Ashes - Battle In The Ashes Part 27

"Dog's smarter than we are," Ben said, snapping a fresh drum into place.

"Let's go."

It took the Rebels only a few minutes to break through on all sides and Therm's command poured out of the underground bunkers to join them. The attacking 296.

forces faded into the night, leaving behind their dead and wounded.

Ben did not have to order his medical-people to see to the Rebel wounded first. They did that automatically, ignoring the pleas from the enemy wounded.

It took Ben a few moments to find Thermopolis. All of Therm's command had returned to their usual manner of dress. Jeans, sweats.h.i.+rts or T-s.h.i.+rts, headbands, and tennis shoes.

"Are we going to have a love-in?" Cooper asked, casting hopeful eyes toward Jersey.

"Forget it," she told him.

"You're breaking my heart, Jersey."

"You'll get over it."

"Ben!" the voice of Thermopolis reached him.

The two men found each other, shook hands and smiled at one another.

"Good to see you, Thermopolis," Ben said.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.ds seemed to come out of nowhere," Therm said. "Those right-wing survivalist types must have been very familiar with this part of the country and linked up with Hoffman's Blacks.h.i.+rts. Then they slipped in small groups at a time."

"Probably part of those we chased out of southern Missouri a whileback," Ben replied. "We knew we didn't get them all. Let's get a body count."

If Therm's estimate that he had been under attack by several thousand men was correct, and Ben had no reason to doubt it, the Rebels had broken the backs of that particular bunch. By dawn they had counted more than fifteen hundred dead and wounded. Most of the wounded critically hurt.

One slight confrontation stuck in Ben's mind. Shortly 297.

after the sounds of battle had faded, Therm and Ben had been standing and chatting.

"How about the enemy wounded, Ben?" Therm suddenly asked, after a civilian had walked up, carrying a medical bag and with unspoken questions in his eyes.

"Who is this?" Ben asked.

"Dr. Sessions," Therm said. "He and his wife, who is also a doctor, joined up shortly after we got here. We have the makings of quite a community here."

"I'm glad to hear it," Ben said.

"The wounded, General?" the doctor pressed him. "They are suffering."

"That's their G.o.dd.a.m.n problem," Ben told the man. "You make sure that my people are taken care of, any civilians who might have been in the area, and then, and only then, do you jack around with the enemy. And if they're going to die, you give them a shot to kill the pain and leave them alone. Now, did you hear all that loud and clear, doctor?"

Therm was inspecting the stars. They were quite lovely this night, since the storm had blown clear.

"Help me, Doc!" a man called out. "I took one in the legs."

Cooper walked over to the cammie-clad man. "How'd you like to take one in the head?"

"You got to be kidding!" the fallen man blurted.

"Trust me when I say he isn't," Beth told him. "Shut your d.a.m.n mouth.

You get treated after everyone else."

The doctor's wife had joined the group. Sessions looked first at Ben, then at Thermopolis. "I thought surely you were kidding when you told me about Ben Raines. My wife and I had a good laugh about it."

"You're not laughing now," Therm replied.

298.

Sessions looked at Ben. "I don't think I like you very much, General."

"I don't give a d.a.m.n whether you like me or not. You just treat my people and do it right the first time. Get to it, Doctor."Doctor and wife left in a huff. Ben looked at Therm. "He'd better learn how we operate, Therm. If he stays here, and if he ever leaves a Rebel unattended to work on an enemy, and that Rebel dies, I'll kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Personally."

"I tried to tell him, Ben. I thought I got through. But I shall pa.s.s along your latest words."

"Good," Ben said with a smile. "Now let's go get some coffee."

Therm had lost ten of the people who had been with him for years, and eight more had been badly wounded. Fourteen regular Rebels had been killed, and more than twenty wounded.

"I take the blame for this, Ben," Therm said, after they both had slept for a few hours and were now sitting, having a late breakfast.

"Don't," Ben told him. "That would be nonsense. It wasn't your fault.

I've read your logs. You had patrols out, Scouts out. You did exactly what any other commander would have done. These things happen. I know you feel bad. So do I. I have a thousand times over the years. And you never get used to it. You just have to learn to live with it." Ben looked around. "Say! Where is Emil?"

Therm laughed. "Leading a recon patrol up in Iowa. You lucked out."

299.

