Part 10 (2/2)
”Go ahead,” the Rebel spoke.
”This is Raines. I've just been informed there is a very active resistance force of Americans working out of Redding. They know we're here and will be linking up with you point people very soon. Leader's name is Harris.”
”Ten-four, General.”
”Over to your right, Mac.”
Mac looked. A man was standing in the doorway of what had once been a drugstore. He waved the Rebels across the street.
They approached him cautiously.
”I'm Harris,” the man announced. ”Man, are we glad to see you people.”
”Is that right?” Mac asked. ”You look like you're big enough to kick a.s.s and take names. Why didn't you?”
Harris smiled bitterly. ”I've got about seventy-five people in my group. Seventy-five out of three thousand. That tell the story?”
Mac was sorry he had spoken so sharply. But while he knew what the Rebels were doing was necessary, he, like so many Rebels, including Ben Raines, was getting d.a.m.n tired of fighting other peoples' wars for them.
”Yeah, Harris. It does. Sorry Ipopped off at you.”
”I understand. Believe me, I do. Many times I've had to just grit my teeth and walk off before I shot some of the roll-over crybabies around here.”
”Many sympathizers around?”
Harris spat on the littered, dirty sidewalk.
Mac and his partner got the message.
”What do you want me and my people to do?” Harris asked.
”Lay back and stay out of it. When we're finished, I imagine General Raines will put you in charge. Then you can deal with matters the way you see fit.”
”With pleasure.”
Mac and his partner waited on the outskirts of Redding, waited with Harris in the looted sh.e.l.l of the drugstore in the small shopping center ... or what had once been one. Mac and his partner were just one of many two-person teams scattered in a loose circle around the airport. If any IPF people managed to escape the initial attack on the airport, they would be cut down by the Rebels encircling the area.
”You speak any Russian?” Mac asked Harris.
”Some. I'm no expert. But I picked up some while a prisoner of the IPF.”
”How'd you get away from them?”
”Broke and ran one night. They shot me.”
He lifted his s.h.i.+rt; his stomach was pocked with bullet scars. ”They thought they'd killed me.
Left me and took off chasing the other guy who broke out with me. I managed to crawl into a ditch before I pa.s.sed out. My people found me before morning. I just made it. Charlie didn't. He died pretty d.a.m.ned hard, so I was later told. Never again will I allow my freedom to be taken from me. Never!”
the word was spoken hard.
”And I'll kill any person who tries.”
Mac smiled through the gathering gloom at his partner.
Harris would do to ride the river with.
”Any weak links in your group?”
”None. But there was ... for a long time. I kept wonderin' why the IPF knew every move we were gonna make. We'd change hideouts; they'd be right there. Lost a lot of people durin' that time. Better than twenty-five percent of my group bought it.
That's how I got captured. After I got on my feet, I started some hard checkin'. I found out who it was and killed him. We've had no more leaks. But it was a d.a.m.ned hard thing for me to do.”
It was a story the Rebels were accustomed to hearing.
”Friend of yours, huh?”
Harris looked at him. ”Yeah. He was my brother.”
Chapter.
Ten.
Like silent ghosts in tiger-stripe and lizard camo, the Rebels moved along the buildings of theRedding airport. Those IPF personnel who happened to be on foot patrol, or just unfortunate enough to be outside while the Rebels were moving into position, met silent, abrupt death with black wire or darkened blades. Their bodies were dragged out of sight and dumped.
Swiftly and softly, the Rebels took their positions, all of them just a bit nervous about this raid. For the general was personally leading this attack.
”d.a.m.ned fool!” Sylvia whispered to him, as they crouched inside the tower, on the tarmac. ”You've got men and women thirty years younger that you and Ike personally trained to do this sort of work. What are you trying to prove?”
Ben's smile flashed in the night. He leaned close and whispered, ”Are you trying to tell me I'm over the hill, kid?”
Sylvia flushed and blushed. She knew d.a.m.n well Ben was far from being over the hill. In more ways than one. Then her eyes widened in shock as Ben leaned closer still and blew softly in her ear.
”Ben! Quit! s.h.i.+t!” she whispered. ”You're insane!”
Ben kissed her cheek and chuckled softly. ”Are you trying to tell me this is not the place for romance, kid?”
Sylvia could but shake her head and sigh. All her life she had heard stories about how totally unpredictable General Ben Raines was.
She could d.a.m.n well believe it now.
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