Free The UnTied Kingdom by Kate Johnson Page B

leaving C Company commanderless.’
    ‘I’m not sure I could in all good conscience do that now, sir,’ Harker muttered.
    ‘I give you my word, Harker that, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will not send your company out on active service until you return.’
    Harker, who couldn’t believe anything had ever happened to General Wheeler that she hadn’t already foreseen, nodded warily.
    ‘What mission, sir?’ he asked.
    Wheeler smiled.
    ‘She wants us to what ?’ Charlie said, as Harker went around the mess kitchen searching out eggs, bacon, and strong coffee to soothe his hangover.
    ‘Go up north, break into a rebel stronghold, steal a computer, find out how to work it, and use it to track the Coalitionists’ movements,’ Harker said, breaking an egg into a skillet and watching in dismay as the yolk broke.
    ‘Apparently, her intel says that’s how they’ve been tracking ours.’
    Charlie closed her eyes momentarily. ‘That’s how they knew there was only a skeleton force in Oxford.’
    ‘Yep. And in Peterborough. And in Southend.’ Harker took a breath and let it out slowly. Wheeler had given him the estimated casualties for those cities, and they hadn’t been pretty. The people had gone down fighting; but they’d really gone down.
    He laid a couple of strips of bacon down in the pan and watched them sizzle. ‘She’s set us up to stay with someone in the Lincolnshire Wolds.’
    Charlie frowned. ‘We’re not going to another base up there? We still have Hull, don’t we?’
    ‘Aye, but it’s too far from the front. And she doesn’t want us obvious. I’m to take a small party, stay with civilians–’
    ‘Wear civilian clothes?’ Charlie asked, with a gasp of mock-horror. At least, he thought it was mock. Briefly, he wondered if she’d been born with dogtags round her neck.
    ‘Mock not, Charlie. Wheeler wants us to start looking in Leeds.’ A city which had been under Coalitionist control for a while. ‘Shame Smiggy’s not with us, that were his old ground. Wonder if we might bump into him.’
    ‘And who is “we”, sir?’
    ‘Well.’ Harker flipped the bacon. ‘She’s letting me choose–’
    ‘She is?’
    ‘–but she has recommendations.’
    Charlie smiled. ‘Of course she does.’
    The door opened, and a man in a grubby chef’s coat came in. Harker and Charlie stared at him until he went away, then Charlie asked, ‘Who’s she recommending?’
    Harker added a generous helping of salt to the pan. ‘You, obviously, and Tallulah.’
    ‘Tallulah Watling-Coburg? People are going to start thinking you have a favourite.’
    ‘How many other poor kids in this army have been named Tallulah? Apparently she speaks fluent French and German, so if we run into translation difficulties–’
    ‘In Lincolnshire, sir?’
    He gave her a look. ‘Clearly, that’s why she’s sending me. No, she thinks the computer may be in French.’
    ‘Do they have languages, sir?’
    Harker raised his palms. ‘How the hell should I know?’ He didn’t even know what a computer looked like, never mind how one worked. The whole mission was a disaster waiting to happen, but then weren’t all army missions? He continued, ‘Which brings me to her next recommendation. A Captain Darren Haran.’
    ‘Darren Haran?’ Charlie said, her eyes wide, her mouth twitching.
    ‘’Fraid so. Joined us recently from the Medical Corps. Wanted to be an engineer, but couldn’t get the training, so joined as a doctor, and learnt medicine at the army’s expense.’ At Charlie’s look, he added, ‘Well, it’s all a sort of engineering when you think about it. Just … squishier.’
    Charlie made a face. ‘Remind me not to get injured when he’s around.’
    Harker, unconcerned, turned off the heat and flipped his splattered egg and bacon on to a plate. ‘Pass us that bread, will you?’
    She did, and Harker cut two thick, uneven slices, slathered them with butter, and squelched egg and bacon into a