crushing the life from two of the outlaws. One man crawled out of the wreckage of the home, pulling himself along with his hands. Both his legs were broken.
He passed out from the pain.
He would be frozen stiff by morning.
Another team rolled into what had been southern Wyoming before Ben Raines and his Rebels renamed the entire area the Tri-States, years back.
The outlaws spotted a lovely rock home sitting on a hill. That would be ideal for a headquarters. Or a grave. They settled in and built a roaring fire in the fireplace. Had they been just a bit more observant, they might have noticed the logs were too heavy for wood that had been allowed to dry, inside, for almost two years.
The logs had been hollowed out and packed full of extremely high explosives. The explosives would detonate after reaching the temperature of ninety degrees.
When the fireplace blew, the impact scattered debris-wood, brick, stone, and various parts of human bodies-all over the small hill.
Another team of outlaws came down from the north,
into Montana. They thought it would be amusing to spend the night in what had once been Ben Raines’ residence.
Their amusement was very short-lived.
Ben had deliberately left sealed tins of what was labeled pure water on the kitchen counter, along with sealed tins of emergency rations. The water was poisoned and so was the food.
Ben and his Rebels, just before the government assault on Tri-States had begun, had warned the government that if they chose to interfere with a peaceful way of life, they would soon discover what Hell must be like.
The outlaws ate and drank their fill, and then died horribly, their bodies and faces and hands swelling and blackening in death.
Another group of Texas Red’s boys found a small, very intimate cocktail lounge where, by golly, the bar was still stocked with sealed bottles of booze. They had a high ol’ time and got rip-roaring drunk. They didn’t notice the slight sweet fragrance coming from the bottles of whiskey.
Poison.
One by one they closed their eyes. One by one they went to sleep. One by one they slumped to the floor. One by one … they died.
“Anything?” Jake asked his radio operator. “Nothin’, Big Jake. Not a peep. And they was callin’ in regular “til yesterday.”
Again, Big Jake Campo felt a shiver of fear touch him. He knew, he knew the boys were dead. But how in the hell had Raines managed to do it? How had he found them out so soon? And how in the hell could one man and one woman kill so many so quickly? Jesus Flipping Christ!
Jake looked into Texas Red’s eyes. He saw open fear there.
“We can’t quit now,” Jake said, after taking the man’s elbow and leading him away from the other men. “We got to go on.”
“I don’t like it,” Texas Red honestly admitted his fear. “I’m scared, man. And I mean, really, fucking scared!”
“Get a grip on yourself. Goddamnit, he’s just one man. One man!”
“Is he?” Red asked.
“Is he what?”’
“Is Ben Raines just a mortal man?”
Jake Campo opened his mouth to cuss the outlaw, then closed it. He walked away. Dammit it to hell-he didn’t know. He just plain didn’t know!
Ben had found some old popcorn and, together, they popped the corn and dyed it all different colors, using food coloring from the kitchen pantry.
Rani found some thread and strung the brightly colored popcorn around the small tree Ben had cut.
But something was missing.
Rani said, “You take that end of the house, Ben. And I’ll take the other. You find something for me, and I’ll find something for you. We have to have some presents under the tree.”
Giggling and laughing like children, they went their ways and each returned with a gift, Rani’s wrapped in a piece of old grocery bag, Ben’s wrapped in a piece of newspaper.
They put them under the tree and began preparing dinner. They ate Crations by candle light and then opened their gifts.
Ben had found a pair of diamond earrings for her, and she had found a pocket watch for him. She fitted the earrings and Ben wound the old watch.
“Perfect Christmas,” Ben said.
Chapter 33
Jake Campo sat straight up in his blankets. He knew what had gotten his boys, and it hadn’t been Ben Raines.
Throwing his blankets aside, he jerked on his boots and ran to the communications truck, startling the sleepy man.
“Get the boys on the horn!” he snapped. “Right now.”
His teams contacted, Jake said, “Stay out of the homes, the bars, the buildings. Don’t touch nothing. Everything is booby-trapped. I “member somebody telling me about it. You guys copy all this?”
“Yeah. When you gonna get here?”
“Soon,” Jake radioed. “Real soon. For now, you guys hunt a hole and stay put.”
He told Texas Red what had gone down. “You see, Red. Raines ain’t no god. But I tell you what he’s gonna be, real soon.”
“What?”
“Goddamn dead!”
The morning after Christmas, Ben and Rani pulled out and headed north. Before leaving, Ben had loaded both trucks with as much emergency gear as possible, including ammunition and explosives from one of many hidden caches.
“Where are we going, Ben?” Rani asked.
“Into the wilderness area. We’ll winter there and set up traps for Campo and his crud.”
“Are you going to call Colonel Gray and ask him to send in help?”
“Nope.”
“We were awfully lucky down in Texas, Ben. But you know luck has a nasty habit of running out. Usually at the worst of times.”
“This is something I have to do by myself, Rani. If you want to help, fine. If not, I can call in and have a team come and get you. It’s all up to you.”
“You know I’m staying with you right to the end, Ben. But why is this so important to you?”
“Call it macho, male pride, stubborn, stupid; it’s probably a mixture of all those things. It’s …”
Ben seemed to be at a loss for words.
“It’s for Jordy, isn’t it, Ben?”
“Yes.”
She took his hand. “Then we’ll do it together.”
They drove until the paved roads ran out. Then Ben off-loaded the supplies from Rani’s truck and carefully hid the vehicle and his small trailer. With Rani by his side, Ben drove deep into what had been known as the Boise National Forest, to the southern branch of the Middle Fork Salmon. It took them three days to get all the supplies to the cabin deep in the timber.
She noticed Ben kept looking up at the sky.
“Ben, I know you’re checking the skies for snow warnings. But even if it snows ten feet, you’re leaving a trail a blind man could follow. Broken limbs and marked trees that the truck has rubbed against. You’ve deliberately tossed crap on the ground. You want them to find us, don’t you?”
“I want them to know I’ve gone into the deep timber, yes. Finding our exact location is something else,
