Chapter 424 — No Ground to Give IV

Chapter 424: Chapter 424 — No Ground to Give IV

Farrell found them as the light began to go.

She stood in front of the three of them with her radio in one hand and a map in the other.

"Right," she said. "That’s done. The junction’s ours. The unit up north is connected again and getting its wounded out down the connector as we speak. And the British push through here has stopped. For now."

"For now," said James.

"For now." She did not dress it up. "They still have the ground east of here, and they’ve got a lot of people. They’ve got a lot of Challengers. We took one junction. Somebody above me is going to have to decide whether we can hold it, if they come back with more. I don’t know the answer to that yet."

She looked at the three of them.

"But you did what I asked," she said. "All three of you. Thank you."

She went off to talk to the officer from the road group.

James sat on the forecourt wall and watched the first vehicles from the north come down the connector, slowly, with their lights on.

They had done what they came to do. Nobody had been chased across a field. The road was open, and wounded men were going down it who would not have gone down it this morning.

He did not think for one second that Britain was going to give up because of one junction.

But it was theirs, tonight.

---

????

---

**Eleanor**

The British forward command post had moved since the morning, three kilometres north, into the yard of a farm co-operative. They had swapped the canvas for a warehouse with its doors rolled up. There were lights on poles, and a dozen screens on folding tables.

Eleanor Harcourt stood at one of them, reading.

She had been reading the reports from the day’s fighting for an hour. The bridge, the industrial estate, the river line to the east. Most of it had gone the way it was supposed to go. Some of it had not.

A major came over with a tablet.

"The junction," he said. "East of the estate. The one we took this morning."

"Yes?"

"We’ve lost it. The Irish took it back an hour ago." He scrolled. "We withdrew in order. Most of the company’s regrouped at the second line. But the shield was killed."

Eleanor looked up from the screen.

"Pryce?"

"Yes, ma’am."

She was quiet for a moment.

"Who?"

"The reports say Ganner," said the major. "The necromancer. The same one you—"

"I know which one."

She remembered him perfectly well.

She remembered the weight of him. That was the thing she had not expected, the first time Durendal hit her sword square, and she had to give ground or let it break her arm. She had been briefed that he was a summoner. She had read that he was a necromancer, and she had built her picture of him the way you would build a picture of any summoner, someone who stood behind his creatures and let them do the work.

He had not stood behind anything. He had come straight at her and been stronger than her.

But that was not what she was thinking about now.

"How did he do it?" she said. "Pryce could hold a line against anything with a rifle. How did he get to him?"

The major looked at his tablet.

"The accounts aren’t consistent. But several of the men from the company say he summoned undead. Two of them. Large. Some kind of animal skeletons. One of them went into the men at the petrol station and broke them up. The other one went round to the left flank." He scrolled. "There’s a section commander who says the second one didn’t attack at all. It just stood at the end of the line. He thinks that was what pinned Pryce in place at the end. But he wasn’t close, and he’s the only one who says that."

"And the Irish troops? Were they working with the undead? Or separately?"

"With them. We think." The major frowned. "Two of the men say they heard an Irish sergeant shout something about *not shooting the skeletons*. They definitely knew the undead were coming. It was coordinated. That’s confirmed. The rest is eyewitness, and I wouldn’t put my name to it."

Eleanor looked back at the screen.

He had not tried to overpower Pryce. Pryce could not be overpowered by one man, which was the point of Pryce. Ganner had loaded him. He had given him more threats than one shield could cover, and waited for him to choose wrong.

That was not a summoner standing behind his creatures.

"The company," she said. "What’s its state?"

"Most of them made it back. Eight wounded, three dead, including Pryce. But we’ve lost the junction, and the Irish have the connector open again. The push on the eastern flank’s going to be delayed. Six hours. Maybe more." The major hesitated. "Brigade’s changing the deployment for tomorrow because of it."

Eleanor stood for a moment with her hands flat on the table.

She did not throw anything or swear, and she did not say his name.

What she thought about was this. She had met him, once, in the road, and found him stronger than she expected and quicker to learn than she liked. Now she had a report that said he could take one of their best defensive Challengers apart in front of a fortified position. He had done it with two piles of bone and an Irish rifle section that knew exactly what he was going to do.

He was not the most dangerous thing in Ireland. She did not believe that.

But if he was allowed to move up and down the Irish line wherever he was needed, he was going to cost them a junction every day.

She pulled a form up on the screen and began to fill it in.

"I’m requesting more Challenger support," she said. "For the next push on this sector. At least two more, and one of them needs to be able to fight at close range. One shield and a company of infantry is not going to hold him. I want it on Brigade’s desk tonight."

The major watched her type.

"Will you be going after him?" he said. "Yourself?"

Eleanor did not look up.

"I’m going after the objective," she said. "Same as I was this morning. If he’s standing in front of it, that’s his problem, not mine." She finished the last line of the form, read it through once, and sent it.

"But if he is in front of it," she said, "I won’t be surprised this time."

She closed the form and went back to the map. To the north and east, under the lights, British units were already moving into position for tomorrow.