Part 29 (1/2)
”It worked, Jake,” Texas Red said, smiling.
”Our scouts just pulled in. Raines and the c.u.n.t left the Rebels, travelin' in two pickups.”
The one hundred and fifty-odd outlaws were camped along the banks of the Conchas Lake, west-northwest of Tuc.u.mcari. Jake and Red had ordered their men to keep their heads down and stay quiet.
”Which way the Rebs heading?” Jake asked.
”Scouts report they're goin' to help some folks up around Odessa. Something about settin' up outposts.”
”Raines and the broad?”'
”They headed west for a time, then cut toward the north.”
Jake's grin broadened. ”OK. I know where he's heading, now.”
”Oh?”
”Yeah. Back to his old stompin” grounds.
The Tri-States. Him and the c.u.n.t is plannin'
on wintering there. Bet on it.”
”So we take them now?”
”No, you dummy! We send out scouts-our best people. Haircuts, shaved, clean clothes-a good appearance in case they accidentally run into Raines. But they don't have to do that.” He spat on the ground.
”We can track them.”
”How?”
Texas Red asked, exasperation in his voice.
””Cause, my good man,” Jake said, smiling, patting his fellow outlaw on the back, ”that G.o.dd.a.m.n Englishman didn't change the frequency on them bugs he put in Raines”
pickup. And our radioman just figured it out.”
”Oohhh,” Texas Red said. ”That's slick, Jake. Real slick.”
”So in about a week, we move out in teams, realquiet like. No more than four or five guys at a pop. By then, we'll have a pretty good idea where Raines and Rani is going. Then we'll just slow-like gather up there in the old Tri-States, and do it real professional-like.”
”And then we kill Raines,” Texas Red said.
”Yeah,” Jake said dreamily. ”I want you to send out some boys. Find two-three cameras and lots of film.”
”What you gonna take pitchers of, Jake?”
”Raines. He thinks he's a G.o.d, so I'm gonna treat him like one.”
”Huh?”
”I'm gonna crucify the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
Chapter 28.
Ben and Rani stayed on Highway 41 all the way south to Highway 60. There they cut west over to Interstate 25. Just before reaching the interstate, they pulled off the highway and made camp.
”Ben?”
”Uh-huh?”
”I thought New Mexico had a lot of Indians in it?”
”Probably still does. But they're keeping their heads down. Like a lot of other Indians. You see, Rani, back when we were building the Tri-States, we-the Rebels-helped many of the Indian tribes, too. We helped them move out of and off of those G.o.dd.a.m.ned disgraceful reservations and onto better land where they could farm and build and grow. Then when the government decided to move against us, they went against the Indians first. Thousands of Indians were killed-slaughtered. Men, women, kids. It was senseless. Totally senseless. My G.o.d, but there was plenty of land for everybody.” Ben sighed. ”It was my fault.”
”How in the h.e.l.l was it your fault!”
”President Logan had a hard-on for me.
He hated me. Just about as bad as I hated him.
I wouldn't kowtow to him; him or the Supreme Court or that august body known as the Congress of the United States. If the Indians hadn't thrown in with us, maybe there wouldn't have been a slaughter.
I don't know.”
Rani smiled at him. Then she laughed. ”I guess all the things I've heard about you are true, then.”
”What do you mean?”
”Well, I heard that when the Supreme Court ruled that everything you and your Rebels were doing out in the Tri-States was unconst.i.tutional, you wrote them a letter and told them all to kiss your a.s.s.”
”That is correct. I did just that. That was after the first threat from the central government. We were not guilty of harming any law-abiding citizen. Not one. What we did was take a mixing bowl full of people of all races, all religions, and make it work. We had some of the toughest laws anywhere in the world and stuck to them. Andninety-nine point nine percent of the people of the Tri-States liked it that way. That one-tenth of one percent who didn't, left. They went back to a society where, if they stole, they usually got away with it. h.e.l.l, if they broke any law, the odds were they would never serve any time for it.
We just viewed matters in a different light, that's all.”
”So the government sent troops in to destroy the Tri-States.”
”Yes. And split the country in half by doing so.” Ben looked far into the distance. ”We will rebuild. We will rise out of the ashes and rebuild.
We've got to.”
She put her hand in his and gently squeezed.
South of Albuquerque, they turned northwest, bypa.s.sing the city. An hour later, after twisting and turning and dodging obstacles in the old road, they rolled onto Interstate 40 and continued westward.
They made camp for the night halfway between Albuquerque and Gallup.