"Take off, Colonel," Ben said with a smile. "G.o.dspeed."
Lenz gripped Ben"s shoulder for a moment, then saluted. "We"ll take General von Hanstein with us."
Ben nodded. "If he gets to be too much trouble, shoot the son of a b.i.t.c.h."
Lenz laughed. "It will be my pleasure to do so, General." The German GSG 9 commander was gone at a silent run.
"And so once more, it is with regret that we leave a lovely scenic spot," Beth said straight-faced. "What a delightful time we"ve had here."
Even though Beth was not p.r.o.ne to wisecracking, ever since she had seen an old travelogue tape she had 168.
mimicked the announcer whenever they got into a tight spot.
"Make a note in your diary to return here someday," Ben said with a smile.
"h.e.l.l, there won"t be anything left in an hour," Beth replied.
"Or less," Ben added."That"s it," Corrie announced, taking off her headphones and slipping into the straps of the back-pack radio. "We"re alone. All teams have gone."
"Bug-out time," Ben said, looking at Cooper. He was just finishing his b.o.o.by-trapping of the armored car. "Did you leave a nice surprise for them, Coop?"
"They"ll get a bang out of it."
Jersey groaned at the old joke.
"Let"s go, gang," Ben said.
They slipped out and headed for the river. Ben"s piece of a map did not give a name for the stream. It was the San something; that part of the map was creased over and not legible. Ben"s team had not gone half a mile before the artillery barrage started. They paused and looked back as the old town exploded.
"Another fifteen minutes and we"d have been chopped meat," Jersey said.
"Speaking of meat," Cooper said.
"You"re always hungry, Coop," Ben said. "Come on. It"s hours before we can stop for that."
"I"ll die of starvation!"
"You"ll get shot in the a.s.s by me if you don"t move," Jersey warned him.
Cooper took one look at Jersey and moved right out. Smartly, as the British say.
The four Scouts had left their forward positions and 169.
moved out first, under orders from Colonel Lenz. He told them to head for the river fast, like bunny rabbits, and stay there until they linked up with their General and stay with him. He didn"t have to tell them he was doing that without Ben"s notice. They guessed that.
A mile from town, Beth spotted the Scouts waiting for them. "Don"t fuss at them, General," she said. "I bet you Colonel Lenz ordered them to link up with us."
"You"re probably right." Ben waved at the Scouts to take the lead and they set a route step that was not uncomfortably fast, but covered a lot of ground. The small group held to cover as much as possible, avoiding open fields.
Ben was the first to hear the unmistakable whapping of rotor blades.
"Down!" he called. "Choppers."
Corrie was listening intently to her earphones. "Teams have been spotted," she said, lying beside Ben. "Hoffman knows we bugged out."
"We"re in for it now," Ben replied. "He"ll be throwing everything he"s got at us.""We"re spotted!" Beth shouted, listening to the Black-shirt"s frequency.
"He"ll be coming in for a strafing run," Ben called, watching the chopper begin a slow turn. "Good G.o.d, look at the armament on that d.a.m.n thing."
Then the helicopter disintegrated in the air as a Rebel Stinger, fired from a hidden Rebel team about a half a mile away impacted against it.
Metal parts and body parts were flung in all directions and the ball of fire fell out of the sky and crashed to earth.
"Let"s go!" Ben shouted, jumping to his feet. "Head for that stand of timber."
Reaching the timber and pausing to catch their 170.
breath, the small band of Rebels listened for the sounds of more choppers. None came.
"Probably a lone wolf," Ben said, after taking a small sip of tepid water from his canteen. "You picking up any enemy chatter, Beth?"
"Negative."
Corrie didn"t mention that Ike and other Rebel commanders were raising h.e.l.l about Ben"s disappearance and continuing silence. Ben already knew that.
"Let"s cover some ground while we can."
By nightfall, they had put the destroyed town far behind them. They ate cold rations and Ben told them to get some rest. He had some thinking to do.
Should they move on? That just might be a dandy way to get seriously dead by the guns of their own people. Before they had bugged out of the little town, pa.s.swords had been chosen: Alamo and Bowie. But with very nervous trigger fingers, there might not be time for words.
Ben slept for a few hours and then roused the others. "We"ll chance it.
Let"s move out. Everybody remember the challenge? OK. Heads up."
They had not gone a thousand yards before the point man dropped down, the others following.
The point Scout silently wriggled back to the main body. "Blackshirts,"
he whispered. "Looks like a big bunch of them."
"Go around them," Ben said. "To the east. Coop, pa.s.s the word. Anybody makes a noise, we"re all dead."
It took them nearly half an hour of slow and silent moving, being very careful where they put a boot down. By the time the Rebels had worked their way clear of 171.
the Blackshirt encampment, the smell of nervous sweat was becoming sharpin the surprisingly cool night.
A mile away, behind them, hard gunfire splintered and fractured the night. A few hundred yards in front of them, sudden movement and the sounds of boots. .h.i.tting the ground flattened the Rebels out, still and silent, hearts thudding heavily. Sharp commands came to them and then a Blackshirt patrol came running past, heading for the gunfire. They were running so close all the Rebels could feel the impact of boots upon the earth.
"Move out," Ben whispered. "Straight east. These sons of b.i.t.c.hes are all around us." He didn"t have to add "be careful."
A hour later, the Rebels came to a tiny creek, the water no more than a few inches deep, and took time out to splash cold water on their faces.
