You two are about the same size."

"It ain't about size, sir," Harley said. He looked at his team. "Jersey, you want to take a shot at this one?"

68."Sure, Harley," she answered as she stepped up to the man. Her head barely came to the level of his chest and he outweighed her by two hundred pounds.

Helmut grunted and glanced at Bergman. "Sir," he said, his German accent thick, "I would not want to hurt this small one."

"Are you sure this is the one you want to fight Helmut?" Bergman asked skeptically.

Harley nodded. "How far are we going with this? Is it a fight to the death?" he asked seriously.Bergman looked surprised at the question. "Uh, no, just tell her to try to win the fight."

Harley called to Jersey. "Jersey, try not to kill this one, okay?"

She looked disappointed. "Is it okay if I break him up a little?" she asked, her face innocent.

Helmut growled. "You will be the one broken, b.i.t.c.h."

Jersey wagged her finger in his face. "Now, don't try and make this personal, Helmut baby," she cooed in a soft, feminine voice. "The first rule of combat is to keep your cool. Otherwise you get your fat a.s.s kicked."

Helmut's face flamed red as the soldiers around all laughed at Jersey's comments at his expense. He ripped off his belt and holster and walked to the center of the circle, flexing his ma.s.sive muscles as he stretched and paced the area.

"Better give me your K-Bar, Jerse," Coop said, holding out his hand.

"Wouldn't want your reflexes to take over and have you gut the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Jersey took out her K-Bar a.s.sault knife and flipped it end over end to land stuck in the ground millimeters from Coop's foot.

She glanced at Bergman. "You want this over fast, or do you want a show for the boys in the back row?"

Now even Bergman had to grin at the audacity of this small woman. "Oh, by all means, dear girl, give us a show," he 69.answered as he joined the others around the edge of the circle of combat to watch.

Jersey bent and untied, then slipped out of, her heavy combat boots, before walking barefoot to the center of the circle.

Helmut crouched in the cla.s.sic martial-arts stance, his feet apart with his left foot slightly forward, his hands held up before him with index and middle fingers extended.

"Hah!" he grunted, shaking his arms in the typical greeting before combat.

"Oh, Jesus, Helmut," Jersey said, standing flat-footed, her hands at her sides, "cut the c.r.a.p and let's get it on."

Helmut's face blazed even redder and he began to dance around her on his toes, waving his arms up and down slowly, like snakes weaving before striking.

Jersey just stood there, letting her eyes follow him without moving her body at all. She looked completely unprepared for an attack.

From the edge of the circle, Coop called, "Any bets? I'm giving two to one on the little lady."

At least twenty of the men crowded around him, holding out wads ofcurrency and shouting out they'd take his bet.

In the circle, Helmut suddenly leaned to the side with his weight on his left leg, and his right leg flashed out in a sidekick aimed at Jersey's head.

It flashed by, missing her by inches as she leaned slightly to the right and let the leg pa.s.s harmlessly by.

Helmut continued his spin and swung a stiffened right arm backward at her.

Jersey again leaned her head back, allowing the blow to miss her by less than an inch. As Helmut's face came around after his arm, she took a short, quick step forward and her right hand shot out, palm first.

The base of her palm hit Helmut flush on the nose, flattening it and sending a shower of blood and mucus spraying outward as his head snapped back and he grunted in pain, tears flooding his eyes.

70.Jersey didn't follow up her advantage, but stood there, her hands again at her side as she grinned at Helmut.

"Had enough, big guy?" she asked. "From now on, all you have to look forward to is more pain."

Helmut sleeved blood off his face, his eyes glittering hatred. "You b.i.t.c.h!" he growled.

Jersey's face darkened. "I told you not to get personal, Helmut. You don't know me well enough to call me b.i.t.c.h," she said calmly.

Helmut raised his hands and danced forward on his toes, just as Jersey dropped onto her outstretched right hand and swung her left leg in a sweeping arc at Helmut's feet, knocking them from under him.

Without slowing her movements, Jersey bent her leg at the knee and imbedded her heel in Helmut's chest as he went down. Everyone in the crowd heard the crack as one of his ribs snapped and he screamed.

When they rolled to their feet, Helmut was bent slightly to the left, favoring his aching rib, while Jersey stood there watching him.

"I could take your eye next," she said, an appraising look on her face, "but that would make you useless to Mr. Bergman. So, I think I'll just take part of your left ear instead."

Helmut's eyes widened for a second, before Jersey stepped in, dodged his chopping right hand by letting it slip off her shoulder, and buried her left fist in his solar plexus just below his sternum.

Helmut doubled over and Jersey slashed at the side of his head with a flattened right hand in a move so quick only a few of the bystanders saw it.

Helmut grunted again and jerked his head back. His left ear was hanging, partially torn off at the top, blood spurting down the side of his face.

Jersey turned to look at Bergman. "Have you seen enough? I really don't want to cripple the big guy."71 Helmut yelled in anger and jumped at her exposed back, his arms outstretched to strangle her.

Without looking, Jersey ducked and backed into his charge, grabbing his right wrist as it pa.s.sed her head and yanking down on it, catching his right elbow on her shoulder and breaking it with a loud snap.

Helmut didn't scream this time. He fainted from the shock and pain of his broken arm, slipping quietly to bis knees, then toppling over onto his face, out cold.

The men watching the exhibition were silent. All too many of them had been manhandled by Helmut in their combat training, and they knew he was no easy mark. Yet this small woman had made him look like a clumsy oaf.

Coop held up the wad of money in his hand. "Thanks, gents. It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Bergman walked out to stand over Helmut, shaking his head. "Herman, get two or three men to carry Helmut to the medical tent and have the doc look at that arm."

