I read once that wars aren't worth fighting, that they only lead to pain and suffering of all involved. Maybe so, but it doesn't stop us from having them. And somebody told me that some battles, you just can't win. Maybe so, but it doesn't stop us from trying.

"Company, stand down," we can all hear the grave tone of our fearless leader before the words fully imprint themselves in our brain.

I took advantage of the split second where the gunfire halted, and the wind whistled through our bones. The drummer could be heard, echoing even though the sticks had frozen in shaking hands. Crepe Myrtle flowers drifted softly downward, soaring despite the chaos around them. The birds were all gone; animals know when to leave. Why don't humans know too?

"Company, stand down," the order vibrated in the summer air for a moment before we listened, "it's over."

I thought about Father Francis, who had come with us to pray over every battle. At dawn, back at camp, he had muttered some prayers before rushing to the main tent. We didn't think much of an old man's ramblings when he told us not to go. After all, what would a reverend know about war? Had he stuffed his rifle with bullets, set his aim dead straight, and fired with the intention to take a life? Had we not sniffed powder in bloody Monday air and inhaled the still-smoking, always-burning flesh of a town after a riot? Did we not train for this battle, the-end-all of all previous battles? Was this not the day we had waited for, yearned for like a soft touch, lusted after? Did we not look with pride in our eyes, hope in our minds, dreams in our palms, and plans drilled into our temples, to the rising sun that tasted of victory? Didn't we know better than him?

Memphis stood up from his crouch, "But, sir, the enemy is approaching! We almost had them-"

"Be silent! I'm your superior, and you'll do as I say, when I say. Stand down."

So we stopped. We stopped because Memphis was a private, and we were just infantry. Who were we to argue with the big boss? We dropped our guns and our pride on the mushy ground that infiltrated our boots like soldiers to an enemy line. Then, one shot rang over the horizon, barreling towards the captain. A sputter left his thinnly pressed lips, but we couldn't hear even if he had said anything coherent. Sometimes, even Goliath falls.

The peace was gone, the boundary between men and beast severed, all ties to honor and loyalty smashed under the enemy's boots, our lines had broken. The birds would not return to their nests for a long time. Gun smoke and sweat and blood filled my lungs. But I was in good company to die.

The sky is grey with smoke and ash

We need to cover our faces because,

The air is hard to breath with the lingering gas

The wind carries the sound of screams

Everthing seems like a nightmare

The worlds dying or so it seems

We lay head down in our trench

We try to stand up and stay brave

We fight strong beside the French

We stare as we destroy our own broken towns

We watch our own men in gas drown

Our General then screams “Company, stand down”

“Get up, you bloody waste of space.”

“Here now, ‘fire hour’ has just ended.”

“Company, stand down.”

“Right, what’s for lunch?”

“You say lunch, lad? Hasn’t been anything good for months.”

“Mail call, chums.”

“Here, from Evelyn?”

“Idiot, that one’s mine, you bloke.”

“Dearest Henry, I am so happy to hear of your acquisition…”

“Oh, that’ll make the lonesome chaps broke.”

“Has anyone seen the captain?”

“Up there, lad, round the third bend, take first left.”

“Careful, there are snipers.”

“Bloody- Filthy mud.”

“You see that?”

“Blimey, here comes Fritz!”

“Stand down, lieutenant, it’s only our wounded.”

“Bloody idiots, it’s daytime.”

“Make way!”

“Hand it here, lad.”

“Proceed down-trench, over there.”

“Oh, ohh, ah.”

“It’s all right, lad; you’re safe now.”

“Nice job, laddie.”

“I’ll go escort.”

“No, you won’t, we need you here.”

“A little help? The machine gun is stuck.”

“Right, lad, where do you want it?”

“Left, it needs to be pointed left.”

“Wesley, we’re going out, want to catch a prisoner or two?”

“You’re bloody insane.’

“George needs a promotion, says a prisoner will get it for him.”

“He’s wrong.”

“I know, but gives us something to do.”

“Oh, look, here come the Loamshires.”

“New ones, too.”

“Half of ’em will be dead in the week.”

“Yes, more rations for us, I suppose.”

“I’ll see you, James, the company has been called back.”

“Right, good fortune.”

“Here comes Newman.”

“No blessing better than a walking wounded.”

“Charles, Francis, Edward; you’re up for wire repair tonight.”

“Yes, lieutenant.”

“Cards, anyone?”

“What we playing?”

“‘Black jack?’”

“Oy, I want a look through the periscope.”

“No you don’t.”

“Oh, let him have it, Peter. Nothing is better than the look on a new soldier’s face when they see what they have to put up with.”

“Ha, ha! Shows your bravery!”

“Shut up, bloody moron.”

“Careful, lad. Not too many new soldiers out here.”

“Hear about Milton?”

“How’d he go?”

“Shrapnel.”

“Oh.”

“Ah!”

“Ohh.”

“Ah! Ahhh!.”

“Lieutenant, another shell, we have casualties.”

“Count ’em up, let’s go. Friedrich, find the stretcher bearers.”

“Yes, lieutenant.”

“Oh, God, it’s John.”

“He’ll be fine.”

“It’s a chest wound.”

“Fifth Company, let’s go.”

“Third Company, on watch!”

“Jesus! Look at the star shells.”

“Fritz must be looking for us.”

“Was there an advance?”

“No, just wire repair.”

“Can’t see the bloody stars anymore.”

“’It’s a long way, to go. It’s a long way, to Tipperary, to the…'”

“Pipe cleaners, lad?”

“I have none?”

“Oh Hell, here comes the shelling again.”

“Hey, Isaac’s back.”

“How’s your head wound?”

“Better.”

“Evidently, if you’re back here. Sorry lad.”

“What was that?”

“Oh, there goes one of the Loamshires.”

"Right, goodnight, lads."

"Ha! That's a good one."

"Send word to Mary, for me."

"Will do."

"Oh, like you'll live to see that happen."

"See you in the morning."

"Or not."

The brisk scent of freshly laundered armor hung in the heavily re-circulated air as stillness fell around the water cooler.

The entire sixth division of ACCEL-CORE stood at attention, their suits pressed to perfection, their desks polished to a shine. Not a keyboard sat askew, not a cell phone lay unmuted. Only a few mugs of coffee steamed in the dug out cubicles, the gleam of creamer shining under the bright overhead LCD.

Their general faced them from the corner office, eyes burning with passion. “Company, stand down.” she called, her grey hairs wrapped tightly into a bun. One by one they took their swiveled seats, eyes raised to the whiteboard.

“This, ladies and gentlemen, is our fourth quarter,” she spoke, her words ringing across ten-keys and file folders. “I don’t need to tell you what this means. This is our final chance to advance on our stockholders, show them that we are made of sterner stuff than those asshats in Reno.” Her hands folded neatly behind her, her glasses glinting cold. “If you want to keep that cushy 401K I suggest you each dig deep. There are no limits to overtime. No excuses for missed quotas.” With a loud crack her pointer extended to the graph. “Sales were up 40% last year. That was last year. You greenhorns should have more experience now. I want at least 55% before Christmas or you can kiss those year-end bonuses goodbye.”

Nerves shot with caffeine squirmed under the heavy atmosphere, but not a single worker moved.

“Now I don’t want to lie to you. Some of you may not be with us next year.” Her eyes scanned the crowd, boring into each individual like a hawk seeking prey. “That’s part of corporate life. You’re not happy little drones working till next payday, you’re well-honed machines aiming for promotion in five years. Whether you last that long is up to you.” Returning to her whiteboard, her pointer cracked again. “A - B - C - what do we mean?”

″Always Be Closing!” the room barked in unison.

“Excellent. I’ll keep this brief, since time is money. Anyone who has any questions, see me in my office. I don’t have patience for passive-aggressive emails or interoffice memos. You know your tasks. Do them.” With a nod, she finished, “Back to work.”

The sounds of rapid type fire rang through the open office layout. Within minutes the blares of ringing phones, the rattle of paper sheaths, and the angry shouting at computer screens rose up like a symphony of battle.

Inside her acoustically isolated corner office, the general sank into leather and sipped her espresso, smiling in victory.

They would hit their quotas, by God - or die trying.

A little background...

This takes place in a different timeline, one where WWI ended a lot later, so, little in the way of tech, apart from things gathered by the main character, Eric, who’s travelled to quite a few timelines over the years, including one with amazing tech.

The army was called in to help with a serious situation and as they’re there anyway, they allowed Eric and a few of his friends to train with them for a while. Greg, Ian, Phil, Eric, Diah and Yi-erwu are not signed up. The rest are, though some, like Scroggs, are recruits in mid training.

* * *

They’d just returned from breakfast when the corporal stalked into the camp. “Prepare for deployment! All of one section. Briefing at oh nine hundred hours.”

“Oh, God.” Diah grinned. “This had better be good.”

“Hope so. I really loved that last exercise we did. We’re being briefed this time!”

Diah nodded. “Apparently the first time out on hard labour, when I saw two section march past, they were off on a full week combat exercise.”

Eric started to undress, to stow away his uniform and gather his combats. “A week in the field!” He sighed. “This is picking up quite a bit now, innit?”

“About fuckin’ time, too!”

The next hour was spent triple checking everything in their webbing and large packs was in order, checking out field rations, enough for three days. The weather? Overcast but currently dry and, being the beginning of August, ideal for a camping trip.

Before the briefing commenced, they queued outside the armoury, each called in individually.

“Siyisan!”

Eric marched in and snapped to attention.

“Magazines, times four. That one, live, the other three, blank. Store them separately. Handgun clips, times two, all blank. Smoke grenades, times four. Sign here.”

“Yes, sarnt!” Eric counted, looked at the sheet and satisfied everything listed was present and signed.

“You know how to use these grenades?”

“Pull the pin and chuck it?”

“Make sure you chuck it far enough. Twenty feet is the minimum safe distance for these. They do explode, just not with the intensity of a real one. Still hurt like hell if you get caught in the blast radius though. They won’t cause much injury, but my god they hurt.”

“And if one of them gets chucked my way by the enemy, duck and cover?”

“Or if you think you’ve got time, kick it back at ’em. They’re on a five second fuse so do not attempt to pick a live one up and lob it. You’ll likely lose a few fingers. Your boots’ll offer you enough protection if it goes off mid-kick.”

Eric stored his ammo, clipped the grenades to his webbing belt, snappily about turned and marched out of the tent.

“Smith!”

Bobby Smith marched past Eric with a grin.

Eric joined Diah. “It gets better and better, look!” he prodded his belt.

“Fuckin’ ell? They’re issuing hand grenades?”

“Smoke. Still pack a punch if they go off too near, though.”

“So, we’re actually going to be going on the attack?”

“It certainly looks like things are swinging that way.”

“Stephens!”

Diah nodded and marched into the tent.

The moment the last was equipped they made their way to the chapel tent to find a large table had been set up with a map. Three more folded maps lay at the side.

