Solo

Breed. ‘You don’t have enough men.’
    Breed had explained the problem. Eighty per cent of the Dahumian army faced the Zanza Force advance astride the transnational highway that led to Port Dunbar. That’s where the tanks were, and the artillery. It was a stand-off that could be maintained forever, each army waiting for the other one to blink. Consequently most of the action in these later stages of the war consisted of skirmishes as Zanza Force units explored other routes into the rebel heartland. Breed and his flying columns were able to confront and repel any of these secondary thrusts – they were more aggressive in their soldiering and they had the power of the fetish priest and his juju on their side, whereas the Zanzari soldiers could only be persuaded to muster on the promise of free beer and cigarettes. Bond had seen the consequences with his own eyes that morning. Dahum’s hinterland was now so small that sufficient troops could be rushed here and there to repel any new attempt at incursion. Except today they had been caught out – Breed’s mercenaries and two heavily armed companies were chasing fleeing Zanzaris through the forest. And in the meantime Kololo had fallen.
    Breed took the binoculars from Bond.
    ‘I suppose we could try and blow the causeway,’ he said vaguely, peering out over the swamp.
    ‘That’s no good. You have to retake Kololo.’
    ‘Oh yeah, good idea. Why didn’t I think of that? That’s easy, man.’
    ‘You have to be on the other side of the causeway. Dug in back in the village.’ Bond gestured at the troops huddling behind their barricade. ‘Look at your guys. Wait until the MiGs get here. They’ll blow you away.’
    Breed turned and looked at him resentfully.
    ‘So what do you suggest, General?’
    Bond shrugged. ‘It’s not my war – you’re the one getting the big pay cheque. But you’re going to be in real trouble if you let them get established this side of the causeway.’
    Breed swore and spat on the ground. Bond could see he was worried.
    ‘Have you any second line you could defend back up the road? Another creek, a bridge?’
    ‘No,’ Breed said. ‘We could fell some trees, I suppose.’
    ‘Then you’d better get your axes out,’ Bond said, reclaimed the binoculars and surveyed the panorama in front of him again. There was no way around the swamp that the causeway traversed. On the Dahumian side of the swamp he could see that a deep artificial gully had been dug – probably some old flood-prevention device. An idea was forming in his head. He might be able to apply some useful advantage here, he thought. This situation might just be the opportunity he was waiting for.
    ‘I’ve got an idea,’ Bond said. ‘But I need to know what firepower we have.’
    He and Breed slithered down from the bluff to the makeshift positions occupied by the soldiers who had fled Kololo. Bond saw at once that any resistance would be purely token. The Saracen alone would brush them aside and then the troops following the armoured car would have a field day.
    Bond surveyed the offensive possibilities. There were two 4.1-inch mortars with a couple of boxes of bombs and one heavy .50-calibre machine gun. Then he saw about a dozen galvanised buckets with curious bulbous lids on them.
    ‘What’re they?’ Bond asked.
    Breed sneered. ‘They’re our Dahumian home-made piss-poor landmines. They call them “Adeka’s Answer”.’
    ‘Do they work?’
    ‘They go off with a hell of a bang. Huge percussion – burst your eardrums, make your nose bleed, maybe up-end a small vehicle. Saracen’ll drive right over it.’ Kobus sneered. ‘You’ve got a big charge of cordite. I told them to fill the rest of it with nails and bolts – cut people up – but nobody listens to me.’
    ‘They may just be perfect,’ Bond said, thinking, remembering.
    ‘So what do we do, wise guy?’ Breed said, with heavy mockery. He was increasingly worried, Bond could see. Any move that threatened Janjaville meant the end of the war. ‘Go on, genius. What do we do?’
    ‘If I tell you,’ Bond said, ‘there’s one condition.’
    ‘I don’t do “conditions”,’ Breed said.
    ‘Fine. All the best of luck to you and your men.’ He turned and began to walk away.
    ‘All right, all right. What condition?’
    Bond stopped and Breed approached.
    ‘If I show you how to get back into Kololo,’ Bond said, ‘then you have to get me a meeting with Adeka.’
    Breed looked at him –