Dark in about

two hours. He told Beth to get his commanders up to his CP’-RIGHT now. At his CP, the meeting with his commanders was closed, the doors shut and the men and Tina alone. And that was not something that General Ben Raines did very often.

“We’ve got to hold the Libyan in New Jersey, people. I want everything that can toss shells the distance on the waterfront, doing so. Dan, of us all, you have the finest tastes in art, music, so form …”

“Thank you, General.” The Englishman smiled.

“It’s good to know that my talents in the finer things are appreciated.”

Ike groaned and stuck the needle to his friend.

“Big bore is what you are.”

Dan ignored him.

“West, you run a close second to Dan.” He smiled at the mercenary. “As surprising as that might seem to some people.” He cut his eyes to Thermopolis, and the big rough-looking hippie smiled.

“Colonel West, you will take everything from Central Park west to the river. Dan, you’ll take it from the park east to the waterfront. Both of you all the way down to Battery Park. I’ll take it from a Hundred Twenty-fifth Street north. Our main objective is to kill creepies. Our secondary mission to gather up everything that might be remotely construed as art-paintings, sculpture, whatever comand master tapes or discs of music.

Strip the libraries of books. Gather it all and bring it up here for storage.”

“Does that include rock-and-roll and hillbilly music, General?” Dan asked, a twinkle in his eyes, knowing he was stepping on Ike’s toes. And, out of the corner of his eye, he watched Thermopolis stir and frown. Dan hid his smile.

“That includes everything, Dan,” Ben said with a straight face, picking up on the Englishman’s joke. “Whether you like it or not, it’s still somebody’s idea of expression.”

Ike stuck his tongue out at Dan, and the room exploded in laughter. And again, Thermopolis marveled at the

seemingly undefeatable morale of the Rebels.

Facing thousands of the enemy, and they could still joke. And Ben Raines … damn the man! He was a study in contradiction. He could talk of killing with one breath and in the other speak of saving and preserving art and literature. Even rock-and-roll music, and Thermopolis knew the man hated that type of expression.

Talk about a walking contradiction, Kris -

you should see this man.

“What’s the drill, Ben?” Cecil asked.

“What are you up to this time?”

Ben cut his eyes to the black general. He hesitated, then shook his head. This decision would be his alone to make. And if he chose to carry it out, history-if indeed it was ever to be written-would either applaud him or condemn him. But it would be on his shoulders, and his shoulders alone.

“Get started at dawn tomorrow,” Ben told them.

“I’m going to make an early run downtown.

I’ve been delaying it, but it’s time. Get back to your positions and prepare to get hit hard tonight.

That’s it, people.”

“What is the bastard doing?” a commander questioned Khamsin, as the shells exploded around them in New Jersey.

“Keeping us out of the city,” Khamsin told the man.

“Damn the savages in the city!” another commander spoke his mind. “Let’s shell the city and have done with it.”

Khamsin shook his head. “We do that, and those abominations would strike a deal with Raines and turn on us.” He cut his eyes to the woman, Sister Voleta. “Tell me one weakness of Ben Raines. Anything we could use against him.”

“He has none,” the woman replied. “He has ice in his veins.”

“He has one,” Ashley spoke. “And I would not know of that had it not been for Big Louie’s obsession with the man.”

Khamsin looked at the man. “Speak.”

“A woman. Jerre Hunter.”

“She is in the city with him?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“And if we took the woman … ?” Khamsin questioned.

“I really don’t know, General. I don’t know what he would do. I know what he wouldn’t do: he would not jeopardize a mission to save her life. But he would track the man who harmed her through Hell. And that man would spend days begging to die.”

Monte shuddered. He was beginning to wish he had never heard of Ben Raines. Wished he had stayed the hell up in Canada, far, far away from Ben Raines. The bastard just wasn’t human.

Or so it seemed to Monte.

Khamsin was looking at him. “Monte. You will take some people into the city, cross over this night in boats, and seize this woman. And that is not a request.”

“Right,” Monte managed to say.

“Leave now, and make ready.”

A shell crashed close to the Libyan’s CP.

Khamsin clenched his fists and silently rained curses down on Ben’s head. He had the man trapped, and because of an unholy alliance with cannibals could not move.

But maybe if the woman could be taken… his Maybe.

Ben sat behind his desk, his boots propped up, deep in thought. If he were in the Libyan’s shoes, what would he do?

Find a weak spot and strike, of course.

And what was Ben’s weak spot? He couldn’t think of any.

Then he thought of one.

He yelled for Beth. She stuck her head in the doorway. “Sir?”

“Get Jerre in here right now, Beth.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You want me to do what?” Jerre asked, her eyes cold.

“From now on, you’re my personal aide. You do not leave my side for any reason. Is that clear?”

“I don’t want to be your personal aide, and I am not going to be your personal aide!” she fired back at him.

“Miss Hunter,” Ben said, leaning back in his chair, “I have reached the point in my life where I don’t give a good goddamn what you want.” That was a lie, but Ben hoped he could pull it off and convince her it was truth. He watched her eyes turn even more icy. “I am giving you a direct order and you will, by God, obey it. Is that understood, Miss Hunter?”

She straightened up and glared at him. “Yes, sir, General Raines!”

“Thank you. That will be all. Have someone go to your quarters and bring your gear over here. You …”

“I am perfectly capable of packing my own gear, General.”

“Do not interrupt me when I am speaking, Miss Hunter!” Ben yelled at her. “I said: Have someone pack your gear and bring it over here. You will sleep in