"Regular Rebels are taking orders from Emil?" Ben asked, astonishment in his words. Emil, the little ex-con artist, was liked by everyone. But a leader of men?

"Well ..." Therm again laughed. "They pretend they take orders from him.

Sergeant Mack is with him."

Ben relaxed. Mack would see to it that Emil didn't get in much trouble.

"You've got it looking good around here."

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with you. A few of the folks from Mountain Home and surrounding towns came here to settle with us. We're going to have a good place to live here ... someday," he added.

"Keep the faith, brother," Ben said. "Power to the people and all that."

That really set Therm off in a burst of laughter. He wiped his eyes and said, "Way to go, Ben. Dylan and Baez would love you for that."

"Yeah. I'm sure the three of us would get along famously. Did you know I used to sing a lot of Dylan's songs?"

Therm suddenly stopped smiling. He frowned. "That's not funny."

"I didn't mean it to be funny. I used to be able to cord a guitar pretty d.a.m.n well."

"You never told me that!"

"Yes, I did.""You did not! You sang protest songs?"

"I didn't consider them protest songs. I just liked them."

"That's incredible!"

"No, it isn't. Where is your guitar?"

"You wait right there. Don't move. I'll get it. This I have to hear personally."

300.

"Fine. I'll be right here." He hurried off.

"I'm leaving," Cooper said.

Jersey lifted her M-16. "If I gotta hear this, so do you. Sit down, Coop."

Coop sat.

"You two are hurting my feelings," Ben told them.

"Has anybody got any ear-plugs?" Jersey said.

Therm returned with a Martin guitar and handed it to Ben. Ben flexed the fingers of his left hand a few times. "You have to realize that I haven't played in years. The tips of my fingers are going to get very sore, very quickly."

"Just a few chords and a few lines will convince me that you're not bulls.h.i.+tting me," Therm replied.

"Oh, ye of little faith," Ben said.

"I'll believe it when I hear it," Therm said.

Ben selected a big triangle pick from the case, hit a few practice chords, cleared his throat a couple of times, and then launched into Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

Ben's voice was deep and husky, but he could carry a true tune and his singing wasn't all that bad. He did a few lines and then went into "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and did a respectable job of it.

The look on Therm's face was priceless.

Ben sang a few lines of a dozen songs from the protest days, hitting all the right chords. Then the tips of his fingers started hurting. Ben smiled and handed the guitar back to Therm. "Nice axe, Therm."

Thermopolis said, "Well, I'll be G.o.dd.a.m.ned! You really can pick."

Ben smiled. "Yeah. Thanks. That was fun. Took me back years."

301.

Therm's eyes narrowed and he was thoughtful. "Yeah. Probably back to when you worked for the d.a.m.ned CIA and infiltrated student dissident groups. I'll make a bet that's why you know all those songs.""You never heard me say that, Therm."

"Oh, well," Therm said with a shrug of his shoulders. "At least you're continuing your habit of constantly amazing me."

"Ike and Dr. Chase are on the way here," Corrie informed them.

"Why?" Ben asked.

"They didn't say."

"ETA?".

"One hour."

Ben looked at Therm. "Did the good Dr. Sessions get over his huff at me?"

"Not really," Therm leveled with him. "But I told him if he wanted to practice medicine, and have drugs available to him, that's the way it had to be."

"And he didn't like that very much, did he?"

"Not at all."

"His wife of like mind?"

"Absolutely."

"You're going to have trouble with them, Therm. I sense it and I'm pretty good at picking out troublemakers. But that's your worry. I'm sure they're both good people. But they've got to be made to understand about the time and place and the hundreds of thousands of people out there who would like to destroy this movement. If you can't get through to them, then whether they stay or go is a judgement call you're going to have to make. And you'll make the right one."

Therm shook his head. "Just think. A few years ago I 302.

was a contented hippie, living as one with the land, in my own little commune, and enjoying life."

"And singing protest songs about me," Ben said with a smile.

Therm's eyes twinkled. "You do get right to the truth, don't you, Ben?"

303.

Chapter Thirteen.Dr. Chase took an immediate dislike to both Dr. Sessions and his wife.

He said to Ben: "You would think, after more than a decade of this world being turned upside down, the idealistic views of those two would have been knocked out of them."

"Perhaps that is precisely why they still cling to those views, Lamar,"