"Yes, sir," Bundt said, winking at Jersey as he pointed to a couple of men to come and help him with Helmut.

Jersey wasn't even breathing hard, and had barely broken a sweat when Bergman spoke to her.

"You made that look easy," he said.

She shrugged. "He made the mistake of judging me by my size," she said.

"In combat, it's not size that counts, it's ability, and the easiest way I know to get killed is to underestimate the ability of your opponent."

Bergman nodded. "Very well said, Jersey."

He turned and waved at Harley. "Bring your team into my office after lunch. We need to talk."

As Harley and the others moved toward the mess tent, Harley spoke in low tones. "Spread out while we eat and try to get some of the others to talk. We need to find out who's ramrodding this outfit and just how dangerous they really are. Concentrate on amounts and types of weapons and materiel, as well as strength and training of the other troops."

72."From what I've seen so far, they don't look all that dangerous," Coop said.

"Don't judge them all by what we've seen here," Hammer said. "This is just the training ground for the new recruits. There's no telling what kind of troops have already pa.s.sed through here."

"Yeah," Anna said. "There can't be more than a few hundred men here at this camp. We need to find out the strength of the rest of this army, 'cause I know Claire Osterman wouldn't be asking this group for help unless there are a h.e.l.l of a lot more of them somewhere else."They filed into the mess tent and went through the line to pick up their trays, then dispersed to sit among the other trainees and gather what intel they could through casual conversation.

When Jersey got to the end of the line with her tray, men at several tables stood up, all trying to get her to sit with them. Anna received a similar reception from the men.

Coop snorted through his nose. "Huh, guess it's been a while since these guys had any female company."

Harley grinned. "Yeah, an' the ones they got here don't exactly set a man's loins on fire either," he said, inclining his head at some of the other women meres in the room, all of whom had faces that would stop clocks.

After lunch, the team proceeded to Bergman's office, where he sat waiting for them, looking over their papers on his desk.

When they were seated, he went through their applications one by one.

"Harley, I see you were an officer in Ben Raines's Army," he said.

Harley nodded. "Yeah, until I slugged an officer and got court-martialed."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I didn't like Buddy Raines's att.i.tude, so I decked him one night in the officers' club."

73."Buddy Raines? Any relation to Ben Raines?" Bergman asked with upraised eyebrows.

"His son."

"s.h.i.t. No wonder you got canned," Bergman said.

"He's an arrogant little p.i.s.sant who's gettin' by on his daddy's reputation," Harley said with a sneer.

Bergman nodded, going on to the next sheet. "Cooper, it says here you were on Raines's personal team ... as a driver.''

"I was, until I porked his main squeeze," Coop said, sticking to the story Mike Post had put in his file. "Then I found myself pulling every dirty job in the business. Figured I'd better get out before I got fragged by; one of his friends."

The interview went on like this, with each of the team having a story that would account for their leaving the employ of the Army of the SUSA.

Finally, Bergman leaned back, sticking a cigar in his mouth and lighting it as he looked at the group. "Well, other than your obvious discipline problems, you seem like soldiers who will do us some good."

"It'll be a pleasure to get our licks back against Raines and his soldiers," Harley said with feeling."I think I'll have your team take over as my drill sergeants here at the training camp," Bergman said. "You obviously have some special skills we can use in our training program."

"Before we sign on, we'd like a few questions answered," Harley said.

"Like, just who are we working for and what kind of action can we look forward to."

"That's on a need-to-know basis," Bergman said, dismissing the question.

"All you need to know is the pay is excellent, especially for staff personnel, and that we'll have the best equipment money can buy when we go into combat."

Harley nodded, too cautious to press his questions now. He'd wait until later, when he could do some snooping around the office without being observed, to find the answers he needed.

"How long do we have to get these troops combat-ready?"

74.Hammer asked. "From the looks of those we've seen, it's gonna take a while."

"Less than a month," Bergman said. "So, you'd better get busy whipping them into shape."

"Yes, sir!" Harley said, standing up.

As they filed out and headed to the barracks to find their places, he asked each of them if they'd found out who the head man was. None had.

"It's like none of the troops know who the boss man is," Coop said.

"They're as much in the dark as we are."

"Well," Harley said, "keep digging. We can't leave here until we find the answer."

"I did learn there're a h.e.l.l of a lot of troops already finished with basic training," Jersey said. "Several battalions at least."

"s.h.i.t," Harley said, "and from what Bergman says, they've got modern equipment and lots of it to use against us when the time comes."

"Why not just have Ben call an air strike against this place?" Anna asked.

" 'Cause he's not ready to start a war with South America," Harley answered. "No, we're gonna have to wait until they start to move out and get in neutral territory before we can do anything offensive against them."

"Did you catch that comment Bergman made about having the troops ready within the month?" Jersey asked.

"Yeah," Harley said, "and that's some info we need to get back to Ben as soon as we can. I don't think he has any idea things are moving that fast."

Coop nodded. "That probably means Perro Loco's gonna start his offensive in Mexico any day now."

"Jerse and I'll get out to the communications gear tonight and try and let Ben know what's going on.""Why don't you tell him we're gonna line these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds up and let Jersey kick the s.h.i.t out of 'em one at a time?"

75.75.Coop said with a grin. "That way he wouldn't have to worry about them helping Loco out."

She cut her eyes at him. "I know just who I'd start with too," she said, giving him a flat look.

76 Nine Bruno Bottger, Rudolf Hessner, and Sergei Bergman made their way to the scientific lab Bottger had built on the outskirts of his mercenary training facility.

"Have there been some new developments by Dr. Krug?" Hessner asked as they wound their way down several flights of stairs to the subterranean bas.e.m.e.nt where the scientist he spoke of did his work.