Since Theo was wearing earphones, it wasn't surprising that he didn't follow. It also wasn't surprising that he didn't take them off so he could. Ludwig had often thought that Theo cared more about the radio than about either of his crewmates.

Direct action, then. Ludwig yanked the earphones off Theo's head. The radio operator gave him a wounded look. "What did you go and do that for?" he asked.

"So I could talk to you?" Ludwig suggested.

By the way Theo blinked, that hadn't occurred to him. "Are you a goddamn blackshirt, so you have to interrogate me right this fucking minute?"

"Gott im Himmel!" Ludwig's head might have been on a swivel as he looked around the panzer park. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to his panzer, for which he was duly grateful. "Are you out of your mind, Theo? Do you want them to haul you away?"

"Nah. If I did, I would've-" But even Theo stopped short, swallowing whatever he'd been about to come out with. He was definitely an idiot, but maybe-just maybe-he wasn't quite an imbecile.

Would've done what? Ludwig wondered. The first thing that sprang to mind was would've plugged the Fuhrer when I had the chance. Ludwig didn't ask him if that was what he meant. For one thing, he feared Theo would say yes. For another, letting Theo know such a thought had crossed his own mind would give the radioman a hold on him.

And so Ludwig pointed to the set Theo was working on and asked his original question over again: "How's it going?"

"Haven't found the new bad tube yet." As Theo spoke, he extracted another one. "They give out faster when we bang all over the landscape, you know."

"Sure, but what am I supposed to do about it? Keep working. We're as deaf as the damned Frenchmen till you do." Ludwig had examined quite a few knocked-out French panzers. Most of them had no radios at all. French panzer leaders signaled their subordinates with wigwag disks. The Germans carried them, too, but only for emergencies. They worked well enough on the practice field. In real combat, with dust and dirt flying, they were much harder to make out. And, of course, a panzer commander who stood up in the cupola to semaphore with wigwag disks was as likely to get shot as any other suicidal damn fool.

Theo grunted and forgot about Ludwig. He put the earphones back on. After a moment, he nodded, not to Rothe but to the radio set. "You finally find the dead one?" Ludwig asked hopefully.

A moment later, he remembered Theo couldn't hear him any more. He didn't want to tear the earphones off the radioman's head again; that was pushing things, even for a sergeant.

For a wonder, Hossbach doffed the earphones of his own accord. "We're back in business," he reported.

"Outstanding!" Because Ludwig had given him a hard time before, he made himself sound enthusiastic now. Yes, Theo lived in his old little world and visited the real one as seldom as he could get away with, but he did his job pretty well anyhow. Ludwig had heard plenty of other panzer commanders bitch about their radiomen and drivers in terms that horrified him. All in all, he was more lucky than not.

French artillery came down about half a kilometer in front of the panzer park. Somebody was getting it in the neck-probably a bunch of poor, damned infantrymen, as usual-but the precious panzers stayed out of range of enemy guns when not actually fighting.

Planes buzzed by overhead. Ludwig looked up, more curious than worried. Sure enough, Stukas and Messerschmitts flew west to punish the French and the English. The enemy didn't use planes against German forces anywhere near so much. Ludwig was damned glad of it, too. He'd seen what air power could do to soldiers. He didn't want anybody doing that to him.

German 105s opened up. Maybe they were shooting at the French guns. Maybe they were softening up the poilus so the next German thrust could finally break through them instead of just pushing them back. Maybe…Ludwig laughed at himself. Not for the first time, he was pretending he'd joined the General Staff. No Lampassen on the legs of his black coveralls.

Something off in the distance blew up with a hell of a bang. Even Theo noticed. "Ammunition dump?" he said.

"Christ, I hope so," Ludwig answered. "Damned Frenchmen have already thrown more shit at us than we ever thought they had. The more we can get rid of, the less they're liable to hit us with."

Theo blinked in owlish surprise. "I hadn't thought of it like that."

"You're always off in Radioland," Ludwig said. "Half the time, I don't think you even remember there's a war on."

"Oh, I remember," Theo said. "I'd be doing something better than this if they hadn't stuck a uniform on me. So would you." He still looked like an owl, but a challenging owl now.

Getting that much of a rise out of him took Ludwig by surprise. "Watch your mouth!" the panzer commander said again. "The way things are, if anybody in the other blackshirts hears you go on like that, you're down the shitter." He was proud of those panzer coveralls, but wished the SS didn't wear the same color.

Theo nodded slowly. He seemed much more…engaged with the real world than he often did. He even looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping before he said, "Well, you're right about that, too. And things shouldn't work that way, either. You know damn well they shouldn't."

"We'll fix it after the war," Ludwig said. "We can't waste time worrying about it now. If France and England beat us again, we're screwed. Remember how it was when we were kids, when they occupied us and we needed a bushel of marks to get a bushel of turnips? Do you want to see those days back again?"

"Who would? Only a crazy man." But Theo looked around again. Softly, he added, "The other thing I don't want is, I don't want our own side fucking us over. And that's what we've got."

He'd just put his life in Ludwig's hands. If Ludwig reported him the way a dutiful sergeant was supposed to, he'd have a new radioman in short order. What would happen to Theo after that was none of his business. He would be better off not wondering about such things. Theo wouldn't, but he would.

But he didn't want a new radioman. Theo spent too much time in his own little world, but most days he did a good job. If he doubted whether Germany was always wise…well, so did Ludwig. Gruffly, the sergeant clapped the other man on the shoulder. "We'll take care of that after the war, too. They'll have to listen to us then."

"Nobody has to do anything." Theo spoke with unwonted conviction. But then he must have realized he'd taken things as far as they could go, or more likely a few centimeters farther. He seemed to shrink back into himself. "Well, we'd better worry about the Frenchies right this minute, eh?"

"Now you're talking!" Relief filled Ludwig's voice. Something else on-he hoped-the French side of the line went up with a hell of a bang. That relieved him, too. He knew how hideously vulnerable to antitank rounds the Panzer II was. As with the previous bang, the fewer of them the enemy could aim at him, the better.

The panzers rattled forward an hour or so later. Foot soldiers in Feldgrau loped along with the armor. One of them waved to Ludwig, who stood head and shoulders out of the cupola. He nodded back. Panzers could do things the infantry only dreamt about. Everybody knew that, and had known it all along. But the war had taught a different lesson: that panzers needed infantrymen, too. Without them, enemy soldiers could get in close and raise all kinds of hell with grenades and bottles full of blazing gasoline and whatever other lethal little toys they happened to carry.

Stukas screamed down out of the sky. Fire and smoke and dirt rose into the air a few hundred meters ahead. Even at that distance, blast from the big bombs rattled Ludwig's teeth. What it was doing to the bastards in khaki on whom the bombs fell…Ludwig felt a curious mixture of sympathy and hope that nobody up ahead was in any shape to fight any more.