Judgment in the Ashes, page 16
Ben laughed softly. “All right, Mike. I won’t try to convince you I’m some sort of peace envoy.”
“Good. So do you have a plan now that you know that Nazi asshole is sending some of the best troops he’s got over here?”
“Tell the truth, I haven’t had time to formulate one.”
Mike nodded and sipped his coffee. Dusk was spreading her cloak over the land, warning the afternoon to prepare for night. Somewhere in the distance, out in the woods that surrounded the small town, a wolf howled. Ben lifted his head and smiled at the call.
“You and Brother Wolf, eh, Ben?” Mike questioned with a smile.
“Could be, Mike.”
Mike chuckled. “Of course, Ben, to avoid the risk of getting caught between Bottger’s troops and Border’s troops, you could get out of here and run the operation from a safe distance. That’s what Generals usually do.”
“Shit!” Ben said.
The lobo wolf howled again.
Once the resistance from Border’s followers began to wane, the capitulation movement spread all over the western part of Borders territory, from the Canadian border down to the California state line. As Ben and his team began moving slowly eastward, they could all see that Border had been running quite a scam. Many of the people were hungry, having settled on land that couldn’t produce anything much in the way of food for human consumption. They had few doctors among them, and the kids were in rough shape. The Rebels soon were spending much more time healing than shooting. Ben called for more doctors and paramedics and medicines to be sent in from Base Camp One. Former Simon Border supporters were flocking into the aid camps by droves.
“Hearts and minds, Cec,” Ben told Cecil one day.
Hundreds of miles away, the President of the SUSA laughed. “That term certainly sounds very familiar, Ben. Where have I heard that before?”
The two men shared a laugh, then Cecil said, “Bottger’s troops are definitely on the way, Ben, and his hard-core people who are spread all over North America are on the way to beef up Simon’s front. It’s looking pretty good out there now, but all that is going to change, very quickly.”
“I know, Cec.”
“And? . . .”
“I’ll deal with it when the time comes.”
“I know I’d be better off farting in the wind than suggesting this, but you need to get the hell out of that area, Ben.”
“All in good time. Stop worrying.”
“Sure, Ben.” Cecil’s words were laced with sarcasm. “That really eases my mind.”
“I knew it would. I merely wanted to assure you I have the greatest regard for my personal safety.”
Cecil called him a name and broke off.
Ben handed the mic to Corrie and looked around. “Anybody seen Mike today?”
“I think he split,” Beth said. “I saw him loading his pickup with field rats and ammo this morning.”
Mike’s sudden departure without a good-bye did not come as a surprise. That’s the way the man operated. Ben walked out of the building he was using as a temporary CP to stand for a moment and breathe the cool air. Christmas and New Year’s had come and gone with few Rebels paying much attention to it. They were just too busy. The first few months of the new year had passed in a flurry of activity, with the Rebels gaining a lot of ground. Now spring was definitely in the air.
Ben’s team of Rebels had crossed over into Idaho and were in a small town, seeing to the needs of former Simon Border supporters. On the long curving front east and south of Ben, Simon’s loyalists had been digging in, preparing to make a last-ditch stand of it. And from all indications, when it came, it was going to be a bloody one.
Simon Border’s empire was crumbling, no doubt about that, but Simon still had several hundred thousand very fanatical supporters who were ready and more than willing to lay down their lives for the man.
Intelligence believed that Bottger’s people had landed on American soil several weeks back, coming ashore in very small teams, up and down the West Coast. They also believed that Simon had left caches of food and ammunition for Bottger’s troops all over the Northwest.
“I think Border knew all along he didn’t have a prayer of defeating us,” Ike had stated at a meeting of Batt Coms a few weeks before. “I think he made the deal with Bottger just so he could go out believing there was a good chance Bottger’s troops would kill you, Ben.” Ike frowned and cut his eyes to Dan.
“Say it all, Ike,” Ben said.
