“Dr. Chase’s lab and factory . . . soon to be. He might already have it running.”
“For the manufacture of medicines?”
“Precisely.”
“And that building ’way over there in the field?”
“Munitions. That’s why it’s set so far away from the other buildings.”
“You ready to head back?”
“To my office.”
“No, general. To the hospital. I want to change the dressing on your leg.”
“All right. What are you doing for dinner this evening, Holly?”
“Why . . . nothing.”
“Would you like to have dinner with me?”
“Is that wise?”
“What’s unwise about it? You’re not a member of the Rebel Army.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.”
“I know.”
She refused to look at him. “Where will this dinner take place?”
“My quarters, I guess. Wherever you would like.”
She hesitated for a few seconds. “All right. I’ll meet you there.” She glanced at him. “Where are your quarters?”
He told her. By that time, they had reached the hospital complex and she had pulled in and gotten out. “I’ll see you about seven, Ben.”
“Fine.” She turned away. “Holly?” She turned around. Ben was smiling at her.
“What’s so funny, Ben?”
He patted the leather boot holding his Thompson SMG.
She muttered something about barbarism and walked into the ground floor of the hospital. But she had to smile as Ben’s laughter reached her.
Cecil looked up from his desk. “Should you be up, Ben?”
“I’m not doing much walking. What’s the status on Patrice?”
Ben sat down.
Cecil poured them both coffee and sat back down. His offices were on the opposite end of town from Ben’s HQ. That lessened the chances of both of them being killed in case of attack.
“She says that she came over with the terrorist and was sent to infiltrate our army. To get as close to the leaders as possible. But she claims that she has had no contact in any way with Khamsin since she joined in North Carolina.”
“Do you believe her?”
“She passed both a polygraph and a PSE test.”
“Drugs?”
“Not yet. What do you think?”
Ben sighed heavily. “I hate to subject a person to drugs. It’s a tough go. But if we’re going to get to the truth . . . yes, Cec. Go ahead.”
He nodded. “I’ll contact Lamar. Have him set it up.”
“The bridges blown?”
Cecil smiled. “Yes. Only one incident.”
“Anybody killed?”
“No. Just a slight loss of dignity is the most anyone suffered.”
“Dignity? Hell, those people can’t even spell the word.” He stood up. “Hold it down, Cec. I’ll be at my quarters.”
Ben paused at the door. “Any further word from the eastbound teams?”
“Not yet.”
“Buddy?”
“Monroe is clean. They’re burning the last of the bodies.”
“Have him come back here and resupply before he pushes on.”
“Will do, Ben.”
Tina and her team had spent most of that day clearing the blockades from around Knoxville. Ham finally straightened up, easing his back, and said, “I don’t understand these barricades, Tina. If these people thrive on human flesh, and we know that’s true, why barricades? It seems to me they’d want to lure people into the cities, rather than keep them out.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, Ham. Remember what we found in Atlanta?”
He nodded.
“I think these Night People go out on forays and bring prisoners back, keep them locked down until they’re . . . well, ready for them. If you know what I mean.”
Ham knew. “General Raines will never permit that, Tina. And I think he should know for sure.”
“Yes. And I’ve been thinking about that, too. I think I’ll contact Ike. Give the people a break, Ham.”
She walked to her jeep and got Ike on the horn, sharing Ham’s and her theory with him.
She could practically hear Ike sigh over the miles. “You’re right, Tina. I think Ben should be informed of your theory. Hold what you’ve got. I’ll link up with you tomorrow. We’ll go into the city and check this out. I’ll notify Ben and tell him what we’re doing.”
“Ten-four, Ike.”
Ike couldn’t get Ben, but he got Cecil and brought him up to date.
“What’d you think about it, Cec?”
“If there are people being held prisoner, Ike, we’ve got to free them. Or at least try. Go ahead, I’ll square it with Ben.”
“Ten-four, Cec. I’ll call in just before we enter the city. That will probably be around noon tomorrow. Shark out.”
