Never Sound Retreat Read Online Free

from that world of his."
    "If you'd shot him, you wouldn't be here now," Andrew replied. "I think, all things considered, the trade was worth it."
    "Then what happened?" Hans asked, his face drawn with worry.
    "Well, we had a running fight all the way back to the coast. I dodged down into the clouds, but they were patchy. Anytime I broke through, one of them was on me. They had at least ten ships up, six of them the newer design. Just as we cleared the coast they boxed us in. I tried to climb out, but they were on top of us. We dropped two of them, but they finally put an explosive round in our stern as I was climbing through twelve thousand feet, and Flying Cloud went up."
    "Tell 'em about how you jumped," Pat interjected with a grin.
    Jack sighed, and Andrew could detect the terror that still lingered just below the surface. Back during the rescue of Hans he had flown with Jack on Flying Cloud. It had been one of the most terrifying experiences of his life. He'd rather charge a battery of guns or face an onslaught of Bantag cavalry than have to go up in one of those machines again.
    "Ferguson saved our lives. I thought the umbrella idea of his was insane, but we jumped anyhow— there was nothing left to do. It took a little doing to get them out of the packs on our backs, but once they popped open we floated down and landed in the sea."
    "Stefan?" Emil asked quietly.
    "He got out too late," Jack whispered. He closed his eyes and took another drink.
    "You know what was amazing?" Feyodor said, breaking the silence. "A couple of the Bantag flyers came down through the clouds, one of them circled us as we floated down. Thought we were dead for sure, their gunner had me in his sights, and then the bastard simply waved and took off."
    "Fellow pilot," Jack replied casually. "I'd have done the same."
    "They're Bantag," Hans growled.
    Jack looked over at him and shook his head.
    "I know that, but he gave me a break, and I'll do the same if I ever see him again. But anyhow, we were lucky. Came down a couple miles off the coast. There was  Petersburg  almost right under us. When Bullfinch heard what we'd seen he transferred us over to a picketboat and had us brought straight back here." "You know, if Ferguson was here, I think I'd kiss him," Feyodor announced, then grimaced as Emil leaned over the table and started to unwrap the bandages from his hands to examine the wounds.
    "What was it that you saw?" Hans asked.
    "Like I said we got about twenty miles east of Xi'an and saw a dozen trains on the line, all of them packed with troops from the look of it. But they were heading east, sir."
    "You sure of that?"
    "Absolutely, sir. The encampments we saw springing up around Xi'an, they were struck, the gear packed, the troops heading back east. The ships were still along the river, but there were no workers. I wanted to get down for a closer look at the sheds lining the riverbank, see if we could somehow peek inside, but that's when we got jumped."
    Surprised, Andrew looked over at Hans.
    "One if by land, two if by sea," he said. "This could mean they're giving up a seaborne attack."
    "Jack, could they have shot you down earlier?" Hans asked.
    "What do you mean?"
    "They chased you for what, an hour, two hours?"
    "Something like that. Why?"
    "Yet they didn't get you till you were clear of the coast."
    "I don't see your point, Hans."
    "Nothing, son. Just wondering." Hans sighed, then he lowered his head.
    Andrew stood up and went over to the map hanging on the wall. There were indications of at least thirty umens in the area of Nippon. Most of them were still armed the old way, with bows and lances, but there were units of artillery and even some mounted infantry armed with muzzle-loading rifles. One of the photographs Jack had taken on an earlier mission clearly showed rows of parked cannons in Xi'an. If Ha'ark was giving up on a seaborne assault, was he now shifting his modern units to Nippon?
    Hans came up to join him.
    "Are we being