"Whatever on earth for?"
Jersey was sitting on the steps, staring in disbelief at the woman. Beth looked at Corrie, who winked at Cooper, the silent gesture stating clearly that things were about to get lively.
Ben carefully marked the page and laid the book aside. "Ms.
Whatever-your-name-is, it is common practice during war to use artillery from time to time. It not only is very destructive, but it also demoralizes the h.e.l.l out of those being sh.e.l.led."
"Do you have the president"s permission to do this?" another woman piped up.
"Lady," Ben said, mustering all the patience he could, "I don"t have to have Blanton"s permission to do a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing. Now why don"t you people go on down to the mess tent-it"s that way," he said, point- 78.William W. Johnstone ing, "and have some breakfast. After that, stay the h.e.l.l out of my business."
"Well!" Ms. Smith-Harrelson-Ingalls said.
"Where are you holding the prisoners?" a man asked.
Jersey giggled, which was something that Jersey rarely did."Did I say something funny?" the man asked.
"If we take any prisoners, they"ll be held over there." Ben pointed.
"Somewhere."
"What do you mean, if you take prisoners?" a woman asked, looking around her at Ben"s personal team.
"Creeps don"t surrender," Cooper said. "Never. As for punks, who the h.e.l.l wants them?"
"They"re human beings, for G.o.d"s sake!" a man said.
"Cooper, please escort these people to the mess tent," Ben said.
"How long is this barrage going to continue?" the woman with three last names asked.
"For twenty-four hours, lady," Jersey answered. "I recommend the scrambled eggs. They"re pretty good. Goodbye, Cooper. Have fun."
"My name is Ralph Galton, General," a young man said. Ben figured him to be about thirty-five. About the same age as the others. "I report directly to ex-President Timmy Narter."
"How wonderful for you," Ben said.
Galton ignored the sarcasm. "We are all concerned about the humanitarian aspects of this operation."
"It"s none of your G.o.dd.a.m.n business, sonny."
79.79."I beg your pardon, sir, but it most certainly is our business. As you may know, President Narter has re-emerged from hiding and is chairperson of the-"
Ben waved him silent. "I don"t want to hear about it, sonny. Tell him to go build a house."
"You"re very disrespectful, sir."
"I"ve had it," Ben said, and stood up and turned, facing the group. Both his hands were balled into big fists. Beth quickly stepped between them and said, "Breakfast is being served at the mess tent. I would suggest you go there, right now. Cooper? Take them. Now!"
After the group had left, Jersey said, "Where are all these d.a.m.n people coming from? Where have they been hiding for all these years? What have they been doing all the years since the Great War?"
"Waiting for us to do their dirty work, Jersey," Ben said. "It"s typical of a certain type of mealymouthed liberal. They knew if they stuck their heads out of their holes, the thugs and street slime and creepies and outlaws would have them for lunch. So they waited while we did all the work-and they knew we were doing it. That"s what p.i.s.ses me off about that bunch. Blanton admitted it. They knew all along we were killingpunks and thugs. They knew we weren"t cutting any of them any slack. And they let us do it. But now, oh boy, but now . . . this is the last great gathering of slime in the Northern Hemisphere. The liberals are safe now, for a time. Now the liberals can come out of hiding and strut around puffing out their chests and weeping and p.i.s.sing and moaning about how harshly we"re treating the poor unfortunate criminal element."
Ben smiled. "But 80.William W. Johnstone their safety will be a very fleeting thing as we keep shoving more and more punks across our borders into their territory. They"re going to open their eyes one morning and find they"re right back where they were before the Great War: smack in the middle of a growing epidemic of lawlessness. And I am going to be very amused when that takes place."
Ben stood silent for a moment, leaning against a porch support post, listening to the steady rolling thunder of artillery. "Very amused."
The pounding of the artillery did little to harm the Night People, for they were bunkered deep underground, with dozens of exit holes once the barrage stopped-if they chose to exit and face the wrath of the Rebels.
