Blood in the Ashes ta-4

by William W. Johnstone

  “The message is scrambled, Nina,” Ike told her.

  She cocked her head and looked at him, confusion in her eyes.

  “Both Colonel Gray’s and Ben’s words, while they are going through the air, are unintelligible until they come out of the speaker. There is a little-was he paused, choosing his words carefully-“box inside

  the transmitter that puts the words all in the right order and then, a split second later, spits them out so the person on the receiving end can understand them.”

  Nina’s mouth formed an O. “Like magic?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  Ike’s eyes held a touch of sadness. He thought: She is so very much like a child. “Kinda like that, Nina. But it’s … well, I will explain it to you, I promise.”

  “OK,” she said brightly. “But you sure have got a lot of expla*’ to do, Ike.”

  Ben looked at Ike and he smiled. Turning to Nina, he said, “Feel free to ask any questions you like, Nina. For that is the only way anybody ever learns anything.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, standing very close to Ike, for she was still very much afraid of Ben.

  Gale, sensing the young woman was fearful of Ben, put an arm around her shoulder. “He doesn’t bite, Nina. But he sure can snore.”

  Nina looked horrified.

  “I do not snore!” Ben said.

  “Like an elephant trumpeting,” Gale countered.

  “There are people in this world who would kill you for saying things like that, Miss Roth,” Nina told her.

  That stopped Gale for a few seconds. She blinked and said, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am. There are places of worship all over the nation, built to honor General Raines.”

  Ben smiled. “Now, then, woman. Show a bit more respect for me, will you?”

  She looked at him. “I wonder if those people ever

  read any of those cheap sex books of yours?”

  “I did not write sex books! Well …” Ben was thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe one or two.”

  “Uh-huh,” Gale said dryly. “And the truth shall set ye free.”

  “You wrote books, too?” Nina blurted. “I love to read books. But I have a lot of trouble with real big words.”

  “We’ll take care of that, Nina,” Ben assured her. “We’ll have schools operating in just a few weeks where you can learn all sorts of things.”

  Ike and Nina walked away, holding hands. Gale watched them and said, “I think Ike is in love, Ben.”

  “That and a guilty conscience, Gale. Sally’s death hit him a lot harder than he let on. He told me several months ago that it wasn’t working between them, but he didn’t know what to do about it.”

  “I still say he’s in love.”

  “Or in heat.”

  “Raines …” She looked up at him. “I give up.” She walked off, Ben’s voice halting her. She turned around. “Raines, what do you want?”

  “I said you’re going in the wrong direction,” Ben called with a smile. “The food truck is that way.” He pointed, then smiled at the gesture she flipped him.

  “The one universal sign that will never die,” Ben said with a laugh.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  The guard, Lennie, unlocked the door to the girls’ bedrooms and stood for a moment, looking at them, an evil grin on his unshaven face. “Well, babies, I got news. Yes, indeed, this is gonna be a real kick. Tony just linked up with Sam Hartline, and I hear Hartline’s got him a dick like a horse. And he likes his chickie-babies young and tender. I sure would like to be around when he tries to get that salami of his’n up one of you babies’ pussy.”

  Lilli began crying.

  “Shut up, Lilli,” Ann told the young girl. “That won’t help none.” She looked at Lennie. He was the one who had made her perform oral sex on him the other night. “Fuck you!” Ann told the man.

  Lennie laughed. “That’s the spirit, kid. Hey, what’s the matter, anyways? I thought you liked lickin’ my pole the other night?”

  Ann stuck out her tongue at him and hissed her revulsion.

  Lennie grinned. “I’m gonna be sure to suggest you to Sam Hartline, baby. Then I can listen to you scream.”

  Ann spat at him.

  Lennie laughed and closed the door, locking it

  from the outside. His footsteps faded down the balcony floor.

  “Please don’t let “em hurt me no more, Ann,” Lilli begged, tears running down her cheeks. “I can’t stand no more. One of them the other night tried to get his thing up my behind. I thought I was gonna die it hurt so bad.”

