Part 8 (1/2)

A. I remember being mad. Really mad. See, it weren't a fair fight, not at all. Them poor folks in the mission, young kids most of them, they didn't stand a chance.

They made you proud though. Made you think a little on olden days...an' Texas...and a whole bunch of other things that people mostly done forgot.

My old pappy come on over to watch my TV during the a.s.sault. He kept whistling something...sounded sort of familiar. I asked him what it was.He told me, ”It's 'Deguello,' boy. The 'throat cut' song. And ain't they a bunch of cutthroats, too?”

MS. CAPUTO: Objection. Hearsay.

MR. STENNINGS: Not offered for the truth of the matter a.s.serted, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Overruled.

Austin, Texas

Schmidt fumed and raged. ”Murderers! Butchers! G.o.ddamit, Juani, this has gone far enough!”

Nagy just shook his head while staring at the television. ”My man Akers,” he announced, ”told me your brother's folks did not not open fire at all, let alone first, Governor. No matter what GNN may be saying.” open fire at all, let alone first, Governor. No matter what GNN may be saying.”

”Then what happened?” demanded the governor.

”Akers didn't know; not the whole story. But he was definite that the first shot came from the feds. The second-the one that killed the nun-came from the feds. That the third came from the feds and that there was not a fourth.”

”Then what's all that shooting sound they put on the TV?”

Schmidt answered, ”They dubbed it in, Juani. Afterwards.”

He turned to Nagy, ”How'd your man get away?”

”He said there was a ditch by the gate. That he jumped into that and waited for nightfall. Said he wasn't too worried about being shot by the mission folks, but that he wouldn't be too surprised if the feds took a shot at him. Oh, he was in a fine rage...and Sergeant Akers is never never angry.” angry.”

”In a ditch, was he?” Jack mused.

Qui Nhon Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1966

The helicopters had radioed for friends, then proceeded to do whatever they could themselves to help Montoya and Schmidt with their own door guns. It helped, but it wasn't quite enough.

Montoya recited ”Ave Maria” as he poked his head and rifle over the wall of the ditch in which he and Jack sheltered. Blam, blam, blam, went the rifle and two of the pair's a.s.sailants fell into bleeding, choking, shrieking ruin not fifteen meters from the ditch. A burst of fire drove Jorge's head down again.

Overhead one helicopter made a low pa.s.s from Montoya's right. Its left side gunner fired a long burst into the tree line before the pilot pulled his nose up and around to line up for another pa.s.s. Jorge saw tracers outline the helicopter even in the bright morning light.

It all seemed futile to the barely conscious, bleeding Schmidt. With a radio between them and the helicopters, the choppers could have cooperated with Montoya, and vice versa. As it was, the shot-up radio being long abandoned, they were each guessing at what the other would do or had seen.

”Jorge!” Schmidt cried as three Viet Cong leapt into the ditch, not far from where he lay.

Montoya turned, attempted to fire only to have his magazine run dry after the first, missed, round. With an inarticulate shout he drew a knife and charged the VC.

Whatever the guerillas had been expecting to greet them in the ditch, it apparently was not a hundred and fifty pounds of shrieking Mexican fury. They turned and clambered back out again, shouting for help. All except the last got away. That one's escape was halted by Montoya's knife, buried eight inches in his back. He slid face against the earth to the foul dirt below.

Jack reached a sudden decision-sudden, although its nature and implications had been torturing him for days. ”Juani, let me roll my division. I've got over three hundred tanks and a like number of other armored vehicles. And they're manned by Texans, Juani. They won't let your brother go down.”

Spanish eyes flared. ”You want to start a civil war, Jack? We lost lost the last one, remember?” the last one, remember?”

Schmidt smiled. His multi great-grandfather, the captain, and the governor's, the sergeant, had fought side by side in that lost cause, members of Hood's Texas Brigade. His eyes turned and looked over the governor's bookshelves. He walked over to one and selected from it an old, red leather-bound volume. He checked the index and then opened to a page.

A nod; it was the right page. Schmidt's eyes scanned briefly before he began to read aloud. ” 'There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged...The war is inevitable-and let it come. I repeat it, sir, let it come.'

”Patrick Henry said that, Governor.” Schmidt closed the book slowly, reluctantly.

”Jack, I just don't know.”

”Juani,” Schmidt persisted, ”we won won the civil war we had before the one we lost. Maybe you should remember that. Come to think of it, Americans won the civil war before the Texas revolution, too...if you'll remember the civil war we had before the one we lost. Maybe you should remember that. Come to think of it, Americans won the civil war before the Texas revolution, too...if you'll remember that that.”

He didn't need to open the book again to say, ” 'The battle is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.' ”

Dei Gloria Mission, Waco, Texas

The children had kept vigil over the dead; all but Elpidia. She, bandaged, alone and doped to deaden horrifying pain both physical and mental, lay in the mission's tiny infirmary.

Slowly, reluctantly, Father Montoya closed the Bible on the last Ma.s.s he ever expected to say on mission grounds. It was a combination Ma.s.s and funeral service for Miguel, who lay, eyes closed in eternal slumber, on a table in the chapel. Miguel's body and ruined cranium lay under a black shroud.

Next to Miguel, Sister Sofia slept as soundly.

Father gestured to the corpses. ”Why did these two good people die?” he asked rhetorically.

Looking at his charges, Montoya said, ”Children, I want to tell you a story. It is of a place that once was and could be again. There was a time when we, here in the United States, did not murder unborn babies. There was a time when people took care of other people-well-and didn't ask the government to spend nearly half the wealth of the country every year in order to take care of people...badly.