The road ran south-southwest, then curved slightly more west before turning almost due south. They pulled up next to a tin shack that was obviously some farming building or at least had been. The ramshackle external appearance was completely at odds with the desk full of computers and screens inside the gloomy building. Andrew had spotted a farmhouse to their east just before they reached the shack and wondered why the company headquarters wasn’t set up there and filed that question away until he could ask somebody at some point.

Captain Wright was a slightly rotund, relatively short man balding on top, even though he was probably only thirty or so. The lieutenant saluted.

“Lieutenant Colonel Gray is still not convinced the Japs are going to attack your positions directly. The indications are that their main attack will fall to the east, probably hoping to break through and encircle the town from behind. However, he is not leaving you hanging out to dry entirely. He’s retaining the headquarters company back up the road, ready to deploy if needed in your support, and he sent you Private Harris here along as a reinforcement.”

Captain Wright did not look overly impressed with this information.

“Is this some sort of joke?”

“Harris here is one of Greaves’ people. She deliberately assigned him to this flank because, according to him, he is the next strongest mentalist after Greaves even though he’s only just arrived at the front.”

The Captain studied his new reinforcement with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Then he frowned.

“Only just arrived at the front, eh? Where were stationed before that?”

Here we go, Andrew thought to himself.

“Boot camp at Singleton.”

The Captain swung around to face the grinning Lieutenant Frost.

“Is the Colonel’s idea of a joke, Frost?”

The Lieutenant didn’t appear to be intimidated by the captain’s ire. He was slow to wipe the mirth off his face as he answered Captain Wright.

“Well, he doesn’t seem to think you’re going to be attacked, but Captain Greaves thought you needed mentalist support,” he waved at Andrew. “She’s over on the east side.”

“Jesus Christ!”

The Lieutenant drew himself up at attention and saluted. “I need to report back to headquarters, Captain. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Shit! Yeah, piss off Frost.”

The Lieutenant gave a very sloppy salute and disappeared out the door. Captain Wright stared after him for some considerable time before he finally wheeled around and studied Andrew.

“So you’re a brand-new mentalist, are you?”

“I’m a brand-new soldier, sir. Not a brand-new mentalist.”

This response caused the Captain’s eyes to narrow.

“To me, you appear to be a waste of time. However, I’m willing to listen for a few moments if you can tell me what you can do for me.”

“That depends on the tactical situation, sir. If you are convinced the Japs are about to attack your positions here, first, I would need to look at a map so I can see the tactical situation, sir. Any intel on where their mentalists are would be helpful as well, sir.”

The lieutenant marched forward, came to attention, and saluted as did Andrew, and they received a lazy return salute from the man with Lieutenant Colonal’s insignia on his collar behind the desk.

“So what’s Michael’s problem now, Geoff?” He asked the Lieutenant after a moment.

“The Captain is convinced that the japs are about to launch a major assault directly on our part of the front, sir. Apparently, half the Japanese army has deployed in front of us, sir.”

“I seriously doubt half their army has deployed in front of us.” He turned his attention to Andrew. “And who are you?”

“Private Andrew Harris, sir. Captain Greaves told me to report to you.”

The man behind the desk eyed Andrew with a speculative look on his face. “One of Greaves’ people, eh? Your uniform looks fairly spiffy; how long have you been at the front?”

“I just got here, sir. I just finished training, sir.”

“Did you now? And why did the good captain send you to me?”

“She seems to think the Japanese are about to assault our positions in this area, sir. She’s gone over to the eastern flank and sent me to you.”

“So she thinks they’re about to attack too, hmmm. And their main attack will be over to the east.” The Lieutenant Colonel muttered as if talking to himself.

“I wouldn’t count on that, sir. She sent me here because I’m the best she has.” Andrew offered and then realized he should probably have kept his mouth shut.

Gray leaned back in his chair and glared at Andrew.

“You’re straight from boot camp.” He said finally.

“Yes, sir. I’m still the best she has.”

Gray snorted but nodded as well. “I like a man who has confidence in himself. Geoff. Run him out to Michael and tell him that I am taking his warnings seriously and have sent him reinforcements.”

At this point, he waved a hand at Andrew in a languid manner. The Lieutenant laughed.

“Righto, sir. Come on, Harris. I’ll run you up to the front line.”

The Lieutenant gave a lazy salute to his superior, but Andrew didn’t feel he should follow suit and instead came to attention and gave the Lieutenant Colonel a proper salute. That worthy glanced at him, gave what could be generously described as a return salute, and turned his eyes back to the paperwork on his desk. The lieutenant was already nearly out the door, so Andrew had to hustle a little to keep up with him. They piled into the Emu and were soon haring back down the road from the direction the car had come originally. The Lieutenant made a show of concentrating on the road, so Andrew held his peace.

It could well be that the Lieutenant was one of those people who were heavily biased against the genies. Andrew had been brought up hearing about the way many people are biased against those with genetic engineering, which was one of the reasons his father was so against him using his magic, but he didn’t have a lot of first-hand experience with that sort of bias himself.

“I’m thinking that we should arrest you as a spy. You’re probably here to assassinate the Colonel.” The one on the left said.

