17 Two

After Ben gave the order to loose the missiles, he sat on the edge of the desk, tasting of dust. He had just convicted hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of civilians to a horrible death. Unbidden, pictures formed in his mind of Africa, and the hundreds of square miles where the only living creatures were reptiles, all the mammals having been slain by BW in the previous war.

“Damnit!” he said, slamming his hand down on the desktop. He just couldn’t do it-no matter what the provocation. Though most of the civilians chose freely to live in the USA and gave their allegiance to President Osterman and her Socialist Democrat party and its ideas of something for everyone without the pain of having to earn it, Ben couldn’t bring himself to kill them for their choices … true, they were stupid and lazy, but those had never been capital crimes, even in SUSA.

He whirled around and grabbed the mic. “Belay that order … belay the order to launch the missiles!” he said.

“Come again?” the voice from the speaker asked.

“Do not, I repeat, do not launch a missile attack,” Ben repeated. “This is General Raines, and I’m canceling that order. Over and out.”

He put the mic down and looked at his team, and found them to be smiling with relief.

“What’re you guys grinning at?” he asked gruffly.

“Nothing, Pops,” Anna replied, stroking Jodie’s fur.

18

“Good, ‘cause we’ve got some work to do, and pronto.” He pointed at Corrie. “Get on the horn. I want a squadron of bombers airborne immediately. And set up some tankers to rendezvous with them for refueling later.”

“Right, Boss. What’s the target?”

“Primary targets are the missile launch sites. We should have them pretty well-documented on our radar since the launch.”

“Secondary targets?”

“Downtown Indianapolis, the seat of the government of the USA. Specifically, Osterman’s homes, the penthouse apartment in town, and her vacation home on the Mississinewa Lake—the one that looks like a castle up on a bluff overlooking the water. I want them flattened and burning before noon.”

Corrie grinned. “Yes, sir. Anything else?”

“Yeah, if there are any bombs left over, dump them on the congressional buildings there in Fort Benjamin Harrison. It won’t hurt to let the legislators know what the cost is of supporting that crazy bitch’s orders.”

Corrie nodded and walked out of the war room toward the communications room.

President Jeffreys smiled. “You made the right choice, Ben.”

Ben didn’t answer. He was deep in thought about what he had to do next. “Cec, you’d better get hold of Jean-Francois Chapelle over at the UN and let them know what Claire’s done.”

Cecil shook his head. “There’s not much they can do.”

“No, but they can at least put diplomatic pressure on Sugar Babe. It won’t stop her, but it may distract her a bit, and that’ll help. Besides, I want the UN to know why we’re taking the steps I’m about to take.”

Cecil’s eyebrows raised. “Which are?”

“We’re going into the USA, going on the attack all

19

along the border. Plus, I’m going to drop Scout teams all over the USA.”

“With what purpose?” Cecil asked, knowing the Scout teams were the equivalent of the Army’s Ranger/Special Forces. They were small forces, very highly trained in the art of stealth and killing, and were used both as assassination squads and advance forces for any Rebel column.

“I and D mostly-infiltrate and destroy. I’m going to sabotage the USA back into the dark ages. Every television station and relay tower, every power plant or sewage treatment plant, everything that makes life comfortable to the average citizen, is going to be systematically destroyed,”

“But thousands will die if we do that,” Cecil argued.

Ben’s face was hard. “Better thousands than millions, Cec. They supported a woman crazy enough to declare war on us, so now they’ll have to pay the price, albeit a lower one.”

“What else are you going to do?” Cecil asked.

“The Scout teams will also have a secondary purpose-to assassinate every politician they can find, especially those from Indiana. I want Osterman to know she can run, but she can’t hide. Eventually, we’ll get to her and make her pay for what she’s done.”

Ben walked to the door of the war room, closely followed by his team members. “Now, I’m going to talk to my brigade commanders. Mike Post, my chief of Intel, is going to take over and run things around here for the time being.”

“Ben, what are you going to do?” Cecil asked.

He didn’t like the look on Ben’s face.

“My team and I are going to be dropped behind enemy lines. I started a few resistance cells up there a few weeks ago, and I’m going to see if we can’t make them a little more active.”

“But you’ll be taking a terrible risk.”

20

“Cec, you’ve got to get it through your head, I’m no armchair general. It’s just not my style. Ike is more than capable of taking over if something happens to me, as are almost any of my brigade commanders.”

He walked out of the room before Cecil could muster any more arguments against his plans. He wanted to get moving before the team of babysitters Cecil had assigned to him were able to track him down and get in his way.

“Mike,” Ben said to Mike Post as he and his team were donning their black night ops gear, “you know what we have to do. Push Osterman and her mere troops hard all along the front. Advance slow and steady, without outrunning our lines of supply, and keep the pressure on.”

“Will do, Ben. Of course, you know this may cause the fifty percent of the regular USA forces that refused to fight us to join in the fracas, now that we’re invading their territory.”

“Can’t be helped. We’ve got to make Osterman pay for the missile attack, and her use of BW.”

“Dr. Lamar Chase says we’re in good shape as far as our military force is concerned. All of our men and women are inoculated against every bug Osterman’s scientists have at their disposal.”

“What about the civilians?” Ben asked, strapping a K-Bar knife to the inside of his left leg.

Mike shook his head. “We’re going to lose some, probably in the neighborhood of twenty-five percent.”

“Damn!”

“Yeah, exactly. However, Doc Chase says the other thing that’s bound to happen is that the plague will spread northward as people try to flee the areas hardest hit.”

Ben looked up. “So, Osterman’s going to have to live with the plague killing her own people, too?”

21

Mike snorted. “Yes, but the crazy bitch will probably try to blame us by claiming we used BW, too.”

“You’re right, Mike. Better get Cecil on that right away. Tell him to let the UN know what Doc Chase said, and that we won’t be to blame for the spread of the plague when it occurs.”

Mike glanced at Ben and his team. They were dressed all in black from head to toe, and had at least one sidearm on their belts, a short automatic carbine slung over their shoulders, and K-Bar assault knives on their legs.

“You guys look mean as hell,” Mike said, grinning.

“We are mean as hell, General,” Jersey snarled, her hand on the butt of a .45 pistol on her belt.

“We’re counting on your intel to keep us informed about the situation as it changes in the USA, Mike,” Ben said.

“I know. We’ve got pretty good resources in most of the areas, so it should be fairly up to date. You can bump me periodically and I’ll let you know what we’ve got.”

“Good.”

“Where are you going to have them drop you?”

“Upstate New York. I started a resistance squad up there a while back. I heard most all of them were killed, so I’d like to see if anything can be salvaged of the group.”

Behind Ben’s back, Anna and Jersey gave each other knowing glances. All of Ben’s team knew of his shortlived romance with Lara Walden, and of her and her team’s death at the hands of the USA Black Shirt squads. It looked as if Ben wanted to get some personal revenge on the men who’d killed his lover.

Anna smiled at the thought. Probably be good for him. He’d been alone for so long, and then to find someone and have her taken away … if he needed to kick some ass to get over it, then his team would be more than happy to help him do it.

22

Jersey tapped Ben on the shoulder. “We’ve got to get a move on if you want to follow the bombers in.”

Cooper grunted. “Hell, we’d already be on the plane if you hadn’t taken so much time fixing your hair and putting on your makeup,” he said to Jersey.

She glanced at him, fire in her eyes. Rubbing a hand on his cheek, she murmured, “Coop, feels like you forgot to shave.” She pulled her K-Bar out and held it up in front of his face. “Want me to do it for you?” she asked sweetly.

“Come on, guys, let’s saddle up,” Ben said as he walked out the door, smiling.