“Right you lot. This mission is a longer one. One week, full battle readiness for the whole period. Your job? Everything. Planning, surveillance, intelligence gathering, more planning and execution. You will locate the enemy, infiltrate and attack. Your goal? Identify their base, secure any documentation from within it, destroy the base and return with the minimum of casualties.

They have it in their power to capture you and if that happens, name, rank and serial number only. They will be abiding by all the tenets of the Geneva convention so they will not be permitted to torture, starve or otherwise force information out of you. They can interrogate. Some techniques can be very tricky and they can often gain intelligence just by the lies you tell, by comparing them with the lies other P.O.W.s tell.”

Eric nodded. “And if all you ever say is name, rank and serial number, there are no lies, corporal.”

“Exactly. Everywhere within a four mile radius of the first ruined mill in Congleton is enemy territory. You will not engage with any civilian, you will not steal from any civilian either, whether that’s a house or a turnip from a farm. This is not just an exercise in battle tactics, it’s an exercise in survival in the field. You have three days of rations and enough teabags and Bovril cubes to keep you going for one week. Any other food can be gained by stealing from the enemy or foraging, trapping and hunting.

One of your magazines contains live ammunition. It’s clearly marked with red paint at the top end. That will of course be hidden when inserted into the weapon so, and I’m warning you now, if any of you fuck up on this you will be brought up on charges and could spend the rest of your life in the glass’ouse. You never fire even in the general direction of human being with live rounds on home ground unless we’re being invaded. Animals and birds only and I don’t mean chickens in a chicken coop or cows in a field. Extra vigilance. Ensure blank ammo is always engaged unless you’re hunting. The moment the hunt ends, the weapon is cleared and blanks reinserted. Understood?”

“Yes, corporal!” issued from each and every one of them.

“Stephens. Your radio bracelet thing. Give it to me.”

Diah removed it and handed it over. Eric took his off too.

“Siyisan, yours, you keep. Emergencies only and the only bracelet you contact is this one. All other technology, leave behind. If your plant identification skills prove to be inadequate, one of you might end up poisoning everyone. Under no circumstances will you use that bracelet for anything but such a poisoning. Any other injury, you can make a bloody stretcher and carry the wounded back yourselves. You’ve all been taught first aid.”

“Yes, corporal!”

“Myself and my second and third will not be accompanying you. We, instead, will be in charge of supply dumps here, here and here!” Hewitt prodded the map in three places. On it, a symbol to indicate such dumps. “There, you will be permitted more rations if you’re within reach of us. If not, tough, you’ll have to fend for yourselves. We will also provide extra ammunition. I’m warning you now. Canning will be out in the field observing your performance and he’s not the only one.

Siyisan, Stephens and Scrogg, step forward!”

All three did.

“For the purpose of this exercise which goes by the incredibly imaginatively entitled operation land rover”

Eric and Diah sniggered.

“Silence! What’s so funny about that?”

“Sorry corporal.” Eric squashed his mirth and tried his best to keep a straight face. “It’s a famous model of motor vehicle back there, corporal. Very good on rough ground.”

“Hmm, good name. Anyway, for the purposes of operation land rover, you three are full screws.” Hewitt slapped down a pile of armbands with corporal stripes on them. “As there’s only twenty of you in total however, you will only select one lance corporal as your second, you will not select a third. You will bang your heads together and come up with a viable strategy now and the rest is entirely up to you. Unless you break the law or illegally fire a live round, the rest… Nothing to do with us. Seek, locate, infiltrate, destroy. That’s your mission and all intelligence currently available is on that table.”

Diah stuck his hand up.

“Yes?”

“Does breaking the law include poaching, corporal? If we’re meant to feed ourselves, even wild rabbits could be considered that. I know that from other prisoners, corporal.”

“The army’s exempt from the poaching laws, Stephens. Well, anything fox sized or smaller and wild is fair game. Killing pets and domesticated animals, deer or swans, totally off the cards… Well I did say no theft. Feel free to take as many rabbits and wood pigeons as you can carry.”

And with that, Hewitt about turned and marched out of the tent.

“Oh!” He said, poking his head in again. “And if there’s even a hint of any of that… other stuff, Siyisan, you’ll lose your pub time for a month and you will be watched!”

Eric nodded. “Quite right, corporal. Wouldn’t dream of it, corporal!”

Scrogg stared at the tent flap in shock. “So… I’m commanding you lot?”

Long smirked. “Some of us. you’ll have to divide us up between you, of course. And don’t expect us to do anything off our own initiative. None of our experience will help. We’re raw recruits like you lot for this one. We follow your orders.”

“But… But I wouldn’t know where to start!”

“That’s why there’s three of you. You three plan, you select your groups and 2ICs. We just do as we’re told.”

He gulped. “Fucking hell… Talk about being chucked in at the deep end!”

“That’s the whole point. See how you handle it. How you handle not only command but coming up with a decent plan and carrying it out to the end. All part of the training.”

Eric nodded. “Long, you’re mine. 2IC. And I’ll take Wilson, Vaughn, Silvers, Cartwright and Keen. We’ll be Able group.”

Scrogg jumped. “Bloody hell. OK then. Err… Unless you want to pick next, Diah, I’ll take what’s left.”

Diah chuckled. “You need to be a bit more assertive. You’re a corporal for the next week. I would’ve leapt in but Eric caught me by surprise. OK, Unsworth, you’re my second and I’ll take Tanner, Kilburn, Wheeler, Brown and Eve. We’ll be Boy group. Seems appropriate.”

A few of them chuckled.

“Right then. That leaves me with… Errr… Sorry, I’ve not been here long enough to learn all your names.”

Diah sighed. “You’ve only been here one hour less than me, y’know. I remember ’em. You’ve got Sanders, Bevan, Smith, Cartwright and Winterbottom. You just need to choose your second.”

“But that leaves me one down!”

“It was your choice to pick up the leftovers, don’t start complaining now.”

Eric smirked. “I’ve got an idea about the odd number anyway. If you can lose Kilburn and I lose Silvers, five each then.”

The other Eric looked at him in shock. “You don’t want me in a group?”

“I said I had an idea, didn’t I? Eric, you’re a bloody good runner. The only one better is me and I can’t do it cos he gave me two stripes this time. You two… Runners. We need to be able to communicate and don’t fake being crap at cammo or the patrol manoeuvres. We’re all good enough at them and we fooled two section at cammo when we had that first exercise.”

“You… You fooled… What? All of ’em?”

“Trust me, if I’d been an enemy, I could’ve shot the whole lot of them in the back while they were failing to find Diah. We buried ’im. Made a decoy with the loose earth we’d dug out while I lay in a ditch by the gate. They totally missed me.”

Both of them went from frown to smile in record time. “Consider it done. How do we find you?”

“How does a section find its other members if they get separated? We put RV points along our planned routes. If a group encounters the enemy, one gets left behind at the next RV to pass the message on while the others follow, hopefully at a safe distance. They should lead us to their base. We need to split up to cover more ground. Five miles is a large area. If we find it, another one bolts to that RV to get the new message out and everyone joins us for recon around it, find out their numbers before we try getting in.”

“Oh god!” Scrogg looked at Eric in awe. “That’s brilliant!”

“Seems to be the only way, if you think about it. If we all stuck together we could spend all week in an extended line searching for them and we’d be fucking obvious doing it. They could bug out and form a new headquarters in an area we’d already searched or take us down. Smaller groups, more ground covered, harder to spot.”

“Right then. Sanders, you’re my second.”

“It’ll be an honour my good man.”

“That’s my good man, corporal!”

“Don’t push your luck too far.” Sanders smirked.

Diah leant on the table. “So, all we need to do is figure out our routes and put the RV points down. Might as well be something identifiable rather than just middle of a field somewhere so we can all find it. I think we need to skirt the enemy zone. Come in from three different directions. Two from the north, one from the south… Well, I say north.”

Diah took his pencil out and looked around the tent. He nodded and grabbed a ruler from a side desk. “Damn, could really do with a protractor to make the segments equal.”

“Give us the ruler, Diah. I’ll do it.”

“Errr… OK…” Diah handed it to Eric. “Do what?”

“This. Draw a line across the middle of the circle for the diameter, mark the middle to get the radius, mark half way along the radius…” With a sweep of the pencil, three lines made their way onto the map. “Bish, bash, bosh, done.”

“How the hell did you know how to do that?”

He rolled his eyes and tutted. “School, eh? We all missed a lot of it but before I left that life behind, I was always helping Greg out with his maths homework.”

“Scrogg. Any ideas to add?” Diah nodded at the map.

“Well, first of all, we might as well mark those three the same. Can’t take that one.”

Eric nodded. “Also, everyone synchronise your watches. Make sure they’re wound.”

“What?” Scrogg looked up from the map. “Why?”

“We want to be precise about some of this. We’ve got no idea what’s in store if or when we do find ’em for one thing and for another, with two runners and a lot of RV points we need to be able to predict which to leave the messenger at for it to be passed on. We’ll be on the move, so, those active RV points will move with us.” He took his out. “Everyone set your watch to mine. Zero nine thirty on my mark.”

He watched the second hand turn, the moment it reached the top. “Mark!”

The rest nodded in unison and put their watches away.

Vaughn looked at Eric and a little suspicion crossed his face. “Are you sure you’re a raw recruit, not someone planted by the officers? Some of the ideas you’re coming up with… Well…”

“Percy, six months ago, I’d never even seen this uniform. Well, not in anything but those old war films anyway.”

Diah sniggered. “Trust us, he’s a lot rawer than I am. Right, so… We just need to assign one segment each and figure out a search pattern so we don’t end up covering the same ground or missing something by going too wide. That can wait until after we plan out what we do about food.”

Scrogg nodded. “Definitely need to think about food. I bet they’ll mark us down if we try to use one of those supply dumps, for a start.”

“That’s a damned good point.” Eric sighed. “I’ve never cleaned or skinned a rabbit. Never plucked a goose or pigeon either, but that seems to be what they have in mind. Warning right now. I read about some of the early explorers in America. They caught rabbits aplenty. Never went hungry but still starved to death. Keep that in mind.”

Long stared at Eric as if his head’d fallen off. “I’ve eaten loads of rabbit stew. Never did me any harm!”

“The point is, they only ate the rabbits. They didn’t know back then but you need a hell of a lot more than protein in your diet to keep you healthy. Vitamins, minerals, fat and carbs. Rabbit meat’s almost pure protein. There wasn’t enough of the other stuff so they died of malnutrition. Probably had no idea what was going on, the poor bastards, but when you have rabbit stew, it’s not just rabbit in there. You’ve got all the other good stuff from the other ingredients.”

“So, first day, rations while we hunt.”

“Yeah. Second day, split your rations with what you caught on the first. Maybe a bit of foraging too. Try to catch everything before we enter enemy territory and clean it, but don’t skin it until it’s time to eat. Well, I assume we’ve all had that lesson?”

Winterbottom shook his head. “Why not skin it?”

