“It’s a dirty job, Patrice, but somebody has to do it.”
His humor was lost on her. “What is to become of me, General Raines?”
“Do you want to stay here with us, Patrice; work with us?”
“Yes,” she answered quickly.
“In what capacity?”
“Wherever you choose to put me.”
Ben hesitated, then picked up her holstered .45 from his desk, still attacked to the web belt, and tossed it to her.
She caught it, a surprised look on her face.
“You’ll act as liaison officer between Lamumba and his screwballs, and Cecil’s office. In addition, you will act as peacemaker between Hiram Rockingham and his followers, and this office.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You may have a staff of five. You will work out of Cecil’s office complex. Take this day off, rest and think about your staff.” He looked at Cecil. “Cut orders for her so she can get past the patrols and into Hiram’s territory.” He looked back at Patrice. “That’s all, captain. You may leave.”
When she had left, Cecil smiled. “You know damn well that redneck will never accept anything Patrice has to say, Ben.”
“That’s Hiram’s problem. I’m probably going to have to kill the son of a bitch anyway. But before I do, I’m going to give him and his ilk every opportunity to come around.”
“She might be able to get through to Lamumba.”
“You know better, Cec. His hate is just as strong and just as unreasonable as Hiram’s. They’ve both hated too long to ever change. But Lamumba is your baby.”
“Thanks ever so much. Can I just go shoot him now?”
Ben smiled. “Oh, by the way. I forgot to ask. Did Lamumba bring his people in for shots and physicals?”
“Yes. Reluctantly. And spouting the most absurd mouthings I have ever endured.”
Ben laughed at the expression on his friend’s face. “Worse than Hiram’s?”
“Just as bad.”
An aide stuck her head into the office. “Excuse me. General Ike just radioed in. There is a strong outpost at Bristol. About four hundred strong and growing. He reports they’ve lined up solidly behind us.”
“Great! Thank you.”
Ben rose and walked to a wall map, circling Bristol. “That makes three for sure. I think we’re really going to do it, Cec.”
Cecil rose and stood beside his friend, looking at the map. “But so much more to do.”
Both men turned at the sound of the door opening. Lamar Chase, unannounced, as usual. He poured a cup of coffee and sat down.
“We won’t know for sure until tomorrow, boys. But it looks like the Night People aren’t carrying any type of infectious bugs. Buddy’s team all got splattered pretty well. So it appears we’ve lucked out there. But!” he held up a warning finger. “I would suggest face masks at the very least. Long-sleeved shirts, secured at the wrists, and gloves. No one with any open wound should be a part of any clean-up. Any wounded Rebels should be evac’d immediately.”
“All right, Lamar. Thanks. You look glum. What else is on your mind?”
“You are aware of Emil Hite’s presence up the road, are you not?”
“Sure. But he isn’t bothering anyone.”
“That’s not the point. He and his followers of . . . nuts and bolts and goofballs need to be given physicals.”
Ben smiled. “All right, Lamar. I need a good laugh. Cec, you want to come along?”
“I can’t, Ben. I’ve got a stack of reports a foot high on my desk.”
“Dr. Allardt is through,” Chase suggested. “I’m sure she would enjoy a ride out into the country. Besides,” he added dryly, “I’m sure she’s never seen anything like Emil Hite.”
“Oh, what a peaceful little commune,” Holly sighed. “Ben, you haven’t come out here to harm these peaceful people, have you?”
“No, Holly. I’m going to let Brother Emil continue running his little scam.”
“Scam?”
“Brother Emil Hite, Holly, is a phony. We’ve been running into Brother Emil for several years now. Emil and his followers worship the Great God Blomm. . . .”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. You’ll see. There is Brother Emil now.”
“Oh, Ben! He’s harmless.”
“Sure he is. If we didn’t have people like Emil Hite, we’d have to build nut houses for all the people who flock to him.”
“That’s cruel, Ben!” But looking at Emil, she had to cover her mouth with a hand to keep from laughing.