He radioed to Tina. “It’s a go, Tina. Pull back off the loop and wait for us west of the city.”
“Ten-four, Ike. Oh, Ike . . . watch out for the Sisters of Zenana.”
“The who?”
“They kidnap males for breeding purposes.”
“What happens after that?”
“They kill the men.”
“Sound like nice people. Where’d you run into them?”
She gave him the twenty of the Sisters of Zenana.
“I will do my best to avoid that spot. Shark out.”
“Pull them back, Ham!” Tina shouted. “We’ll enter the city tomorrow.”
“Dr. Chase has assigned a team to question this Patrice Dubois person,” Holly told Ben. “I asked if I could be a part. He very flatly said no to that.”
“And that offended you?” Ben handed her a drink.
“Thanks. As a matter of fact, it did.”
“Why should it? You said it yourself: You are not a part of the Rebel Army.”
She took a sip of her drink and coughed. “Good God! What is this stuff?”
“Homemade vodka. Would you prefer homemade gin or homemade whiskey?”
“One is probably as bad as the other.”
“True.”
“What happens during this questioning?”
“A team of doctors put the subject into drug-induced hypnosis. It’s repeated several times over a period of several days, gradually breaking down the person’s mental guards, to use laymen’s terms. It’s effective.”
“And dangerous.”
“Not according to Chase. The subject is very carefully monitored. Whether you choose to believe it or not, Holly, we’re not here to harm anyone who will just give us a chance.”
She gave him a very dubious look. Almost painful. Of course, that might have been caused by the homemade hooch.
“You have yet to convince me of that, Ben.”
“Holly . . .” Ben sat down in a chair opposite her. “Civilization, order, productivity, are based on rules. Laws, if you will. And laws are based on, steeped in, among other things, fear. And respect for a fellow human being.”
“I will agree in part. But you’re a fine one to be talking about respect. What respect have you shown this Rockingham person and his followers?”
“The same amount he’s shown me.”
She thought about that and slowly nodded her head in agreement . . . Ben hoped.
“But you force people to work.”
“Oh, no, Holly. That’s wrong. If people wish to share what the Rebels can offer them: medical help, schools, protection, any type of help that we can offer, then yes, we ask that they work . . . at whatever they are qualified to do. If they’re not qualified to do anything, we’ll train them. But if they choose not to work with us, that is their option, but they will receive nothing from us. Nothing.”
She drained her glass and held it out for a refill. Ben obliged. “You’re not going to lecture me on the potential of this stuff, Ben?”
“You’re an adult, Holly. I’m not your keeper.”
&
nbsp; “Another Rebel philosophy?”
“A truism.”
“Perhaps. When are we going to eat and what are we having?”
“Steaks, baked potato, and a salad. Is that all right with you?”
“Sounds good.” Her words were already becoming a bit slurry.
Ben made a silent bet she’d be passed out in thirty minutes, and he hadn’t even put the steaks on the grill.
Holly was already knocking back another half full glass of the home-brew. He smiled and adjusted the wick on a lamp, darkening the room. If Holly paid any attention to it, she didn’t let on.
Ben got a blanket from a hall closet. When Holly passed out, she was going to just keel over right there on the couch. Might as well get ready for it.
“How do you like your steak, Holly?”
“Well dome . . . done.”
“Right.” He got the steaks out of the generator-powered fridge and held them for a moment. No point in wasting one. He started to put one back and thought, Oh, what the hell.
Then he heard a soft, thudding sound in the living room. He put her steak back and looked in on the doctor. She was asleep on the couch. She’d had about seven ounces of home-brew, on probably an empty stomach.
Ben straightened her out and covered her with a thin blanket. Then he went outside to cook his steak.
One thing for sure, and Ben knew from experience: Holly would have one hell of a hangover in the morning.
“Men catch us meetin’, and we gonna be in big trouble, Jenny Sue.”