“You’ve not? Ah, bugger. You’ll have to rely more on the rest of your group. Skin keeps the meat moist and if you let a rabbit hang for a few days before you eat it, the meat’s a lot more tender and tasty. Could be tough as old boots if you eat it straight after the kill. Same goes for squirrels and pigeons, too. If you do need to eat it the same day, cook it for a long time. Maybe even overnight on a simmer.”

He chuckled. “At least we’d have a decent brekky.”

“Have you all got cammo make-up from the NACAB?”

All the newcomers nodded.

“Good. We’ll be shrubs for a week. Lets get these search patterns sorted and figure out where to put the RV points.”

Diah looked down at the map, his eyes widened and he smiled.

“OK, Diah. What are you plotting this time?”

“The maps. Only write what was already on this one when we got to it. Nothing more. We put times and grid references into our notebooks.”

It was Scrogg’s turn to grin. He let out a giggle before he could suppress it. “Or… Oh god that’s better. Mark our maps out with everything, who’s in each group, name of group and name of search area, but everything else… utterly wrong. Nothing else on the maps is accurate or true. Keep the notebooks for the important stuff. RV points by time and grid reference. They can be hidden and destroyed a hell of a lot more easily if we are captured. In fact…”

Eric’s eyes narrowed. “In fact, what?”

“How about one of us get captured with one of the maps?”

“Deliberately? Plant misinformation? Lure them out?”

“Yes! And even better, when they go searching for the RV points on the map, we can be a mile off looking at them from a safe vantage point. Find them and hopefully, get their base when they’re out looking for us!”

Diah looked at Scrogg with a grin. “You’re getting into the spirit now. That’s a bloody good idea, we do a mincemeat on ’em!”

Everyone looked at Diah with confounded expressions. Even Eric.

Diah sighed. “Thought you might know about it, Eric.”

“Know about what? Why mincemeat?”

“Operation mincemeat. They grabbed a body from a morgue, just a vagrant if I remember right. Kitted him out in full officer uniform, planted fake battle plans on him and dumped him in the sea near where they knew the Germans were patrolling. Helped change the course of the war, that did.”

“But we saw the play by play. There was no mention”

“World war two, Eric. Not one. The plans forced the Germans to deploy their troops in the completely wrong place. As a result it opened up southern Europe for our lot.”

“Right! Gotcha. Can’t say I ever paid much attention to the second one considering it never happened here. Didn’t see the point.”

“Right then… Three maps, three potential captives. I think it should be one of us in training rather than you lot. Who volunteers? Can’t be me, Eric or…” Diah chuckled. “Ernie. Only just struck me, that.”

“God, never would’ve occurred to me either.” Eric snorted. “Don’t worry, you lot. Just an other worldy double act. Siyisan and Scrogg certainly has less of a ring to it than Morcambe and Wise though. So… Volunteers.”

Unsworth sighed. “Well, I can’t be map carrier. I’m second to Diah. Shame. Sounds like fun, getting into the thick of it more quickly.”

* * *

Canning, Grant and Jenner stood behind the chapel tent and listened. They spoke in hushed tones as one section plotted within.

“Good god, I want them back in two section. The sooner their training’s complete, the better.”

Grant nodded. “Unbelievable. They’ve even managed to coax a few ideas out of Scrogg.”

Jenner chuckled. “Bloody good ideas too. They might even pull this off!”

“Let’s see how he does once he’s on his own commanding his group, shall we? Hope some of their confidence rubs off on him. I’ve read the reports they brought with ’em. He’d make a damned good soldier if he didn’t keep lingering at the back and letting everyone else take the initiative.”

“Wouldn’t be the first to spend their whole term as a private.” Jenner shrugged. “Mind you, imagine if they all excelled at everything, we couldn’t promote all of ’em. We’d have an army of corporals with only a hundred recruits between us.”

“Very true. Still our job to get the best out of them. To at least give ’em the chance, whether they want to take it or not. Grant. You follow Scrogg. Jenner, Stephens. I’ll take Shit’ouse.”

It was another hour before the three groups left the tent and marched off in different directions. The moment they were out of sight, the three NCOs ducked in to study the map. To see what plans they’d come up with they might’ve missed.

Apart from the map itself, it was blank. Not a pencil mark anywhere on it.

“God, they’re good.” Canning grinned. “Paranoid, true, but that’s good, too. Stop anyone from knowing their plans but them. Let’s get after them, then. Try to stay inconspicuous.”

He bolted out and headed in the direction of Able group.

* * *

Eric led Able group towards Scholar green but instead of heading directly towards Congleton, he turned left towards Alsager. Skirt the enemy territory. Enter from their chosen point of ingress. It was going to be a long patrolling march.

He held his arms up to indicate herringbone pattern and glanced back to see five shrubs cautiously walking behind him in double file, offset by twenty feet, each concentrating on the side of the road they marched down.

They’d moved down for a few minutes when Eric felt a nudge. He looked back and Wilson whispered into his ear.

“Sound from the rear.”

Eric nodded and swept his arms down, palms flat. He inched into the hedge and froze.

A few minutes later a coal laden cart drove past. The man on the bench didn’t bat an eyelid. Clearly they’d camouflaged themselves well enough as he hadn’t spotted one of them.

Half a mile later, Eric swept his arm to the right and made his way through a gap in a hedgerow. The moment everyone was through, he tapped his head and sank to one knee.

“Might as well start on the hunter/gatherer shit. See a woodpigeon or squirrel… Change to live ammo. And let’s have a cuppa before we continue.”

They nodded, unloaded their cooking gear and before long, they were blowing on their mugs.

Eric grinned. “God that was good. He didn’t see any of us.”

Long chuckled. “You’re doing well, Eric.”

Eric nodded. “Thanks. A few miles north. Set up camp outside the area, first night. We should be able to get some rabbits later. They come out at night, don’t they? Dusk’s the best time to shoot ’em?”

“Yeah. We might as well collect some scran from here too. Hedgerows. Good place for a forage. Set up all our snares before we hit the sack. Fingers crossed, we’ll catch a few overnight, too.”

“Right. We need to bag the animals before morning. Lots of them. At least four each, I reckon. We can mix the meat with our rations. Pool them. One ration between three of us.”

Long nodded, tested his tea, took a sip and sighed.

* * *

Diah looked at the rabbit he’d just shot with unease.

Tanner nudged him with a grin. “Well, go on then.”

Diah sighed.

“It’s a necessary skill, lad. You’ve got to learn. More, you’ve got to get used to it. You’ve seriously never caught a rabbit before?”

“Towny. And back there, the towns are huge. The only wildlife we saw were a few rats, the odd urban fox and maybe a feral moggy or two. We had strict gun laws too, so, unless you were in the country and had a shotgun to protect your farm from the odd fox now and then, most people didn’t have ’em.”

“Well get your dagger out and gut it. Once you’ve done it a few times you won’t even think about it anymore and bloody hell rabbit’s good.”

“I could order you to, y’know.”

“You could, but that won’t do you any good, will it?”

Another sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”

He took his dagger from its scabbard, splayed the rabbit on its back and stabbed it just below the breastbone. A swift downward yank and…

“Oh god…”

“You know what to do.”

He took a deep breath, curled his fingers around the edge of the cut and tore the halves wider. Then he turned his head as he thrust his hand into the animal.

“Oh god, it’s still warm!”

“Of course it’s warm, you only killed it five minutes ago.”

Diah gulped, took a few deep breaths, closed his eyes, gripped what was in there and tore out its innards. He tossed the offal to one side without looking at it and heaved when he looked at his hand.

“Oh god, I think I’m”

“Deep breaths, lad. Once you’re used to it, it’ll be second nature. Still got a pigeon to pluck and clean too. The others are handling it fine. Look.”

Diah began breathing much more deeply. He gulped a few times too as the others cleaned their kills with practised ease.

“How many of you lot never did that before the army?”

Tanner, Brown and Wheeler put their hands up.

Wheeler chuckled. “At least you managed to hold it down. I did throw up the first time I did it. He’s right, Stephens. The more you do it, the easier it gets.”

“Thanks.” Diah set the rabbit to one side and began plucking the pigeon.

* * *

Three days of patrols and Ian hadn’t seen any sign of uniform or camouflage other than the men behind him.

They were on a long patrol, venturing out three miles from the base in a wide arc that took hours. He’d expected to engage them by now, but, nothing.

Another field, he held his arms wide to indicate extended line and froze. Movement. The next field along, that bush had just…

He swept his arms to the ground, sank to it himself and patted himself on the head. The rest of his group crawled up to him.

Keeping his voice as low as possible, he pointed.

“Movement. Next field. Three hundred yards, ten o’clock. You two… Skirt that field on the right. You two, on the left. Try to surround the lot of ’em.”

* * *

Cartwright watched from the other side of the hedge and grinned. A harsh whisper. “They’ve spotted you, Eric. They’re making their move now.”

Eric nodded. “Keen, you know what to do. Hand over your notebook.”

Keen nodded and handed it over. “Oh, God this is good. Wonder what they’ll try on.”

“Only one way to find out. We’ll follow at a distance once they’ve got you. Silvers, get to RV point…” He checked his watch and notebook. “RV point Boy 7. Get the message across. We’ll send someone to RV Able 3 once we’ve located their base or bug out to there if we run into difficulties. Once you’re well away, we make our move. Don’t worry Gordon, we’ll try to rescue you.”

He chuckled.

Eric peered through the hedge and the moment Silvers had vanished from sight, he took one of the grenades from his belt, pulled the pin and threw it into the middle of the field.

He muttered “I love it when a plan comes together.” and raised his voice, timing it perfectly. “Enemy advancing! Scatter!”

The moment after those words left his mouth, the grenade exploded filling the field with an acrid yellow smoke.

* * *

“Shit.” Ian muttered, staring at the field. “Attack! Capture them!”

Ignoring the branches of the hedge, he closed his eyes and leapt through, not even bothering to find a gap. The other three under him followed suit. He sprinted onto the field just as another soldier sprinted out of the smoke.

“Oh, fucking ’ell!” The soldier skidded to a halt and turned.

“Freeze!” Ian cocked his rifle. There was the satisfying rattle of three others being cocked as the rest of his group surrounded the soldier.

“Under the tenets of the Geneva convention, you are now a prisoner of war. Drop your weapon!”

He sighed, unslung the rifle and, setting the safety, placed it on the grass.

“And your bayonet, dagger and side arm! You will be taken to our headquarters where you will strip, naked. You will be provided with fresh, clean clothing, food and once the red cross packages arrive, a care pack containing food and forms of entertainment. Your clothing will be searched and anything of military or security significance will be confiscated. Only your personal effects will be returned to you. Do you understand?”

“Keen, G. Private, D3018231.”

Ian smirked. “You’re permitted to say yes I understand, y’know?”

“Yes, I understand then!”

“Walker, search him. Get them grenades off him for a start. And those rabbits. Looks like we’re havin’ rabbit stew tonight, lads.”

