Devil's Due (Destroyermen #12)(166)
Matt nodded. One less thing, then. He’d get the details later. His greatest personal enemy was finally dead and they’d never even met. It was probably for the best. The war had become personal enough without the dramatic face-to-face confrontation that madman had craved. Now he could focus all his attention on their bigger problems. Looking around the room at his friends, the wounded Shee-ree, and then back at Sandra, a dam collapsed and a wave of sadness finally gripped his heart. “Gunny Horn told me about Adar,” he managed. Sandra hugged him again, tight enough to hurt, but whether she was trying to take his pain or relieve her own, he couldn’t say.
CHAPTER 27
“I will miss you, my brother,” Admiral Keje-Fris-Ar said heavily, the white-streaked, rust-colored fur on his face damp with tears. He stood with Matt, Sandra, and hundreds more on the northern tip of Island Number 1. As many people as they could briefly spare from recovery operations had come to the funeral, and the only ones Matt saw who didn’t look anxious to get back to something important were Ben Mallory and the tiny female Lemurian lieutenant beside him. Shirley’s plane, stripped of everything they could take out and carrying a belly tank, would fly to Mahe when they brought enough fuel ashore. Ben’s might fly again—if they cannibalized enough parts off the plane they left behind—but the 3rd (Army) Pursuit Squadron was no more. Ben took his duties seriously, though, and wouldn’t wait for his plane. He was only waiting for another one to carry him to Grik City, where he’d take over coordinating all air operations against Sofesshk.
The island was on fire again, this time with the pyres of those they’d lost, the flames and smoke carrying their spirits to the heavens. Adar’s pyre was in the center so he could rise with the rest, guiding them in death as he’d always done in life. And for the first time, the spiraling sparks carried the spirits of every member of the Alliance: Lemurians from as far as the Filpin Lands, Imperial humans from Respite and the New Britain Isles, Khonashi, Grik-like, and human. The Republic of Real People was represented by Becher Lange and his three loyal sailors, the third exhumed for the purpose. Even a few Grik, whom Horn pointed out, were placed on the pyres beside their former enemies. As always, it seemed, a few more of Matt’s dwindling original destroyermen had been lost as well, mostly aboard James Ellis. Perry Brister seemed particularly affected by Jeff Brooks’s death. And every sailor, soldier, pilot, and Marine killed in the Battle of Lizard Ass Bay joined Adar on his journey above, because there’d be no graves on Zanzibar.
Kurokawa’s corpse had already sprouted, but no one was much concerned that a single killer kudzu plant would overwhelm the island anytime soon. There were still plenty of Grik there, though, and no reason to waste lives hunting them. They’d stay only long enough to complete necessary repairs and salvage what they could before destroying what remained and steaming back to Mahe. As Perry Brister said, they “wouldn’t leave anything there they ever needed to come back for.” Perry was on Tarakaan Island, his ship already in her dry dock, while Tara and Salissa waited for high tide to try to pull Savoie off the beach. If they were successful, they’d tow her to Mahe even while repairs to James Ellis continued.
“We all will, Keje,” Matt said, putting his hand on his friend’s furry arm. He cocked his head in thought. “But he did prepare us for this. He groomed Alan Letts to replace him, almost as if he’d always known he’d have to, and he made a lot more out of Letts than I ever could.”
“A better chaar-man for the Alliaance, the Union, than Adar himself could be,” Keje agreed sadly. “But though he left a noble legaacy, his loss is no less painful.”
“I know.”
“Will Waa-kur be ready for sea?” Keje asked, concerned. “Ellie may be more sorely hurt, but I caan’t agree she should’ve been repaired before your ship.”
“Walker’ll be fine,” Matt argued. “There was plenty of plate steel stockpiled here. We covered her big holes before we started loading the surplus. As long as we don’t push her, the patches’ll last until Tara spits Ellie’s out. Other than the plate steel, the hardest things to haul off are going to be Kurokawa’s surviving heavy machinery for making guns, engines—things like that. At least we have plenty of labor.” Two hundred Japanese and nearly three thousand “yard” Grik had surrendered. The Japanese, with the exception of a few officers, had been granted amnesty and transport to the Shogunate of Yokohama. As far as the Grik were concerned . . . Matt frowned at the three remaining DDs of Des-div 2—and their four seaworthy prizes. Six frigates and AVDs had survived the sharp action with the cruisers, but only because Ellie intervened. Three of them, including Tassat at last, were so far beyond repair that they’d been scuttled. The cruisers surrendered, under Ellie’s guns, when a cease-fire was arranged and Lawrence motored out in the Seven boat to “reason” with their crews. Matt didn’t trust them enough to leave them in their ships, despite Lawrence and Horn’s assurance they’d do their duty as long as they were treated well and fed, but the ships were relatively undamaged and might come in handy. Still . . . “I’m worried how vulnerable Tara and Big Sal will be without a proper screen.”
Keje’s gaze had returned to the towering column of smoke, the only blight on the cloudless blue sky. “You worry about the planes that got away,” he said. Their best estimate, partially confirmed by a Japanese signal officer named Fukui, who actually seemed relieved his side had lost and Kurokawa was dead, was that two squadrons of the twin-engine torpedo bombers and at least one squadron of fighters—almost thirty planes—had flown west during the battle. Whether Esshk could make weapons for them was unknown, but he could probably fuel them. All Kurokawa’s raw fuel had come from the mainland. Fukui hadn’t known if there was an airstrip in Africa, but the planes were designed for unimproved fields, so they probably found a place to land. Just as interesting was a third type of plane that was spotted.