Part 3 (1/2)

Ben said, ”We'll be lucky if we can get forty percent of the population above the thirty-sixth parallel. Fifty percent will be nothing short of a miracle. But we have to try. Let's go, people. We have a lot of work to do.”

After the others had exited the room, Ike walked to Ben's side and said, ”It's a grand and n.o.ble plan, but it ain't gonna work, Ben.”

”I know it,” Ben spoke quietly. ”But we have to give it our best effort.” He smiled at Ike's attire. The man was dressed in bell-bottomed jeans and wore a sailor's cap on his head. He resembled a fat Popeye.

”You know what you look like, Ike?”

”Don't say it, you string-bean,” Ike told him. ”Ben,” Ike's tone turnedserious. ”You take care, now, you hear?”

Ben held out his hand and Ike shook it. ”Luck to you, old friend.”

”Same to you, Ben.”

Ike turned and walked out into the fading light.

”We're sure going to need all the luck we can grab,” Ben muttered. He picked up his Thompson just as the gas lantern sputtered and died. ”I hope that's not an indication of things to come,” he said.

46.Chapter Four.The Rebels broke up into small teams and began scouring the countryside, going house to house and alerting the people there. It was a futile gesture, and they all knew it, but all felt it was something that must be done. They asked each person they contacted to alert at least two more families. Most survivors agreed to move north; some refused to leave.

”Your funeral,” the Rebels told them, and moved on. They had neither the time nor the inclination to argue.

Hoffman's intelligence people knew something big was going on north of their position, but didn't, as yet, know what. On the morning that Brodermann and his SS troops were preparing to pull out for the first big push, Ben broke the news to Field Marshal Hoffman.

Hoffman read the communiqueseveral times, then handed it to Brodermann, who read it and pa.s.sed the paper around to the other commanders.

”He's bluffing!” a tank commander said. ”Raines would never use poison gas or nuclear weapons.”

”Ben Raines doesn't bluff,” Hoffman said, meeting the eyes of Brodermann and seeing the slight nod of 47.agreement from the man. ”If he says he'll do something, he'll do it.

Don't ever sell this man short. He's ruthless. But in a strange sort of way, a fair man.” He turned to the map. ”Raines says we can use this area of Louisiana to set up hospitals and long-term patient care and no one there will be bothered as long as it is used as that as nothing more. Everything else is a free-fire zone. Advise our medical personnel that this designated area is to be a non-combat zone. We will also respect all of the Rebels' medical facilities. After all,” he said, ”we are not barbarians.”

Ben read the communiqueand nodded. ”Brodermann is on the march. He's moving on three fronts. Heading up Eighty-three, Eighty-one, and Fifty-nine. Armor and heavy artillery. Approximately seven thousand men per column. And the columns are staggered.” Ben sighed. ”All right, people. Start blowing every bridge south of Highway Ninety. Burn every town, every village, every house. We'll not leave one sc.r.a.p of useable material. We can't stop the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, but we can d.a.m.n sure make life miserable for them.””Hoffman is attacking along the borders of California, Arizona, and New Mexico,” Corrie said. ”Pouring across in large numbers. Intell says we vastly underestimated the size of his army.”

”We, h.e.l.l!” Ben said. ”Intelligence did, not us. What's the latest estimate?”

”Probably two hundred thousand.”

”'G.o.dd.a.m.n!” Ben said. ”We're outnumbered two hundred and fifty to one.

And that's being optimistic.”

Ben looked over at General Payon, who had just 48.pulled in that morning. The Mexican commander was dead tired and his clothing grimy from the road, but he managed to smile sadly. ”It is a grim time we live in, my friend.”

Ben was silent for a moment. ”We have three Rebel battalions to the west of us, and six battalions here in Texas. I'm going to hold the rest in reserve to the north of us. But close enough so they can come busting in if we need them. Order your people to fall back and join those battalions north of us, General. They need the rest.”

”They are weary, General,” Payon admitted.

”General, I hate formality. What do your friends call you?”

Payon smiled. ”You'll hear it sooner or later. My nickname comes from my early days in broadcasting. Mic the Mouth. like in microphone. I used to get quite excited at soccer games.”

Ben laughed. ”Mike it is.”

General Hans Brodermann halted his column just south of the now fiercely burning town of Cotulla and ordered his break-off columns to stop and hold their positions. They were just south of the ambush sites at Freer and Carrizo Springs. Both of those towns were also blazing. Gas fumes in long unused buried tanks were exploding, sending debris flying into the smoky sky.

