hand on his thigh. He knew he had the IPF outgunned with his M109A1 155mm self-propelled howitzers. The big bastards, with a crew of six, could sit back and lob shells a distance of eighteen thousand meters, which was close to eight miles. Nothing the IPF had could get close to them. Ben had twelve of them. Four per brigade.
Ninety tanks, twelve self-propelled howitzers. Ben had 320 people tied up in armor alone. He had 250 people as drivers and relief drivers. That left him with just over 2500 ground combat troops.
Gale glanced at him, taking note of the secret smile on his lips. She matched it until curiosity got the best of her.
“What are you smiling about, Ben?”
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t be smiling. I was thinking that we have the IPF outgunned. But they have us outnumbered.”
“Are we going to win, Ben?”
“No way for me to answer that, Gale.”
“Humor me.”
“The odds are not good,” Ben told it like it was. “I won’t lie to you about that.”
“Where is that famous Raines confidence?” she asked. “That chutzpa that carried you all the way from trashy book writer to president?”
Ben fixed her with a jaundiced look. “Trashy book writer?”
“Well?”
“Oh, I still have confidence, Gale. And I won’t harp on this subject, but I do wish you had stayed at home.”
“I have a personal stake in this, Ben.”
“Oh?” Ben glanced at her from out of the corner of his eye.
“Yeah. I’m a Jew.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
She called him a perfectly filthy name.
If they could make 175 miles per day, they were doing well, even though the tank commanders were pushing the behemoth machines at max speed. Ben’s column spent the first night on the road at the junction of Highways 67 and 63, in a small town in Arkansas called Hoxie. It was yet another lifeless town, the bones of the dead scattered by wind and animals, bleached ghostly white by the past summer’s sun. No one among the Rebels paid much attention to the bones. It was a sight they had long grown accustomed to seeing.
But the smaller skeletons still bothered most of the men and women. They would not speak of that emotion, but they would avert their eyes and swallow hard, perhaps thinking of their own lost children, or of their brothers or sisters.
That first night, when the troops had been fed and bedded down, the guards posted, Ben rolled a cigarette- one of the few he allowed himself daily-then slipped into the blankets beside Gale. She turned, coming into his arms.
“Hey, Ben?” she softly whispered.
They were sleeping outside, under a sky that seemed alive with dead worlds, millions of miles away, a black velvet background softening the luster, making the diamond glow seem much more intimate, making the two seem much more alone.
“Yes, Ms. Roth?”
“I’m glad it was you that came along, Ben-up in Missouri, I mean.”
“Aren’t you afraid people will snicker and point at us?” he kidded her. It was a game they sometimes played. “Maybe they’ll think you’re my daughter. Or maybe they’ll think you’re a wanton woman. Or maybe that I’m a dirty old man.”
“The latter I’ll agree with. Come on, Ben. Don’t joke-I’m serious.”
“OK. No more jokes.”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said today. We’re in trouble, aren’t we? I mean … what is left of the country?”
“Yes.”
“About those odds you mentioned.”
“They aren’t good, Gale. But I can’t be certain of that because I can’t get accurate intelligence readings out of the areas the IPF control. Maybe the LETTERRP’S will report back some good news.”
“Yeah, maybe. I hate to be a harbinger of doom, but have you thought about what might happen if you-we- can’t whip these people?”
“Plenty of thought. North Georgia, for one. That area looks good.”
“North Georgia? You got a thing about the South, don’t you? Is the Klan strong there?” There was open skepticism in her voice.
Ben chuckled. “You remind me of a girl I knew years ago. She-was
“Was she Jewish?” Gale interrupted.
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to hear about her.”
“We were friends, Gale, not lovers.”
“You believe if you painted wings on a pig it would fly?”
“What kind of a stupid question is that?”
“About as stupid as you telling me you were friends with a woman. Raines, you have never been just friends with any woman you thought you could screw.”
“I think I’ll go to sleep on that.”
She rudely poked him in the ribs with a finger. “So tell me about her.”
“I thought you didn’t want to hear.”
“I changed my mind already.”
“She wouldn’t visit the South because she thought she would find blazing crosses in every soybean and cotton field.”
Gale waited. “Is that it? Is that all? You got me all worked up for that?”
“I thought it amusing.”
“You would. Did she?”
“Did she what?”
“Visit the damn South?”
“How the hell do I know? I haven’t seen her in years.”
Gale was silent for a moment. “Was she pretty?”
“Positively the most beautiful woman I have ever met.”
“Raines…”
“You were asking, I believe, about north Georgia.”
“So proceed.” Definitely a touch of irritation.
“I thought we might settle there, win or lose. Right under the Chattahoochee National Forest. I’ve checked it out. It would be very difficult for anyone to dislodge a sizable force from that area. I’ve sent a team into that country; they’re in there now, nosing around.”
She stirred in his arms. “I’ll forgive you for making out with that girl.” “1 never made-his
“Then you don’t think we have much chance of beating these … the IPF?”
Ben sighed. “If all the troops we are committing, Gale-if they all were my people, trained by me, yes, we would have a chance.”
“Would you please explain that?”
“I’m not putting down Juan’s people, or Al’s people-I don’t want you to think that at all. They are all good people, I’m sure of that. But they aren’t professional fighters. A great many of the people in my command are combat veterans, Gale Every person in my command is highly trained and disciplined. They are probably the best trained people now under one command-anywhere in the world. With the possible exception of Striganov’s IPF.
“But the problem, Gale, is not with the courage or the loyalty of the troops under Juan or Al. That isn’t it at all. They just aren’t trained. And if something totally unexpected or unpredictable is thrown at them, I don’t know how they’re going to react. Neither Al nor Mark nor Juan ever pulled any military time. They are going to throw their