“My dear, dear General Raines!” Emil said, running up, almost tripping over the hem of his robe. “How wonderful it is to see you.”
“Yeah, Emil. I know you’re just overjoyed at the sight of me. Relax, I’m not here to bust up your little scam.”
“Oh, thank you, Blomm!” Emil looked heavenward.
“Knock off the Blomm shit, Emil. You have any kids in this whacko encampment?”
“Kids? You mean, like babies?”
“Yes.”
“Hell, no!” He looked at Ben suspiciously. “Why do you ask that?”
“Because if you had any, you wouldn’t have them long. What adults do with their time is their business. But you won’t raise kids believing in this hogwash. You got all that?”
“Oh, yes, sir, Great Supreme Commander of Forces on Earth General Raines!”
“Emil! . . .” Ben tried to cut him off.
“I heard you were back in the area, Great Good General Raines, and I’ve composed a new song in your honor.”
“Emil! . . .”
Some of Emil’s other followers had gathered around.
“I call this my Dance of Tribute.”
“Jesus Christ!” Ben muttered.
“Him, too. Right!” Emil said. “Actually, it’s more of a dance than a song. You wouldn’t understand the words, general. They’re in Blommers.”
“They’re in what?” Holly blurted.
“The language of Blomm.”
“Oh!”
Emil started dancing in the dust. “Rockem, sockem, Go, Cat, Go. Lula boola and Lizzie Borden jumpa hoopa in the garden.” Emil then proceeded to do a combination of the Twist, the Black-Bottom, and the Bunny Hop.
When he finally wound down, the entire camp had gathered around, applauding his efforts. Holly sat with head bowed, right hand over her face.
“See, see!” Emil shouted. “It even got to her, right, general?”
“It was a sight to behold, Emil,” Ben admitted.
Emil then lifted his arms heavenward and began praying to Blomm. Ben turned him out.
When he finished, Ben said, “Thank you, Emil, I feel richly blessed.”
Emil beamed. His beam changed to panic at Ben’s next words.
“Be in town bright and early tomorrow morning. All of you. You’re going to take physicals at the hospital.”
“But, sir!” Emil protested. “We are all Blomm’s children. In the best of health. We. . . .”
Ben stepped out of the Jeep, his Thompson in his right hand.
The crowd drew back in fear.
“Emil, I’m trying to help you and yours. Either come in on your own, or I’ll send troops out here for you. The choice is yours.”
Emil drew himself up to his full height. His head came to about Ben’s chest. “I shall consult with Blomm on this matter, sir.”
“Fine. Consult all you like. Just have your ass at the hospital at seven o’clock in the morning.”
“Seven o’clock! Nobody but heathens gets up at seven o’clock!”
“I get up at five,” Ben told him.
“Well, of course, I didn’t mean to imply that you, sir, are a heathen! I mean. . . .”
“You want me to make it six o’clock in the morning, Emil?”
“Oh, nononono. Seven is perfect.” He leaned close to Ben and whispered. “General, your medical people ain’t come up with a cure for AIDS yet, have they?”
“No. The bombs came before anybo
dy came up with a cure. So it’s still around, Emil.”
“One has to be so careful, general, you know?”
“I know, Emil.” He looked at Holly, sitting in the jeep and winked. “I’ve found one way to avoid getting it, Emil. It works every time.”
“Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me!”
Ben leaned close. “Spend a month among the natives of the Stanford Community.”
“Ye Gods, general!” Emil shrieked. “I’d be a blithering idiot by that time.”
“Works every time, Emil.”
Holly sat in the Jeep and did her best to suppress her laughter.
“Well,” Emil said. “I’ll make a deal with you, general.”
“It’s your show, Emil.”
“If you’ll forget about the physicals — I detest physicals — I’ll take my followers into that . . . that barbarous hinterland.”
“You got a deal, Emil. Ah, Emil . . . you and your people do carry weapons, don’t you?”
“Bet your ass! We are a peace-loving gathering, general. In tune with nature and striving for the karma-smarma, reaching for the Om of earth, and the Ump of inter peace, we. . . .”
