Ashes - Standoff In The Ashes Part 16

more than once."

"Ed Morris," Lara said softly.

"What?" Chuck challenged. "That can't be, Lara. I've known Ed all my life!"

"Why do you suspect him?" Ben asked.

"His kid," Lara replied. "His boy was just accepted at a very prestigious university ... full scholors.h.i.+p paid for by the government.

You remember, Chuck, we wondered about it."

139.

"Yeah," the militia leader said. "No kid of a known militia member-a man on the run-was ever accepted by any high tone school like that. Ed said it was because of his son's grades. But other kids with high scores-whose parents are Osterman supporters-have been rejected. It justdidn't sound right to me,"-he looked at Lara-"us. But we had no reason to doubt Ed. Until now," he added softly. "d.a.m.n! But it's hard to believe."

"It might not be Ed," Ben cautioned. "We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm betting they'll make their move just minutes before the drop. I'll fake a radio message and announce that the planes are on schedule. If they make their move, we'll have plenty of time to handle it and get ready for the actual drop."

"And if we take the traitor alive?" Lara asked.

"There will be very advanced drugs included in this drop," Ben said, "several generations advanced from sodium pentothal. We'll find out who the traitor's contact is, and deal with them later."

"That I'll be looking forward to," said Chuck. "With a great deal of antic.i.p.ation."

"You know," said Lara, "Ed and that new fellow in Chris's unit, Nolan, are real buddy buddy. They talk a lot when the two units are together.

And Ed said he didn't know the guy before he joined up."

Chuck nodded in the darkness. "Yeah. That's right. He sure did." Chuck sighed. "So we'll watch both of them."

"Who gave this Nolan person the polygraph?" Ben asked.

"Why .. . d.a.m.ned if I know," Chuck admitted.

"I can find out in about one minute," Lara said. "I trust Bob Odell with my life. He's saved it several times over the years. I'll ask him. Be right back."

She was back in a couple of minutes. Even in the gloom 140.

Ben could tell her face was grim. "Ed administered the polygraph to Nolan. Or says he did, anyway."

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned!" Chuck said.

"It still isn't conclusive proof," Ben said. "Butwe'llkeep an eye on them. And pa.s.s the word to only those in your group you know you can trust-men and women with no families or kin on the outside. I'll make the announcement in a few minutes that the planes are on the way."

"Then the s.h.i.+t hits the fan," Lara said.

Ben smiled. "My, my, darling. You do have such a way with words. You have the soul of a poet."

Lara smiled sweetly and flipped Ben the bird.

141.

A couple of minutes after Ben made the announcement he noticed that both Ed and Nolan were gone. "Down!" he called first to Chuck and Lara. Then Ben yelled, "Everybody get down. We've been set up. It's a trap."The night became pocked with flashes as the turncoats aligned with Ed and Nolan opened fire on the men and women they had called friends for years.

Ben saw several of Chuck's group buckle and go down under the gunfire.

Chuck's immediate group had been warned that something was up, though, and they hit the ground at the first shouted warning.

Ben leveled his CAR at unfriendly flashes coming from the edge of the clearing and gave them half a mag. He couldn't tell if he hit anything, but die firing abruptly ceased.

"Rotten b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Belle yelled, on her knees and firing into the pockmarked timber and brush around die clearing.

On his belly behind part of a rotted log, Ben checked 142.

the luminous hands of the expensive watch he'd taken from one of the guards back at the funny farm. The planes would be making their drops in twelve minutes.

"Abort it! Abort it!" someone yelled from the darkness of the timber.

"Get out of here!"

Chuck's group had already pinpointed the locations of many of the turncoats, and they had worked close. They now increased the fire and began tossing grenades. Suddenly the situation changed, and Chuck's people were on the offensive. The turncoats panicked and began running.

Chuck's militia cut them down.

The fire from the timber abated, then ceased altogether. Ben yelled, "Throw up security lines around the clearing. Then take a head count and find out who turned. Alert your people in the park."

Chuck began yelling orders. Ben again checked his watch. When Chuck finished, Ben called, "Planes here in seven minutes. Form up the light lines."

Chuck walked up, cussing. "Dirty traitorous sons of b.i.t.c.hes! I'll have every d.a.m.ned one of them shot."

"Check the dead and wounded in the timber," Ben told him. "Any alive might be persuaded to tell us something."

"Bet on that," Chuck said grimly.

"Rest of us get the light lines formed up. We're running out of time."

It took four minutes to get the DZ lit up. In the timber the sounds of an occasional gunshot could still be heard as Chuck's people found turncoats and the traitors put up a fight ... very brief fights, in most cases, for Chuck's people were p.i.s.sed off to the max and not interested in any sort of niceties.

