Anarchy in the Ashes (20 page)

Juan slapped the man, the force of his open-handed blow rocking the man's head back, bringing blood to his lips.

Juan jerked up a rifle, firing at the mercenaries, the IPF, the young and the old. A few more defenders joined him. But most did not. They could not.

The forces, under the command of Colonel Fechnor, drew closer.

Juan's men began backing off the small ridge, bucking under the awfulness of what lay before them, growing nearer with the screams and cries of the young and the old.

“You have no place to back up
to
!” Juan shouted at his men.

Over the rumble of the APCs and Jeeps, the sounds of the children's weeping drifted to the men on the hill. About a third of Juan's first line of defense stayed by his side, fighting at his orders. The others drifted back, not out of cowardice, but because they loved life so much they could not bear to fire on the very young and the very old.

“Cobardes!”
Juan screamed at the backs of his men.
“Chacals!”
But he knew those men were not cowards or jackals. They simply could not bring themselves to fire on helpless old people and babies.

“Fall back to the river!” Juan yelled to those men who elected to remain by his side. Far in the distance he could see trucks rolling toward the bridge at Blair. He turned to his radio operator. “Order them to stop,” he told the woman.

She shook her head. “I have them now, sir. They say they are not defeated or running away. They say they will defend our homelands, but they will not kill women and babies and old people.”

Alvaro, Juan's brother, hurried to his side. “Juan, we have about one minute before we meet eternity.”

The screaming and the crying of the children lashed to the front of the APCs was now very clear. The old people were stumbling, almost down from exhaustion. They were being prodded forward by rifle barrels.

The taste of the defeat was ugly on Juan's tongue. He gave the order he knew must he must give to save at least some of his forces. “Fall back!” he shouted.

As Juan rode in the Jeep, crossing the bridge over the Missouri River, he muttered, “God help Ben Raines.”

Ben listened grimly to the reports from the Rebel's LRRPs. He stood in his command bunker and cursed. When he ran out of obscenities, he looked at the woman manning the radio.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized.

She grinned. “I haven't heard such cussing since the time my daddy caught me in a hayloft with a kid from down the road.”

Ben felt some of the anger leave him and he grinned at her. “I bet that was quite a moment.”

Her grin widened. “It was worth it.”

Ben laughed. “OK. Get on the horn and tell Colonel McGowen to cut and run. Head south. Instruct Colonel Ramos to break through his south lines and do the same. Order all forward units to hunt holes and get in them and keep their heads down until they receive orders from me to resume guerrilla activities. No last-ditch stands for any unit. No heroics out of anybody. Pull back. We'll regroup along Highway 60 in southern Missouri, from Springfield to Poplar Bluff. Pull back with all speed.”

“We're retreating, sir?”

“No,” Ben told her. “We are executing what the marines used to call a strategic withdrawal. Get to it, Sergeant.”

“This isn't as much fun as the hayloft,” she said.

Chase walked into the battle-scarred bunker. “I've got badly wounded people, Ben. To move them at this time would be endangering their lives.”

“Move them,” Ben said. “It can't be avoided, Lamar. We don't have a choice.”

The doctor looked at the man for a long moment. Then he nodded his head. “All right, Ben. I'll start pulling them out now.” He turned to leave.

“Lamar?”

The doctor turned around.

“I'm sorry, Lamar.”

“I know, Ben. I'm sorry, too.”

 

 

Gen. Georgi Striganov was furious. The deaths of the old people, the young women and the children did not bother him as much as what it had done to his self-image. The Russian perceived himself as a fair and just person. History might well paint him as an evil person for condoning something like this. That bothered him more than anything.

“I gave no orders to do anything this monstrous!” Striganov raged at Sam Hartline and Colonel Fechnor. “Killing old people and little children.”

“Only a few old niggers died,” Hartline said. “One nigger woman took a round in the guts and one got her brain cooked when her hair caught fire. There were a few greasers killed over in Iowa. No big deal. Anyway, if you have to yell at somebody, yell at me,” Hartline told him. The deaths of the young and old bothered him about as much as swatting a fly “Colonel Fechnor was assigned to my command and he was only obeying orders like any good soldier.”

Col. Valeska Fechnor breathed a silent sigh of relief. He would have to think of some way to repay Hartline for getting him off tenterhooks. This could have turned into a very ugly scene.

General Striganov calmed himself slowly by taking deep breaths and clenching and unclenching his fists. He turned away and gazed out the front of the open tent. He would have to tell his historians that it was the mercenary who ordered the old and the young used in such a horrible manner; let future generations know that he, personally, had nothing to do with anything so monstrous.