However, things were not going nearly so well for the gangs in the city.
They had stored provisions for a long siege. They had plenty of food and water and ammo and bedding and medical supplies. But they hadn"t counted on the Rebels destroying the city; didn"t take into consideration that the Rebels might lay back several miles and bring the concrete and steel crashing down on their heads.
They should have asked the creepies about the ruth-lessness of Ben Raines.
As far as actual physical casualties, the gangs fared pretty well; it was the psychological aspect of the barrage that was taking a heavy toll on the criminal element in the city. Nothing is more mentally debilitating than a steady artillery barrage, for there is no place to 81.run to escape it. After a time many break under the strain and are reduced to babbling, s...o...b..ring idiots. Others run headlong into the streets, to be crushed and killed by falling debris or shrapnel from the rounds. Others seek shelter in bas.e.m.e.nts of buildings and are forever trapped by tons of concrete and steel, entombing them for eternity. A few stick the muzzles of their weapons into their mouths and end it.
Pretty extreme, but it works.
A few minutes before dusk of the first day of the bombardment, Ms.
Three-Last-Names came to see Ben.
"Here comes that woman who isn"t real sure who she is," Jersey said.
"And that jerk who represents Timmy Farter is with her."
"Narter," Ben corrected.
"Whatever."
"I remember reading something about him," Cooper said. "But I can"trecall whether it was good or bad."
"Don"t get me started," Ben said.
"I think he drank a lot of beer," Corrie said.
"That was his brother," Ben said. "That"s the one we should have elected."
"Hey!" Cooper said, standing up. "A whole mob is right behind those two flakes. It"s the press."
"s.h.i.t!" Ben said. "That"s all we need. How in the h.e.l.l did they learn of this operation?"
"Three guesses," Jersey said sourly.
"The Red Cross is with them, too," Beth said.
82.William W. Johnstone "I hope they brought some doughnuts," Ben muttered.
"General Raines," Ralph Galton said. "I have been asked to be the spokesperson for this group."
"So speak."
"We wish permission to enter the war zone."
"You know where it is. It"s kind of hard to miss, I would say."
"Yeah, we"ve been pretty accurate so far," Jersey said with a smile.
"This is no time for levity, General," Ralph said, after giving Jersey a dirty look. "There are wounded in that city who need to be evacuated for medical treatment."
Ben looked at the group. All in their early to mid thirties. The new breed of liberal, he thought. All earnest and forthright. Earnest and forthright. . . sounded like a vaudeville team.
"Well?" Ms. Three-Last-Names demanded.
"Well . . . what?" Ben asked.
"Do we have your permission to enter the city?"
"Sure. Go right ahead. Don"t let me stop you."
"When may we a.s.sume the bombardment will cease?" Ralph asked.
"At 0700 hours tomorrow."
"My G.o.d!" another earnest and forthright person said, standing with several cameras hanging off his person. He was wearing a jacket that appeared to have about eighty pockets. "That"s thirteen hours away."
"Congratulations on your ability to tell time," Ben replied.83 83."That"s a neat jacket," Beth said. "Where"d you get it?"
"If you don"t mind," the young man said to her. "General, we demand to be allowed to enter the city."
"I told you, go right ahead. None of my people will stop you." Ben smiled. "As a matter of fact, I"ll even open a corridor for you." He opened his map case, which he had been studying until the light began to fade, and used a penlight to look at it. "Corrie, order batteries 17, 18, and 19 to cease firing at-" he looked at his watch "-1830 hours.
They will not resume until 1900. Tell Batts 4, 21, and 14 to cover that corridor; these people are to be allowed in, but no one is allowed out."
"Right, sir."
"Well, now," Eighty-Pockets said smugly, "the power of the press is alive and well."
"Not for long," Jersey muttered under her breath. She knew perfectly well what Ben was doing.
