worth a damn. Dracula seemed right at home; he might have been in a Transylvanian castle.

He started stomping on the floor. “It was somewhere right around here, ” he muttered, then grunted in satisfaction. “There. You hear that? ”

“A hollow, ” Daniels said.

“You betcha, ” Szabo agreed. He flicked on his Zippo, lifted up the board, pointed. “Lined with lead, too, so it don’t get wet in, there. ” He reached in, pulled out a couple of cartons, and handed them to Mutt. “Here, these are the last ones. ”

The precious tobacco had disappeared into Daniels’ pack by the time he went outside again. He didn’t know whether Dracula was telling the truth, but if he tried putting the arm on him this time, he was liable never to see any more bounty.

“I want to jam a whole pack in my face all at once, ” he said, “but I figure the first drag’ll be enough to do for me-or maybe do me in, I ain’t had one in so long. ”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, ” Szabo said. “It’s been a while even for me. ” Mutt gave him a sharp stare at that-had he been holding out on other finds?  — but Szabo just gazed back, bland as a preacher. Mutt gave up.

Suddenly he grinned and headed off to a brick cottage a few hundred yards north of the front lines. The house had a big red cross painted inside a whitewashed circle on the roof and a red cross flag flying on a tall pole above it to show the Lizards what it was.

Before Mutt got halfway there, the grin evaporated. “She don’t even smoke, ” he muttered to himself. “She said as much. ” He stopped, kicking a stone in irresolution. Then he pressed on, even so. “I know what to do with ’em just the same. ”