“Anyway,” Hartline said with a smile, “we won, didn't we? Raines is pulling his people back, turning tail and running. So the victory is ours.”

“Ben Raines is most definitely
not
turning tail and running,” the Russian told the mercenary. “He is merely executing a perfectly logical military option. I would do the same if the situation was reversed. One battle does not win the war. And do
not
attempt to do with Ben Raines what you succeeded in doing with the inferior minorities. General Raines would not hesitate to shoot. He would not like it, he might weep while giving the order, but he would shoot. Don't ever think otherwise.”

“Yeah,” Hartline agreed. “You're right about that, I guess.”

Striganov withered him silent with a cold look. “I am almost
always
correct, Sam. And never again do anything of today's magnitude without first consulting me. Is that clear?”

“Clear as rain,” the mercenary said, the scolding bouncing off him. Hartline had a hide of iron.

“Yes, sir,” Fechnor said crisply.

“Very well,” Striganov said. “The matter is closed. We shall count our dead, give them a proper soldiers' burial, then map out strategy for the upcoming campaign against General Raines. And it will not be an easy one. Do not – either of you – delude yourselves into believing otherwise. Unless we are lucky enough to kill Ben Raines –
in combat
– his people will fight forever, constantly a thorn in our sides.”

“Have some of your people down in Tri-States ambush him,” Hartline suggested.

“No,” Striganov said. “I will not stoop to Raines's level of fighting. Not yet, at least. Besides, you can bet Raines will ferret those people out when he gets back. If he gets back. I was arrogantly wrong when I admitted to him I was aware of his Jewess bed-partner. My mistake. I shall be big enough to admit it. All right, now then, how great were the losses of the black people?”

“Fifty to sixty percent,” Hartline told him. “Maybe seven to eight hundred got away. Certainly no more than that.”

“Their leaders?”

“Al Maiden is dead. Mark Terry got away. Took Peggy with him and cut out.”

“Peggy?” Striganov questioned. “Who is Peggy?”

“No one of any importance.” Hartline waved the question aside.

“The Mexicans?” The Russian glanced at Colonel Fechnor.

“They fared a bit better. My men have counted some five hundred dead. We took less than two hundred prisoners. The rest ran away like cowards.”

“Pursuit?”

“None. My men stopped at the Missouri River. As you ordered.”

“Good. Very good, Colonel. I commend you.” He walked to the tent opening. “Now, gentlemen, let us honor our gallant dead.”

 

 

Ike was furious when he met with Ben. Ben let the ex-SEAL blow his tanks until he wound down. Ben then waved his friend to a seat.

“I was plenty pissed too, Ike. But then I got the whole picture from a survivor out of Malden's command.” He told Ike what the IPF and Hartline's mercs had done.

Ike sat in horrified silence for a few seconds. “Ben... that's the worst goddamned thing I ever heard of. Jesus Christ! Kids and old people.” He shuddered his revulsion. “I will admit my guys pulled some pretty raunchy shit in 'Nam, but nothing like that.”

“It's low, buddy, I'll sure go along with that. Well, it's done, and nothing we can do about it. Let's get down to hard facts, buddy: How many people did you lose?”

“Too goddamn many. I lost just about twenty-five percent. Another ten percent wounded so badly they're out of action for weeks – maybe months. Equipment fared a lot better. We got ninety-five percent of our howitzers and armor out.”

“Thirty-five percent of your command, then?” Ben questioned, a deep and very personal sense of loss touching him. He knew every man and woman in every unit.

“At least.”

“Don't feel too badly, Ike. My figures are just about the same as yours. Cecil's bunch took one hell of a pounding, too. He lost almost forty percent. And I hate to see Hector's losses when he comes in.”

“I know he took a beating. When Hec's left flank caved in – wrong choice of words – was overrun – he lost an entire company right there. Last radio contact I had with him, he told me he took some heavy losses. Striganov really threw some people at him. Hec told me he was outnumbered four, five to one.”

“I've sent out scrambled messages for any survivor to the east to come across at Cairo. That's why I asked you to leave people there. I got a hunch they'll be in pretty bad shape. Chase is sending medical teams over there to assist.”

“You heard Malden's dead?”

“No. I hate that. We were beginning to be friends. Mark Terry?”

“I just heard he was wounded, but managed to get out. He rescued one young woman from the front of an APC.”

“They'll be drifting in pretty soon, I imagine. I hope so. We're going to need all the warm, breathing bodies we can muster.”

“Plans?”

Ben shook his head. “I don't know what we're going to do, Ike. I want a fully attended meeting of the minds as soon as everybody gets in.”

“I wonder if the Russian knows how really weak we are?”