  Ann sighed, wondering how all of a sudden she had been elected leader of the young group. Both Peg and Lilli looked to her for advice and leadership. It was a job she did not want.

  “Look, kid,” she said to Lilli. “This is get tough or die time, now. I mean it. You heard what Lennie said about this guy Hartlink, or whatever the hell his name is. He likes his girls young. And the bastard probably likes to hurt women, too. The more the women fight him, the more he likes it, ‘cause that means he can hurt them that much more.” Unknowingly, the young girl had pegged Hartline as accurately as anyone ever had. “You follow all that, Lilli?”

  Lilli nodded her head glumly. But still the tears fell.

  Ann said, “Now I still ain’t got no plans for gettin” us out of here, but I’m thinkin’ hard on it. But I got to have both of you helpin’ me. I can’t do it by myself.”

  “You got something on your mind, though,” Peg said.

  “Yeah, for a fact. Listen. Lennie likes you, Peg. So I want you to try to get him in that bedroom in yonder and give him some.”

  “No!” Peg hissed.

  Ann slapped her, the force of the blow leaving finger-marks on the girl’s face. “Listen to me, damn

  you. I got to get that knife outta his pants pocket. And I can’t get to it with him in them britches. So that means his pants has got to come off. You follow me?”

  “y-yes,” the girl stuttered.

  “Look, Peg,” Ann softened her words. “I ain’t sayin’ you gotta like it when he puts it in, but you gotta do it. And all of it’s gotta be done before Tony gets back. I’m the one’s gonna get picked by Hartline, girls; I’m the one’s gonna get hurt no tellin’ how bad outta this deal. You heard what Lennie said. So’s the least you two can do is help me out just a little bit. OK?”

  Peg and Lilli nodded their agreement.

  “OK,” Ann said. “Now then. All of us get naked. Then you, Peg, go tap on that door and get Lennie’s attention.” She turned to Lilli. “You go wash your face and get them tears outta your eyes. “Cause if this don’t work, girls, I don’t know what in the hell we’re gonna do. Ya’ll heard them guys talkin” the other night. Pussy’s gettin’ old. They gonna roll us over next; and you all know what that means, don’t you?”

  The fear of being sodomized wiped out all other fears. The girls moved quickly. They washed their face and combed their hair and stripped. Peg tapped softly on the motel room door.

  “Lennie?” she called. “You still out there, Lennie?”

  A moment’s silence, then footsteps moving closer to the locked door. “Yeah, pretty, I’m here. What’d you want?”

  “I… we’ve got a surprise for you, Lennie. Come on, open the door.”

  Another pause. The silence deepened. “What kind of surprise you talkin’ about?” There was open suspicion in his voice.

  Ann thought very quickly. She leaned close to Peg and whispered, “Tell him we’re sorry for being so mean and want to make it up to him.”

  Peg relayed the message.

  “Stand away from the door,” Lennie growled.

  The girls stepped back into the center of the motel room. Ann called, “OK, Lennie, we’re away from the door.”

  A key ground into the lock. The door swung open, and Lennie stood grinning at them. He licked his lips at the sight of the young, just-budding, naked bodies.

  “Well, now,” Lennie sa
id, his voice no more than a whisper. “Well now. Just what do we have here, pray tell?”

  “We decided to give you a present,” Ann said, her eyes flirting with him. “You know, for bein’ so mean to you and all. I mean, if you want it, that is, Mr. Lennie.”

  “You birds are finally gettin’ some smarts, ain’t you?” Lennie asked. His eyes touched them all, but as Ann had guessed, they settled on the slimness of Peg. Her little breasts were just beginning to bud. Lennie scratched his crotch and carefully closed the door, after taking a quick look up and down the deserted corridor. He walked to Peg and ran his hands over her slim body. “You and me, little bird. You and me.”

  Peg shyly touched his swelling crotch and Lennie groaned. “Yeah. That’s the ticket, kid.” He took her

  slim arm and led her into a bedroom, his other hand working at the buttons of his dirty shirt. Muted, murmuring sounds drifted out the bedroom door. The sounds of boots dropping onto the old carpet, followed by the soft jangle of belt buckle hitting the floor.

