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Stories from the Verse
Spy Verses
Chapter 75: Kondor 115
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 74: Slade 113
“Well, we’re out,” Kondor said, “but we could not have asked for worse weather for it.”
“What do you mean, my lord?” Shella asked. “It’s a beautiful day. I expect it will be sunny but not too warm for our hike.”
“Indeed,” he answered. “This kind of warfare is usually conducted on sunny days. We already saw that when the fog rolled in, they stopped shooting at each other, because they couldn’t see well enough to make it worth the effort. They might fight in the rain, but not with the kind of aggression we saw before. Sunshine and clear skies means troop movements and artillery battles, and we’re trying to cross the battlefield.”
“Are we?” Slade asked.
“What do you mean, are we?” Kondor answered. “We’re headed back to the bunker, right?”
“Well, I’m sure we’d like to pick up the things we left; but we’re out at the moment, and if we can find a reasonably sheltered location we might be able to talk about what we’re going to do next. It really wasn’t the sort of thing we could discuss back at General Vargas’ camp, and honestly we were unattended for such a short time after leaving the hospitality of Colonel Mlambo behind that we never really got to say much of anything to each other. We’re a few miles from the front; the tales about you have spread among the whites such that at this point they probably aren’t going to bother us if they find us. We should probably travel laterally behind the lines for some distance and make camp, then figure out where we’re going tomorrow.”
Slade was making sense again. That always bothered Kondor; he did not usually think his companion that bright, and it bothered him to be reminded that someone who believed in gods could also make intelligent suggestions. He nodded his assent. “So, which way then? You saw the maps.”
“Yeah, and it’s not the first time I wished I had a camera, but what can you do? I think this way takes us to a ridge that might provide shelter that doesn’t appear to be in use for an artillery position at the moment, so that’s as good a guess as any.”
“Lead on, then,” Kondor said, and Slade did.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #243: Verser Redirects. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