“Yeah. No orders. Just wants to walk straight into the joint.”

Andrew crossed his arms over his chest and studied the two men. If they made the list attempt to arrest him, they would find out that he wasn’t just any old private.

“You two are getting funnier all the time. You know that, don’t you?”

The one on the left went to sling his assault rifle, but Andrew waved a finger at him.

“You don’t want to be doing that, fella.”

The soldier hesitated before Andrew was faced with trying to work out how to re-respond to them pointing their weapons at him, another vehicle pulled up. The vehicle was a militarized version of the Emu 4×4 made by Macedon Motors, which was one of the more popular off-road vehicles on the Ostrayan market. It was painted in the usual green and brown camouflage colors and had military markings on the front and back bumper bar, body reinforcement panels, and roof racks. An officer hopped out of the driver’s side and strode towards the three men who had stopped their now heated discussion to observe the arrival of the Emu.

The officer, a Lieutenant Andrew saw, nodded the two idiots, glanced at Andrew, and made to walk into the building but then stopped and turned to look at Andrew again.

“I don’t recognize you. Who are you?”

“Private Andrew Harris, sir. I was told to report to Lieutenant Colonel Gray, sir.”

“Orders?”

“Only verbal ones from Captain Greaves, sir.”

The man’s eyes open slightly. “You’re one of her people?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Right. Come with me, and I’ll take you to the Colonel.”

The Lieutenant strode off inside the building, and Andrew managed to get in a smug smile at the two idiots at the door before following him. The building had clearly housed an industrial operation before the invasion but was now fully given over to military activities. There was a maintenance bay along the right-hand side of the complex with several vehicles and APCs being worked on. Andrew guessed that most of the left-hand side of the building had been empty originally as well, but the small office area at the left front had been expanded backward nearly the whole length of the building.

The Lieutenant marched straight past what had to be the secretary or orderly’s desk, the occupant turning her head to watch them walk past without saying a word, merely nodding to the Lieutenant as he strode past. There was a short corridor dividing the two sections of such offices, the old ones and the new ones, by the look of it that he headed down, and at the far end, there was a door on the left at which he stopped, looking back to make sure Andrew was behind him and then knocked on the door and entered. Inside was a drab office with two metal chairs off to one side and a large metal desk in the center with a dark-haired man in his forties sitting behind it. To the left, there was a large map on the wall of the immediate area that Andrew thought was showing the dispositions of the Ostrayan forces in the area with a few not-so-clear markings on the map, which from their position on the map, he felt showed the invaders positions.

Chapter 9

Front lines

The vehicle that drove up was indeed a car rather than a military vehicle. A car that the army had requisitioned then had some splashes of green and dark brown paint applied over the original paint, and army insignia stuck on to turn it into an army vehicle. He trotted to the car and, spotting people in the front, opened the back door. There was a private in the back seat on the far side of the vehicle who nodded and smiled.

“Eighth Battalion?”

“Yeah, mate,” Andrew answered and settled into his seat. He started putting on his seat belt, and the fellow grinned.

“Hey, Andy. This guy must’ve heard about your driving already!”

This comment produced a snort from the front passenger and an upraised middle finger from the driver.  The car took off a fair clip, and Andrew quickly decided that his fellow backseat passenger’s implied assessment of the driver’s style of controlling a vehicle wasn’t that far off. They headed southwest and then south out of the built-up area and raced south along some main road for a distance before pulling over to the left and stopping in front of an industrial building.

“HQ is in there, mate.”

“Ok. Thanks, guys.” Andrew replied and hopped out.

The car barely waited long enough for him to shut the door before it took off in a cloud of dust from the driveway. Andrew shook his head bemusedly and turned towards the entrance to the industrial area. He supposed the couple of fellows standing at the entrance could be seen to be on guard, although their slovenly stance was at odds with the crisp men on guard at every other military base he had visited since volunteering.

“Private Harris. I was told to report to Lieutenant Colonel Gray.”

“That’ll be to the Lieutenant Colonel himself, will it private?”

Andrew couldn’t decide which way to jump at this point in the face of their rather odd manner.

“Can you direct me to his office, please?”

“Hey Frank, he said please, and everything.” The one on the left said to the one on the right.

“Straight out of boot camp, I reckon. Look at his uniform, looks like it only came out of the packing two days ago.”

“Yeah, you’re right, mate. You’re just out of boot camp, aren’t you, sport?”

For some reason, Andrew felt embarrassed about having to admit that he was straight out of boot camp.

“Yeah. I am. Captain Greaves assigned me to the eighth Battalion and told me to report to Lieutenant Colonel Gray. I have the right place, don’t I?”

The one on the left shook his head. “Privates don’t report to the CO, maggot. Which company you assigned to?”

“I’m not assigned to any company. I’m assigned to the Eighth Battalion.”

“What’ya orders say?” The one on the right asked.

“I don’t have written orders. I have a verbal instruction from Captain Greaves to report to Lieutenant Colonel Gray. Is he in here?” Andrew said, nodding towards the building that they were ostensibly guarding.

He was gradually becoming quite sick of these two galahs. Lead to smart alecs looked at each other and grinned momentarily before turning their attention back to Andrew.