Part 16 (2/2)
”Try that. Corrie, find out where everybody is and give me a report. We don't want to get too far ahead.”
”Right, sir.”
”Burn everything in our sector, Dan,” Ben ordered. ”Leave nothing standing.”
”Right away, sir.” The Englishman trotted off, yelling for his people.
Four quick shots split the air. Linda walked up a few moments later, her face pale. ”Your son just shot those young men, Ben.”
”Yes, I know. I told him to.”
She opened her mouth to speak, and Ben spoke first.
”We don't take many prisoners, Linda. And we'll take none in this area, at least not for very long. Everyone in this area, everyone who belongs to a gang, joined knowing what they were getting into. They knew we were coming months ago. They were warned comby us -- repeatedly. They could have left.
They chose to stay and fight. We have neither the time, the facilities, nor comand I'm speaking for myself here comthe patience to jack around with a bunch of no-goods.
I'm not a social worker, Linda, although there are several in the Rebel army who were before the Great War.
That should tell you something. Now does that answer any other questions you might have?”
”I guess that pretty well sums it up, Ben.”
”Believe it, Linda.”
”General!” Corrie called. ”West reports a lot of overpa.s.s and bridge damage, and so does General Cecil.”
”All right. Acknowledge it. I antic.i.p.ated that.
Where is Ike?”
”On 101 around Westlake Village.”
”Tell everyone to hold what they've got. Stand by for a change in plans. I'm going to take achance.”
”This is something new?” Jersey muttered.
Ben heard her and grinned.
Dan and Buddy gathered around Ben as he carefully spread an old map of Los Angeles out on the hood of a Jeep. ”Once Ike has established a secure position in his sector, he'll begin advancing and neutralizing the Pacific Palisades area. We'll make very slow advances until Ike gets a toehold in Santa Monica. Then we'll start pus.h.i.+ng down to the Ventura Freeway while Cecil drives through Glendale down to the Hollywood Freeway.
We just don't have the personnel to effectively cover such a ma.s.sive area, so it's back to taking chances.
”When Ike, our bunch, and Cecil begin pus.h.i.+ng toward a secure position to operate out of, Georgi will be swinging around and covering from here at Pasadena south down to just north of where West will be setting up with the Long Toms. I want West to take all of our long-range artillery -- every piece of our self-propelled -- and his tanks and get into position along this line. Burn out a five-block area in front of them for security, and then start lobbing in sh.e.l.ls around the clock; the rest of us will be doing the same. Tanks spearhead each drive and this is a put-to-the-torch operation all the way.
”Corrie, get in touch with Base Camp One and get me Seven and Eight Battalions in here. Start them coming right now! Fly them in around the clock, with heavy equipment following them in trucks. Roll them, Corrie. They're about to get some real AIT'-CALL it on-the-job training. I want them pulled in close to protect the backs of West's people.”
”There are a lot of green troops in there, Father,”
Buddy said.
”They won't be for long,” Ben told him.
”We'll hold up any major advances until Seven and Eight are in position. Corrie, have Georgi send some people east to secure this airport at Upland. Seven and Eight will deplane there and move into position.”
”Right, sir.”
”All right, people. Right now, let's take a few more blocks just to keep in practice. We'll launch the main push as soon as Seven and Eight are on the ground and moving. Send those orders out on scramble, Corrie.”
Ben turned to find Doctor Lamar Chase's finger in his face. ”I want that extra MASH unit from Base to come in with those boys and girls, Ben. Those are green troops and they are going to get bloodied.”
”You took the words right out of my mouth, Lamar.”
”That's bull-dooky, Ben, but it sounds good. Just do it.”
”No sweat, Lamar. Look, we're going to bepus.h.i.+ng hard when we kick this off, so for a time, you won't have a secure central receiving hospital.
Everything, everything, is going to be up to your MASH people.”
Chase nodded his head. ”We can handle it. Ill advise my people. We're going to need lots of whole blood, so I'll start yelling for volunteers.
Take care of him, Linda. See you around, Raines.”
Ben said, ”Let's take a couple of blocks, people.” The Rebels spread out, with tanks spearheading, and began hammering their way south. An hour before dark, they had clawed and scratched their way to within a block of the San Fernando airport.
Bodies of Bandits and Rats and d.i.n.ks, sprawled in grotesque postures of death, littered the trashy streets. Ben had felt all along that this campaign was going to be a tough one, and the afternoon's battles had proved him to be correct.
The street punks knew they were literally fighting for their survival. It was stand-or-die time.
Ben Raines was not going to take prisoners, and was not going to have programs of reeducation and rehabilitation for them. He was going to destroy them to the last person and then burn the city to ground level and stir the ashes so they could never flame again.
”It ain't right,” a Rat b.i.t.c.hed during a brief lull in the fighting. ”We done run up surrender flags. Ben Raines oughta honor them.”
Carlo Mendez, a man who had been a Los Angeles street punk even before the Great War, laughed at the Rat. ”Why should he? We had our chance to give it up. Ben Raines is no sobbing hanky-twister. He knows he's got our backs to the wall, and that if he takes our surrender now, as soon as they pulled out, ninety-nine percent of us would go right back to what we were doing before he came.
We got us maybe a fifty-fifty chance of winnin' this fight. And pal, we'd better win it.
”Cause we just ain't got no place else left to run.
Ben Raines is gonna wipe the earth clean of everyone like us he can find.”
”He's a devil!”
Carlo laughed. ”Naw, he ain't.
He's just a man who don't like punks, that's all.
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