“I will,” Dan said, standing up. “We’ve all read the intelligence reports, Ben. And we’ve talked at length with the people. There is only one conclusion to reach: Bottger’s troops are here for one reason: You.”
Ben thought about that for a second, then nodded. “You might be right. But so what? What would you have me do? And don’t tell me to tuck tail and run, for you all know I won’t do that.”
The Batt Coms all exchanged glances, and Ben knew that was to have been their suggestion. He waved a hand. “Forget it, people. One enemy or another—civilian or soldier—has been trying to kill me for years. You all know that. I’m staying, and that’s it. Let’s move along.”
The meeting had continued for several hours after that exchange, mapping out strategy, and the batt coms had never brought up the subject of Ben bugging out again.
But Ben felt the battalion commanders were probably correct about Bottger’s troops coming in to make an attempt on his life. The more he thought about it, the more he felt a need to be prepared.
Several days after the meeting, Ben slipped off for a few moments by himself and drew five days’ emergency rations. Then he managed to steal a chunk of C-4 and detonators. He put together a ground sheet, blankets, and shelter half. A hundred rounds of ammo. A .22 caliber auto-loader with a very good silencer and several boxes of ammo. Extra knife, matches in a waterproof container, a hundred feet of rope. Small camp axe. Machete. Compass. Several grenades. Socks and a bar of regulation unscented soap. The smell of scented soap and aftershave and cologne has cost more than one person their life in enemy territory. Water purification tablets. A first-aid kit with a hundred five-hundred-milligram antibiotic capsules. He stowed the pack behind his desk in his mobile CP, adding a few more items as he thought of them.
“Come on, you Nazi bastards, let it rip,” Ben muttered, as he patted the pack with a big hand. A slow smile curved his lips. “If you think hunting me down will be easy, you grossly underestimate this ol’ boy.”
Hell, Ben thought. That might even be fun!
FOUR
A squadron of headhunting gunships caught a large group of Bottger’s infiltrators moving east in trucks one morning and chopped them to smoking bloody bits with machine gun and rocket fire. A team of Buddy’s special operations 8 batt boys and girls caught up with another bunch of Bottger’s people and sprang a classic ambush on them. Those two actions cost Bottger almost a third of his infiltrators. Another series of running fire-fights with Rebels Ike had ordered out to hunt down Bottger’s people cut the odds down even more.
“Bottger’s people are slowly moving east, Ben,” Ike radioed one day. “To my mind, that proves our suspicions.”
“I never disputed the theory,” Ben replied. “I just said I wasn’t running.”
Several hundred miles away, Ike stomped around and cussed for a moment. Ben waited with a smile on his lips until his old friend had settled down.
“Are you through now, Ike?”
“Never, ever, have I seen a man so goddamned hard-headed as you!”
“It’s one of my more endearing qualities.”
“Horseshit!” Ike shouted, and broke off.
Slowly, working each town and village with care, the Rebel columns, stretching out north to south in a hundreds-of-miles-long line, moved eastward. On the L-shaped front that Simon’s people had built and swore to defend to the death, thousands of Rebels waited and took no action.
Ben had Corrie try several times each day to get in touch with Simon Border, but the man refused to answer the radio calls.
“He doesn’t care,” Ben said. “He’s willing to sacrifice thousands of his followers’ lives just for a chance to get me . . . among other reasons for that stupid front he’s thrown up.”
“Boss, we could tear that front all to pieces just by laying back and using artillery,” Cooper said.
“Sure we could, and probably will when the time comes. But even as we speak, we’re closing the pinchers on Simon. We can eventually starve them out. That’s a grim thought, I know. But no matter how long and hard we hammered the front with artillery, Rebels would still have to go in and finish up taking it hand to hand. When Simon’s people start living on rats and bugs they’ll begin giving surrender some serious thought.”
Jersey shuddered at the thought of eating a rat.
“Any word on Simon’s location?” Beth asked.