“I doubt it. And he must not find out. If he threw everything he had at us right now, he'd hammer us into the ground.”

 

 

It was a downhearted and beaten group of men and women that straggled southward toward Cairo, Illinois. Although they did not speak of the horror, the picture of the naked women lashed to the front of the APCs and the old people stumbling along, frightened and humiliated, was a mental scene none could erase from their minds.

And for many, the thought nagged at them: Was I acting cowardly by refusing to shoot?

It was a question that many would never resolve to any degree of satisfaction.

Mark and Peggy encountered the first group of troops from New Africa at Du Quion, Illinois. Mark, his resentment toward them still a hot fire within him, at first would not acknowledge their presence. He drove past them without speaking, waving or even looking directly at them. Outside of the deserted town, he pulled over, conscious of Peggy's unwavering stare on his face.

He parked on the shoulder, sighed and then cut off the engine. He turned to face her. “What is it you want me to do, Peggy?”

“I want you to go back and rally your people. The fight isn't over, Mark. The fight can't ever be over until the Russian and Hartline are both dead and the dream of . . . of the master race is dead with them.”

“Those people back there are cowards,” Mark said, jerking his thumb in the direction from which they had just come.

“Oh, Mark, they aren't any more a coward than you are. And in your heart you know that's true. They're confused and troubled and I'm sure they feel they let you down.”

“Let me down? Hell, they did let me down! And not just me. They let Ben Raines down. And there is something else, Peggy. I keep replaying that awful scene in my mind, over and over. And I keep asking myself this: If those people lashed to the front of those APCs, thoses people being herded in front of the troops, if those people had been white instead of black, would my troops have stood their ground and fired?”

“Oh, Mark! How could you even think such a thing? That's – ”

“No, Peggy, let me finish. This is something – what I'm about to say – I argued and debated with Al many times. And I think, I believe, the events of the day before yesterday prove me right. There is still a lot of hate among the races in this country; and it is not one-sided as Al used to preach. I'm sorry he was killed; he was coming around, getting his head on straight. The nation, if there is to be a nation, cannot exist the way we were going. I mean, Hispanics in one part of the country, blacks in another, whites in yet another. Damn it, Peggy, that isn't democracy. Our young people aren't – weren't – getting an accurate picture of life. I'm not African – I'm an
American.
I don't speak Swahili – I speak English. Al could never understand, I could never make him see, that I didn't give two hoots in hell about the internal politics of Uganda. I was too concerned about what was happening in
this
nation. I don't want to wear tribal robes and stick a bone in my nose. Jesus Christ. That was part of the problem with many whites refusing to accept blacks.

“Look at Cecil Jefferys; he's never had any problem in his entire life being accepted – anywhere. And do you know why? I'll tell you why: He dressed well; he spoke proper English and insisted his kids do the same. He didn't try to excuse bad grammar by saying it was part of the black culture. He knew, just as I know, that is pure bullshit. Bad grammar is bad grammar. Period. I cannot for the life of me conjure up any image of Vice President Jefferys doing any shuckin' and jivin'.”

Peggy laughed aloud at the expression on Mark's face.

“You mean Mr. Jefferys calls a spade a spade?” she said with a grin.

“I'll have to remember that one,” Mark said, returning her smile. “Cecil will get a kick out of that. Yes, that's true, Peggy. He calls a spade a spade. Cecil, as does Ben Raines, knows there are classes of people: just as there are bigoted, ignorant rednecks in the white race, there are ignorant, bigoted niggers in the black race.” He smiled at her. “Sorry, Peggy – I didn't mean to preach at you.”

“No, it's all right. I like what you've said. Go on.”

“All right, I'll lay it all out for you. I'm linking up with Ben Raines. I think that's what we have to do if any of us are going to make out of this situation. Those people back there – ” he jerked his thumb – “if they want to live under those rules, those conditions, those ideas that Ben and Ike and Cecil put forward – then fine, that's what we'll do. I'll put what happened on the ridges out of my mind, forgive, if not forget, and we'll join Ben Raines and try to beat this IPF thing. Those that want to go on back to New Africa and stick a goddamn bone in their noses . . . well, to hell with them.”

Her dark, serious eyes never left his face. “You must think Ben Raines hung the moon and the stars in the heavens, Mark.”

He shook his head. “No, I don't think that at all, Peggy. Ben Raines is just a man, with faults like all the rest of us. And I don't agree with all he says. As a matter of fact, I hated him at first. Until I began to wise up to what he was saying: no free rides. And then he began to make sense to me. His Tri-States worked, Peggy. It really worked. All races lived there, honey.
All races.
And Ben Raines did it. He made it work.”