Lee handed the grenades to Ian and patted Keen down. “What have we here? Your shirt, open it.”

“But”

“Open it! Now! Or I will.”

Another sigh. He unbuttoned his shirt and Lee grabbed the map case hidden within. He opened it and grinned. “Corporal… Look what we have here!”

Keen let out another muted “Oh, fuckin’ ell.” and his chin sank to his chest in misery.

Ian stared at the map and chuckled with glee. “Oh, God, the idiots! This is going to be fuckin’ good. More pub time for two section this time.” He looked at Keen and jerked his rifle to the right. “Now move!”

* * *

Eric sprinted across the field, through to the next, ran around the tree in the middle of it and clambered up to the lowest branches. The rest of Able group caught up a minute later but by then, he was in position and watching the enemy surround Keen, search him and find the map.

He whispered down. “They took the bait. They’re escorting him away in a north-easterly direction. Ten minutes, then we move. Make sure we don’t lose ’em.”

Long glanced back and up at Eric. “What’s their formation?”

“Two at the front, three at the rear, Keen in the middle. He’s unarmed now, they even took his dagger.”

Long nodded. “And when they get there, they’ll take everything else, too.”

“Everything?”

“Naked and given fresh clothing. He won’t see anything military until we get back to camp apart from the uniform of his guard. They’ll let him keep his clacky and any photos of his girl, but apart from that…”

“Right then. If anything goes wrong, this tree can make a decent enough ERV. From here, we can move on to a proper RV to reorganise and plan again. Let’s move out.”

Following them proved to be incredibly easy. Any pretence at concealment had gone right out of the window the moment their first prisoner was taken and two hours later, they began to approach a particularly derelict section of Congleton on the south-west corner of the town. It was an industrial area or had been in its heyday, but now, weeds and collapsed roofs aplenty.

Eric put caution to the wind, drew a circle, pointed at the centre and urged his group forward to get closer as they approached the town, fearful he may lose them in the streets and it was just as well he did. It was a maze of long abandoned factories. Collapsed walls, blocked alleyways and wider streets. Skittering from corner to corner, they spread out as the routes became more varied.

He’d lost them in no time. He dodged, ducked and scurried from corner to corner for another half an hour before he gave up, sighed and bolted back to the last RV point.

* * *

Ian led the prisoner into the abandoned mill, down a couple of dark corridors and into a vast open area.

This had once been a machine room filled from wall to wall with looms, but now, all that remained were a few rotted wooden frames on one side and a lot of holes in the floor where they’d been bolted in place.

In the centre of the room sat a desk and behind it, studying a folder, sat Greg.

He looked up at Ian as he entered and grinned when he saw the soldier behind him.

“You got one? Oh bloody hell, this is good.”

Ian jogged over. “Ever better, he was carrying this. The idiot ran right into our arms after one of them chucked a smoke grenade and Eric yelled Scatter!”

“What is it?”

“See for yourself, corporal.” Ian tossed the map onto the desk.

The moment Greg opened it he let out a howl of laughter. “Oh god, the idiots! They’ve handed us their entire plan, every… oh bloody hell this is good, we’ll get all their pub time!”

Keen let out a yelp. “What do you mean, pub time? Our pub time?”

“That’s our reward for winning this little exercise. You lose yours, we get it. If you win, same thing. Didn’t Hewitt tell you that little detail?”

Keen sagged and he shook his head.

“Ian, send a runner, recall all the patrols. We’ve got a plan to get together, we’ll get all of them!”

Ian nodded at his prisoner. “What about that one?”

Greg pointed at Merriweather. “You, send out the runners.”

“Yes, corporal!” He bolted for the door.

“Ian, take him to his cell. Don’t forget to strip him.”

Ian smirked. “As if, corporal!”

Greg sighed. “Corporal. I like that. Damn I wish it could be forever. Oh, well.”

Ian nodded and escorted Keen out, down to the end of a corridor and into a much smaller room.

“Strip. So, which section commander were you placed under?”

“Keen, G. Private, D3018231.”

“And when does the next RV point on that map become active?”

“Keen, G. Private, D3018231.”

“Never mind, we’ve got everything we need. Now, naked. And when you’re done, hand me the pile. You’ll find your replacement clothing on the bed.”

Keen sighed, stripped and folded his kit.

“Everything! Underpants and socks too.”

Another sigh, he took those off too, muttered something and slogged over to the camp bed.

Ian slammed the door, bolted it and snapped the padlock.

He listened at it for a second and was just walking away when a faint voice filtered through the rotting brickwork. “He’s right. I love it when a plan comes together. We will make mincemeat out of them.”

Ian froze, mouthed “Mincemeat? Oh fuckin’ ’ell!” and bolted back to the main hall.

* * *

“God, are you the only one back?”

Eric glanced up from his mug of Bovril with a grin. “Been waiting for hours. I gave up on the search half an hour after I lost ’em. Any luck?”

Olly shook his head. “It’s a bloody maze, I must’ve lost them about the same time you did. I’m just too stubborn, that’s my problem.”

“Fingers crossed none of the rest of us got nabbed, eh? Water’s still hot if you want a brew.”

Olly sat, unslung his pack and rummaged for his mess kit.

It was a while before the next appeared. Long poked his head through the bush, nodded and squirmed his way through. “Before you ask, no.”

“Oh for… Where the hell have they hidden themselves?”

“They wound their way through a load of streets, ducked behind a wall and I lost ’em. Sorry. I checked all the buildings near where they vanished. No sign.”

Eric sighed. “When the last of us returns, back to the RV to meet up with Diah, eh? We might have more luck with more of us.”

“Don’t give up yet, corporal. Still Vaughn and Cartwright to return.”

“Oh, I’m not giving up. It’ll just be more difficult with dozens of ruins to search, that’s all.”

The next to appear was Cartwright. He sat beside them and dug out his canteen.

Eric glanced across… “Well?”

“Got ’em. I was at the end of an alley, watched them duck around a brick wall. They ducked into a hidden cellar, it came out a bit further into town by that mill.” he pointed at a large chimney with “Pioneer” written down it in faded white paint.

“But…” Eric sighed. “I gave that mill a once over!”

“Probably the wrong end, Eric, we came in from the west. They’re occupying the east end. Building’s too big for them to do much with all of it. I hung back to keep an eye on ’em. Try to get an idea of patrols.”

“And?”

“Men in and out of it every few minutes. Didn’t manage to get a count but that entrance isn’t going to be a safe one. Taken from this end of the building though, possibly. Probably be easier to evade their patrols indoors, too.”

“Right then, the moment Vaughn gets back… Bug out to the RV to wait for Diah and Ernie. He might actually be waiting for us by now.”

* * *

Scrogg crouched by the window of the derelict office and watched. The soldiers in the mill down the street were coming and going at regular intervals. He jotted down the times each one came or went in the hope of finding a pattern and glanced at the rest of Cam group with a grin.

“I can’t believe we found ’em so easily.”

Winterbottom nodded. “So what now?”

“Now? We wait, we watch. Sanders has to get back from the RV. Better to stay here than risk getting caught out there.”

Nods from all three of them.

As they watched, a patrol appeared, the weapons of the rear ones aimed at a disarmed soldier in their midst.

Godwin chuckled and pointed. “Looks like Eric managed to deliver the bait. That’s Keen, isn’t it?”

Scroggs glanced down and smirked. “Oh god… That means Able group must be near, maybe they’ll be watching from the other side of the building!”

It was an hour later when Sanders returned. He looked pale.

“What’s up?”

“We’ve been betrayed. Seems they planted a spy.”

“What?”

“I was nearly at the RV point, saw movement and poked my head through a bush to watch. They were there, talking to Kilburn. They didn’t capture him. He ran off back the way he came, probably to Boy group’s RV.”

“Kilburn?”

“Eric… The other one. The one Siyisan said was a bloody good runner.”

“Shit! You don’t think”

“He’s given us to them? He’s told them where all our real RV points are? Course I fuckin’ think that! Why would they let him go if they got him otherwise?”

“Ahhh, fuck. It’s not safe to warn them either. We try running to Able and Boy RVs now, we’ll get got too! Looks like we’re on our own, lads.”

Sanders sighed and nodded. “You’re getting into this now, aren’t you? Three days ago you were totally lost, but now…”

“Now, we might be able to find a way to do this without the rest of one section. Keep watching, see what happens. When it gets dark, we try to find a way in that isn’t covered by their patrols.”

An hour later, a lot of soldiers began to arrive. Scroggs watched with baited breath as the last of them entered and ten minutes later, five groups of five bolted out of the mill and ran in different directions.

“Fuck, how many of them are there?”

Sanders smirked. “I recognised a few and they weren’t all from two section. Three section seem to be in on it too.”

“What? How many’s that then?”

“Twenty in two, another fifteen in three. If all of them returned that makes about ten still in there.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit… well… unfair? Planting a traitor? We’re still learnin’!”

Sanders shrugged. “It can happen.”

“But really? It’s hard enough without it!”

Godwin chuckled. “They usually like to twist things. We didn’t have a traitor when we did this but they did have… I suppose you could call it a red herring. A fake headquarters and we fell for it. The real one was ten miles away. We didn’t know until we delivered the fake documents.”

“God, really?”

“Keeps you on your toes. Expect the unexpected. Be prepared for anything. Don’t let surprises freeze you. Some do freeze. Indecision. Lack of confidence. That kind of thing.”

“Well I’m fuckin’ well going to show them, the…” Scroggs sighed.

Sanders nudged Godwin in the ribs with a grin. “By jove, he’s got it!”

Scroggs nodded. “And I’m going to use it too!”

As they watched, more emerged, these in pairs. Six of them in total, taking a standard patrol stance, weapon at the ready, looking around, walking cautiously.

“That should leave four in there now, shouldn’t it?”

“It should.” Sanders snapped to attention. “So, what do we do, corporal?”

“I say, sod waiting for the night, keep an eye on where those patrols went first off to avoid ’em and try to find our way in by the back way. Pack up. We’re moving.”

They all nodded and started packing away their mess kit.

Ten minutes later, they were ready. Ernie glanced out of the window one last time and froze.

“Hold!”

“What? What’s up?”

“Look for yourselves.”

A large body of men marched down the main street towards the mill. Ten of them were unarmed with their hands on their heads. They didn’t so much march as trudge despondently.

“They caught ’em! All of Able and Boy groups!”

The captives filed into the mill with guns at their backs.

Scroggs looked down at the scene and a smiled played on his lips.

“What the hell are you smiling about?” Winterbottom stared at Scroggs in surprise. “They got most of us! I bet some of them have their notebooks on ’em too!”

“Oh god, this is good. For us, not for them. First off, look down there…”

“What now?”

“Him!” Ernie’s finger jabbed at one particular soldier at the back of the group just before he vanished into the mill. “That’s Kilburn, isn’t it? He allowed himself to get caught this time. He’s a spy with ’em. Probably there to stop them escaping.”

“Good? How’s that good?”

