Ben coughed and spat out a mouthful of dust and heaved a sack of dirt off of him. He kicked at a broken timber with his left boot until he could free his right boot. He could clearly hear Jersey cussing.
Then Cooper lent his voice, alternately cussing and coughing in the dust-filled air.
"Are you all right, Pops?" Anna asked.
"I"m fine, Baby. You hurt?"
"No. How about the others?"
"OK, here," Beth said, standing up and giving Corrie a hand up. All of them were covered with dust and dirt.
"s.h.i.t!" Corrie said. "That round must have landed d.a.m.n near right on us."
"General!" a Rebel shouted. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I"m all right. The team is fine."
"Federals are pouring onto the strip, sir. In spots all up and down our sector."
The artillery barrage had stopped.
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Ben climbed out of the bunker. His CAR was buried under a ton or more of debris. "Get me a weapon," he told a group of Rebels who had come running over. "Get weapons for all of us.""Yes, sir."
"Where is Captain Fordham?"
"His leg is broken, General. Several of his people are hurt. They"re being transported to a MASH unit as we speak.""
Weapons and ammo belts and grenade pouches and rucksacks were brought to Ben and his team. Cooper was handed a SAW-Squad Automatic Weapon-and he busied himself checking it out. Ben and his team took a moment to brush as much of the dirt and dust from them as possible.
Ben did not have to issue any orders concerning the steadily advancing Federals. All his people, from platoon leaders to battalion commanders, knew exactly what to do, and they were busy doing it.
"Check on our transportation, Cooper," Ben told him. "See if it survived the barrage." Ben looked around him. The immediate area was pockmarked with smoking holes in the ground. "They gave us a good dose of artillery, and they were right on target. The meres may be better than I thought."
"The fire was coming from a mixture of troops, sir," said a Rebel sergeant standing nearby. "A combination of mercenary and regular USA Army. They are about a thousand meters away at this moment, advancing steadily toward this position."
Ben looked at the man and smiled. "Thank you, Sergeant."
"You"re quite welcome, sir. Now you had better move back a few miles."
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Ben sighed. "You"re part of Captain Fordham"s bird dog group, right?"
"Yes, sir. That is one way of putting it."
"Just my luck."
"Shall we move out now, sir?"
"All right, Sergeant. All right. Come on, gang. Let"s find Coop and get the h.e.l.l out of here."
The big wagon had survived the artillery barrage intact, and a few minutes later Ben and his team were heading south, escorted by his security detail.
Ben was thoroughly disgusted.
"You knew it was coming, Pops," Anna told him. "Cecil"s been threatening to do it for months."
"That doesn"t mean I have to like it."
The team exchanged knowing glances. They all strongly suspected that Ben was already making plans to shake his security detail. He did not like people telling him where he could and could not go."How far south are we going, Coop?" Ben asked after a few miles and moments had pa.s.sed by in silence.
"Ten or so miles, Boss." Cooper was somewhat evasive with his reply.
"Ten miles or so!" Ben exploded. "G.o.dd.a.m.n, we"ll be so far back we"ll have to use carrier pigeons."
"Ten or so miles," Coop repeated. "Those are my orders, Boss. Straight from President Jefferys. Beth has the written directive in her rucksack."
Ben twisted in the seat and glared at Beth.
She met his gaze without flinching. "Yes, sir, I do have the orders. You are to direct the war operation from a safe and secured location. Those are President Jefferys" orders."
"s.h.i.t!" Ben said.
Anna put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile, but not before Ben caught it.
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"You find this amusing, girl?" he demanded. "I"m supposed to run a war from Mars or some G.o.dd.a.m.n place?"
She could no longer hide her humor at the situation. She burst out laughing.
"Wonderful," Ben muttered, as his entire team, including Cooper, began giggling and laughing. Then the humor struck home and Ben smiled and slowly shook his head. "You guys had better understand I"m not going to put up with being muzzled for very long," Ben advised them.
"Where you go, we go," Jersey told him.
"Keep that in mind," Ben replied.
"I might as well tell you before we get to your new CP, Boss," Corrie said. "So it won"t come as a shock to you."
"You mean there are more surprises in store for me?"
"I"m afraid so," Beth said.
"I"ve got a feeling I"m not going to like what you"re about to tell me.
Am I?"
"I doubt it, Boss," Corrie said.
"You see," Beth said, "I mean, what it is ... well, President Jefferys and the security-council feel that you"re carrying too much responsibility, that"s what it is."
"Uh huh," Ben said. "Go on."
"And they-the security-council, that is-all agreed that you needed some help.""Did they now?"
Jersey picked it up. "That"s right. They didn"t ask us how we felt about it, by the way."
"They didn"t?"
"No, sir," Cooper said quickly. "They sure didn"t."
"That"s the truth, Pops," Anna said. "No one asked us. Not a thing."
"I believe you. Well. .. Oh, now wait a d.a.m.ned minute. I think I"m beginning to see where all this is leading. And I"d better be wrong in my thinking, or all h.e.l.l is going to bust loose around here."
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The team exchanged nervous glances.
"Maybe," Corrie said, "we"d better pull over, Coop. I"ll radio the security detail."
"Good idea," Cooper said. "I want some running room."
Ben glared at him. "That bad, huh?"
"I ... ah ... don"t much think you"re going to like the rest of the news, Boss. As a matter of fact, I"d bet on that."
"We"ll pull over just up ahead, Coop," Corrie told him. "Security has picked out a spot."
"Right."
"It"s up to my security detail where and when I stop from now on?" Ben questioned.
"That"s ... ah ... just part of it, Boss," Jersey said.
"I can hardly wait to hear the rest," Ben said.
"I wouldn"t bet on that," Anna muttered, too low for her father to hear.
The short column pulled over a few minutes later, and Ben and his team una.s.sed the wagon.
Under the shade of a grove of trees, Beth said, "You"ve been a.s.signed a staff, Boss."
Ben stared at her in silence.
"Fourteen people, I think," Corrie said.
Ben cut his eyes to her and remained silent.
"They"re going to take some of the workload off you," Anna told him.
"I have been a.s.signed a staff," Ben said softly."That"s right, Boss," Cooper said.
"Fourteen people."
"That"s right," Jersey said. "At least that many."
"Interesting." Ben"s word was calmly spoken.
The team looked at one another. Ben sure was taking the news well.
"But I have a staff. . . sort of," Ben said. "They"ve been doing a good job."
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"They"re spread out all over the country, and they don"t travel with us," Corrie pointed out.
"And this bunch will travel with us?" Ben asked.
"Ah .. . yes, Pops," Anna hesitantly replied. "That"s the word I get. We get."
"And every time I turn around I"m going to be running into one of them."
"Well," Cooper said. "Ah ... it probably won"t be that bad, Boss."
Ben withered him into silence with a hard look.
"A f.u.c.king staff!" Ben said, getting up from his squatting position.
"Fourteen G.o.dd.a.m.n people getting in my way-"
"Maybe it was sixteen," Anna said. "I forget exactly."
"Wonderful," her father said. "It just keeps getting better and better."
"They"ll be here in a couple of days," Beth told him.
"Isn"t that nice?" Ben replied.
None of his team chose to respond.