Man,
woman, and two small kids. All shot through the head.”
“I wonder why?” Rani asked.
“We’ll never know.”
They stopped for the night at what remained of the tiny village of Ramon. The place had been picked clean, and done so with deliberate care, Ben noted.
“It’s … eerie,” Rani said.
“No,” Ben answered slowly. “I don’t think so. Most of what we’ve seen so far, since leaving Aftesia, reminds me of what my people did back in “89.1 think there just might be a group of people, probably a large group, doing what we did-setting up a community, somewhere.”
“Mormons?”
“Probably. Most of what we’ve seen I would not call looting. It wasn’t done with damage in mind. But done carefully.”
“I hope you’re right, Ben.”
“So do I. And that might explain why we haven’t seen any thugs or outlaws or bandits since we entered this state.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The Mormons are extremely fine people; very self-sufficient. I’m told that during the great depression-and that happened years before you or I made an appearance on this earth-the Mormons really took care of their own, without, for the most part, government assistance. And they also won’t put up with a bunch of crap from people. They are deeply religious, but will defend to the death what is theirs.” He shrugged. “So I’ve been told.”
They pulled out early the next morning and were in
Vaughn an hour later. The town was empty and still, and it had been systematically taken apart. Even down to the last drop of gasoline in the storage tanks.
Ben smiled, looking around him. “I think we shall avoid Utah,” he said. “Unless we just absolutely have to enter the state. I will leave those people alone if they’ll do the same for us.”
Ben stopped on the outskirts of Santa Fe, pulling off the road. He studied maps, trying to determine the best way to avoid the city. There was something disturbing about the quiet of the place, something that set the hairs on the back of Ben’s neck to tingling.
Rani walked up to his truck. “What’s wrong, Ben?”
“Too quiet. I feel eyes on us. Whether they’re friendly or unfriendly, I don’t know. But I don’t feel like taking any chances. Cities have always been a problem since the Great War. They seem to attract the scum of the land.”
“So we do what?”
“Backtrack and take 41 until we reach this county road, which we take over to 14. We head south until we hit this other secondary road that will take us over to Interstate 25. We’ll connect with Highway 44 there and take that northwest to Aztec. It’s going to be slow going, so let’s be careful not to get separated. I don’t like the feel of this country. If we’re stopped, Rani, be ready to shoot first and apologize later.”
“I finally got that message through my head, Ben.”
They backtracked on 285 until coming to their cutoff. Then the going was slowed down to no more than a crawl. The road had deteriorated badly, and was littered with junked vehicles.
Their radios on low power, Ben said to Rani, “If a paved road is this bad, Rani, an unpaved road will probably be impassable. So forget the road over to Interstate 25. We’ll stay on this all the way down to Interstate 40 and then try to plot a new route.”
“One thing about it, baby,” Rani radioed back. “We’re sure going to see some new country.”
“That’s a big ten-four,” Ben said with a grin.
“It worked, Jake,” Texas Red said, smiling. “Our scouts just pulled in. Raines and the cunt left the Rebels, travelin’ in two pickups.”
The one hundred and fifty-odd outlaws were camped along the banks of the Conchas Lake, west-northwest of Tucumcari. Jake and Red had ordered their men to keep their heads down and stay quiet.
“Which way the Rebs heading?” Jake asked.
“Scouts report they’re goin’ to help some folks up around Odessa. Something about settin’ up outposts.”
“Raines and the broad?”’
“They headed west for a time, then cut toward the north.”
Jake’s grin broadened. “OK. I know where he’s heading, now.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Back to his old stompin” grounds. The Tri-States. Him and the cunt is plannin’ on wintering there. Bet on it.”
“So we take them now?”
“No, you dummy! We send out scouts-our best people. Haircuts, shaved, clean clothes-a good appearance in case they accidentally run into Raines. But they don’t have to do that.” He spat on the ground.
“We can track them.” “How?” Texas Red asked, exasperation in his voice.
““Cause, my good man,” Jake said, smiling, patting his fellow outlaw on the back, “that goddamn Englishman didn’t change the frequency on them bugs he put in Raines” pickup. And our radioman just figured it out.”
“Oohhh,” Texas Red said. “That’s slick, Jake. Real slick.”
“So in about a week, we move out in teams, real quiet like. No more than four or five guys at a pop. By then, we’ll have a pretty good idea where Raines and Rani is going. Then we’ll just slow-like gather up there in the old Tri-States, and do it real professional-like.”
“And then we kill Raines,” Texas Red said.
“Yeah,” Jake said dreamily. “I want you to send out some boys. Find two-three cameras and lots of film.”
“What you gonna take pitchers of, Jake?”
“Raines. He thinks he’s a god, so I’m gonna treat him like one.”
“Huh?”
“I’m gonna crucify the bastard.”
Chapter 28
Ben and Rani stayed on Highway 41 all the way south to Highway 60. There they cut west over to Interstate 25. Just before reaching the interstate, they pulled off the highway and made camp.
“Ben?”
“Uh-huh?”
“I thought New Mexico had a lot of Indians in it?”
“Probably still does. But they’re keeping their heads down. Like a lot of other Indians. You see, Rani, back when we were building the Tri-States, we-the Rebels-helped many of the Indian tribes, too. We helped them move out of and off of those goddamned disgraceful reservations and onto better land where they could farm and build and grow. Then when the government decided to move against us, they went against the Indians first. Thousands of Indians were killed-slaughtered. Men, women, kids. It was senseless. Totally senseless. My God, but there was plenty of land for everybody.” Ben sighed. “It was my fault.”
“How in the hell was it your fault!”
“President Logan had a hard-on for me. He hated me. Just about as bad as I hated him. I wouldn’t kowtow to him; him or the Supreme Court or that august body known as the Congress of the United States. If the Indians hadn’t thrown in with us, maybe there wouldn’t have been a slaughter. I don’t know.”
Rani smiled at him. Then she laughed. “I guess all the things I’ve heard about you are true, then.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I heard that when the Supreme Court ruled that everything you and your Rebels were doing out in the Tri-States was unconstitutional, you wrote them a letter and told them all to kiss your ass.”
“That is correct. I did just that. That was after the first threat from the central government. We were not guilty of harming any law-abiding citizen. Not one. What we did was take a mixing bowl full of people of all races, all religions, and make it work. We had some of the toughest laws anywhere in the world and stuck to them. And