“If we pull this off now, them two… They won’t be the favourites anymore if we succeed. Even better if we rescue ’em! Not Kilburn though. Him, we tie up and leave there.”

Sanders chuckled. “Good one! Excellent in fact.”

* * *

Phil yanked the door open and pointed. “In.”

Naked with a clothing bundle under his arm, Eric did as he was told, muttering under his breath as the door slammed. A bolt rattled followed by the distinctive click of a padlock.

He dumped the bundle onto the camp bed, unrolled it and held up the shirt. “Thought that was the last I’d see of arrows for a while, an all.”

“Eric? What the hell? How did they catch you?” The voice was whispered and emanated from the end of the room.

Eric rushed over. He lowered his voice too. “Not just me, almost everyone.”

“Everyone?”

Another voice, whispered from the other end of the room. “Everyone but Cam group, yeah.” It was Diah. “Don’t ask me how they found us. You didn’t say anything to them, did you?”

Keen sounded insulted. “Course I fuckin’ didn’t. Just name, rank and serial number, like they said!”

Diah sighed. “Oh well, just have to make the most of it.”

Eric shrugged. “They got us, what more is there?”

“I take it you never bothered with those prisoner of war things then, like Great Escape, Colditz or Hogan’s Heroes?”

“I’ve heard of the first two, not my thing. What the hell’s Hogan’s Heroes?”

“My dad watched it. Made in the sixties. It was on one of them high numbered satellite channels. Comedy set in Stalag Thirteen. An American officer and P.O.W. Constantly getting one over on the Germans. His whole purpose in life was getting people out of Germany, using the prison camp as a cover and the guards were clueless. Eric, what’s the one duty of a prisoner of war?”

“Live with it? Go with the flow? Try to make life as easy as possible?”

“Escape, you idiot! Make your way home!”

Keen sighed. “It’s no use. I’ve tried. I thought the doors in this place would’ve been rotten but it’s solid. I can’t get out. They must’ve put new ones in.”

“Diah, see if you can contact the others.” Eric grinned and stroked his head. “You too Keen. I have a cunning plan.”

“What?” By Keen’s tone he was thoroughly fed up. “I said, I can’t get out, so what’s the point?”

“I can hear you. Both of you. Through a solid brick wall?”

“What do you mean?”

Diah chuckled. “Oh, god that’s good. Do you think you can do it?”

“Not just me, I think we all can. We need to be clever about it though. This is our RV point now. We return here. For the next day or so anyway. Don’t let them know we’re out, we can use our time scouting out the place. Find those documents, their armoury, try to get their numbers.”

Keen’s voice filtered through again. “How? I said, the door’s solid! God, and I thought being the sacrificial lamb might be fun. Boring as shit in ’ere.”

“Dad gave me a little hint when I broke into the jewellers, Keen. Attack the weakest point. In that case it was the hinge side of the door rather than the locked one. This time, it’s the walls. The mortar must be rotten, that’s why we can hear each other. Is that what you were thinking, Eric?”

Eric sniggered. “Spot on. I suppose I’d better get dressed.”

“Me too. One thing, Eric.”

“Diah?”

“When we do escape… Turn your uniform inside out. Everything.”

“What? Why?”

“The arrows are printed on. They only show on the outside.”

Keen began to chuckle too. “Fuckin’ ell! So we don’t stand out as much. How did you come up with that?”

“My first cellmate was inside cos he harboured his brother.”

“Harboured?”

“He escaped from a chain gang, hid in a drainage ditch and turned his clothes inside out so he wasn’t recognised as a prisoner.”

“That’s bloody clever!”

“Not as clever as you’d think. He stayed way too long at Will’s. Even though Will told him to get lost a few times he liked it there. They caught them playing cards together in the cellar.”

Keen sounded much more confident now. “Hang on, I’ll check,” and a much quieter whisper, one too quiet to discern emerged from his wall. “I’ve got Long on the other side of me. He’s seeing who’s next to him.”

“And I’ve got Wilson on the other side of me,” emerged from Diah’s wall.

Eric nodded. “Good. Right then. Here’s the plan…”

* * *

Eric spent two hours working on the walls, removing the rotten mortar and then the bricks to make a hole big enough to crawl through. Each wall he worked on, he replaced the bricks and told them to pass on that advice. Scatter the mortar around the floor too. There was enough plaster and dust on it anyway they wouldn’t notice.

There was a rattle of keys.

Eric shoved the last brick back in place and with a quick sweep of the foot, he sprang to attention in front of his handiwork and faced the door.

The bolt slammed open, the door followed and Phil stepped into the cell, assault rifle at the ready.

“Out.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything. Out.” Phil stepped to one side and motioned with his weapon.

Eric sagged in defeat and left the room. He looked back. “At least tell me how you did it.”

“Did what?”

“Caught us so easily! For fuck’s sake, Phil. I thought we had a fucking good one, too.”

“And tell you all our secrets? Turn left.”

Eric turned as he left the cell. There were a long line of single doors extending into the distance and a few yards down, opposite them, a corridor.

“Right and through those doors at the end.”

Eric studied the walls as he went. The ceiling and floor too. He tried to get a grip on the layout of the place. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Phil cackled. “Oh God, yeah. Most fun I’ve had in years and when we got Keen and then you lot…”

“But how the hell did you know?”

“How shall I put this… Are you the kinda kid who reads the last page of a mystery first? Who sneaks down in the middle of the night to find out what he got for Christmas? Noooo, of course you’re not. That’s why I’m noooot gonna tell you.”

“Last Starfighter quotes, now?”

“Still not gonna tell you. You’ll find out during debriefing. That won’t happen until we’re back in Kidsgrove in three days.“

“Three days? Cooped up in this shit’ole? At least give us a brush each so we can sweep the floor.”

“Nice try. I’ve seen what Diah can do with a broom.”

At the end of the corridor, a set of battered double doors. “In.”

Eric shoved them open and stepped out onto the factory floor. A desk sat in the middle of it with Greg seated there with the widest grin he’d ever had.

“So. We meet at last, Mr Bond.”

“You won’t get away with this, Scaramanger!”

“Awww, come on, Eric. I was hoping for at least a bloody Blofeld.”

“You’re not bald, Greg. And you’re not even stroking a fake white cat let alone a real one.”

“Where are they?”

“Who?”

“Cam group?”

“Siyisan, E, Corporal, D3036509.”

“So, it’s like that, is it?”

“Like what? You expect me to talk?”

“No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!”

“Don’t make threats you can’t carry out, Greg. You don’t even have a laser, let alone a shark tank.”

“I’ve always wanted a tank full of sharks with frickin’”

“Please, not Austin Powers, too. Can I go back to my cell? I was having an interesting conversation with myself. More interesting than this one anyway.”

“No cooperation? Not even for old time’s sake?”

“This is a war game. I’m a cowboy, you’re one of the Indians. Doesn’t mean we’re not friends outside it but inside, definitely enemies.”

“So that’s a no, then. You realise we found all your notebooks? We have everything?”

“Of course you do. You even know when Long blew his nose last and the locations of Kilburn’s birthmarks. But then… If you know all that, why ask me where this… Cam thing is, whatever that is.”

”Dunbar… Shove him back in his cell.”

“Yes, corporal!”

Eric smirked as he turned away, as he spotted the look in Greg’s eyes. The longing. “So you like it too?”

“What?”

“Being called corporal. I might get it eventually. You never will.”

“That was below the belt, Eric. Keep things in-game at least!”

Eric sagged. “Sorry, Greg. I suppose I did overstep a bit there.”

“I’d be tempted to join up proper, y’know. Trouble is, how would I explain it?”

“I might have a few ideas given a bit of time, but right now, as you said, keep things in game. We’ll talk as friends back in Kidsgrove.” Eric marched towards the door and glanced back to see Phil still lingering. “Well come on, Phil, That weapon’s not going to point itself!”

Back down the corridor, back into the cell, Eric put his ear to the wall and waited until the footsteps had moved away before snorting with laughter.

“What?” Keen sounded a lot more positive. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry. The only things they got from me were name, rank, serial number and a few sarcastic comments. I got a couple of things from them, though.”

“They let slip? What about?”

“One… We’re here for three days. They march us back to Kidsgrove for our debrief and crow at winning. That’s what they have planned anyway.”

“Know why they’ll be crowing?”

“Why?”

“Pub time. They get ours if we lose.”

“Oh they do, do they? Just have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Anyway, that’s our deadline. Three days to escape. I say screw their timetable though. We do it tonight.”

Diah chuckled. “Agreed. And the other thing?”

“Cam group. They have no idea where they are even though they claim to have found our notebooks. If they have those, they’ll likely have a group hidden by every RV point to catch ’em. They haven’t caught them yet, though.”

“Ahhh, shit!” Keen was losing his optimism by his tone.“So, they… Even if we escape, they might have…”

“It doesn’t matter, Gordon. We just report what we know. We don’t know what happened to Cam group and without our notebooks there was no way to warn them. Our orders were a minimum of casualties. If they do get caught after we’ve escaped, they’ll have to fend for themselves.”

“Agreed.” said Diah. “Anything else?”

“I think I got a good lay of the land, this part of the mill at least. I know where the documentation we need is. If Greg’s still with it, we might as well kidnap him!”

“Greg?”

“Looks like he got assigned the same position we did, Diah. Corporal. He seems to be in charge anyway… Just a sec, I want to check something.”

Eric scraped the mortar from another brick. This time, the wall opposite the door. When he pulled it, there was another behind.

“Thought so.”

“What?”

“Just a sec, I need to confirm it.” He pulled the surrounding bricks and worked on one behind, again, another brick behind it.

“God, they built this place to last. No wonder it’s not a ruin.”

“Why?” filtered through from Keen’s direction.

“Triple thick walls.” Again, move a few more bricks and the warm summer air swept into the cell. Eric inhaled. “Oh god, that’s welcome.”

“What is?”

“Fresh air. Fuck me they’ve made a few balls ups, here.”

“Errrr…”

“If they’d wanted us to have trouble escaping they should’ve locked us somewhere upstairs. We’re on ground level and that’s the outer wall. That’s our escape.”

“So we could all just…” Keen made a swishing sound.

“We could, but that wouldn’t help with the mission. Remember the plan, we need to locate a few things. We need grenades, weapons and those documents before we leave.”

* * *

Scroggs sighed as he watched the mill entrance. “What’re they doing in there, get out you pillocks. Get out and search for us! For god’s sake.”

Sanders smirked. “It’s not all excitement in the army, corporal. You’ll have to get used to that. Lot of waiting about, thumb twiddling.”

“Oh, don’t I know it. Lot more interesting here than in the barracks. Wasn’t expecting that, but… We’re so bloody close! One idea though…”

“Yeah?”

“Keep your string and sewing thread handy.”

“Go on…”

“We might as well make a diversion, try to force them all into another part of the mill when we get to the rescue and then, well, nothing wrong with a few booby traps, is there?”

Godwin nodded. “What did you have in mind?”

