Somebody had sure spotted this one. Theo hoped the guys in the gray coveralls were able to escape when their mount got hit, but he wouldn’t have bet on it. In case they had, he fired some machine-gun rounds more or less at random to make the Russians in the neighborhood keep their heads down.

  A couple of rifle rounds pinging off the panzer near the vision slit told him he hadn’t made all the Ivans duck. Even a sniper wasn’t likely to hit a vision slit on a moving panzer, but anyone who’d been in the field awhile knew unlikely didn’t mean impossible.

  “Panzer halt!” Witt ordered. Adi stamped on the brakes. The main armament thundered. Shouts from the turret told of another hit—and another kill. Yes, this machine could smash T-34s instead of just letting them know it was in the neighborhood.

  But more and more Russian armor seemed to be in this neighborhood. The Ivans were guarding their flanks better than they often did. They must have realized what the Wehrmacht’s counterstroke against their thrust was likely to look like, and made their own plans to keep it from working.

  The Panzer IV rolled past more burnt-out vehicles, some bearing the red star, others the white-edged black German cross. Some of the twisted bodies in the fields and meadows wore khaki; just about as many were in Feldgrau.

  Clang! … Boom! That was a Panzer IV taking a hit and brewing up not far away. Adi’s mouth twisted. “We just lost some guys we know,” he said. Theo nodded once more.

  “Panzer halt!” Hermann Witt shouted again. Again, Kurt Poske slammed an AP round into the 75. Theo braced himself for another boom from the gun.

  But he got a different kind of boom. Something slammed into the panzer. He felt as if he’d been clubbed.

  “Get us out of here, Adi!” Witt said.

  Adi tried. “Can’t, Sergeant,” he reported. “That one knocked off the right track.”

  “Scheisse!” Witt said. “All right—everybody out! The next one hits us dead center. Good luck, friends!”

  Theo remembered the first time he’d bailed out of a crippled panzer. He’d gained a wound badge and lost most of a finger on his left hand. Well, no help for it. The panzer commander was right. He’d end up with the next Russian shell in his lap.

  He paused only to grab his Schmeisser—yes, he knew where it was. Then he opened his hatch and scrambled out of the Panzer IV as fast as he could. Bullets spanged off the armor plate. They struck sparks, but they didn’t strike him. Adi got out in one piece, too. They both scurried to the rear of the panzer, to put its bulk between them and, well, everything. The guys from the turret escaped through a hatch in its back.

  “Welcome to the infantry!” Adi said with a sour grin. Theo cared nothing for the infantry. He didn’t feel like a foot soldier. He felt more like a snail suddenly torn from its nice, hard shell and transformed into a miserable, squishable slug. He also cared nothing for this attack, which was plainly bogging down. All he wanted was to live to see tomorrow.

  BY HARRY TURTLEDOVE

  The Guns of the South

  THE WORLDWAR SAGA

  Worldwar: In the Balance

  Worldwar: Tilting the Balance

  Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance

  Worldwar: Striking the Balance

  Homeward Bound

  THE VIDESSOS CYCLE

  VOLUME ONE:

  The Misplaced Legion

  An Emperor for the Legion

  VOLUME TWO:

  The Legion of Videssos

  Swords of the Legion

  THE TALE OF KRISPOS

  Krispos Rising

  Krispos of Videssos

  Krispos the Emperor

  THE TIME OF TROUBLES SERIES

  The Stolen Throne

  Hammer and Anvil

  The Thousand Cities

  Videssos Besieged

  A World of Difference

  Departures

  How Few Remain

  THE GREAT WAR

  The Great War: American Front

  The Great War: Walk in Hell

  The Great War: Breakthroughs

  AMERICAN EMPIRE

  American Empire: Blood & Iron

  American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold

  American Empire: The Victorious Opposition

  SETTLING ACCOUNTS

  Settling Accounts: Return Engagement

  Settling Accounts: Drive to the East

  Settling Accounts: The Grapple

  Settling Accounts: In at the Death

  Every Inch a King

  The Man with the Iron Heart

  THE WAR THAT CAME EARLY

  The War That Came Early: Hitler’s War

  The War That Came Early: West and East

  The War That Came Early: The Big Switch

  The War That Came Early: Coup d’Etat

  The War That Came Early: Two Fronts

  About the Author

  HARRY TURTLEDOVE is the award-winning author of the alternate-history works The Man with the Iron Heart; The Guns of the South; How Few Remain (winner of the Sidewise Award for Best Novel); the War That Came Early novels: West and East, Hitler’s War, The Big Switch, and Coup d’Etat; the Worldwar Saga: In the Balance, Tilting the Balance, Upsetting the Balance, and Striking the Balance; the Colonization books: Second Contact, Down to Earth, and Aftershocks; the Great War epics: American Front, Walk in Hell, and Breakthroughs; the American Empire novels: Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and Victorious Opposition; and the Settling Accounts series: Return Engagement, Drive to the East, The Grapple, and In at the Death. Turtledove is married to fellow novelist Laura Frankos. They have three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca.

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