“For what? It ain’t agin no law for wimmin to git together and gossip.”
“But that ain’t why we’re here and you know it.”
“Did any of you like what we all seen the other night?”
None did.
“So what are we gonna do about it?”
No one said anything.
“Will somebody tell me what the hell The Code is?” Jenny Sue asked.
Nobody really knew. But Laura Jane said, “I think it means you ain’t ’pposed to talk agin your neighbor.”
“But what if your neighbor is wrong?”
“Daddy says that ain’t for us to judge,” Billie Jo spoke up.
“Well . . . who judges, then?”
Nobody knew.
“Well, I know one thing: I want my kids back,” Jenny Sue stated. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to git ’em back.” And then she spoke the damning words. “And I want to git away from this place.”
“Jenny Sue! You hush ’at kinda talk.” The young woman looked around, fear in her eyes.
“Now this is pitiful!” Jenny’s words were hard-spoken. “We’re grown wimmin. All of us twenty or near there. And we have to sneak out into the bushes to talk. Girls, I thought the whole world lived lak we’uns; till I seen them Rebels other day. I bet ever’one of ’em can read and write and figure. I can’t. Can any of you?”
No one could.
“And why cain’t we read and write and figure?”
“’Cause we ain’t never been to school, Jenny Sue! You know that.”
“Why ain’t we?” Jenny pushed.
“Wal, hell, they ain’t no schools, fool!”
“And why is that?”
“Whut you tryin’ to get us to say, Jenny?” Misty asked.
“Why is we bein’ held back from learnin’?”
“Them’s blasphemous words, Jenny,” she was cautioned. “You steppin’ mighty clost to the line, girl.”
“I’m fixin’ to step over it, Carol Ann.”
“Whut you mean?”
“I’m leavin’. I’m gonna go into town and be with my kids and git me some learnin’.”
“Hit’ll go turrible hard when Frank catches up with you, girl.”
“No, it won’t. ’Cause I’ll be with the Rebels, and they ain’t gonna let nothin’ happen to me. And the same goes for the rest of you, too.”
“Donnie ain’t let me go to town in near ’bouts a year,” Carol Ann said wistfully. “I never could figure out what he was so fearful of.”
“Learnin’.” Jenny put her finger on the mark. “He’s stupid, jist lak Frank is stupid. Jist lak we’re stupid for puttin’ up with it.”
Misty took a look around her and said, “Ah thank Hiram’s done gone around the bend. Nobody in his right mind would do what he done to his own flesh and blood. And I heared that Billy Bob was dead!”
“That don’t surprise me,” Jenny said. “Nobody could’ve lived through all that. I’m tarred of bein’ ignorant. I’m tarred of workin’ from can to cain’t and don’t have nothin’ to show for it except a lazy-assed old man who don’t want to do nothin’ ’cept hunt and fish. He ain’t even tried to put in no crop in two years. Won’t work the garden. Won’t help around the shack. I’m jist tarred of it!”
“Ah bet we could get fifteen-twenty others to go wif us,” Laura June said. “I’m game! Let’s git as many as we can, and meet back here,” she looked up, “when the moon is there! Let’s git gone, girls!”
Ben grilled his steak and baked his potato on the grill, then ate his dinner. He had ceased his looking in on Holly. She was out as surely as the lights were out around the world.
He cleaned up the small mess, turned out the lanterns, and went to bed.
Holly was in for a rougher time than she thought. For it would not go unnoticed that she had spent the night with Ben . . . or at least in his quarters.
Tomorrow, Ben mused, promised to be an interesting day.
Just how interesting, he really couldn’t realize. Yet.
FOUR
The banging on the door brought Hiram straight up in bed. “Alrat, alrat!” he yelled. “I’m a-comin’!”
He jerked open the door and faced a whole passel of armed and angry-faced men.
“Whut the hale-far is goin’ on?”
“Our wimmin done took off, Hiram!” Jakey yelled. “Laura June’s done packed her kit and git!”