Brodermann stood up in his armored scout car and looked at the scene through binoculars. ”Ruthless man,” he murmured. ”Ben Raines is going to be a formidable enemy. I like that. He'll give me a good fight.” He sat 49.down and spoke to an aide. ”Be certain we don't outdistance our supply trucks. Have the scouts found a way around this inferno?”

”Yes, sir. But the roads are very bad and we won't make good time.”

”We shall take all the time we need, Peter. This is going to be a very long campaign.”

The column moved on, its speed reduced to a crawl. Which is what Ned Hawkins and his small team of New Texas Rangers had counted on. There were half a dozen armored scout cars in the column, so they had no wayof knowing which one Brodermann and the senior officers were riding in.

Besides, General Raines had told them to concentrate on the supply and support vehicles. A column can't move if it doesn't have fuel.

Ned's team put four rockets into huge, lumbering tankers and the old rutted highway was enveloped in a ma.s.sive ball of fire. Vehicles near the tankers exploded, both incinerating and blowing body parts in all direction.

Ned and his team jumped into stripped down fast attack vehicles and took off across the country, weaving and zigzagging and presenting no targets at all for the guns of Brodermann's SS troops. The fast attack vehicles were well out of range in under a minute, almost silently speeding across the brush country, the wide fat tires digging into the earth. The exhaust systems of the vehicles were m.u.f.fled down to near silence.

”No pursuit!” Brodermann was quick to tell his radio-operator. ”That's what they want. They'd chop any pursuers to bits. Secure the immediate area and let's check damage.” When his men a.s.sured him the area was clean-and it was-Brodermann got out of his armored 50.scout car and stretched his joints and muscles, looking all about him.

”Get my camp chair and place it over there,” he told his driver, pointing to a shady spot. ”And establish radio contact with Field Marshal Hoffman.”

”On scramble, sir?”

”It doesn't make any difference,” Brodermann said. ”I suspect that Raines's Rebels have the capability to decode anything we might transmit.” He told his senior people to come with him. Out of the fierce Texas sun, Brodermann spoke. ”We have to start thinking like Ben Raines,” he told the a.s.sembled group. ”We will not be fighting a conventional war. We shall be fighting a very unconventional war. It will be like no war we ever waged. Oh, we all have experience in guerrilla tactics, but on a much smaller scale. I suspect Raines has probably twelve to fifteen thousand Rebels. He's broken them up into tiny units and sent them all over the nation. Day after day, week after week, he's going to peck at us. And if we let him, he will inflict horrible damage. He's not going to fight us on our terms, so we have no choice but to fight him on his terms.”

Brodermann chuckled without humor. ”Years ago, we thought we would walk into this nation and seize the cities, thus controlling the countryside.

Raines burned the d.a.m.n cities to rubble. Then we changed our method of operation and decided to concentrate on the Rebel outposts. We managed to destroy a few, but now Raines has disbanded all of them south of the thirty-sixth parallel and sent them scattering in all directions. We know that the Rebels have huge underground supply caches, but only the most senior officials of the Rebels know the locations. It would be amusing to torture a 51.Rebel, to see how he or she withstands pain, but nothing constructive could come of it. Those supply caches can keep the Rebels supplied for years. Raines's Base Camp One is off-limits to us. His factories thereare working day and night in the manufacture of munitions and supplies.

If we attempt to interfere with any of that, he will unleash his poisons upon us, and we have no antidote for them.” Aides brought them all coffee, and they sugared and creamed and stirred and sipped for a moment.

Brodermann said, ”Most of those Americans who refused for years to come under the rules of the Rebels now have no choice in the matter. They have to follow Raines. This is one smart b.a.s.t.a.r.d, people. He's not only a ruthless warrior, but he is a d.a.m.ned intelligent one.”

”Then we must destroy Ben Raines,” a colonel said.

”Oh, very good, Wiesenhofer,” Brodermann said, sarcasm thick in his words. ”That's excellent thinking. You have a plan, I suppose?”

”Ah ... no, sir.”

”I thought not. Colonel Wellmann?”

”No, sir.”

”Colonel Marke?”

”No, sir.”

”You have all read the dossiers compiled on General Raines. He has no family that we are aware of. At least not outside the restricted area.