Part 28 (1/2)
Ben replied. ”Forget about them. They'll make it or they won't.” Helooked at Ike. ”Why this trip, Ike?”
”We think Hoffman and Brodermann are holed up somewhere in the northwest. Intell has narrowed it down to that location. They believe that the troops have spread out over a couple or three states, taken wives, probably with children, and settled in while their leaders recruit new members. There has been quite an exodus of sorry-a.s.sed people from all over the nation. All heading west.”
”What states?” Beth asked, sitting at the table with her notepad.
”Was.h.i.+ngton, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana,” Ike said, looking over at her.
304.
She nodded. ”That's almost half a million square miles.”
”Did you just add all that up or do you keep those facts in that head of yours?” Ike asked.
Beth smiled sweetly at him.
”And you have a plan on how we might ferret them out?” Ben asked.
”No,” the ex-Navy SEAL admitted. ”Intell thinks they speak nothing but English, have become solid citizen types, helping all others around them, thereby making themselves a valuable part of a hundred or more communities. And there is not a way in h.e.l.l we could prove they aren't what they claim to be. And here is something else: Some senior general, a Frederich Rasbach, an uncle or great uncle to Hoffman, apparently slipped out of Texas weeks ago and returned to South America. There, he and his people destroyed all records of the NAL. Right down to the last sc.r.a.p of paper. Our allies down there report there is nothing left to link anybody with the NAL.”
”This General Rasbach?”
”Vanished. He'll probably live out the remainder of his years in some remote part of South America.”
”Well, you can bet your boots on one thing: If Wink Payne and Moi Sambura made it clear of Alabama, they're heading that way to join the new movement. s.h.i.+t!” Ben added.
”One conflict after another,” Therm said softly. ”It just never ends. I swear to G.o.d, I don't see how you people have kept your sanity all these years.”
Ben looked at him. ”By not just believing that we're in the right, Therm. But knowing we're right.”
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”I could argue that, Ben, but I don't feel like it right now. So what are you going to do?”
”Try to stop the flood of crud and c.r.a.p from joining up with Hoffman.”
”And how do you propose to do that, Raines?” Lamar Chase asked.Ben smiled broadly and winked at Jersey, sitting across the room. She knew immediately something big was in the works, and muttered under her breath, ”Oh, s.h.i.+t!”
”Why, Lamar,” Ben said. ”By doing what I do best. Going out and getting into an argument.”
Knowing that Ben would not be dissuaded, Ike offered only a token verbal resistance, and quickly gave that up. Chase just cussed for a few minutes, then set about adding to the medical personnel going with Ben.
Then he said he was going with Ben.
”What?” Ben shouted.
”You heard me. And don't shout. There is nothing wrong with my hearing.”
”Why, you old fart! You'd get in the way.”
Lamar smiled sweetly. Very sweetly. Ben braced himself. ”I don't go,”
the chief of medicine said. ”You don't go. It's just that simple.”
”That's blackmail, Lamar!”
”You d.a.m.n right it is. Pure and simple. Now what is your answer?”
”Oh, all right. But I don't want to hear a lot of b.i.t.c.hing from you about the field.”
”Me? Complain?” Chase attempted to put a very innocent look on his face.
He managed to look like a satyr 306.
trying to slip into the back of a church with s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g the organist on his mind. ”I never complain, Raines.”
”Everybody make sure your boots are laced up tight,” Ben called. ”The s.h.i.+t is getting deep around here.”
”I resent that,” Chase said.
”Get your duffle packed, Lamar,” Ben told him. ”We pull out in the morning. Early.”
Lamar started to say that he'd be up before Ben. But he checked that.
n.o.body got up before Ben Raines.
”Therm,” Ben called. ”You're sure Emil is still up in Iowa?”
”Right. The extreme eastern part. I spoke with him last night.”
”Good. Keep him up there and out of trouble. We'll head for the Kansas-Colorado line and start stretching out. Corrie, have our people in Texas and Oklahoma stop any westward movement. They know the types to stop and turn around. Have Buddy, Dan, and Jackie start moving their battalions north. We'll all intersect... here,” he pointed to the map.
”And I want full battalion strength. Make sure they double the artillery that normally travels with each battalion. We don't have any way of knowing how many of the crud and c.r.a.p have migrated west to joinHoffman-probably thousands, the way those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds network-but we can d.a.m.n sure put a stopper in the bottle. We're out of here in the morning.
0500 hours.”
”How does he know which types will join with this Hoffman,” Dr. Sessions asked Therm. ”Does he think he possesses some magical powers?”
Therm ignored the sarcasm. ”He knows. Believe me, he does.”
”That's impossible!” the doctor snorted.
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”I thought so too. Until I spent some time with him. He's a very unusual man.”
”I'm sorry, Thermopolis. But I have to disagree. He's a right-wing savage. My wife can't stand to be around him and quite frankly, neither can I. As gentle a man as you are, I find it incredible that you are a willing part of the Rebel movement.”
Therm smiled. ”Ben Raines is a walking contradiction, Doctor. That's what he is. And hard-headed as a goat. But if this nation is ever to be whole, he's the man who'll do it. Five years ago, you would have had a most difficult time convincing me of that. But I believe it now.”
”If he doesn't kill half the population first.”