I relayed Nanocloud’s instructions to Doyle, who frowned. “We’re not the right type of unit to break that stalemate. You need door-to-door fighting specialists.”

“Maybe we’re all that’s available.”

“We’ll find out. Let’s move.”

Fifteen minutes later, we reached the turnoff. Under a large sign reading BOTANICAL GARDENS - KEW, a unit of soldiers waited by three trucks.

What struck me was how short the soldiers were. Lean, thin men in the green-and-grey uniforms and carrying huge knives…

To my surprise, Banner let out a whoop. “Now we’re talking!”

The leader of the men walked up to Doyle and saluted. “Captain Ranjit Singh, 4th Gurkha Rifles. My boys are here for whatever you need.”

Doyle returned the salute with parade-ground perfection. “Major-General Doyle. Acting. I’ve heard a great deal about your unit. I understand you have some supplies for us, too?”

“Fifty Hellfire-X missiles for one Mr. Belessar.” Captain Singh ran his gaze across the lot of us. “I’m assuming the gentleman in the massive metal exoskeleton is Mr. Belessar?”

“Ji (Yes), Captain,” I replied.

Doyle quirked an eyebrow at me.

Crap, I hadn’t planned on replying in Hindi. … why did I do that again?

The Captain broke out into a smile. “Ah, you speak our language. Excellent. The boys haven’t had a chance to fight side-by-side with an armored suit before, think you can give them some pointers?”

“Don’t get in front of a suit, and don’t get in the way of the rifle.” I brandished the Mass Driver Rifle for emphasis. “When the enemy starts shooting, take cover and let me draw the fire. Also, are your men any good at door-to-door combat? I think we’ve got to break into some buildings and remove some Raptor Guards there.”

“We can do it, Mr. Belessar. How many of these Raptors are we talking?”

“At least four hundred.”

“Splendid, it will make for a good warmup,” Singh grinned. “We’re ready to follow you, General sir.”

: By the way, Banner is signalling STOP TALKING to you in hand signals behind your back, so…

… was I stepping on some arcane military ritual without being aware of it? Never mind.

As we marched forward, Banner walked up to me. “Didn’t know you spoke Hindi.”

“It’s not important. Say, what do you think of the captain? He seems awfully confident to me, considering he’s got less than a hundred men….”

“A hundred Gurkhas, Belessar.”

“... Gurkhas?”

“They’re very, very good light infantry. Probably among the top three, four close combat specialist units in the world. At Delhi, they fought off nearly two-thirds their number of Sarnak and Raptors in a densely packed urban battle that lasted several hours.” Banner fixed me a stare. “And you asked them if they were any good at door-to-door.”

I shrugged. “That sounds a bit overhyped.”

Banner rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, you’ll see.”

Eight minutes later, we reached the junction, and I got to see.

Doyle and Singh broke the unit up into seven-person squads. Four Gorkhas, two Phoenixes with HEPARs, and one Alpha company rifleman to accompany them.

As we raced onto the street, the Indian infantrymen in the buildings hurled smoke grenades.

White clouds hid our approach as the squads dashed into the building. Seconds later, the sounds of firing echoed in room after room.

Twelve squads, four per building, each fanning out in a prearranged pattern.

Nanocloud kept up a running commentary for my benefit, mostly centred around Daisy’s and Donna’s squads. The Raptors had occupied apartment floors, smashed out the windows, and used them as firing positions - in most cases, after killing the occupants.

The Gurkhas would lead the way, smashing through apartment doors with a strength that belied their wiry frames. Within a second of punching through, if there was a Raptor in hand-to-hand range, it would meet the business end of a kukri.

In most cases, the Raptors would take a couple of seconds to react and turn towards the doors. By which time the Gurkha breaching party had dived to the right or left, leaving a clear line of fire for the Phoenixes.

With HEPARs firing Boost Shots, most Raptors died instantly.

In the rare case where there was a third Raptor in the apartment, the four Gurkhas would swarm him, hacking away with kukris. The Raptor Guards were strong, but not strong enough.

Room by room, the Gurkhas cleared the building.

On two occasions, they ran into tougher knots of resistance.

The second was when a Grizzeloid turned out to be lurking in the background, and charged Donna’s squad.

The Gurkhas, Donna, Wanda, and PFC Rosenbaum found themselves in an impromptu wrestling match, which ended when they managed to shove the Grizzeloid against the window.

And into my line of fire.

One Mass Driver Round later, Grizzeloid remains were splattered all over the apartment, Wanda had broken ribs, and one of the Gurkhas was short an arm.

Yeah. The man had held the Grizzeloid - easily four times his weight - against the apartment window for the time it took me to line up and fire.

Only a second, but he hadn’t let go… so when the round smashed through the Grizzeloid, his arm got sheared off in the process.

“Bahadur will be fine,” Captain Singh assured me, even as I apologized profusely. “He knew what he was doing, and you warned us about not getting in the way of the rifle.”

“I’m sorry about his arm,” I apologized.

“Not your fault. Besides, if you really want to apologize, you can make him a robot arm, can’t you?”

“Is that a thing? I’ve never made a robot arm for anyone.”

“Then you should visit India sometime. We have the best prosthetics centres in the world in Jaipur. Be a nice change from all this fighting for you.”

“I’ll do that,” I promised. “Someday.”

“By the way, my men are most impressed with the ladies of Phoenix Company. Bahadur says he didn’t even realize Miss Wanda was a lady until she took off her helmet. It’s an all-women unit?”

“Yeah, it’s a long story.”

“I shall look forward to hearing it sometime. Possibly from Miss Carpenter, she is also most courageous. Anyway, on to the next objective.”

: … Carpenter?

: Lavinia. She was in the squad Singh led personally. Did you know her name is Lavinia Carpenter, by the way?

: Isn’t she the one who regularly threatens to castrate Banner?

: Yeah, she threatened to do the same thing to Singh if he didn’t move faster. They all had a good laugh about it. The Indian soldiers, I mean. Her teammate - Maureen - she was cringing throughout.

: You’ll have to pick up the pace, though. The Carnotaur just ate the last of the 101st Airborne volunteers. The British paras are moving in now.

: What about the ultra reinforcements, and should I bring Agni into play?

: There’s three of them. Shamrock, Irish ranger, can fire a rain of explosive projectiles. Unity, British Herculean, can lift a freight train with one hand… she’ll be your partner in playing tag with the Carnotaur. Chequers, British battlecognitive - his job will be to anticipate the Carnotaur’s moves. They’ll meet you at the Twickenham Bridge.

: Talk to Agni. See what she thinks.