CHAPTER 13

Another block had been cleared; another building-at least up to the eighteenth floor-had been secured for the future generations.

There was only one way for those trapped to escape: they could try to climb down, using ropes, and be shot by Rebels assigned to the area for just that purpose, or they could jump.

It didn’t make a damn bit of difference to Ben.

After the carnage at the bank building, Ben called a halt to the day’s search and destroy and told his people to knock off.

Then he couldn’t find where his office had been relocated.

He opened his mouth to start cussing. Jersey touched him on the arm. “Follow me, General. It’s been moved one street over.”

After a very quick bath, in cold water, Ben shaved, dressed in clean, warm clothing, and ate a meager supper. Like most in his command, his appetite had been dulled by the hideousness of the day’s work.

His office had been moved to the second floor of a building for security. It had no windows-which irritated

Ben-and was located in the center of the second floor.

He opened his mouth to bitch about it, then closed his trap, knowing it was not the fault of Jersey or Beth. Ike had trapped him again. Probably with the help of Cecil and Dan and West.

He looked around him. The office had, at one time, been quite a nice setup. Some upper-management hotshot, Ben figured. He picked up the phone and muttered, “Think I’ll buy a million shares of AT and T.”

He jerked in surprise when a man said, “Can I help you, General?”

“Who the hell is this?”

The man chuckled. “Shepherd, sir. We got the phones working to a few areas late this afternoon.

We can now patch you through direct to the other CP’S.”

“Are they secure?”

“Yes, sir. Scrambled at both ends.”

“Good work. Get me Ike, will you?”

“Right away, sir. You want General Jefferys on the line as well?”

“Can you do that?”

“No problem. Hang on, sir.”

Within a few seconds, Ike came on the horn.

“Ben? How’s it lookin’ over your way?”

“Grim. But slow and steady. Cec?”

“About the same, Ben. But I’m thinking the main body of these creepies is going to be found in your sector. We’ve discovered that there are different tribes of them. I was going to send a runner over to

you with that information. Then I was informed about twenty minutes ago that some lines were open. I was just about to call you.”

“Tribes?” Ike asked, before Ben could.

“Right. I’ve extended my sector over to Brooklyn College-or what’s left of it.

Part of it has been used as a CP and a force-feeding farm.” He sighed deeply and audibly.

“What’s wrong, Cec?” Ben asked.

“We found some survivors here, Ben. But they’re broken people. Mentally mostly. God knows, you can’t blame them for breaking under the strain. I’ve been sitting here for over an hour trying to write out a report for you to read. It’s, well, mind-boggling.”

“Cec, get some rest. I’ll be over with Chase in the morning. Give me a secure route.”

“It’s best if I have a contingent meet you at the bridge, Ben. They’ll escort you in.”

“I’ll meet your people at the bridge at eight in the morning, Cec.”

“Good enough, Ben. I’ll see you then.”

Both Ben and Ike heard him click off.

“Must be bad over there, Ben.”

“Yeah. How’s it with you?”

“Not bad. We hit pockets of them, but like Cec, I agree that you and yours have the funkiest job.”

Ben told him about those people living under the streets of New York City.

Ike grunted. “That doesn’t surprise me, Ben. I learned a long time ago not to be surprised about anything taking place in New York City. What do you intend doing about it?”

“Try to talk with them. If they’re friendly, we need all the help we can get.”

“Ben … I can’t speak for you or Cec, but for me and mine, it’s too easy. We’re just coasting over here. I’ve taken no casualties. None. One guy fell out of a truck and broke his ankle. But that’s it. I got a real bad feeling about this.”

“How so?”

“Well … it’s kinda like you go into a bar and all of a sudden the best-looking woman in the place starts coming on to you. If you look like me, you’ll start to figure that you’re being set up for something. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah. I sure do. But what are we being set up for?”

“I don’t know, Ben. But me and Cec talked about this thing. He feels the same way.”

“And you think we should do … what?”

“I don’t know. Think about it and be careful, I reckon.”

“All right, Ike. Talk to you later. Hang in.” He broke the connection.

Ben turned to look out the window, then realized, again, that he didn’t have a damn window.

He got up and slipped into his field jacket and picked up his poncho.

“You won’t need that, sir,” Jersey told him, standing in the door to his office. “It’s stopped raining.”

Ben tossed the poncho to a chair.

“While you were on the phone, Katzman radioed.

He’s picked up signals from Monte and his main group. They’re definitely heading for this city.”

“And … ?” Ben prompted.

“The warlord has picked up more people. Some guy who calls himself the Colonel.”

“Colonel what?”

“Just the Colonel, sir.”

“What else is going to happen on this operation?”

Ben asked, not really expecting Jersey to reply.

He glanced at his watch. “Get some sleep, Jersey. We meet with Cecil tomorrow at oh-eight-hundred. And what we’re going to view is not going to be pleasant. Contact Doctor Chase and advise him to be ready to leave with us.

