“General,” the young LETTERRP said. “They, ah, the men in there-they took turns raping the girl before they hanged her.”
“They told you that?”
“Yes, sir. Seemed proud of it. Said she had real good pussy.”
Ben was profoundly glad that Gale was not present during this conversation. He turned to his artillery officer. “Shell it,” he told the man. “Shell and burn it. Blow the goddamned town off the map.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer said. He began speaking into his headset.
Down the highway, the rumble of tanks and mortar carriers getting into position reached the men by the once-barricaded highway. First to whistle and part the air overhead were the 152mm and 155mm cannon shells. 81mm mortars joined the barrage, the projectiles humming overhead. Ben’s big self-propelled howitzers
began pounding the small city with HE and incendiary rounds. The earth began to shake as the explosions ripped the town. Unit commanders began synchronizing the attack; there was not one full second free of the blasts of artillery, not one full second when an explosion was not rocking and pounding and burning and destroying the coordinated areas.
The limited skyline of the small city was now reduced to burning skeletons of buildings. After five minutes, Ben shouted the order to cease firing.
“Tanks in,” he ordered, his voice quiet in the shocked hush after the rolling thunder. “Infantry behind. Roll it.”
Gale and Nancy stood beside Ben’s pickup truck. Neither of them had ever heard anything to match what they had just experienced. War movies were OK, but this had been the real thing. Both their hearts were pounding furiously. Their mouths were dry. Nancy was the first to speak.
“He doesn’t believe very much in diplomacy, does he?”
“Only the final kind,” Gale replied, removing her fingers from her ears.
“I’m certain there were probably young children in that town.”
“Probably so.”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“Sam Hartline was once a child.”
Nancy closed her mouth.
Heavy tanks rumbling past them stopped any further conversation for a time. Soon the rattle of automatic weapons drifted through the still air as the mopping up began.
Gale took this time to observe Ben, something she did often, and enjoyed doing. The man was as calm as a professional gambler with a royal flush in a high-stakes poker game. Nothing ever seemed to rattle him. Ben sipped at a cup of coffee-or what now passed for coffee-and munched on a biscuit. He seemed so relaxed he could be watching a croquet match on the greens in England.
Black, ugly smoke from the fires set by the incendiary rounds began pouring into the sky, the flames licking close behind the clouds. With no fire department, the town would soon burn itself out, destroying the ugliness the IPF had spawned.
After an hour, the gunfire had ceased, the tanks had rumbled back to position within the convoy. Far up the highway, Rebels were walking prisoners back to face Ben Raines.
The prisoners did not look overjoyed at that prospect.
They were a beaten and sullen bunch, with no fight left in them. They faced Ben-twenty of them-with downcast eyes. Their hands were behind their necks, fingers interlaced. There was one woman with them, a rather attractive woman. She looked at Ben with frank eyes.
“I give great head, General,” she said. “Let me live and I’ll do anything you want. I like it up the ass, too.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Ben told her.
“You dirty whore!” snarled the man beside her. “This is one time your pussy won’t get you out of trouble.”
She laughed and spat in the man’s face.
“I ought to hang every one of you,” Ben told the
group. “Slowly. If torture was my forte, that is what you deserve-then I should hang what is left of you.”
A man lifted very frightened eyes. “General…”
“Shut up!” Ben roared at him. He turned to a lieutenant. “How many children were found?”
“Twenty-two, sir. The rest of the kids are up at some sort of special school, run by the IPF.”
“They are being brainwashed,” Katrina spoke. “Depending on the time they have spent there, it is very probably too late to save them.” She looked at one man who appeared better fed and in better condition than the others. “How long have the children been at the school?”
“Long enough,” the man said with a smirk on his thick, wet lips. “I know you-was he stared at her-“you was here some months ago.”
“That is correct,” Katrina replied.
“Yeah,” the man said. “I heard about you. You’re the turncoat. Sorry goddamn traitor to your people.”
Katrina lifted her AK-47 and pulled the trigger once. The single shot took the man in the center of the chest. He flopped on the ground and died.
“He was a pig,” Katrina said. “He made some very filthy comments to me one day. Exposed himself to me and asked me to lick his … asked me to lick it.” She looked at Ben. “Am I to be punished for shooting him?”
“Hell, no,” Ben said.
“Katrina,” Colonel Gray said. “Would you be interested in joining my little group of men and women?”
“The scouts and LETTERRP’S?”
“Indeed.”
“I would be honored.”
Dan smiled. “The little bird has sharp claws, General.”
“Quite,” Ben agreed. “How old are the children you found?” he asked the scout.
“Very young. Infants, mostly.”
“Take them back to the convoy. We’ll raise them. I won’t have these bigots preaching hate to young children.”
“You ain’t got no right to take our kids.” A man stepped toward Ben.
Ben butt-stroked the man under the chin with his Thompson. Teeth and jaw cracked and popped under the impact. Blood flew from the man’s shattered mouth. He dropped to the ground like a stone and was still.
Ben looked at Colonel Gray. “I don’t care what you do with them, Dan. I do not wish to ever see any of them again.”
“Yes, sir.” He looked around him. “Sergeant Cummings?”
“Sir?”
“Take care of this little matter, won’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” the black sergeant said. “I will give it my immediate and personal attention.”
“I rather thought you would,” Dan said.
The Jewish Rebel stepped forward. “Like a little help, Mac?”
“Join the party,” Mac replied.
“Dan,” Ben said. “Roll the convoy on through. We’ll stop up the road at Vienna.” He looked at Sergeant Cummings. “We’ll see you and your squad in about an hour, Mac.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I wonder what is going to happen to those people?” Nancy whispered to Gale. “Don’t even think about it,” she was told.
“Hello, sweetmeat,” Hartline said to Peggy.
She whirled around, her eyes wide with fear as she gazed up the basement steps to the open door. Hartline’s bulk filled the doorway. She looked around for a weapon-anything. But there was nothing. Her heart was pounding so heavily she thought she might faint.
“I told you I’d find you, baby,” Hartline said, a cruel smile on his lips.
“How?” Peggy managed to gasp out the one-word question.
“How?” Hartline smiled the question. “How was easy, sweet pussy. This is how.” He stepped down into the
