Part 18 (1/2)
”Lieutenant colonel.”
”You've got to be kidding!”
”Nope. Get your people together, Therm. Meet me back here after dawn. You'll get a quadrant a.s.signed to you then.” Ben stood up. ”You remember that line about heavy is the crown?”
”Vaguely.”
”You'll soon see what the man was writing about.”
”Everything else remains the same,” Ben said, wrapping up the meeting. ”With the exception of Colonel Thermopolis leaving us and taking his command down to secure the Hollywood-Burbank airport. We will start our move west to the Interstate and clear that while Therm is busy at the airport. The first elements of Seven and Eight Battalions are getting into position now, and West is lining out the artillery. He'll probably begin sh.e.l.ling around noon. Therm, when the airport is clear, you'll proceed down to Burbank and start neutralizing that area. We'll push down to the Ventura Freeway and then cut over to near your position.”
Thermopolis nodded his head in understanding.
He wasn't kidding himself a bit; he knew he was being tested. He said a silent prayer to whatever G.o.d looks out for old hippies (the same one that looks out for everyone else) that he would be up to the test.
Wenceslaus walked in. ”Rosebud and Swallow got those G.o.dd.a.m.n tanks painted, Therm ... I mean, Colonel. Whatever. The tank commanders kind of like it.””See you in Burbank, Colonel,” Ben said.
Okay, people, let's go.”
”That's the way it stands,” Carlos told the gathering of street gang leaders. No representative from the Believers was present. The street gang scouts had reported the battle lines being s.h.i.+fted and the arriving of planes from the east. They all knew something big was in the works. They just didn't know what.
”The bottom line is, we either stand together, or hang separately.”
”Oh, that's lovely!” Brute said.
”Familiar, but lovely. And I agree with you, dear boy.”
”s.h.i.+tt-it,” Carlos muttered.
Leroy said, ”I ain't tossin' in with no honky mother-f.u.c.kers. ”Specially I ain't with that G.o.dd.a.m.n Rich and his Klucker-gang.” He looked at Rich. ”Why don't you carry your white a.s.s back to Georgia and burn a cross or something?”
”f.u.c.k you, Leroy,” Rich told him.
”Let's don't be too hasty about this,” Sally of the Mixers said. ”Carlos is right. All the way right.
We don't stand a chance if we fight these people separately. But united, we've got them out-numbered.”
”She's right,” Fang said, and Chang agreed with him, as did most of the others.
Ishmal and Junkyard stayed firm with Leroy.
”Talk about me being racist,” Rich said.
”Shut up,” Bull of the Busters said. ”Everybody just shut up for a minute.”
”Oh, I just love it when he becomes authoritarian,” Brute said.
Bull looked at Brute, open dislike in his eyes. ”That goes for you, too, fruit-boots. Now listen up. The way to do this is to take a vote. If the majority agrees to band together, we do it that way. The way it works is like this.
Any who don't agree to pull together is out comall the way out. That means you don't get no help from any of us who band together to fight Ben Raines. No help a-tall.”
”I'd sooner have to listen to somebody yodel hillbilly music all day than fight alongside some racist mother-f.u.c.ker like Rich,” Leroy said.
”Shut your G.o.dd.a.m.n mouth, Leroy!” Bull shouted at him. Bull stood and stared Leroy down. Leroy ran the biggest gang in the southern California area, but he respected Bull comz much as he could respect any white man comand feared him. Bull was a huge man, and a very powerful and cruel man. He liked to torture prisoners, enjoyed hearing them scream in pain.
”Speak your piece then,” Leroy said sullenly.
”Thank you. Now listen up. Raines has got maybe, tops, five or six thousand troops comanda lot of them is c.u.n.ts, and everybody knows most c.u.n.ts can't fight worth a s.h.i.+t.”
”f.u.c.k you too!” Sally yelled at him, reaching for apistol. Ruth and Carmine were dragging iron.
”I didn't mean you broads!” Bull quickly yelled, breaking a light sweat. These women would shoot him in a heartbeat and he knew it.
The women holstered their pieces and stared at him.
”Okay,” Bull continued. ”We got Raines's people outnumbered ten to one, easy. I ain't say in” this fight will be no cakewalk, but we can whip him. If- if- we pull together. Now just think about this, people. We whip Ben Raines and his army, and we rule the nation.
Think about that. The whole country out there” comhe waved his hand -- ”will be ours.”
That got everybody's attention. Even Leroy and his followers. Leroy smiled and said, ”That would mean I could start up a real New Africa and none of us would ever have to look at no ugly white mother-f.u.c.ker again. I like that.”
”Yeah,” Rich said with a nasty grin. ”I like It too. That happens, then I could invade your New Africa and put all you jive brothers back in the cotton patch, where you belong, workin' for whitey.”
Leroy and Rich got nose to nose, both of them cussing and shouting threats. Bull jerked them apart. ”Cool it, G.o.dd.a.m.nit!” he yelled.
”Somebody make a note that when we line out battle stations, we keep these two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds as far away from each other as possible.”
”I'll put your a.s.s in the grave, honky!”
Leroy said to Rich.
”I'll cut your nuts off, c.o.o.n!” Rich replied. ”And feed them to the hogs!”
”We still haven't talked with the Believers,” Carmine of the Women pointed out, after Rich and Leroy were dragged to opposite sides of the room.
”They'll go for it,” Bull said confidently. ”They ain't got no choice in the matter. And even if they didn't, who gives a d.a.m.n? We don't need them. They need us.”
”Disgusting people,” Brute said.
”We agree on something,” Bull said reluctantly.
”You have a plan, Bull?” Chico asked.
”Oh, yeah,” Bull said with a smile. ”Yeah, I do.”
The mighty machine of war called the Rebels surged forward at first light, pus.h.i.+ng hard behind the spearheading tanks. And hit no resistance.
Therm stood in the middle of the Hollywood Burbank airport terminal and scratched his head.
Not one shot had been fired from either side.