"Planes!" someone yelled, and Ben turned toward the east just as the lights of the first big transport could be faintly seen coming in low over the hills and mountains."Lights on!" Ben yelled.

143.

143.

Two long lines of light flashed on, marking the wide DZ in the valley.

The lead transport flashed its flight lights, signaling they had the DZ in visual.

Thousands of feet above the transports fighters circled, in case of trouble, but there was no more trouble in the huge park that night.

Dozens of parachutes suddenly blossomed in the night sky as the supplies were dropped. Chuck's people raced to retrieve the supplies. There was very little wind that night, and the supply drop went off without a hitch. Several tons of much needed supplies floated soundlessly into the valley, and then the night grew quiet as the huge transports made their turn and headed back toward the east.

"Let's see what we've got," Ben called.

They had rockets and launchers, M-60 machine guns and M-16's. Machine pistols with sound suppressors. Cases and cases of various types of grenades. Thousands of rounds of ammo. Boots and BDUs, socks and underwear. Berets and helmets and body armor. Medical supplies for every need and emergency. Cases of field rations. Water filtration systems and purification tabs. Portable stoves and heat tabs.

There were supplies strung out from one end of the valley to the other.

"Good G.o.d Almighty!" Chuck exclaimed. "When you call for a supply drop you don't kid around, do you, General?"

Ben chuckled. "I didn't call for a lot of this. But my people want me to be prepared for any eventuality."

"Well, we d.a.m.n sure are now!"

"For a fact," Lara said.

"Let's get this stuff cached and take a head count," Ben suggested.

"I can tell you we've got four dead and several wounded,"

144.

Chuck told him. "How many turncoats we had is still up for grabs. But I will find out. Bet on that."

There was no more time for conversation as men and women started coming in and picking up the supplies and loading them in small trailers hooked to three-wheelers and four-wheelers. They would diwy up the supplies come daylight, and discuss the fates of the turncoats and how to deal with them.

"I know how to deal with them," Lara said, considerable heat in her words.

Several other members of the militia groups in the park standing nearbynodded their heads in agreement, a couple of them adding some very earthy descriptive phrases along with the nods.

There was no way the turncoats were going to live very long after this night, not unless they moved out of North America.

Sad, Ben thought. The conditions in the USA had come to this: neighbor pitted against neighbor, father against son, brother against brother.

Ten times worse than during the first civil war, a hundred and fifty years back.

The supplies were cached and the men and women of Ben's new command in the northeast got a few hours sleep. At dawn they were up and taking stock of what they had and how many men and women had turned on them.

"I'm getting reports in," Chuck said. "Ed was the ringleader. Nolan was in on it, too. There were fifteen others. Three of them are dead, four wounded, and we have them. One of them isn't going to make it ... if he hasn't died already."

"Why did they do it?" Belle asked. "My G.o.d, I've known Ed for years."

"Money and power was Nolan's reason. Money and college for his kid was Ed's reason."

145.

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"I thought under Osterman's government anybody who wanted to could go to college." Ben said.

"That was the claim," Lara replied. "And still is. But it didn't work out that way-as was predicted by a lot of us when it was first brought up. There just isn't enough money, or teachers or schools."

"Anyone with half a brain should be able to see that not everyone is college material," Ben said.

"Osterman wants a nation of intellectuals," Chuck said. "I guess that's what she wants," he added with a shrug of his shoulders. "h.e.l.l, everything is so screwed up I don't think anyone knows anymore."

"She wants power,'' Ben told the group.' 'And her way in all matters.

There is nothing wrong with being a dreamer. I had a dream, too. The trick is not letting that dream turn into a nightmare."

"Weland just died," a man called from the area where the turncoat wounded were being cared for. "He never regained consciousness."

"John Weland," Lou said. "I always thought he was with us a hundred and ten percent."

"It's times like these that could make a person get real discouraged,"

Chuck said. He stood up from his squat and shook himself like a big dog.

"But I'm not going to let that happen. The group is solid again, way I see it. So let's get on with the job at hand and try to get this mess straightened out. The sooner we do, the sooner we can all start living some sort of normal life."Those gathered around looked at Ben.

"My turn?" he asked with a smile.

"Your turn, General," Chuck said.

"That's easy."

"Easy, Ben?" Lara asked.

"What's next, that is."

The others waited.

146.

Ben lit a cigarette and took a sip of coffee. "What's the nearest town?"

"In the park?" Belle asked.

"Might as well be."

"Saranac Lake," Belle answered.

"The police force there?"

"Solid Fed trained and solid Osterman supporters," Lara answered. "Ben, every police force in the USA is that way now. Any officer who thought differently is long gone-weeded out, forced out. The police have absolute power now. And you know what's said about absolute power."

"It corrupts."