“We’ve got four grenades, each, right?”

They nodded.

“Little thread tied to the pin, tie the grenade off to one side, tie the other end of the thread to a door or put it across a doorway at ankle height… One of us chucks a grenade out of the second floor… We need to scout out the place first to make sure they’re not patrolling the whole mill but if the upper floors have no bootprints in the dust, should mean no patrols. We could use those to move about in there.”

“What the hell’s happened to you, Scroggs?” Smith said with a grin.

“Corporal, y’mean. I… Nothing’s happened to me!”

“It has y’know. I’ve been with you since we started at Chester, remember. Started on the same day, too.”

“So?”

“Everyone else asked questions, Ernie. Everyone else offered their thoughts when they asked for them. You just stood at the back trying to hide.”

“I blame my dad. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to join up, but him? He wanted me to follow in his footsteps so any ideas I said out loud that didn’t involve repairing bloody shoes, he’d look at me as if I was a fuckin’ idiot. I didn’t want that anymore. So, I clammed up. Thought I could just drift along with everyone else and pass out without causing any problems for myself.”

“And now?”

“They shoved a couple of stripes on my arm for this! And when I offered that first suggestion around that table before this exercise started, none of you looked at me like that. You thought the ideas were good!”

“Good? They were fuckin’ excellent, mate!”

Scroggs grinned. “I just didn’t expect that, that’s all. Now I know I can say something that isn’t looked on like I’m the most idiotic moron in the world… God, I hope I do earn a stripe for real.”

Sanders chuckled. “That’ll be why they did it.”

“Did what?”

“Gave you those stripes. Probably as a test, to see if you could force yourself out of the background. See if you could take charge. If you keep this up, you’ll get your stripe.”

Scroggs nodded. “Thanks. How long has it been now, since Boy and Able went in there?”

“Six hours. The sun’ll be setting soon, so even if they’ve not left, it’ll be time.”

“I know. Just hope they do. It’ll make it a hell of a lot easier for us. Either way, when we set those booby traps, let’s save one grenade each for something else, too.”

“Go on.” Winterbottom turned and leaned against the wall. “This should be good.”

“We tie off a those grenades around the building but we tie string to the pins, not thread. Each of us holds one of those strings. If they’re getting too close, we can yank one, set off more diversions as we move about, or, when we’ve rescued them, pull them all to distract them while we get away.”

“How your dad could think you were an idiot…”

“As far as he’s concerned, anyone who doesn’t do what he wants is an idiot.”

It was Bevan’s turn to chip in. “One little… change to that plan, corporal.”

“Yeah?”

“Hold one grenade back so we can chuck it if the need arises. In the factory, the smoke should be enough to fill a huge area, it’s a confined space, but outside… Could still be use to mask our escape.”

“Good. So… We have a plan. We move out in two hours whether those patrols have bogged off or not.”

* * *

Eric was onto the third layer of bricks when Long scrambled through the hole by the door.

Everyone had worked their way though the other cells to get there and closed the holes behind them.

“Got a good idea of layout, corporal.”

“Did you find what we need?”

“I know how to get to that main hall. There’s two main doors to the place but they’re both guarded.”

“Yeah, but we don’t need doors, do we? Did you manage to see in? How many there are in there?”

“Managed to peer through a few gaps in the mortar. I only saw Greg in there.”

“Perfect! Once Unsworth and Diah get back, we make our move. Armoury?”

“Not in the section I searched, I don’t think, no.”

“We should’ve covered the whole ground level.” Eric sighed. “Just hope they didn’t shove all their weapons upstairs, we don’t have time to search the whole place. It’ll be dark in half an hour, that’s when we move. If we don’t find the armoury, we’ll have to risk leaving unarmed.”

Next to arrive was Unsworth.

“Report?”

“Got a count, corporal. I got a little more, too.” He held up three torches. “We’ll need ‘em. It’s fuckin’ dark in the areas they’re not using. They’ve got lanterns for occupied areas.”

“Damn, that’s a good thought. How many men?”

“Ten scattered about the place, including Thomas in the main hall. Two were standing guard by a door, don’t know what was in there, though.”

“I can guess. Probably the armoury.”

Eric pulled the last of the bricks and started tossing them out through the hole.

“Long, Unsworth…” Eric pointed at the hole. “Stack the bricks I chucked out. I’ll put them back before we leave. No clues how we got out.”

Long sniggered. “Oh god this is good.”

“And don’t forget, strip, everything inside out. Like me.”

Everyone nodded and unbuttoned their jackets as Diah poked his head through the hole. “Got it!”

“Got what?”

An assault rifle clattered to the floor by the hole and more followed. “I couldn’t carry everything, but I got six. Should be enough. Got a few handguns too, so we’re all armed. And these.” Three grenades joined the pile.

“How did you”

“They guarded the door, didn’t think to guard the room that backed onto the armoury. Don’t worry, I put the bricks back.”

“Right…” Eric looked around the cell. “Damn, we need something to draw on. Get a good map of the place so we can pick where to make our move on Greg!”

Wilson pointed at the camp bed. “Underside? They’ll never even see it until they’re packing up.”

Eric nodded and flipped it, sending the blankets flying. “Doesn’t need to be to scale, quicker the better. Work together, you three. We need a good plan of the ground floor. Try to point out the least occupied areas. The places they don’t patrol that often.”

Diah nodded and knelt. “Oh. When they do realise we’ve escaped they’re in for a shock when they open the armoury door. I booby trapped it with one of the grenades. Er… What do we write with?”

“Pick up a few chunks of mortar. That’s chalky enough.”

“Err…” Keen’s eyes widened. “Corporal?”

“What’ve you thought of?”

“The mission brief, corporal. Seek, plan, locate… It’s the last bit. We’re going to fail at it!”

“Destroy!” Eric looked at him with dismay. “Ahhh fuck. We can’t chuck grenades in there without alerting the whole lot of them something’s up! Any ideas?”

Diah shrugged. “Nothing without string, no.”

“Is there any way to make them go off later? Anything?”

Long poked his head through. “They only go off when you let go of the handle, not when you remove the pin. You should know that…”

“Yeah, but we want to destroy the desk… That’d count as destroying their HQ wouldn’t it?”

“I’ve not been in there. You have. It’s not bolted to the floor is it?”

Eric grinned down at the hole. “I’d never… So, move the desk to one of the doors and wedge the grenade. They shove the door, it’ll push the desk away, release the grenade… But which door? Which one do they use most?”

“Which one did you use?”

Eric prodded the map. “Nearest to the cells. Just a right turn down the corridor.”

“Same here. Nearest to the entrance too, I think.” Said Keen

Diah nodded. “They don’t use the other side of the factory, didn’t even see any disturbance in the dust on the floor.”

“Right then, now we know which door to use, we’re armed… 2ICs, stay with the rest, if we don’t make it, you’re in command. Diah, Kilburn, Wilson and Tanner, with me. The rest of you, out. Meet us a couple of miles south of town. Stick to the road to Scholar green, I somehow doubt they’ll be patrolling that once you’re past the last building.”

“Why?” asked Keen.

“They’re searching for Cam group. We were caught on the south end of town, Cam were patrolling in from the north.”

They nodded and scrambled through the hole.

“Oh, sign and countersign… Corporal Stephens Is Fantastic.”

Diah chuckled, “Thanks, Eric. Works for you too, that one.”

“I know.”

A voice emerged from the hole. “And the countersign? How about You’re A Miracle Worker?”

“Agreed. Now go!”

The moment the last was through, Eric put the bricks to the inner wall back and motioned to the hole to the corridor, through that, bricks back in place again, he nodded at Diah.

“Lead the way.”

Down through the back of the factory, it wasn’t long before they found a room with an intact door that backed onto the machine hall.

Eric worked the first brick loose and peered in. Greg sat with his back to them reading a newspaper.

More bricks made their way onto the floor and in minutes, it was large enough to crawl through. Eric made the hole a little larger for speed of egress and motioned away from the hole.

In the quietest voice he could manage, he whispered. “Wilson, Tanner… Here. We need someone to keep Thomas from causing trouble when he crawls through. Eric, Diah, with me. As quiet as possible. Ghost walk.”

They nodded and made their way through to the hall.

As they approached, Eric pointed at Diah and Greg, then at his own mouth and Greg’s ear. They were there in seconds. Eric leaned in.

“Not one sound, corporal.”

Greg’s head snapped to the left and he recoiled in shock as Diah shoved the gun in his back.

“Under the tenets of the Geneva convention, you are now a prisoner of war. You will be taken to our headquarters where you will strip, naked. You will be provided with fresh, clean clothing, food and once the red cross packages arrive, a care pack containing food and forms of entertainment. Your clothing will be searched and anything of military or security significance will be confiscated. Only your personal effects will be returned to you. Do you understand?”

“How”

“Yes, or no. Nothing else passes those lips until we’re well away from here! Do you understand, and keep your voice down.”

Greg sighed and nodded.

“Up. Back of the hall, now.” With Diah still at his back and Eric pointing his weapon, too, they escorted Greg to the hole. “Through there.”

Greg looked at the hole, his eyes widening in shock.

“In.”

With Greg dealt with, they rushed back to the desk and collected every scrap of paper on it. Diah opened the drawers and took out a ledger. The chair… Eric chuckled and grabbed the long coat hanging on the back of it.

“Kilburn. I can’t run ahead. You can. Load up this long coat with the documents. Tie the corners off to form a makeshift sack. Everything in that desk. You’re with us until we meet up with the rest of one section, then, leg it. Fast as you can back to Kidsgrove. Mission accomplished.”

“Yes, corporal.”

“Diah, everything out of it now?”

“Yeah.”

“Give us a hand, then.”

As Kilburn continued with the documents, they moved the desk and when it was by the door, Diah took a grenade from one of his now inside pockets. He reached for the pin.

Eric swept his hands in front of himself, shaking his head. He placed his hands together and swept them wide, mouthed boom, then mimed placing the grenade before pulling the pin.

Diah’s eyes widened. He nodded and wedged the grenade between the door and desk. Eric inched it even closer to ensure a tighter fit for the grenade, pulled the pin and backed away, then bolted for the hole. Diah followed, hot on his heals.

Back to the cells, bricks out, crawl in, bricks back in place, Eric repeated the same with the outer wall and Greg, still with a rifle in his back, looked at Eric in admiration.

Eric grinned but put his fingers to his lips, then made a zip gesture too just to make sure.

He pointed at Diah to go first, the rest scrambled after and again, Eric reassembled the bricks, once everyone was out, this time, taking care with both the cell wall and the outer one. The middle one, he ignored. He chucked the spare bricks into the undergrowth.

He pointed, lowered his hand to indicate the ghost walk, and they made their way to the streets and the countryside beyond.

* * *

“Cam sail item fox.”

Eric froze in midstep and looked around. It’d come from the hedgerow on the right of the road. “Yoke able mike watch.”

The hedges on both sides stirred as one section emerged.