  “Gimme some head first, baby,” Lennie said, his voice more a pant.

  A few moments of silence, then Lennie said, “That’s good, baby. Come on up here and spread them pretty legs.”

  Peg groaned as the man’s weight covered her young body.

  “Goddamn, baby,” Lennie said. “You so tight I can’t hardly get it in. Come on, baby, help me. Ah! That’s it. Goddamn, that feels good.”

  Peg cried out softly as Lennie penetrated her.

  “Ain’t that good to you, baby? Sure it is. Come on, kid, move your ass.”

  Then there came the sounds of hard breathing, and the slap of naked flesh onto naked flesh. Lennie muttered filth into the girl’s ear, and Peg cried out as he fully penetrated her.

  Lennie began making animal, grunting sounds as he rutted on the young girl.

  Ann slipped into the semi-darkened bedroom on her hands and knees, crawling low. But there was no need for that much caution. Peg had positioned herself on the bed so the man’s back would be toward the door. Lennie’s naked, hairy, pumping buttocks faced Ann as she crawled into the room.

  Quickly, Ann felt for Lennie’s dirty, stinking jeans. Her fingers found the heavy clasp knife in one

  pocket. She removed it and edged her way back toward the door.

  “Oh, baby,” Lennie groaned. “That’s the tightest little box I ever had. Ain’t that good to you, baby? Sure it is.”

  Ann showed Lilli the knife and together they grinned.

  Step one toward freedom was complete.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Sister Voleta knew she should pull what remained of her forces out. Just get out and regroup and then, when she had rebuilt to full strength, when she had once again inflamed her people with her twisted interpretation of the gospel, then attack Ben Raines and wipe the bastard from the face of the earth.

  But her hatred for Ben Raines was so intense, so mottled and hairy and scaly from years of smoldering within her, she could not do that. Never. She was prepared to risk all in one final attempt to see Ben Raines dead.

  She thought of her son and wondered if he was still alive. She felt certain he was-somewhere. She hoped he was well and happy. He had been such a beautiful child. So full of life. She pushed those thoughts from her. It was unhealthy to dwell too much in and on the past.

  She thought of the warlords around her area, and of her pleas for them to join forces with her. It had been a good plan, but they were so shortsighted, men of such little minds, they had, to a person, rejected her plans. Fools!

  And then she allowed her hatred of Ben Raines to wash over her in waves of furious and dark acrimony. She allowed this even though she knew in her heart the man was not really to blame. Even though the boy had looked something like Raines. Still she wondered about it.

  Calming herself with a visible effort, Sister Voleta began to think in a more rational manner. All that day she had attempted to make contact with Tony Silver. No reply from his base down south. She wondered if he was dead, or had turned traitorous?

  Probably the latter.

  She walked out of her house and motioned for her commanders to come to her. They had been squatting in the street in front of her home, smoking and talking in low tones.

  She faced the men. “You are certain-all of you-that Ben Raines has only a hundred or so troops with him at Lake Chatuge?”

  “Positive, Sister. And our scouts report there has been no unusual movement from the camp of the Rebels down in Georgia.”

  Ben’s Rebels had all moved out the night before, silently, rolling without lights on their vehicles. Juan and Mark were almost in position, as were Colonel Gray’s people. Cecil was personally leading the assault from the west.

  Sister Voleta gave the order she was certain would bring victory to her and ensure the death of the man she hated and blamed for all her misfortune. She was

  certain that Ben Raines had somehow managed to kill her chances of becoming a singing star. Although she wasn’t real certain how he could have managed that.

  “Move our people out,” she ordered. “Death to Ben Raines.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  “We intercepted these messages, Joni,” George said, looking at a notepad. “Somebody named Sam Hartline is moving this way, with a lot of armed men. Who in the hell is Sam Hartline?”

