Part 34 (1/2)

Ben and his team stood up. ”But before you leave,” she added, ”I'd like to give you and your men and women a little party tonight ... as a token of our appreciation for what you've done. There'll be dinner, drinks, even a band. We'll have a real going-away party, so to speak.”

Ben laughed. ”Okay, as long as I don't have to dance.”

Claire made a pout. ”Oh, and I was so looking forward to that.”

After Ben and Mike and the team left the conference room, they headed for the barracks where they were all staying to get ready for the night's celebration.

As they entered the main doors, Mike held up his hands. ”Hold on, gang.

I've brought something for all of you from home.”

He sat his briefcase on a nearby table and opened it up. Taking out a large stack of envelopes, he began pa.s.sing them out to each of the team members, and even handed one to Ben.

”Wow!” Jersey shouted after ripping her envelope open and pulling out a piece of paper. ”What's this for?” she asked.

Ben opened his envelope and looked inside. There lay a check made out to him for thirty-five hundred dollars. The payer was a bank with an address in the Cayman Islands.

He held up the check and waved it in the air in front of Mike. ”Mike?”

he asked.

Mike grinned and shrugged. ”I don't know. All I know is 304.

everyone on active duty for the SUSA got one in the mail. I don't have a clue as to why.”

Beth, standing at the back of the crowd, began to laugh out loud.

Ben looked over at her. ”Beth, you know anything about this?” he asked.

She looked at him, tears of laughter in her eyes. ”Ben, how many active-duty personnel do we have?”

Ben shrugged. ”Oh, a million, give or take a few hundred thousand at any one time. Why?”

”And Mike, how much money did you say we stole from the Farrar family?”

”About three and a half billion dollars.””There's your answer,” Beth said. ”Our friendly computer expert had the bank in the Caymans divide up all the Farrar family's money and send it out to all our troops.”

”But we can't keep this,” Ben said.

”Why not?” Coop asked. ”Who better to get it than the very people who had to risk their lives because of its owners' actions?”

Ben thought about it for a moment. ”Yeah, Coop, I guess you're right.

Besides,” Ben added, ”I'd hate to have to go to a million soldiers and ask them to give it back.”

”The chances of that happening are slim and none,” Coop said.

”And slim left town,” Jersey added, kissing her check.

After the team filed out to go to their rooms, Ben turned to Mike. ”I hope you're keeping a close eye on this computer expert of yours.”

Mike nodded. ”I am, but why do you say so?” he asked.

”Because I'd sure as h.e.l.l hate to get him mad at us,” Ben said. ”There's no telling what the little s.h.i.+t would do.”

Mike grinned. ”Amen.”

305.

The mood was one of desperation and gloom in the room where Abdullah el Farrar, Mustafa Kareem, and Osama bin Araman were having their final meeting.

Farrar had been unable to contact most of his field commanders by phone after having decided that, even if the Americans were monitoring the frequencies as Ben Raines had said they were, he needed to find out what the status of his units was.

The men he did manage to contact gave him terrible news. His field units were being systematically decimated by the Rangers of the U.S. and the Scouts of the SUSA, not to mention the unexpected ferocity of the American citizens who'd risen with a vengeance after being armed by the Scouts.

When their FFA partners began to desert the cause in droves after the televised account of Farrar's planned treachery, the Arab terrorists had no chance. They were in a strange land with even stranger customs, and they simply couldn't make any headway against the combined forces of Army troops and armed and aroused citizens.

Farrar put down the phone after his last call, a look of inevitability in his eyes.

”I am afraid we are doomed to failure, my friends,” he said, his voice heavy with defeat.

306.

”There may still be a chance, my leader,” Kareem said. ”Perhaps we can get more troops from home. . . .”Farrar shook his head. ”No, Mustafa. There comes a time when even the most optimistic leader must accept defeat at the hands of his enemy . .

. for now at any rate.”

Kareem slammed his hand down on the table. ”It is all the fault of that infidel devil Ben Raines,” he said bitterly. ”If it had not been for his intervention, we should even now be sitting in President Osterman's chair.”

Araman raised his eyes. ”Mustafa is correct, Abdullah. We owe our defeat to one man and one man only, Ben Raines.”

”Do not feel too bad, my friends,” Farrar said. ”Once my refinery is back up and running and the money flowing again from the coffers of the infidels who have an unquenchable thirst for our gasoline, I will rise from the ashes of this defeat with a new and better Army and will avenge what has been done to us. It is but a matter of time.”

”And we will be by your side again, Abdullah,” Kareem said.

Farrar stared at his friend. ”No, Mustafa, I have another, more important a.s.signment for you. One which will take all of your courage to carry out.”

”You have but to ask, my leader,” Kareem said, his eyes burning with the fervor of the true believer.

”Here is what I want you to do. . . .” Farrar said, leaning forward across the table.

Six weeks later, with the Arabs defeated and all of their troops either dead or in prison, Ben and his troops and team were back home enjoying a much-needed rest from the rigors of their war experiences.

It was just after dawn, and Ben was jogging along one of the roads of his base with his malamute dog, Jodie, running alongside him.

307.

307.

He was sweating, his T-s.h.i.+rt and shorts dark with sweat as he pushed his body to the max, trying to get back in shape after going without running for the months he'd spent in America fighting against the Arab invaders.