Colonel Gray will be in charge during my absence.”

“Yes, sir. What we’re going to see

tomorrow-is it going to be any worse than what we saw today?”

“Probably.”

That was putting it mildly.

Even the usually much self-controlled Ben Raines was shocked at the sight.

The people that Cecil had rescued-and he said that most had been naked, or at best, dressed in rags-huddled together in a far corner of the gym where Cecil had transported them. They looked like zombies, and didn’t behave much better.

Chase and his medical team moved to them immediately, while Ben stood with Cecil and talked.

“What’s the matter with them, Cecil?”

His friend hesitated.

“Come on, Cec.”

“Most of the men have been castrated. Those that will talk at all say it wasn’t done immediately upon arrival.

But done much later-after their, ah, entertainment value had waned, or whatever. And done because they were, for some reason we have not yet been able to fathom, unsuitable for breeding purposes. All of the women and many of the men have been sexually molested by Monte and his people. The Night People have also had their way with many of them, forcing them to perform … rather perverted acts for the enjoyment of these so-called Judges and others. Then the men were castrated and put in here to fatten for food.”

When Ben found his voice, he said, “I have to agree with Lamar on at least one thing, Cec: the why

of it all?”

“I can give you a theory.”

“All right.”

“The hard core of the Night People were perverted before the war. But their, ah, unusual sexual appetites were, for the most part, kept in check by the law. After the war, a few got together, those few each knew a few more, and so forth. They have a fine communications network, Ben, and this thing is nationwide. We had already guessed that. But I think the hard core live here in the city.”

“And if we wipe them out … ?”

“We might be able to break their backs.” But he sounded very dubious. Ben didn’t immediately pursue it.

“So all this crap about disfigurement from the bombings and radiation poisoning and so forth is

just garbage.”

“Yeah. Just like the crap that Hilton Logan put out about the entire Northeast Corridor being off-limits due to direct nuclear strikes. Ben, you want to hear another theory?”

“Might as well”

“I think it’s global.”

Ben narrowed his eyes and stared long at his friend. “You think

what

is global, Cec?”

Cecil met Ben’s eyes. “The Night P.

That’s why we have never—

never-

in all the years we’ve been monitoring radio traffic, been able to pick up chatter outside the forty-eight contiguous states and Canada.”

Ben digested that bit of theory. Looked again at Cecil. “Go on.”

“Now granted, some nukes did fall. But as many as we were led to believe? I don’t think so, Ben.

I don’t think Hawaii got hit. I think Hawaii is anything but a paradise now. Think back, Ben. Those papers we got off of that dead courier from Khamsin’s bunch. We misread those papers, Ben. When Khamsin’s bunch

landed in South America, Khamsin himself, a butcher if there ever was one, said the area had reverted to barbarism. And they left. What in God’s name could be too barbaric for a creature like Khamsin?”

“And they found willing recruits in all the places they landed,” Ben spoke the words quietly.

“Sure. Hell, I’d join Khamsin to get clear of these creepies!”

“So would any even semi-normal person.”

Chase rejoined them. The man was trembling with rage. “Disgusting, Ben. Perverted and hideous and …” His anger choked off the rest.

“Lamar, I want a psychological team to start work immediately on those prisoners Dan got for you yesterday. I want their brains picked clean. And I don’t give a damn what conditions they’re in afterward.”

Lamar nodded. “What shall we do with those poor …

wretches?” He cut his eyes to the huddled survivors.

“Get them out of here and over to Staten Island. From there, we’ll ship them back to Base Camp One and try to do something with them. Lamar, is there anything that can be done with them?”

The man sighed heavily. “Yeah.

Probably. Their spirits have been broken, Ben.

They’ve been beaten down to nothing mentally. Living in a state of sheer, utter, mind-numbing fright for months and with some, even years. Tortured, sexually molested … and other things so vile it makes me want to puke!”

“Did all of these people come from outside the city?” Ben asked.

“No,” Lamar said. “As a matter of fact, about half of them claim to be native New

Yorkers.”

“So there are pockets of survivors within the city.

Just like we guessed.”

“There have to be,” Lamar replied.

Ben could see that the man’s mind was not on the conversation, but rather on the people he had just spoken with, still huddled together at the far end of the room.

“Go on, Lamar,” Ben urged the man of medicine.

“Take them back to a safe locale and see what you can do with them until I can arrange transport.”

Ben and Cecil watched as Lamar and his team gently herded the badly frightened men and women out of the room and into waiting vehicles which Cecil had arranged for.

“Pitiful,” Jersey summed it all up.

Ben sat on the edge of his desk and looked at his commanders: Cecil, Ike, Dan, West, Chase, and a few more of his upper-level personnel, including Katzman. “That’s it, people. That’s Cecil’s theory, and I agree with him. We have no proof at all to back us up.”