“Gone? Where’d they go?”
“Hale, Hiram, we don’t know!” B.M. hollered. No one really knew what B.M. stood for . . . but most could guess what it should stand for.
“You better check your own house, Hiram,” Wilbur told him.
“Precious!” Hiram hollered. “Oh, Precious Thrill! You bes’ answer me, gal.”
But Precious had done taken her thrill and hauled ass. The girl had been living in absolute terror since witnessing her father beat and tar his son.
“Whut time is it?”
“Near ’bout one in the mornin’, I reckon,” Donnie Jeff said. “I figure they been gone three hours. I figure they waited till we was asleep and then tooken off.”
“But where the hell did they go?” The question was shouted.
“Ben Raines.” Hiram spoke softly. “Bet on it.”
“Let’s git the dogs and take out after ’em!”
“If they been gone three hours, boys, we’ll never catch ’em now. They on the other side of the bayou and linked up with a Rebel patrol. Bet on that.”
“Whut is we gonna do, Hiram?” The question was whined out. “Hit ain’t rat to take no man’s woman.”
“Nobody took ’em. They lef on they own.”
“I say we fight!” a man screamed.
“Fight?” Hiram’s eyes found the man. “Wif what?” The words were bitter on his tongue. “Deer rifles and shotguns agin tanks and machine guns? Planes lak done come in here and des-stroyed a whole ten acres in ten seconds?”
“Then what is we gonna do?”
“Go see Ben Raines.” Hiram’s words were spoken wearily.
It was an hour before dawn as the men from the Stanford Community put their boats into the waters of the bayou. When they reached the other side, they found themselves looking down the barrels of automatic weapons, in the hands of grim-faced, tiger-striped Rebels.
“Get your asses back across the bayou,” a man with captain’s bars ordered.
“We come to fetch our wimmin back home,” Hiram informed him.
“Your ‘wimmin’ don’t want to be ‘fetched’ back home. We took them into Base Camp One about midnight. Get back across the bayou.”
“Hit’s ’pposed to be a free country!” Hiram squalled.
“Yeah. If Ben Raines says it is. You told the general you wanted to be left alone. We’re giving you that chance.”
“Who’s a-gonna cook and clean?” B.M. yelled. “I ain’t got no clean drawers to put on.”
The Rebels exchanged amused glances. “Well, partner,” the captain said. “In about three weeks, we might let you see your women. I think you’re gonna be surprised.”
“Whut you mean?”
“They’ll start five hours of classroom work daily, and five hours of Rebel training and indoctrination. The changes in them will not be subtle.”
“Whut the hale did he said . . . subble? Whut’s ’at mean?”
“Ah thank they gonna be made into doctors.”
“In three weeks! Lard, Lard!”
The Rebels started laughing. “Why don’t we just shoot them, captain?” a sergeant suggested. “Put them out of their misery.”
“That’s a damn good idea, sergeant.”
“Now jist hold ever’thang!” Donnie Jeff hollered. “Cain’t we jist talk this over some?”
“If you’re not across the bayou in one minute, we start shooting.”
The men returned to the other side much more quickly than they had originally crossed.
“Why is the general putting up with this crap, captain? Why doesn’t he just let us run them off?”
“I think these people are a personal challenge to the general.”
Another Rebel laughed. “I want to be there in about a month when those ’necks try to take their wives back home. If two or three ’necks don’t get butt-stroked or shot, it’ll sure surprise me.”
“I doubt if those guys will even recognize their wives in a month. I’ve seen it happen. In a month’s time, those ladies won’t be talking the same or looking the same. Let’s get some breakfast.”
“How about some breakfast?” Ben asked Holly.
“Ooohh!” was her reply.
“Bacon and eggs sound all right to you?”
A gagging sound came from the darkened room.
“Well, I’ll just start cooking. You might change your mind.” He walked into the kitchen, chuckling.
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