Part 12 (1/2)

No, no, I never blamed the doc. I mean, you should have seen him there, wall to wall screaming kids and none of their parents trying to control 'em. h.e.l.l, half of 'em were there with nothing more than runny noses but under the new system the doc had to see them, too. All of 'em, or risk losing his license, his job, maybe even going to jail. I heard a rumor once that the government, the feds I mean, was deliberately sending doctors to jail so that they could be put to treating the prisoners. A cost-saving measure, I heard it was. Might have even been true, I don't rightly know.

The wife, she went downhill fast, too. Wasn't but maybe two weeks before she was in the hospital, full time, and...well, it was awful to see, her just wasting away right in front of me. She held my hand pretty near constantly towards the end, though she never cried....Well, I mean sometimes she did cry. But it was for her babies who was going to be left alone in the world.

That wasn't a problem, as it turned out. My folks took the kids in and told me not to worry about 'em.

I was right glad about that, glad and grateful. 'Cause, you see, the very afternoon of my wife's funeral I set me to thinking about what it was that killed my wife. Once I figured it out...well, naturally, I went and dug me up that old rifle I'd buried... .

MR. STENNINGS: Stop right there, Alvin.

A. No, sir. I don't care who knows. Weren't no one going to kill my woman and get away with it....

Greenville, Texas

”Put your G.o.dd.a.m.ned backs into it, boys. Dig and fill. Dig and fill. The general and the governor are coming and I want you all to make me proud. proud.”

The speaker, First Sergeant Michael S. (”Iron Mike”) Pendergast, of Company A, 144th Infantry, Texas National Guard, smiled blithely to see his men redouble their efforts. Satisfied with that, Pendergast bent again over his own shovel, digging, lifting and sifting sand into bags taken from flood emergency stocks. An irregular stream of dump trucks had been delivering sand to the armory all morning. An even less steady stream had come to disgorge sandbags in their thousands. As piles of filled bags grew, more trucks-these ones army-issue five-tons-were filled to overflowing by other work parties. The men of Company A were moving small mountains of sand. Infantry, Texas National Guard, smiled blithely to see his men redouble their efforts. Satisfied with that, Pendergast bent again over his own shovel, digging, lifting and sifting sand into bags taken from flood emergency stocks. An irregular stream of dump trucks had been delivering sand to the armory all morning. An even less steady stream had come to disgorge sandbags in their thousands. As piles of filled bags grew, more trucks-these ones army-issue five-tons-were filled to overflowing by other work parties. The men of Company A were moving small mountains of sand.

”Wish to h.e.l.l we could have some civilians to help us, Top,” said one of the men as sand silted around his hands and into the sandbag he held open for the First Sergeant.

The first sergeant glared. ”The general said 'no,' Fontaine. So we dig alone. Leastwise, we do until the engineers get here.”

”Didn't say we could do anything about it, Top. Just wis.h.i.+n' out loud.”

”Just hold the sandbag, Fontaine.”

”Yes, first sergeant,” agreed Fontaine meekly as he stretched the mouth of the sandbag in his hand to a fillable size.

From off in the distance, Pendergast heard again the rumble of heavy trucks, heavily laden. ”That's my cue,” he announced, sticking the shovel blade down into the sand pile. ”Take a break, Fontaine.”

”Yes, Top.”

Buckling on his equipment, Pendergast tucked his helmet under his left arm, sauntered over toward the approaching line of engineer vehicles and waited.

He didn't have long to wait. As the first truck slowed to a halt, a rather splendid looking captain of engineers emerged.

”First Sergeant Pendergast, sir. A Company, 144th Infantry.” Infantry.”

The engineer returned Pendergast's salute, answering, ”Captain Davis, 176th Engineers. Where can I find your CO, Top?” Engineers. Where can I find your CO, Top?”

”Captain James is in his CP with our battalion S-3, sir. The S-3 is Captain Williams.”

”Thanks, Top. My first s.h.i.+rt should be here in a minute or two. You can show him where and how we can help you best.”

Was.h.i.+ngton, DC

Although not ostensibly designed to look down upon the United States, a spy satellite, given the right orbit, was as useful for that in the United States as for anywhere else. Or as useless, some would say. Thus, the head of the National Security Agency could pa.s.s on to the Director of Homeland Security satellite photographs and the a.n.a.lyses that accompanied them. Thus could the DHS bring the same to the President.

”There's no doubt, Madam President. None at all. Texas is mobilizing her own military forces. Even expanding them, it seems.”

Rottemeyer looked toward McCreavy. ”What does that mean to us, Caroline?”

McCreavy consulted her notes before replying. ”They have one more or less old-fas.h.i.+oned armored division. Five tank battalions. Four infantry. Four artillery. Three Engineer. The usual support.”

Rottemeyer caught on the phrase, ”Old-fas.h.i.+oned? That's good for us isn't it?”

Shaking her head ruefully, McCreavy answered, ”In this case, no, Willi, it isn't.”

”I do not understand.”

McCreavy sighed, then went on. ”Well...let me put it this way. In our entire regular force here in the States, excluding the Marines, we have not a single tank. Nor do we have a single vehicle capable of taking on a tank in a heads-up fight. Not one. Those five tank battalions have more combat power than any one of our divisions. And they could chew even the Marines, who do have tanks, if not that many of them, to bits.”

”What about our other states' National Guards?”

”Willi...do you trust them? I mean, do you really? You call up the Guard-which does have some other heavy forces-and you might find you're just reinforcing Texas.”

Again McCreavy let out a deep sigh. ”Willi...I am sorry but some of those states, especially those around Texas, hate hate you and everything you stand for. If you push, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona...maybe the whole deep south and quite a bit of the Midwest might 'just say no'.” Remember that red and blue map from the elections in 2000? Well, imagine the red portion in outright rebellion. It could be that bad. If you push them into it we could face a real war, and we could lose it. I can't answer for that. I won't. you and everything you stand for. If you push, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona...maybe the whole deep south and quite a bit of the Midwest might 'just say no'.” Remember that red and blue map from the elections in 2000? Well, imagine the red portion in outright rebellion. It could be that bad. If you push them into it we could face a real war, and we could lose it. I can't answer for that. I won't.

”What I have done, with the Third Corps based at Fort Hood in Texas, is to put them on alert. I have also told them to prepare to withdraw, in case you agree with me that they ought to be withdrawn.”

”Withdrawn? Why?”

”Willi, I have spoken with Bennigsen, the commander of Third Corps. He says the propaganda coming out of Texas' governor's office is beginning to have an effect on his entire command. He says his men are 'p.i.s.sed' at what happened at the mission.”

Fort Hood, Texas

Colonel (P) (for the army designated colonels who were selected to become brigadier generals as such; ”P” for ”promotable”) Joseph E. Hanstadt took one final look at his computer monitor, sighed, punched his intercom, and called for his secretary.