"Where in the s.h.i.t are we?" Cooper whispered.
"Alive," Jersey told him.
They walked on. They were bone tired and nerve-taut, but each careful step put them that much further away from enemy territory.
Just before dawn, during a much needed rest period, Beth suddenly perked up, sniffed, and asked, "What"s that smell, General?"
"The river. I smelled it a few minutes ago. That"s why I called this break. I want to wait until light to look it over. I think we"re clear.
I think I know where we are. If it hasn"t been blown, there should be a bridge about two miles to the east of here."
"I sure could use some hot food, clean socks, and a bath," Cooper said.
"The bath, I certainly agree with," Jersey stuck it to 172.
him. "But stay close, you smell so bad you"re keeping the mosquitoes away."
"You"re just too kind to me, Jersey," Cooper popped back, putting a hand on her knee. "I always knew that deep down you really cared."
Jersey looked down at the hand on her leg. "I"ll break it, Cooper."
He removed his hand. Quickly.
"Sleep," Ben put an end to the harmless bantering that had been going on between the two for years. "All of you. I"ll stand first watch."
The team slept until the warm rays of light filtering through the trees woke them. They looked around. Ben was gone.
The first team to have bugged out of the town had reached a Rebel patrol and reported. Ike had flown in to where Ben was supposed to have been, a few miles north of I-20, and was studying a wall map.
"If they made it through all those patrols and gun-ships," he said, "I figure they should be at the river by now. We know there are Blackshirts east of the river, but only in very small patrols. We have more patrols working there than they do.""Settle down, Ike," Dr. Chase told him. "If anything had happened to Ben, one of his team would have radioed in. You know that."
"Unless the whole team was whacked," Ike said grimly. "And we"ve got to consider that." He started pacing the floor and cussing.
"I swear to G.o.d, Ike," Chase said. "If you don"t settle 173.
down, I"m going to tranquilize you. And with a b.u.t.t like yours, I couldn"t miss with the needle."
Ike tried to look hurt. He couldn"t pull it off. "I"ll have you know I"ve lost a few pounds, Doc."
"Well, you found them again. Sit down, Ike!"
Ike stopped his pacing and sat down. Chase poured him half a gla.s.s of bourbon. "This was found buried a couple of days ago. Several cases of it. I can"t think of a better time to get loose. Drink up, Ike. Ben will make it. He always has."
"Luck has a bad habit of running out on a man, Lamar. And Ben"s been doing this for a long time. Too long, I"m thinking."
"I stopped trying to get him out of the field entirely a long time ago.
He"ll die in the field, Ike. You know it, and I know it."
"Yeah," Ike said softly and cut his eyes to the silent field telephone on the desk.
Hoffman had been in a blue funk since his troops had found no bodies in the rubble of the old town. That elusive son of a b.i.t.c.h Raines had slipped out like a silent snake. Hoffman had poured twenty thousand troops into that area and still Raines had slipped away. It was quite impossible, of course. But Raines had certainly done it.
Incredible. The man and his Rebels moved like ghosts and fought like possessed demons. And obviously they took General von Hanstein with them. They would probably torture him. Poor von Hanstein. He would have the divisional chaplain hold a service for him. Yes. That would be the Christian thing to do. And Jesus 174.
Hoffman certainly considered himself to be a Christian man. He went to ma.s.s every Sunday. And didn"t he have the good of everyone in mind?
Certainly he did. It was just that some people were born to lead and others were born to serve. Or be exterminated. Hoffman didn"t consider that unchristian at all.
An aide knocked and entered. Hoffman looked up. "What is it, Lieutenant?"
"That fellow up in Mississippi and Alabama, Moi Sambura? He wishes to speak with you on the radio, sir."
A grimace pa.s.sed over the fine Christian features of Field Marshal Hoffman. "I thought the Rebels were jamming all their frequencies?""They have stopped. Momentarily, I"m sure."
Hoffman rose to his boots. "Oh, very well. I wonder what that d.a.m.n n.i.g.g.e.r wants now?"
BOOK TWO.
Chapter One.The Const.i.tution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-James Madison "What are you listening to, Corrie?" Ben asked.
"Some interesting exchanges between Hoffman and that nut that General Jefferys hates so, Moi Samburu. You want to listen?"
"No," Ben said. "You can tell me the gist of it after those two clowns stop their babbling." Ben paused in the rolling of a cigarette. "I thought Moi was being jammed?"
"I got a burst from Base Camp One about five minutes ago. General Jefferys ordered the jamming stopped for a time so he could find out what Moi is up to."
"Good idea." Ben lit up and watched Corrie take notes of the conversation between the n.a.z.i and the nut.
Ben and team were about fifteen hundred yards from a bridge that spanned the Brazos, the Rebels hidden 178.
amid the thick vegetation. So far, Scouts had reported no signs of life on the other side, but Ben was not convinced. If they were caught under fire while crossing that bridge, it would be over for them. Rainfall had been heavy and the river was up.
Corrie rolled her eyes and grimaced. Ben smiled. Moi must really be on a verbal rampage. Back before the war he was an extreme militant who advocated and preached loudly that blacks should declare war and kill all whites. Just as Wink Payne hated all blacks and wanted them all dead. Now they were both aligned with Hoffman against the Rebels.
Neither man had enough sense to understand that if the Rebels were defeated, Hoffman would turn on them and kill them both. It was, as Ben had said before, a very unholy alliance. Not to mention very unstable.