“Emil, knock off the shit!”
“Right, general.”
“You are aware that the inhabitants of that particular locale are not always the most hospitable?”
“They’re a bunch of redneck assholes, is what you’re trying to say.”
“I couldn’t have said it better. So pack your pieces and carry lots of ammo.”
“Gottcha, general! When is the best time to go in there? No, let me rephrase that; there is no best time. We’ll make our move this afternoon.”
“That’s fine, Emil.”
Emil stood and watched as Ben and that fine-lookin’ piece drove away. He wondered if General Raines was putting him on about their arrangement? No! he shook his head. General Raines wouldn’t do that.
“All right, followers of Blomm. Gird your loins and cock it back. We are going into the land that time forgot. General Raines has commissioned me to lead the expedition. Onward, soldiers, onward!”
Turning, Emil tripped over his robe and fell face-first into the dust.
SIX
“Ben Raines! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
“Why?” Ben said, reaching for the mic. “It’ll be an experience for both sides.” Lifting and keying the mic, he got his HQ and asked for Cecil. The operator patched him through. He told Cecil to clear the way through the Rebel patrols for Emil Hite.
They were going into Hiram’s territory.
When Cecil stopped laughing, he said, “Ben, you may have hit upon the answer. Send nuts in to deal with nuts.”
“I’d love to be there to witness it. Eagle out.”
Ben started to hang the mic and then once more keyed it. “Captain Gorzalka, this is Eagle. Did you copy that transmission between Hawk and myself?”
“Ten-four, general.” The captain was laughing.
“Make sure their weapons are all in good working order, give them plenty of ammo, and toss in several cases of grenades.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Eagle out.”
“Ben,” Holly said. “Those . . . cretins might hurt Emil or his followers.”
“Don’t you bet on that, Holly. Emil is one tough little con artist. And most of those people with him, while a little bit off the wall, are just as tough. They didn’t used to be, but over the past couple of years, they’ve learned to fight and to fight damn well.”
They rode in silence for a mile before Holly again spoke. “Ben? What’s the difference between Emil and his group and Hiram and his group?”
“Emil’s followers all know that what he’s doing is all bullshit. And they don’t hurt anybody, Holly. It may be difficult for you to accept, but there isn’t one illiterate person in Emil’s group. And if they had kids, they’d send them in to be educated. Believe it. I don’t particularly care for the little con artist, but I don’t dislike him.
“Emil doesn’t preach hate, Holly. You saw back there. People of all colors gathered around him. Emil is,” and Ben laughed, “sort of like the old hippie movement . . . in a small way. You’re too young to really remember that. But your true hippies, they weren’t bad people. There’s still a lot of them around, in the mountains, deep in the timber. They don’t bother a soul, but they will knock your dick in the dirt if you mess with them. I leave them alone, and they don’t fuck with me.”
“I thought they were all dirty, smelly, worthless people. That’s what I’ve read about them.”
“Well, some of them might have been. But your true hippie, and I stress true, simply liked the laid-back lifestyle. They worked regular jobs like anybody else. If anybody would hire them.
“Hiram, on the other hand, is filled with hate. Hiram hates everybody. A hippie can look at a deer grazing in the woods and think what a thing of beauty it is. The Hirams of the world just want to kill it. The Hirams of the world are directly responsible for so many species’ being extinct . . . not the Emils of the world.”
“But what do the Emils of the world give back to it? What do they contribute?”
“Very little. But they don’t take away from it, Holly. The people who drift into Emil’s little scam will drift out of it in a year or two; right now, they’re just looking to belong. Hiram, on the other hand, and those like him, will, for the most part, never change. They’re takers, not givers. Anyway, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens between Hiram and Emil.”
“Whut the hale is ’at air?” Donnie Jeff said, sort of, as he lay on the bayou bank, watching Emil and his flock get into boats.
“Hit looks kinda lak Jesus and them Apissles to me,” B.M. said, sort of.
“Jesus didn’t tote no M-16, B.M. And He didn’t have no fine-lookin’ wimmin wif him, I don’t believe.”