The mercenary was the first to speak. “If what you say is true, General, then we’re in a hell of a mess.”

“The thought of ending up as a meal for one of these nasties is really quite repugnant to me,” Dan Gray added.

Ike caught Ben’s eye. “I guess I’m

gonna have to be the one to say it, so I’ll get it said. Then y’all can boo and hiss or agree with me. Whatever. There is another way to deal with these nasties, and we’ve touched on it before. Now I know we’ve got innocents in this city. I understand that. But they won’t communicate with us. They won’t respond to our signals. We might be forced into some rethinking. Like, we lay it on the line to the survivors. We tell them flat-out: We’re going to destroy this city. Now you tell us where you are, and we’ll come in and get you out. There isn’t going to be any second chances.

If they respond, fine. We go in and

get them. If they don’t … ?” He shrugged his muscular shoulders in a go-to-hell gesture.

Chase arched one eyebrow and asked, “And then what, Ike?”

“Chemicals or napalm.”

Dan looked over at him. “That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it, old boy?”

“I’m opposed to torching the city,” West said.

“We’ve all seen that looting has,

miraculously, been minimal. To my way of thinking, that means the city still contains hundreds, thousands, of irreplaceable treasures. We’d be doing a great disservice to future generations if we were to destroy them.”

“I agree with West,” Chase said.

So did the others.

Ben stayed out of it, reserving comment. “What kind of chemicals, Ike? And how would we deliver them?”

“We’ve got stockpiles of the deadliest chemicals mankind ever invented. How to deliver them? Planes, rockets.” Ike stood up.

“People, I’m not saying I agree with it. I’m not saying I want to do it. All I’m doing is laying options in front of you to kick around.”

“Let’s talk about the other options,”

West said. “Cordoning off the area-or areas-is impossible. We don’t have the personnel. We couldn’t starve the bastards out in a lifetime. Hell, we don’t know how many of these breeding farms they have.

Worst came to worst, they’d eat each other. And there is this: There are probably a thousand survivors, fighting

the Night People-that’s those aboveground-located between Columbus and Madison, all the way up to God knows where. But for some reason they’re afraid to make contact with us. More effort has got to be made to get in touch with them. I suggest four tanks and a half a dozen APC’S make a push to their position and see what the hell happens then.”

“And what about these people living below the city?” Katzman asked. “My God, there might be a thousand or more of them down there. They’d be some powerful allies if we could contact them.”

“Somebody had to say it,” Ike said. “I said it.

So torching the city is out. OK. I’m glad.

How about chemicals?”

That was out as well. Unanimously.

“So we slug it out?” Ike continued. “OK.

That’s fine with me. But we’d better brace ourselves for a damn long campaign.” He looked at Ben. “Have you given any further thought to what we discussed yesterday?”

“Yes. To those of you I have not spoken with, this is what we’re talking about. Both Ike and Cecil have a gut hunch that we’re being set up for something.

By whom? We don’t know. What and how? We don’t know that either. Give it some thought and keep your eyes open. Leo, you and your people record every outside conversation you monitor. If we get a clue, it’ll probably come from a radio transmission slipup on somebody’s part. I talked with Tina just before this meeting. She’s hitting pockets of resistance, but nothing that she can’t handle. And she has found no survivors in her area. To me, that means the night crawlers have been active around here for a long, long time, and there are a hell of a lot of them.

Now then, if Tina finds the Teterboro Airport functional, that means we’re going to have to clear the expressway all the way up to the George Washington Bridge. Supplies will be coming in that way. Anythingddelse anybody wants to talk about?”

No one did. Ike and Cecil stayed after the others had filed out, as Ben suspected they would.

“Tina better get to that damn airport pronto, Ben,” Ike told him. “This is going to be a sustained campaign, and we’re going to have to be resupplied every week. And a full company is going to have to be quartered there at the airport to make certain it doesn’t get overrun by nasties. And I got this suggestion: I’d like to split my people and move half of them over here to help you. Cecil feels the same way. How about it?”

“Suits me. I can damn sure use the help.”

“All right. I’ll leave Broadhurst in command and take charge of clearing the expressway up to the bridge. OK?”

Ben nodded.

“I’ll leave my XO in command and come on over in the morning, Ben,” Cecil said. “We can work out the placement of my people over breakfast.”

“Good enough.”

“Ben,” Ike gripped his arm, “I’m glad my suggestions were nixed. But I felt that I had to voice them.”

“Ike, it may well come to germing the city. I hope not, but I just don’t know. We just may have-for the first time-bitten off more than we can chew. I will confess that at times, I have my doubts as to whether we can pull this thing off.”

“Oh, it’s going to be a real bitch,” Cecil admitted. “And we’re going to be here until midsummer, at least. But I think if we hang tough, we can pull it off.” He shook his head.

Ben caught the head movement. “What’s the matter?”

“I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re being conned.”

Ben thought of Jerre. “Yeah. I know that feeling very well.”