  Joni felt a chill crawl up and down her spine. She once had a friend who had been taken by Sam Hartline. Back when the United States was struggling to pull itself out of the horrors of germ and nuclear warfare. Back when VP Lowry was running the country. She had seen what Hartline had done to her friend. Hartline and his men had broken the man. They had sexually abused him and tortured him and broken not only his body but his mind.

  Joni shook off the hideous memories. “You must have been captured just as Hartline came to power,” she said. “He’s a mercenary. He was one of Also Cody and VP Lowry’s bully-boys. He’s worse than Tony Silver ever thought about being. If Hartline is heading this way, that probably means he’s linked up with Tony Silver. We’ve got to get our people together and move out. We’ve got to get over to Perry and assist those slaves in the fighting. Let’s move, George. We don’t have much time.”

  Some of the slaves were still wearing the remnants

  of leg irons when George began shouting out the orders to work faster. The banging of hammers intensified, and finally the last ankle-shackle was broken free. Every man and woman there wore the scars of the leg irons.

  The former slaves of Tony Silver left the bodies of the captors and guards where they had fallen in the battle for freedom. Left them to stiffen and stink and bloat under the Florida sun.

  The work camp and plantation house and guards’ quarters had been thoroughly searched for more weapons and ammunition. The trucks and cars and vans were gassed up and containers filled with fuel for their journey. Food and water were stored in the vehicles. Now they were ready to move out.

  When the last vehicle had rattled over the cattle guards at Tony Silver’s old HQ, the small convoy of armed ex-slaves heading for another slave plantation just outside of what used to be known as Perry, Florida, they were only three hours ahead of Sam Hartline and his mercenaries. Sixty-odd men and women, armed with a mishmash of weapons, against the hundreds of trained, combat-seasoned, and well-armed troops of Hartline.

  But the slaves possessed something not even Sam Hartline had ever known: a burning desire for freedom and an equally fierce inner flame for revenge and justice. And that is an awesome combination for any army to fight.

  The vultures had been slowly circling, high in the blue skies of Florida, watching and smelling the food that lay sprawled on the ground. Now, as the men and women pulled out, the carrion birds began their

  slow drift downward, their huge wing span carrying them ever closer to food.

  On the ground, the grotesque birds began feasting, their sharp, fierce beaks ripping and tearing at dead human flesh. They worked at the small of the back
first, tearing at the choicest and tastiest food: the kidneys.

  The carrion-eaters feasted throughout the day, until they were so bloated with dead meat they could not fly. They waddled off and allowed the wild dogs and wolves and coyotes to snarl and tear at what remained.

  Then the dusty grounds became as silent as the scattered skeletons that lay in the torn dirt, small bits of red meat still hanging from bones that would soon be picked clean.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  The morning of the day that would forever wipe from the face of the earth the troops of the perverted rule of the Nine Order dawned misty and cold in the mountains. Fall was ebbing in its season in this section of the battered and war-torn earth, the chilly winds of winter blowing close on the waning season’s heels. Breath became white steam in the predawn hours.

  Ike and his hand-picked teams had pulled out in the early hours of the morning. By now, they would be moving silently and deadly, deep inside the territory of the Ninth Order, killing quietly and swiftly as they went.

  Ike had kissed Nina’s sleeping lips, andwiththe image of Sally and the kids, broken and torn by gunfire, etched in his brain, the ex-Seal had dressed silently and linked up with his waiting teams.

  Ike had noticed Ben standing tall and silent in the gloom of predawn. Ben had walked over to his longtime friend.

  “What happened to Sally was not your fault,” Ben had spoken softly, so only Ike could hear. “You do not have to go off on what might be a suicide mission simply because you met and made love to

  another woman-while the both of you were running for your lives. You know that, Ike.”

  “That’s not it, Ben. It really isn’t. Me and Sally had already made up our minds to split the blanket. It’s … hell, I don’t know. It’s the way Sally and the kids bought it that I can’t seem to shake. I talked with Lieutenant Bolden last night. I practically had to drag the story out of him, but I got it all. Damnit, Ben. Killing unarmed women and kids is just too much for me to take.”