“’At air’s a plumb fact, Donnie Jeff. Ah thank we best tell Hiram ’bout this here.”
B.M. flogged his mule getting to Hiram. He found Hiram sitting on his front porch — at the home of wife #1 — cussing Ben Raines.
“Strangers, Hiram! Look lak missionaries done come to spread the word.”
“I done heard ’em, B.M. And they ain’t no missionaries. That air’s Emil Hite and his hippie-goofballs. Ah thank hit’s time to put plan C into action.”
Plan A was to take over the world; but Hiram never could figure out just how to do that, so plan A was dropped. Plan B was to secede from the Union and restart the Civil War. But since there was no more Union, and Hiram never could get anybody all that worked up over it, plan B was also dropped.
Plan C was to take prisoners and force them to work the fields; but that plan also had its flaws. Since anyone with the intelligence quotient of an aardvark never went anywhere near the Stanford Community, plan C had had to be put on hold.
Until now.
“’At air a rat good idee, Hiram!” B.M. shouted.
“Shore hit is. I thunk of hit, didn’t I? Let’s us let them queers and hippies git settled in and then we’ll make our move. Tell G.B. to make us a cross. We’ll have a meetin’ tonight and bus’ them hard at first light.”
“Can we have us’uns a big cross, Hiram? Huh, huh?”
“Yeah. Jist don’t build nothin’ lak ’at one Johnny Edgar built. Damn thang fell over and almost squashed me. Caught my sheet on far. Flog your mule, B.M.”
“Raines, you are incorrigible!” Lamar said, wiping his eyes exploding with laughter when Ben had told him about Emil Hite.
The shadows were gathering in dusty pockets around the new Base Camp One as darkness slipped in.
Ben moved restlessly in his chair. Lamar, Dan, and Cecil watched him.
Chase finally said, “You’re getting itchy, aren’t you, Ben?”
Ben smiled. “Is it that obvious, Lamar?”
“To those who know you, yes. Just settle down, you old war horse. Be content for a few more weeks.”
“Yes, general,” D
an spoke. “Ike and his teams will be near New York City — if it’s still there — in about a week. Then you can start making plans to go up there.”
Ben laughed. “How do you know I want to go, Dan?”
“We all want to go, general.”
“It’s probably going to take all of us, too.” Ben spoke softly. “And, to tell the truth, in quiet moments I’ve been thinking about whether it’s worth the effort.”
“It’s worth it, Ben.” Cecil sipped his drink. “If only to wipe out those damnable Night People.” He glanced at his watch and stood up. “It’s about time for Ike to call in. Think I’ll wander over to the como building.”
Nobody volunteered to accompany him; all knew he wanted to see Patrice. He closed the door behind him.
Lamar and Dan left, leaving Ben alone. Ben finished his drink and turned out the generator-powered lights, saying goodnight to those of his staff who still remained.
Standing on the concrete parking lot, Ben felt sweat trickle down his chest. The late-summer Louisiana night was hot and muggy. Ben remembered these hot nights well.
He looked up and down the almost empty street. This will be the centerpiece of the outposts, he thought, his mind racing ahead. With shops and farms and schools and a fine medical center. The showpiece for others to be modeled after.
And racial harmony.
One way or the other.
“We were being paced on highway Eleven all the way up from Bristol,” Tina radioed to Ike.
“Ten-four. I spotted them. What’s your opinion of them?”
“They’re pretty good, Ike. They’re well disciplined and well trained. If that’s a warlord bunch, they’ve had good training.”
“That’s what I think. I’m sending a platoon up to your location; beef you up. Whoever they are, they may try to hit you tonight. Stand ready.”
“Ten-four, Ike. I figure there are at least a couple hundred of them. I’m the smaller force, so if they’re hostile, they’ll probably try me first.”
“Watch your butt, kid.”
Tina laughed. “Will do.”
After talking with Ike, Cecil and Patrice sat in his office and talked.
“Bring me up to date, captain,” Cecil said formally.
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