Part 21 (1/2)

Jake Campo was traveling fast, only giving the area he a.s.signed himself a perfunctory once over at best. No, Jake was in a hurry, for he wanted Ben Raines all to himself, and he thought he knew where Raines might be holed up.

West was highballing it south, cursing and hollering for his driver to hurry up. Raines had headed south; he just knew it. And he wanted that son of a b.i.t.c.h all to himself.

Texas Red had studied Raines” movements up to when those other a.s.sholes had lost him, and had reached the conclusion Ben had headed due south. That would put him right smack in the Big Bend National Park. And Texas Red was going to get there first.

Cowboy Vic had said, on the second day out, ”f.u.c.k Del Rio!” He had ordered his people to head for the Big Bend. He didn't want Ben Raines nearly as bad as he wanted Rani and them tight little c.u.n.ts with her. Gettin' Raines would just be some icin' on the cake.

Colonel Gray studied the maps and made up his mind. With the roads as bad as they were, those stupid warlords popping up all over the place, like crazed jackrabbits, it was going to be a hard four to five day push to southwest Texas.

”Dallas to Abilene to Pecos, and then we'll cut south,” he gave the orders. ”Two squads out ranging a full twenty miles ahead of the main column. Clear the way for us. No quarter, no prisoners. Move out.”

Ben ordered every available container of water inside the house. He then began boarding up ground-level windows. He cleared the area around the house of any object that might afford the enemy protection from bullets, leaving the scrub bushes as they were, still giving the place a long-deserted look.

”Now comes the hardest part,” he said.

Rani looked at him.

”Waiting.”

Ben looked around him and had to smile. He had commanded some ragtag troops in his lifetime, but this bunch would have to take the cake. Robert and Kathy, twelve years old. Jane, eleven years old. Jordy and Paul, ten years old. All armed. All grim-faced. All ready for a fight.

Two adults and five kids against five or six hundred outlaws.

On Ben's sixth day in the old ghost town, the first band of outlaws. .h.i.t them.Chapter 20 ”We're breaking out of this box, Sergeant,”

Captain Nolan said. He looked at his watch.

0630. It would be full light in twenty to thirty minutes. ”Are the troops ready?”'

”Yes, sir. Chompin” at the bit to go.”

Nolan lowered his binoculars. ”Very little movement from the other side. Most of them are probably still sleeping. Tell the mortar teams to start laying down fire.”

”Yes, sir!”

the sergeant said with a grin.

The mortar barrage caught the outlaws by surprise. For several days the only reply from the trapped Rebels had been some small-arms fire. The HE and WP rounds from the Rebels caught the outlaws with their pants down-in many cases, literally.

The white phosphorus. .h.i.t just after the high explosive rounds, searing through leather and steel and flesh and bone. The outlaws did not have time to recover from their initial shock before looking up into the hard faces of the Rebels as the tiger-striped men and women charged the outlaws' positions. In most cases, that one look was their last look at anything pertaining to this life.

Captain Nolan's people took no prisoners.

The Rebels suffered two dead and five wounded.

Of the wounded, only one was serious, but she was on her booted feet, refusing to be left behind.

Raines' Rebels broke out of the small town, barreling south. They still had several miles to go before reaching the General.

”A lot of dust coming from the west, Ben!” Jordy shouted from his post on the second floor of the old house.

”How many vehicles, Jordy?” Ben called, then realized the boy still could not count past ten.

”Bunches, Ben.” The boy looked through the binoculars Ben had given him. He laboriously counted to ten, made a mark in the dust of the floor, and started again. ”Ten and seven, Ben!”

he called.

”Good boy!” Ben shouted. ”Now stay down.”

”Yes, sir.”

Turning to Rani, Ben said, ”Figuring four to a vehicle, we're up against sixty-five to seventy outlaws.” He grinned. ”That's good.”

”That's good?”

she asked.

”Yeah. We have them outnumbered.”

She looked at him as if he had gone mad.

Ben called his ”troops” around him. ”Now listen, kids. Don't fire until I tell you to fire. All the young people into the room we fixed up for you. Stay down and stay quiet. It's going to be very noisy, kids.

But we're going to make it. OK? Take off.”He looked at the remaining kids and at Rani.

”You all know your positions; get to them.”

”How come you so d.a.m.n sure Raines is hidin'

out down here?” an outlaw asked West.

”I feel it in my guts, that's why,” the stump-legged West replied. ”All them people we talked to said he was headin' south. All signs point south. That there Rani c.u.n.t was headin' south.

Remember that piece of map Texas Red found?

It had Terlingua circled in pencil. They here.

I know it.”

The outlaw column halted about a half-mile from the ghost town.

”Why we stoppin'?” West was asked by his driver.

”To rec ... recon ... look the situation over, you idiot. We ain't gonna make no rash moves this time around.”

””At makes sense.”

”Course it do. Gimme them field gla.s.ses.”