Part 16 (2/2)
Ben walked to the communication truck. The battleground was nearly void of living beings, the Rebels pulling out, leaving the dead silent, for the earth to claim.
Ben glanced at his watch. Hartline would have had time to get there by car.
”Get them on the horn,” Ben ordered.
”h.e.l.lo, Ben,” the cheerful voice of Sam Hartline cracked through the speaker.
”Hartline,” Ben replied, without the cheerfulness.
”You won one, Raines,” Hartline said. ”Going to come get your woman warrior?”
”Doubtful,” Ben said honestly.
”You're a hard man, Ben. 'Bout as hard as me. h.e.l.l, maybe you're harder. G.o.d knows I've tried to kill you often enough.”
Ben could hear faint screaming in the background.
But it was not a woman's screaming.
”That's one of your Rebels, Ben,”
Hartline told him. ”One of my boys is burning his feet off. I don't think he likes it very much.”
Ben cursed; got it out of his system before he keyed the mike. Keeping his voice level, he said, ”What do you want, Hartline?”
”Why, just a friendly chat with an old enemy, Ben.
That's all.”
The screaming of the burning Rebel became louder.
Then Ben heard Reba screaming.
”I opened a window just in case you wanted to get a better ... ah, picture, shall we say, of what is happening here.”
”I could have done without it, Hartline.” ”Oh, I wouldn't want you to miss a thing, Ben.
Oh, by the way, the woman you had in the cabin, Rani Jordan? I suppose you know by now that she's dead.”
”I know.”
”I tortured her to death, Ben. Of course I f.u.c.ked her, too. Several times. In several different ways.”
Ben said nothing.
”A lot of my, ah, newer colleagues had a whack at her, too. They're anxious to meet you, Ben.”
”Oh, we'll meet, Hartline. Bet on that,”
Ben a.s.sured him.
”Oh my, Ben! I wish you could see this. It's very entertaining. Two of my men are double-teaming Reba. Poor girl doesn't appear to be enjoying it. I wonder why?”
”Where is Sally?”
”Sonny Boy claimed her for his woman.
He's such a delightful man, Ben.”
”One of your warlords, Sam?”
”That's a big ten-four.”
”I'm looking forward to meeting them all, Sam.”
Hartline chuckled. ”I know what you're doing, Ben. Oh, I'll tell you their names. Sonny Boy, Grizzly, Skinhead, Popeye. Nice boys, all.”
Just before Ben signed off, he said, ”I'm going to kill you, Hartline. That is a promise.”
Chapter Fifteen.
”You know what's going to happen now, don't you, Georgi?” Sam asked the Russian.
They were enjoying a late dinner in the Russian's lovely home near Pepperwood, just off Highway 101. The Russian insisted on living as luxuriously as possible, considering the conditions around them. Not two miles away, people were just barely clinging to life.
When Striganov and his IPF first landed on American soil, after years in Iceland, Georgi had treated the Aryan race quite differently.*
But all that had proved too expensive in terms of food and clothing and medical treatment.
Now anyone who did not willingly embrace the Russian's lopsided philosophy was left to fend for themselves, as best they could.
”No. You tell me, Sam,” Striganov said.
”Ben Raines is going to pull out all the stops now. He's going to hit us from all sides. He's going to use *
Anarchy in the Ashes every tactic he knows, and believe me, he knows them all.”
”Stand up and slug it out across battlefields?”
the Russian asked, a hopeful note to his voice.
”You know better.” Sam waved away the offer ofdessert. But his eyes took in the trim little a.s.s of Jane as she moved around the table to serve the Russian.
”You may eat now, Jane,” Georgi told the girl. ”Then take your bath. I'll be along shortly.”
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