The column was rolling toward Millen. And Ben always felt good when traveling, seeing new country. He had just spoken with Cecil. “Yes, in a manner of speaking. Gray’s Scouts reported a lot of activity in the mountains. Near the area where a big fire and a lot of shooting took place. The searchers are bringing in bloodhounds.” He smiled. “Ike got away from them.”
Gale shook her head. “Poor Ike. Chased like an animal. I feel so sorry for him. And why did you just grin?”
Ben laughed, and she could not understand the laughter.
“I fail to see the humor in the situation, Ben.” There was indignation in her tone.
“You don’t understand, Gale. Don’t feel sorry for Ike-feel sorry for the people who are chasing him.”
“You’re right, Ben. I am confused. Ike’s being hunted and you sound like you’re happy about that.”
“Ike is the hunter, Gale. Ike is a master at survival. He knows more dirty tricks than I do. He’ll turn those woods into a death trap for those chasing him.”
“Jesus, Ben. You act like you’d like to change places with him.”
Ben grinned. “Ike’s probably found him a woman by now. Might be interesting, all right.”
“Very funny. Would you like to be up there, Ben?”
“Yes. I think it would be fun.” “Fun? Raines, you have the damnedest idea of fun I have ever encountered. Fun?”
“Warriors are seldom understood, Gale. But they are-or were-much maligned. Warriors are not only molded, Gale, they have to be born with that streak within them. Either one has it, or one does not.”
“Fun, huh? Well, I hope Ike is having … fun.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Ike and Nina had rummaged through an abandoned old home and found a trunk the rats had not chewed through. The large trunk contained old clothing from members of the whole family. Ike and Nina had found clothing that fit them. They had taken a very quick bath in the icy waters of a rushing mountain stream.
Then they lay wrapped in a quilt from the old home, locked in love-making. Both knew it was a very foolish thing to do, surrounded as they were by danger. But that knowledge only made the love act that much more spicy.
Later they lay by the stream, listening to it gurgle and bubble and race past them, a happy sound to its passage.
“Ike? You really think we’re going to get out of this mess with our skins on, don’t you?”
“You just watch ol’ Ike go into action, Nina. I’m a mean motor scooter when I get my dander up.”
She giggled at him. “Well … you may get your dander up, Ike, but that’s about all you’re gonna get up at the moment.”
Ike thought about that for a second. He took her tanned hand and placed it on his penis. “Famous last words, darlin’.”
She felt him thicken under her fingertips. “Why, you old goat!”
Midmorning of the next day found Ben and his contingent of Rebels prowling through the rubble of what had once been Fort Gordon. The post had been picked clean of anything that might be of use to anyone. Litter covered the broken streets; tin cans rolled unchallenged in the buildings as the breeze, coming through the broken windows, pushed the cans along, bouncing them off walls.
“There’s nothing here,” Ben said. “Let’s roll it. We can be in Lincolnton by early afternoon.”
Not wanting to take a chance on the big bridge over the Clark Hill Reservoir being out, the column headed west until reaching Thomson. There they connected with Highway 78 and followed that to the junction of 378 and 47, cutting east to Lincolnton.
Captain Rayle answered Ben’s radio call. “Waiting just west of the first town on Highway 43 South, General. Everything is secure. And we have fresh-caught fish for supper.”
“Sounds good to me, Roger. OK. Coming in.”
An old-time fish fry was underway when the two contingents of Rebels met. Ben was amused at the name of the town.
“Loco, Captain?”
“We thought you’d get a kick out of it, General. Sure isn’t much else amusing about the situation back at the base camp, though.”
“Give me a thumbnail briefing, Roger. And don’t spare me a thing.”
“Yes, sir. Willette and his men have taken in a lot of the young troops, sir. Several hundred of them, at least. Probably more. General, those young troops are not doing it as any act of defiance toward you. Willette has convinced them that you are tired, you need a rest, that you are becoming senile, that that you are so old no one really knows how old you are. The list is staggeringly long.” Rayle sighed. “And a lot of people are buying that garbage.”
“I know the young Rebs aren’t doing this to harm me, Captain. What concerns me is this: What are the odds of us putting this coup attempt down without spilling a lot of blood?”
Rayle shook his head negatively. “Very slim, sir. It’s fast becoming a divided camp. And, sir? Colonel Gray is convinced Willette and his crew are somehow tied in with this Ninth Order business.”
“I have entertained that thought more than once myself, Roger. And I believe this Tony Silver is somehow tied up in it.”
“I read a slim dossier on that one, General. He’s pure evil. The dossier stated that Silver is not only into slavery and murder and forced prostitution, but that he is starting up a pornography business down in north Florida. Mostly kiddy porn and snuff films.”
“Among other things,” Ben added.
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s a snuff film?” Gale asked, walking up to the men. She had a huge plate of catfish, piled high with french fries.
“Is that for me?” Ben asked.
“Hell, no. It’s for me. Get your own. What am I, your servant?”
“Like I said: eats like a horse.”
Gale ignored that. She bit into a piece of crisp-fried fish, then fanned her mouth as she made little oohhhing sounds.
“Hot?” Ben asked innocently.
She nodded her head vigorously.
“Watch the bones,” Roger cautioned.
“Nothing deters her from food,” Ben said, smiling at Gale’s antics with a mouthful of steaming hot fish. “She’ll kill for a hamburger.”
Gale swallowed the fish and took a long drink of water. She sighed and wiped her eyes. “I repeat: What is a snuff film?”
Roger looked at Ben, clearly dubious about telling her. “Tell her,” Ben said. “She asked.”
“Just at the moment of climax,” Roger said, avoiding Gale’s eyes. “One of the performers kills the other.”
Gale looked at the plate of food, looked at Ben, and grimaced. “You might have had the decency to warn me, Ben.”
“You asked.”
She handed him her plate of food. “Here, you eat it. Probably did it just to get my food. Be like you.” Before she walked away, she grabbed a large piece of catfish from the plate. She walked away, munching and fanning at her mouth.
“They using kids in the snuff films, Roger? And who is buying the goddamn things? And with what?”
“They’re not using too many kids, way I hear it.
Mostly women in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. As far as buying them, sir, it’s not so much buying as it is bartering for territory and guns and slaves. Silver is using slave labor on his farms and small factories.”
“Blacks?”
“All races, sir. If a woman gives him much trouble in prostitution, Silver whips her into submission. And