“Kilburn. You know what to do?”

He nodded, hefted the sack over his shoulder and jumped through the nearest gap in the hedge.

“Now…” Eric turned to Greg. “Permission to speak.”

“I was going to ask how the hell you got out but that’s bloody obvious now. I want to know where you got those clothes. And where you got the weapons? You were stripped!”

“We don’t have to tell you anything, you’ll find out during our debriefing. Works both ways. You still haven’t told me how you caught us so easily. How?”

“Thomas, G, Corporal, D3036513.”

“Thought you’d say that, somehow. Come on, let’s get home before they start sending”

“You’ve still failed, y’know.” Greg grinned.

“Failed, how?”

“We were told what your mission was. Seek, locate and destroy, remember?”

“Oh I woul” Eric paused as a distant explosion echoed around the landscape. “wouldn’t worry about that. That was our first of two token detonations. If it was a real grenade your desk would’ve been in splinters.”

Greg’s smile vanished. “And the other?”

“Where did we get the weapons? Let’s just say the next time anyone opens the door to your armoury, boom…”

“But it was guarded!”

Eric chuckled. “I know. Good, aren’t we?”

“But we were told you’re not allowed to shift!”

“I haven’t. I’ve never even seen your armoury, I was busy working on the walls. Diah did it and that’s all you’ll get out of any of us until debrief. Now move.”

* * *

It’d been slow progress as they patrolled, taking every care not to be seen. In their current outfits with no webbing straps to stuff vegetation through, they were much more conspicuous but the night was overcast which helped conceal their movements.

Eric had no idea what time it was when they crossed over the bridge into the village.

“Kidsgrove.” Diah sighed. “Home at last.”

“Fuckin’ ell that was good though.” Eric chuckled. “Shame it had to be cut short, really. A full week out there. Oh god, I hope we get something more difficult next time.”

“Me too. So what now?”

Eric shrugged. “Best bet, chapel tent where this all started. That is our HQ.”

The moment they got onto the village green…

“Halt!” All of one section froze as a lance-corporal emerged from a tent. “This is army ground until the job’s done. You’re not”

Eric held up his hand. “Operation land rover returning, corporal. Mission accomplished.”

“Mission…” The corporal marched over and his eyes widened in recognition. “Mission accomplished? But there’s still three days left! And why aren’t you in uniform? Good god, man, at least… You’re not even wearing any headgear. Where are your helmets?”

“Dunno, corporal. We were captured. We made the best of a bad situation, escaped and captured him, corporal.” Eric pointed at Greg. “There didn’t seem any point in skulking around in bushes for another three days when we’d completed the mission, especially with a prisoner in tow, corporal.”

“You… Damned good point. I’ll send out the runners.”

“You might be able to save a little time by nipping to The Fall. Corporal Hewitt has Stephens’s communication device. You could get the barman to tell ’im. Just tell him to call Diah.”

The corporal nodded. “I’ll do that. If I see Canning, I’ll tell him too.”

“I thought he said he’d be watching us!”

“He reported your capture and deemed you out of play. Returned to the village this afternoon. Oh god, I hope I find him. I want to see the look on his face. So, what are you going to do with him?” He nodded at the prisoner.

“Same thing he did with us only better. Prison uniform and held in the chapel tent under constant guard, corporal.”

“But we don’t have any of those uniforms here!”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, we know where to get more. Don’t we, lads?”

One section yelled “Yes, corporal!” A few chuckled too.

“But you’re not a”

“Hewitt assigned me, Stephens and Scroggs the rank of full screw for the purpose of this exercise, corporal. Until it’s over, for this at least, I am.”

He nodded. “I remember. God, I’m glad I didn’t get that dumped on me when we did ours.”

“Why? Never had so much fun. What time is it anyway, corporal?”

“Errr…” he took out his pocket watch. “Nearly eleven. I’d better get up there.” He bolted off the green and up the road.

Eric marched to the chapel tent and pulled the flap back. “Thomas, inside, strip naked. Long, keep an eye on ’im and make sure he does.”

Long nodded and followed Greg into the tent.

Eric turned his attention to the rest of them, he studied them for a minute before pointing. “Unsworth, nip behind the tent out of the way and strip too. Again, naked. Make sure you turn everything right side out before you hand them over.”

“Ahh for fuck’s… Why me?”

“You’re about the same size as Thomas. One of us might as well wear proper uniform again, looks like it’s you.”

“Why don’t we just go over to our tents and get our replacement kit?”

“I… don’t know how they’d like that, Den. We’re at full battle readiness for the full exercise. I don’t think we should even see our tents until it’s officially over.”

“What about the mess?”

“Considering they confiscated all our scran, I’ll grant permission to make use of the that in the morning. I could do with a decent brekky myself. Not like his lot fed us while we were there, is it?”

Unsworth nodded and began to strip, not bothering to hide behind anything. Once done, he folded it, gathered it up and handed it to Eric.

Greg was in his underwear when Eric entered.

“All of it. Off. And put this on.” He dumped the clothing bundle at Greg’s feet.

Greg sighed, stripped out of his vest and underpants and picked up the shirt with distaste.

“Bet you didn’t think you’d end up wearing that. Now put it on, you’re in it until this is over.”

Another sigh.

“I wore that for over two months, Greg. It’s not that bad. I was quite happy in it. Oh, socks off too.”

“Really?”

“Everything. Just like we were.”

“OK, OK!” Greg yanked them off his feet in frustration. “God!”

Eric gathered the uniform, marched back out of the tent and handed it to Unsworth. “Enjoy.”

“Thanks. Oh god it’ll be good to be back in the proper stuff.”

“Right then, until Hewitt orders a halt to land rover, we’re here guarding him. Three shifts, four a shift should be enough. That’s four hours on duty, there’s more than enough of us for that. We’ll take turns during mess time.”

The moment Unsworth was dressed he patted himself down. “Oh fuckin’ ’ell…”

Eric rushed over to him. “What? What is it?”

Dennis pulled an unopened packet of cigarettes from his trouser pocket. “I’m gasping, I… Who else needs a fag, I’ve got a packet of twenty!”

“Please don’t do that. I thought it might be something important.”

“It is, corporal.”

“To you, maybe. Search the rest of your pockets. He was their boss, maybe there is something else.”

The items that emerged included a penknife, box of matches, knife and fork from one of the trouser pockets and from the shirt pocket, a sheet of paper.

Den unfolded it and looked, his brow creasing. “And I thought I was good at reading.”

“What is it?”

Den shrugged and handed it to Eric.

“Ahhha! Now this might be important. It’s meant to look like gibberish, it’s in code. I’ll hand this over during our debriefing. Bet Greg thought he’d keep us from finding this when we ransacked his desk.”

* * *

Eric placed the wooden tray before the man serving scran the next morning. “Two plates with everything, please.”

“Two? You’ve only been… You might be a big one but”

“Not both for me. We’ve got a prisoner to feed.”

“Ah, right. A” he winked “prisoner. Gotcha.”

“No, really. Our orders were just to collect all the documents in their HQ. We got a little more in the form of the man in charge.” Eric grinned. “Being captured actually helped. We were inside, in their base and had free access to everything.”

“What? How?”

“If you’re free, be nearby when we’re debriefed. God, that was good. Totally screwed them over.”

The private loaded up two plates with sausages, bacon, fried eggs and beans and handed them over.

“Thanks.” Eric made his way back to the chapel tent. He ducked in and placed the plate before Greg.

“Vaughn, you’re relieved. Get some breakfast. I’ll take over.”

Eric placed his plate on the floor, took the weapon, did a make safe and sat facing Greg before retrieving his plate. He tucked in with gusto.

He was half way through it when there was a yell from outside.

“One section! Fall in!”

Eric sighed. “Typical. You, stay. Consider me still guarding you. This kind of shit shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to escape. As far as you’re concerned, I’m still here.”

He scrambled out of the tent and lined up with the rest.

Hewitt marched up and down looking at them with distaste. “What the hell happened? How are you here? And what are you all wearing? Siyisan, step forward, explain yourself!”

Eric snapped to attention, marched a step and stamped to a halt. “Mission accomplished, corporal!”

“What do you mean, mission accomplished? I was informed only Cam group were still active!”

“We reactivated ourselves, corporal.”

“What do you mean?”

“Simple, corporal. We used our capture as an opportunity and escaped. We seized all their documents and set a couple of booby traps using smoke grenades to simulate destroying their base, corporal. One for the desk that had contained all the documents and one for their armoury.”

“And just how the hell did you escape?”

“Through the walls, corporal.”

“One month without pub time! I told you none of… that… weird stuff!”

Eric sighed. “No, corporal… I didn’t shift.” Eric turned to the chapel tent. “Thomas! Out here, now!”

A few seconds later, Greg emerged.

Hewitt took a step back in shock. “You… you captured him?”

“And got all the documents. Seek, locate, steal and destroy, corporal. Mission accomplished well ahead of the allotted time, corporal.”

“But you said you went through the walls!”

“We did, corporal.” Eric sighed. “Thomas, how did we get out?”

“Thomas, G, Corporal, D3036513!”

“Oh well, he’ll tell you when it’s over. We broke through the walls, we didn’t walk through them like ghosts, corporal.”

“Broke through… How many?”

“Quite a few. All the cells are connected by little holes now, corporal. That’s how we got the weapons too. Broke into their armoury from the back wall.”

“But it was a fucking mill! Built to last!”

“And neglected for god knows how many years, corporal. Damp, time. The mortar’s rotten in most of the place. Spotted it the moment we found we could hold a whispered conversation from two cells away, corporal. You can thank Stephens for the escape idea. I thought it was game over until he suggested that but when he did, I knew how.”

“How did you know how?”

“Bricklayer, remember. I know a good wall when I see it, corporal.”

Hewitt took a deep breath. “Right then… I’ll send a runner”

Eric put his hand up. “Corporal. They took my bracelet. It wasn’t on Thomas when we stripped him and it wasn’t in the desk, so one of them must have it.”

He grinned. “I’ve been wanting to see what this thing could do… How do I…”

“Just tap it and say Eric, corporal. There is one thing though…”

“And that is?”

“Cam group, corporal. We couldn’t contact them to warn them we’d finished. No notebooks, we hid ’em but he said they’d retrieved them. All our RV points were compromised, so we made our way straight back ’ere.”

Hewitt nodded. “And as long as they’re still active in the field, they could be captured too… Good point. I’ll hold off on contacting them until we get word on where Cam group are. Until then…” he turned to Thomas. “You, back in there. You’re a prisoner until this is over.”

Greg sighed again, his shoulders sagged and he returned to the tent.

“How are you handling the guarding situation?”

“Three guards outside the tent, one in, all armed. Shifts of four hours. We just relieved Vaughn who was in the middle of his so he could get some breakfast, corporal.”

“But you were ordered to only eat the rations provided and foraged, hunted food!”

