south Georgia. Still about five hundred of Silver’s army left and about that many men of the Ninth Order. A full platoon of Silver’s men camped just east of the ruins of Atlanta, around Stone Mountain. We skirted them this morning and are proceeding toward your Base Camp. Will arrive camp area noon tomorrow. Harner.”
“Slave revolt!” Cecil said, folding the paper and tucking it in his pocket. “Dear God. Slaves! I thought all that ended about 1865.”
“It’s a big land, Cec,” Dan Gray told him. “We really don’t know what is happening out there.” He waved a hand.
“Yes,” Cecil replied. He looked south. His eyes were bleak. “I can but wish the slaves the best of luck.”
“I wish we had the personnel to help,” Dan said.
“So do I, friend. So do I.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“No reply from any of our people up north,” Tony was informed. “And I’ve been trying to contact them all day. What do you think it means, Tony?”
“I think it means they’ve bought it,” Tony said.
“Yeah.”
Tony slumped back in his chair. That feeling of impending doom he’d been experiencing all day once more settled around him like a damp, stinking shroud. And he couldn’t seem to shake it. Not even liquor would dull the sensation.
“Any further word from north Florida?” Tony asked.
“Yeah. All bad. The big plantation down at Live Oak was completely overrun by the slaves. I don’t know how they got them guns. The last report we received, the guards had barricaded themselves in the radio building. You could hear all sorts of shootin’. Then the radio went dead. So I guess them guys bought it, too.”
“How bad’s our strength been cut?”
The man shook his head. “Well, if our guys up in South Carolina bought it, that means we lost sixty, seventy percent, Tony. But a full company got out of Perry. They’re headin’ up this way.”
“Ben Raines and his Rebs musta circled around,” Tony said.
“Yeah, boss. He’s a sneaky bastard, that one is.”
But Tony didn’t believe it was Raines who had wiped out his people and the troops of the Ninth Order. Tony did not possess second sight, but he could tell when things were going sour.
“It wasn’t Raines,” Tony said. “I been ki.in’ myself about that.”
“What do you mean, boss? If it wasn’t Raines, then who in the hell was it? You don’t think maybe it was them Russians, do you? Last word we got all them folks was out west.”
“No, I don’t think it was the Russians. We’ve had no reports of them being anywhere near here. But I sure would like to know who the son of a bitch was that zapped my men.”
“Why, my good fellow,” a voice came from the open doorway. “Regrettably, I did.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Ike lifted the walkie-talkie and listened. From the strength of the transmission, he figured he and Nina must be practically sitting on top of the Ninth Order’s headquarters.
Together, they listened in silence. When the transmissions had concluded, Ike summed it up, speaking more to himself than to her. “So the soldiers sent down south were wiped out, to a man, along with several hundred troops of this guy Silver.” He looked at Nina. “You know anything about this guy named Silver?”
“He’s a whore-master. He is just as evil as Sister Voleta, in his own way. I’ve never seen him, but I’ve heard stones about him. He keeps slaves to work his farms. He has-was she pursed her lips-“oh, I heard about a half dozen farms and ranches down south, in Florida. And he likes young girls. I mean, real young girls. Eleven and twelve, that young. He likes to hurt them during the … sex. He has several hundred women of all ages in whorehouses around the country. Young boys, too. And he supplies women and girls and boys to warlords around the country, too.”
Ike looked at her, a dozen questions on his lips.
“Warlords, Nina? Tell me more. Where have I been to have missed all this?”
“You really don’t know about the warlords, Ike? You’re not just funnin’ me?”
“No, I’m not funnin’ you, honey. You see, we were kinda isolated-the Rebels-for almost a decade.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Isolated?”
“No. Decade.”
“About ten years.”
“Oh. Well, warlords is kinda like in some of them books I read. Back in the olden times, I mean. This one man, he gets hisself a bunch of other men together, and they stake out a certain parcel of land. So many miles thisaway, and so many miles thataway. Him and the men control all that by force. All the land is his’n.”
“His, baby. His. Not his’n.”
“His,” she corrected herself. “Anyways, all the people within the land claimed by the guy pay him for protection. Whether they wants to or not. They ain’t got no choice in the matter. If they don’t pay, the warlord kills them. They’s all kinds of them people spread out acrost the land. You really didn’t know, did you, Ike?”
“No,” Ike said softly. “No, I didn’t. But it doesn’t surprise me. I…” he sighed. “I guess I should have expected something like it. You’ve traveled around the country quite a bit, haven’t you, Nina?”
Her face brightened in recall. “Oh, yeah! I sure have, Ike. I been all over. I been all the way up to the big water the Indians call … what was it them
Indians called it? Oh, yeah, I remember now. Gitche Gumee. I been-was
“The what?” Ike looked at her, a very startled expression on his face. “What did you just say? Gitche Gumee?”
“Yeah. Ain’t you never heard of that before, Ike?”
“Why … sure I have! It’s from Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha.” Oh. OK. You must be talking about Lake Superior?”
She cocked her head and looked strangely at him. “I don’t know nothing about that, Ike. You see, there ain’t no white folks up where I went. It’s all Indians. That land belongs to them, so they said. And I sure as hell wasn’t gonna argue with “em none. They didn’t hurt me a bit. They was real friendly and kind. Give me a bed to sleep in and warm food. And then the next morning, they showed me around the lake and their camp. Tepees and all that. Just like the old times in the books I read. But they called the big water Gitche Gumee. I don’t know and never heard of nobody named Hiawatha. Why don’t you tell me about him?”
“Well.” Ike opened his mouth, then promptly shut it. No point in confusing her, and that would be just about all he would accomplish. Longfellow cast Hiawatha as an Ojibway. But in truth, he was based on the exploits of the Iroquois tribe. That in itself would probably boggle the girl’s mind. Ike sighed heavily. Shit! he thought. Hiawatha, you are just going to have to wait a spell.
Nina looked at the expression on Ike’s face. “You’re sad with me, aren’t you, Ike? I done something wrong.”
“No, no!” Ike looked at her and smiled. “No, I’m not sad or mad with you, Nina. Not at all. I’ll tell you the story of Hiawatha someday. I promise. Right now, though, I’d like for you to tell me about these warlords. How many have you seen or heard of?”
“Oh, golly, Ike.” She shrugged. “Bunches and bunches of them. That’s what this here Sister Voleta is, kind of. But she’s really weird. Up north of here, right on the edge of the big mountains, is a guy name of Joe Blue. He’s a mean bastard, but he ain’t evil like Sister Voleta. Blue’ll just shoot you if he takes it in his head. But he’ll do it clean. Blue claims … oh, four, five counties. All the way from Johnson City clear up into Virginia. There’s another feller named Henshaw over to Boone in North Carolina claims a lot of land, too. I mean, a right smart piece of ground. Up in Kentucky now, over to the Daniel Boone Forest, all that is claimed by a man and woman named Red and Nola. They’re crazy, I think. To the east, now, I traveled as far as the big water would let me. I got captured by these men call themselves the Brunswick Vigilantes. They claim all the land for miles up and down the big water. That’s the …8She was thoughtful. “Yeah! The Atlantic. Them men didn’t hurt me none, but they sure made it plain they wasn’t happy to see me. They gimme some food and told me to leave and don’t come back. And to warn others not