“Not a clue. He could have slipped through and be hiding out in Maine for all I know. I really don’t expect to catch him. But I can assure you all, we haven’t heard the last of Simon Border.”
“What if he does surface somewhere else in America?” Anna asked. “We kill him?”
“No,” Ben said, sugaring a fresh mug of coffee. “Because when, or if, he resurfaces, he’ll swear he’s changed his ways and seen the light. He’ll wave the Bible and spout Scripture and beg our forgiveness and we’d look like a bunch of jerks if we tried to do anything to him. Then he’ll start a new church somewhere and begin all over.”
“And we just sit back and do nothing, allow him to do that?” Corrie asked.
“Sure. Public opinion would turn hard against us if we didn’t.”
“Not public opinion in the SUSA,” Cooper said.
Ben smiled. “No. You’re right about that. But we’re realists in the SUSA, Coop. That’s why our system of government works so well. Realists surrounded by what used to be called left-wing liberals. I just refer to them as a bunch of assholes and let it go at that.”
“But what about all the people Simon and his followers killed?” Anna asked. “The Indians, the Blacks, the Jewish people . . . all the rest?”
“We have no proof of that,” Ben countered. “And no bodies. We haven’t come up on a single mass grave.”
“But the people who are surrendering en masse?” Jersey asked.
Ben smiled. “Oh, they won’t testify against Simon. Not against the Lord on Earth. Hell, I wouldn’t trust most of those who surrendered any further than I can see them. Right now, they’re enjoying the medical care and food we’re providing them, but many of them will rejoin Simon as soon as possible.” Ben smiled. “Of course, they don’t know that we’re aware of their plans, but our intel picked up on that early on.”
“And we just let them rejoin Simon Border-brain and his whacky church?” Cooper asked.
“Offhand, Coop, I don’t know how we could stop them.”
Cooper gave that a few seconds’ thought, then shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we couldn’t.”
Ben moved over to the wall map and studied it for a moment. “We’ll be moving into some rough country in a few days. What few roads there are won’t be much. We’re going to wander some and see the country . . .”
His team exchanged glances. Ben wasn’t fooling them a bit. He was hunting trouble and they all knew it.
“Just wander, huh?” Jersey asked, making no attempt to hide the friendly sarcasm in her voice.
“That’s right, Little Bit. Sightsee. Springtime in the Rockies and all that.”
“I’m sure we’ll see sights we’ve never before seen,” Corrie said.
“Oh, I’m sure we will.”
“Naturally, you’re going to inform President Jefferys and Ike of your plans to commune with nature?” Beth asked sweetly.
“As a matter of fact, yes, I am,” Ben surprised his team by saying.
“This, I have to hear,” Corrie muttered.
“I think it’s a great idea, father!” Buddy Raines’s voice came over the speaker.
Ben smiled.
“Oh, I do too, Ben,” Ike said. “You just go right ahead and enjoy yourself.”
“I think it’s a marvelous idea, Ben!” Dan Gray added his voice.
“Why, thank you all,” Ben said. “I just wanted to make sure I had your approval. I know how you worry about me.”
“Thank you, Ben,” Ike said. “Enjoy yourself in the Rockies.”
“Oh, I shall, Ike. I shall.”
Back at his desk, Ben turned his chair, putting his back to his team. A huge smile hung on his lips. He knew exactly why his batt coms were so enthusiastic about his planned foray through the mountains: air recon showed nothing there except a very few tiny settlements, miles and miles apart.
Ben’s batt coms felt this was one way to keep him out of trouble. And, Ben leaned back in his chair, maybe they were right. But he had a hunch about those mountains, and this was the best way he knew to get away and check it out personally.
Ben had a hunch Simon Border was hiding in those mountains, and he would just dearly love to come face to face with that damned snake-oil salesman.
He rose from his chair and walked to the map. “Cooper, advise the rest of our team we’ll cut off here.” He pointed to a road leading through to Montana. “At this point,” he hit the map, “we’ll cut south, checking out these towns. We’ll hook up with the lead contingent of Buddy’s 8 Batt at this intersection on old Interstate 15.” He smiled. “After we wander for a time in this area.” Again, he thumped the map.