“We considered the mission over, corporal. We’re on home ground and you can’t expect us to feed a prisoner but not ourselves can you, corporal? Besides, we don’t have any food. It was all confiscated when we were captured and we didn’t find where they’d stored it.”

He sighed. “Alright. I keep trying to find fault, but… I’ll grant you that. Where are the documents?”

Eric looked around in alarm. He scanned the faces of the other men of one section. “I… I don’t know, corporal. We sent them on ahead. They were too urgent to risk carrying in a large group so I sent one of our runners with them, he… He should be here but he’s not in the line up! Where the hell is he?”

“Who’s missing from the lineup?”

“Kilburn, corporal. We had Silvers as a runner too, but Boy group were the last to see him.” Eric turned to Diah. “Where did he go?”

“Went to tell Cam we’d located them of course.”

Eric shrugged. “Maybe he realised something went wrong and he’s keeping a low profile until the end of the exercise, corporal, but Kilburn should be here.”

“I see. We’ll get to the bottom of this during debrief. I hope Cam group get back before long or you’re guarding him for three more days.”

“Yes, corporal!”

“Dismissed, get back to what you were doing.”

Eric nodded, did a sharp right turn, marched a couple of steps and made his way back to his meal but before he was out of earshot, Diah spoke. Eric paused to listen.

“Corporal?”

“Yes, Stephens?”

“Have you ever considered using flares, corporal?”

“Flares? What for?”

“During the final bout of the tournament on Barbados, we had coloured flares to indicate if there was a winner or when the event was over without one, corporal. Green, blue or white. Saw them for miles around.”

“Hmmm, interesting idea. I’ll be sure to put it to Sergeant Harris next time I see him. Too late for this one, though.”

“Yes, corporal.”

* * *

Cam group arrived back at Kidsgrove early that afternoon. They didn’t march, they slogged up the road in exhaustion.

The moment Hewitt saw them he yelled “Fall in! And you Thomas!”

It was a few minutes before they joined the line up.

The moment everyone was, he pointed at Thomas. “You, five steps forward and turn.”

“Yes, corporal.” Greg stamped to attention, marched, about turned and stamped to attention again.

“Consider operation land rover at an end.”

Eric raised his hand. “Kilburn and Silvers aren’t back yet, corporal. Oh god, I hope he didn’t have an accident on the way here!”

Hewitt shook his head. “I think I might have an idea what happened. Thomas, did you activate Kilburn?”

Scroggs sniggered. “I think we might know what happened to the bastard, too.”

“Scroggs, if you know something, keep your trap shut until I get to you.”

“Yes, corporal!”

“Now, Thomas… Answer.”

“Yes, corporal. I did corporal.”

“Why? Your orders were very specific! If anyone taken captive was caught in a deception! Why did you activate him.”

“We captured Keen, corporal.”

“And he lied to you?”

“No, corporal, but they did. He had a map showing all their RV points, times they became active, who was in each group, their routes, everything. But it was a lie.”

“I suppose that might… How did you know the map was a lie?”

“Hopkins, sir. He escorted Keen to his cell and ordered him to strip. He collected his clothing, was just about to walk away when he heard him, corporal.”

“Heard him say what, exactly?”

“I love it when a plan comes together. We will make mincemeat out of them, corporal.”

Eric’s gaze snapped to the right. “Gordon! What the fuck? I thought you said you only said name, rank and serial number!”

“I did! To them! I was alone in the cell! I didn’t think anyone’d hear that, I was just… Oh fuck! Sorry, Eric.”

“I’ll let you off. Us getting captured worked out perfectly. But where the fuck is Kilburn!? What did you mean, corporal? Activate? He… Oh shit, he was a traitor?”

“He was, yes. Thomas, when they were captured, Kilburn should’ve been deactivated. He’d done his job. Why wasn’t he?”

Greg gulped. “I… Didn’t see the need, corporal. We had them. All of Able and Boy groups were in our custody, we thought until the end of the exercise, corporal.”

“With Cam group still out there? They could’ve attempted a rescue, y’know? So, what? Kilburn returned there with the documents?”

Eric put his hand up. “Not all of them, corporal.”

“What?”

“Thomas had a sheet of paper in his pocket.” He took it out and handed it over. “We found it after we’d stripped him, They swapped uniforms, corporal.”

“But… You’re not in that uniform.”

“We are, corporal.” Eric removed his shirt, turned it inside out and put it back on again revealing the arrows. “Another gem from Diah. Prison experience, corporal. He picked that one up from his first cellmate.”

Hewitt grinned. “That’s bloody good!” He glanced at the paper, opened it. “Oh fuckin’ ’ell. I was just about to mark your exercise a partial fail, Siyisan!”

“Fail? Why? We did everything right! We couldn’t’ve done any better! We did everything we were ordered to!”

“And yet the documents still ended back in enemy hands.”

Eric sagged. “But… That was pure bad luck. Absolutely random! Nothing we could’ve done would’ve changed it once we’d started, corporal. If I’d picked a different runner before we left we would’ve never even been captured and we probably would’ve still kidnapped Greg. One choice with no clues screws everything up?”

“Fortunately for you, this one didn’t, as you said, screw everything up. This is the key to the whole lot. The one you were meant to retrieve. And Thomas had it in his pocket?”

“Yes, corporal.”

Greg grinned. “I thought it was the safest place, corporal. Didn’t expect to get captured but if they’d raided the desk when I was away from it they wouldn’t’ve found it.”

“Well, thanks to your fuck up, one section wins! Two and three sections, they lose their pub time for one week to one section… Fucking good job. Now… Scrogg, step forward!”

Scroggs stamped a step forward.

“Report!”

“I think our patrols were a lot slower than theirs corporal. Most of ours were in the town so we had to be extra careful. Thankfully, we had lots of street corners to hide behind and derelict buildings to set up camp in and we located the mill by following their patrols. We saw Able and Boy groups escorted in, corporal.”

“And yet, you didn’t attempt a rescue?”

“We did, corporal, but we needed to get a good plan of the mill. We were in there, upstairs on the first floor, corporal. We saw Thomas sat at his desk through a hole in the floor and when we’d finished scouting out the second floor, we saw them escape with Thomas from a south facing window but the explosions attracted too much attention. They started returning and we had to wait it out for hours before things calmed down enough for us to get out and then we decided to take the long way around to avoid their patrols. They sent out a lot after the explosions, corporal. We did add a few booby traps of our own before we went upstairs, though.” Scroggs looked back at Eric. “If you hadn’t escaped, we would’ve rescued you. We had everything planned out and if we had, we would’ve left Kilburn there, tied up!”

“And who planned all this?”

“I did corporal. Had a bit of help from the others but most of them were my ideas, corporal. Even the fake map that started all this was my idea.”

Hewitt glanced at Stephens. “Is this true?”

Diah nodded. “It’s true, corporal. He had a few good ideas during our planning session in the chapel.”

“But my report on you”

“I know, corporal.” Scroggs sighed. “We talked about it while we were watching the mill from a derelict building opposite. My dad’s to blame for me being so tight lipped at first. I’m over it now, corporal.”

“And how did you know about Kilburn?”

“I sent Sanders to our designated RV point but he almost ran headlong into that lot. He hid, watched and saw them talking to him, corporal. They let him go, too, rather than take him prisoner.”

“Right then… I’ve been looking forward to this.” he tapped Diah’s bracelet. “Eric.”

Eric’s voice emerged from it. “Errr. What… Oh fuck. Yeah?”

Hewitt stepped back and stared at Eric. “What the hell? How”

“Corporal? Is there a problem?” came from the band.

“How did you do that without moving your lips?”

“What do you… Ahh… I get it.” Yi-erwu chuckled. “One section’s back in Kidsgrove, corporal?”

“I… You’re the other”

“Yi-erwusiyisan here, corporal. Where’s Greg? I know they took him and a load of smoke grenade traps appeared in the mill.”

“Is Kilburn there?”

“He is. He told us they escaped. Brought back all the documents. Is Greg there?”

“Don’t worry, he’s here. In prison uniform as he deserves, but he’s here.”

“Deserves?”

“Put Kilburn on that thing.”

“Yes, corporal… Eric, Corporal Hewitt wants a word.”

Kilburn’s voice then. “Yes, corporal?”

“You betrayed them once resulting in their capture. Why did you continue?”

“I followed your orders, corporal. To the letter. Never perform any treacherous acts when in their presence. I wasn’t. Once activated I was part of two section until my loyalties were restored. I did that too, corporal. No-one gave me the order to return to one section loyalties.”

Hewitt sighed. “Well, thanks to that fuckup by Thomas, you can tell them they lost. Pub time for one section. None for them.”

“And me, corporal?”

“The exercise is over. You’re one section again, now. It’s not your fault.”

There was a sigh of relief. “Thank you, corporal. Tell Eric I’m sorry, but orders is orders.”

“He heard. He’s even glad you betrayed him the first time, aren’t you, Siyisan?”

“Oh god, yes. Getting one over on that lot after getting captured… Fuckin’ brilliant. You did us a favour, Eric. Well, the first time, you did.”

Kilburn sighed with relief. “So no hard feelings?”

Eric turned to Hewitt. “Only one… Isn’t assigning one of our section to be a traitor a bit fucked up, corporal? We’re meant to learn to trust our section like brothers!”

“Brothers can turn, Siyisan. There were a few instances of that in the war. Men only out for themselves. Offered payment for a little betrayal. It’s rare, but it can happen. No matter how many contingencies or safeguards you plan for, you never have a complete picture of a situation so we try our best to teach you to think on your feet.”

Eric sighed and nodded.

Yi-erwu spoke again. “Oh, corporal. Can you get the doctor.”

“Injuries from the booby traps?”

“Two, sir. Dunbar and Walker. They were both right on top of them when they went off. No visible wounds but they’re both complaining about not being able to hear. The grenades deafened them.”

Eric stared at the armband in shock. “Oh fuck! Phil! And Lee?”

“They’re fine apart from that, me. Don’t worry. I think the doctor should be able to fix them up. Seems to be able to fix everything else.”

“God I hope so. What about the other booby traps?”

“After the first two, we were careful. Kicked every door in the place and ran away before they went off. Triggered three more.”

Hewitt nodded. “Scroggs. How many did you set?”

“Four, corporal.”

“Siyisan! Order a full sweep of the building. Find that last grenade and disarm it before you return. And remember, leave nothing there. Everything, brought back here.”

“Yes, corporal. I’ll pass on the message to our acting commander.”

“Who is that, out of curiosity?”

“Merriweather, corporal.”

“And do you know how they did it?”

“At first, we were crowing, corporal. Eric was banned from shifting and he must have to get out… Then Kilburn returned. We found all the holes they made.”

“Right then. Oh, Kilburn. Try to find Silvers and tell him it’s over. Everyone else, company, stand down. Err… How do I…”

“Just say Hewitt out and tap it again, corporal.”

He nodded, said “Hewitt out.” and tapped it. “Now, get out of that shit and back into proper uniform and get some rest. Cam group certainly look like they need it. Dismissed.”