Debacle!
Cutting in through the chatter of Psychlos in the convoy, but clearly heard because of its high pitch, the piping voice of Bittie said, “There’s nobody left here speaks Russian! Sir Jonnie! There’s nobody to tell the Russians anything!”
“What’s happened?” barked Jonnie.
“Sir Jonnie, the tank shots wiped out the command post here! Sir Robert and Colonel Ivan and the coordinators are knocked out! I was under a tarpaulin pile. I would have told you sooner but”—a wail—“I couldn’t find my radio!”
Then static and a babble of Psychlo voices on the same wavelength.
Jonnie swung the flying platform north of the ravine and behind it, using it for protection.
Below in the ravine the jammed convoy clogged the road. It couldn’t turn. It couldn’t escape. But neither could they fire into a
