Ken hesitated a moment longer before finally handing me the walkie-talkie.
I thought for a second before keying the mic. It was going to be a hell of a tightrope act. I had to keep him talking for a few minutes without enraging him to the point where he fired the cannons again. “Hello?”
“This is General Lawrence Troutman of the United…” He paused. “Leeland?”
“Yeah. It’s me, Larry.” I figured I would keep it simple and get Jim the time he’d asked for before I started pushing his buttons again. “What do you want now?”
There was about a ten-second pause before he answered, and I could only imagine the fit he was probably having over my survival. When he finally answered though, his voice was maliciously polite. “My, my, Leeland. Allow me to congratulate you on your fine acting skills. That was a wonderful performance you and your mayor put on for us. You truly had me fooled. I don’t suppose you would consider coming back to the bridge and doing an encore?”
“Why would I do that? You already let our people go. I got what I wanted.”
“But you know there were other people in that hospital. I suppose you don’t care about them?”
I shook my head at his audacity. “You lying son of a bitch! You don’t have any more hostages. All you have are your troops on that side of the bridge, and your enemies over here.”
“But, Leeland, there are more than fifty more of your people back at the hospital. How could you be so selfish?”
“We already heard about the rest of the people at the hospital!” Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I thumbed the transceiver once more. “You think you could kill that many people and none of the others would notice? Or have you just reached the point where you can’t tell the truth from your own lies anymore?”
Larry was silent for a few seconds, and I glanced around to see how the others were taking the discussion. I couldn’t afford to have any of them believe him. If they did, they might begin to feel that it was wiser to turn me over and take Larry at his word. From the expressions around me, I needn’t have worried.
As the radio squawked back to life, I saw a ripple in the crowd that started at the perimeter and snaked its way toward me. I concentrated on my conversation, but watched to see what caused the commotion.
“All right,” Larry said. “It was a futile attempt to fool you, I admit. It was worth a try, but I would have been surprised if it had worked. In fact, I think I would have been more than a little disappointed.” The ripple turned into a parting in the crowd as Jim returned leading two other men.
“Let’s simply return to the original proposition, then. I will agree to let your little town go free if you will agree to turn yourself over to me.”
I grinned when I saw the gear the mayor and his men carried. Looking up at Jim, I nodded understanding. I knew how to steer the conversation. “You think I’m about to believe you now? You think anyone here will? Every time you open your mouth, another lie falls out. I might have believed you once, but I know you better now. You can take your proposition and shove it.”
“Are you certain, Leeland? Think of all the people you are consigning to death. Shouldn’t they have some say in this?”
“Sorry, Larry, I’m tired of your mind games. It’s nothing more than some kind of ego-stroking for you-mental masturbation-and I’m not a voyeur.”
“This is your last chance. Either you walk out and meet my man on the bridge right now, or I’m afraid you leave me with no other choice than to open fire on your facility.”
Jim met my eyes. “Ready.”
“I’m tired of talking, Larry, so let me put this in terms you can understand.” I pointed, and Jim touched the first pair of wires to the car battery he’d brought up.
I saw the explosion a split second before I heard it. The screams and curses of Larry’s men reached us just as the first pieces of debris began hitting the water, and I saw most of Larry’s soldiers hit the dirt. Others panicked and bolted for the trees.
“Damn,” Jim cursed, “wrong one!” Grabbing the next of what looked like a dozen pairs of wires, he touched them to the terminals, and the bridge almost directly beneath the tank exploded in a cloud of dust and rubble, actually lifting the tank a few feet before tumbling it sideways into the reservoir. Cheers erupted from our side, until people saw the second tank moving into better position.
But the mayor was far from finished. He began touching one set of wires after another to the battery terminals. Explosions like land mines ripped through the enemy, indiscriminately throwing men and vehicles high into the air on the other side of the reservoir.
Trees began to jump into the air and fall among the panic-stricken men. Jim had been busy burying Astrolite charges under some of the surrounding trees. A large pine fell across the front of the tank as it tried to maneuver for a shot, and I thought for a hopeful moment that it was trapped. With my heart in my throat, I watched it back out from under the fallen pine as if it were nothing and realized that I had greatly underestimated the power of the behemoth. Then, I saw its cannon.
“Yeah!” It was curved in nearly a fifteen-degree bend. They would never be able to fire that thing ever again.
The tank began a rapid retreat as Larry’s fear for his own safety overcame his obsessive desire for my head. He drove away, unheeding of the men on foot around him, and I saw a few of the slower ones crushed screaming beneath the treads as he fled.
Cheers erupted again, and I joined them unabashedly. Pumping my fist in the air, I whooped and yelled. As I turned about to share the glory of the moment with those around me, I froze. Staggering toward me, tears streaming down her face, Debra came to my arms.
“The second explosion…”
The last several minutes flew through my head as I tried to make sense of what she had said. Larry and Han on the bridge, paintball guns, playing dead, Larry’s attack with the tank cannon, Amber rushing to help…
…the second explosion…
I gasped. “Amber?”
Her sobbing was the only answer.
Chapter 18
Deux de poison saisiz nouveau venuz,
Dans la cuisine du grand Prince verser:
Par le soillard tous deux au faicts cogneuz
Prins que cuidoit de mort l’aisne vexer.
Two newly arrived have seized the poison,
to pour it in the kitchen of the great Prince.
By the scullion both are caught in the act,
taken he who thought to trouble the elder with death.
The Battle of the Bridge was the beginning of a three-month war that forced us to take to the forest, leaving even the tentative sanctuary of the fertilizer factory behind. Larry had shown us all too well just how fragile its protection was. By day, he held the town and much of the surrounding forest. Using Humvees and the remaining two tanks, his men constantly patrolled the perimeter and kept us in hiding. After dark though, we were able to sneak in and do our damage under night’s black cloak.
Night raids became the mainstay of our survival. Though Larry technically held the town, it was patently impossible for his men to guard every alley and side street in Rejas from the people who knew them best. We