"Well, let"s be off!" Ms. Three-Last-Names said.
"You sure are," Beth muttered.
The representatives from the Red Cross hesitated; they were not nearly so full of themselves as the press corps and the men and women from the offices of Blanton and Narter.
In their rush to get into the smoking city and report all the atrocities committed upon the poor misunderstood and much-maligned punks and thugs and street slime by Ben Raines and his horrible, nasty, right-wing Republican army, the others left the Red Cross behind.
84.William W. Johnstone "You opened a corridor to let them in, General Raines," a very attractive lady said. "But when will you reopen the corridor to let them out?"
Ben smiled. "At 0700 hours tomorrow."
85 The press and the nosy liberals (not that there is a modic.u.m of difference between the two) made it safely into the smoking and burning city. They were positively aghast at the devastation. When they finally stopped their vehicles, they realized the Red Cross people were missing.
"h.e.l.l with them," a reporter said. "I didn"t like them anyway. I don"t trust them. They probably secretly support Ben Raines. They"re holdovers from before the Great War. Old-timers. I heard one say he voted for George Bush. My G.o.d, who would willingly admit that?" "?
They were all still reasonably young, but had managed to get quite aliberal education before the Great War knocked the world to its knees, and had been living (groveling) at the feet of people like Blanton and Narter and their ilk ever since.
Because they had lived through the Great War and the b.l.o.o.d.y aftermath, the sight of bodies did not disturb them all that much. But since reporters were pres- 86.William W. Johnstone ent, with cameras rolling and clicking (more clicking than rolling, for while many newspapers were coming off the presses across the nation, TV stations were rare in the still-recovering nation), they did occasionally manage a tear and a sniffle for effect.
"I wonder where everybody is?" Eighty-Pockets asked, glancing at his watch. It was 1900 hours. He looked up into the rapidly darkening sky.
"What is that noise?"
"Incoming!" an older reporter yelled. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d Raines has resumed the sh.e.l.ling."
"Head for that building over there!" Ms. Smith-Harrelson-Ingalls shouted, pointing.
The group took off at a flat lope, heading for what they hoped would be safety. Eyes watched them approach. Cruel, greedy, and hungry eyes.
The Red Cross representatives stayed for supper at Ben"s suggestion.
They were surprised to find that Ben ate the same thing his troops ate, and consequently, so did they. During dinner the lone woman in the group of four said, "That was a very unkind thing you did, General."
"And what is that, Ms. Petti?"
"It"s Julie, General. And you can drop the Ms. business. I never cared for it back when the nation was whole. Sending those press people in the city knowing they would be trapped."
"That"s their problem."
Julie Petti, Ben guessed, was in her late thirties or 87.87.early forties, and aging very well considering what the nation had gone through over the past decade.
"Where have you people been hiding over the years, Julie?"
"In very small groups all over the nation, General-"
"Ben. Call me Ben."
"Ben. All right. Speaking quite frankly, none of us knew what you and your forces were up to. The underground government put out so manystories about you and your Rebels, we didn"t know what to think."
"I have no difficulty accepting that," Ben said.
Julie looked at Ben with amus.e.m.e.nt in her hazel eyes. She brushed back a lock of dark brown hair from her forehead. "You will have to admit that your form of government is, ah, quite novel."
"It works for us," Ben said. "Now several more states in the Lower Forty-Eight have joined us. The entire eastern section of Canada is on board with us, and I suspect that before it"s over, most of Canada will join us. Liberalism is dead, Julie. It doesn"t work and never has. Many Americans knew that before the Great War and wanted change, but the liberal Democratic party blocked our every move. Now we"re too strong for them to stop, and it scares them to death." Julie listened to the roar of the big guns for a few seconds. "How much of the city is going to be standing after that stops?"
"More than you think," Ben told her. "And casualties won"t be as heavy as you might imagine. We"ll start entering the city at 0701." He smiled.