“Yes, sir.” Cooper stared at the map for a moment. “Not much in there, boss.”
“That’s right, Coop. Not much at all.”
Jersey and the others crowded around, joining Ben and Cooper at the wall map. “Ought to be a cake-walk, boss,” the little bodyguard opined.
“Might be, Jersey. Might be.”
The others smiled, with only Anna looking at her adopted father through cool, young/old and very wary eyes. General Ben was up to something, she felt. She just didn’t know what. Then her eyes caught the shape of the emergency pack tucked away behind some boxes against the wall.
After Ben had left the mobile CP, Anna turned to the others in Ben’s personal team. “Look here,” she said, pointing to the pack.
The team crowded around while Anna opened the pack and inspected the contents.
“Keep an eye out for the boss, Coop,” Jersey said, and Cooper moved to the window.
“Emergency gear,” Beth said, looking at the contents of the pack. “He’s getting ready for something.”
“I’m with you,” Corrie agreed. “I think we’d all better follow suit. But do it quietly.”
“Yeah,” Jersey said. “I think that, as usual, the boss knows something he’s not sharing with the other batt coms.”
“Especially not with Uncle Ike and President Jefferys,” Anna said. “And that rings alarm bells in my head.”
“Doesn’t it, though?” Beth said, straightening up after helping Anna repack the emergency gear.
“I just wonder what the boss has got in the back of his mind?” Cooper questioned.
“Whatever it is, he believes a small contingent of us can handle it,” Corrie said. “He likes his fun, but he wouldn’t deliberately endanger the team just for some personal headhunting.”
“We’ll play along with this sightseeing crap,” Anna laid down the ground rules. “But we’ll be ready for anything that might jump up and slap us in the face.”
“Do we tell the others?” Cooper called from the window.
“It wouldn’t be fair to keep them in the dark,” Beth said. “I say we tell them.”
They all agreed on that.
“Let’s get busy,” Anna said. “We’ve got to draw some supplies before we pull out. And knowing General Ben, we might just cut out very quickly.”
But the personnel at quartermaster put it together almost from the first.
“Something’s up with the general,” a sergeant told another sergeant. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but the general’s team is drawing some damn strange gear.”
The other sergeant perked up immediately. “Oh, yeah? Like what? Tell me about it.”
After listening to a list of all the gear being drawn, and all the people drawing it, the sergeant motioned to a young Rebel. “You get the word down the line to Ike, mouth to ear, no radio, that the general is about to pull something. I think he’s going off headhunting on his own.”
“Will do, Sarge. On my way.”
Those hastening to inform Ike and Buddy had to do it by runner, for they all knew that Corrie was capable of picking up anything that squawked on the air. What Corrie didn’t know about radios hadn’t been invented yet, plus Corrie had a bank of scanners going all the time and could decode the conversation between two bluejays in no time flat.
Ike finally got the message about noon the next day. By that time, Ben and his team had been on the road for hours. When the roaring message from Ike nearly blew off the speakers in the big wagon, Ben smiled and said, “Ignore it, Corrie. Transmissions can get awfully garbled deep in the mountains.”
“We’re not deep in the mountains yet, Boss,” Cooper pointed out.
Ben laughed. “Yeah. But Ike doesn’t know that!”
FIVE
On their fourth day out, Ben looked at the passing landscape and said, “Air recon just may have been right about this area.”
The team had seen no signs of human habitation since crossing over into Montana. They had passed through a dozen small towns; all had been devoid of life.
“Maybe they’re deep in the mountains, boss,” Jersey said. “Sitting quiet and waiting for the columns to move on east.”
“I have a hunch you’re right, Jersey. But how many of them?”
No one responded to that; no one among them had any way of knowing.
“So let’s start cutting off the highway onto side roads and check it out,” Anna suggested.
