"Yes, sir," Jane said.
"Cute little cunt," Sam said, watching the young girl leave the room.
"She is coming along quite well. She responded to me the other night."
"You don't say?" He shook his head. Who gave a fuck whether the woman enjoyed it or not?
The important thing was the man getting his nuts off.
"Were there any survivors?" Georgi asked.
"No. At least not that I know of. He kicked the shit out of us, Georgi."
"We lost the battle, not the war. Did you get any information out of those Rebels you seized at Youreka?"
"Naw. Burned one's feet off. He was still cussing me when I got hot and shoved a bayonet up his butt." Sam sighed. "I never saw a man or woman I couldn't break. But these goddamned Rebels are a breed apart."
"I wish you had told me you were going into Youreka, Sam."
"Spur-of-the-minute thing." He looked at the Russian. "Do you object?"
"Oh, no. I was curious for a time, though."
Sam laughed. "Georgi, if I ever decide to pull anything. I'll just shoot you first and be done with it." "That's so comforting to know, Sam."
"Give me the final tally," Ben said.
"Nine dead," Ike told him. "Twenty-one wounded. Two seriously. Pilots have already flown the badly wounded back to Dr. Chase. We buried the dead where they fell."
"The lads performed quite well, General," Dan said. He looked up, feeling Tina and Sylvia's eyes on him. "And the lassies as well, of course." Dan looked over at Lora. She stuck her tongue out at him. He made a face at her. She gave him the finger.
Muttering under his breath, Dan rose from the table and poured himself another cup of tea.
"That isn't very nice, Lora," Sylvia gently admonished the child. She spoke around a smile.
Ike had to hide his face behind a big hand.
"Yes, ma'am," Lora said.
"Any word from our recon teams heading to South Carolina?" Ben asked.
"They're well on their way, Ben," Cecil said. "But I don't like the sounds of what's shaping up down there."
"Nor do I." Dan sat back down. "I think when we finish with the Russian and Sam Hartline-and I intend to finish it, once and for all-we are really going to have a fight on our hands." "And badly outnumbered," Tina said.
"Let's talk about our present situation," Ben brought them back to the present. They would deal with the future when it arrived.
"Are we going to retake the outpost at Youreka?" Sylvia asked. She had been present when Ben had spoken with Sam Hartline. She had heard the painful screaming of Reba. She wondered if Reba was dead by now. She felt it would be the best thing for her.
"Probably," Ben said. "But don't think that we'll ever see Reba or Sally alive again. The odds are hard against that happening."
No one present expected to see the women again.
Not alive.
"What bothers me the most is that we have no good intelligence on these warlords ..."
"Ask the kids," Lora spoke up.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, looking at the girl.
"The kids who live in whatever area the warlords operate out of. Adults like young girls. Grownups like the warlords and them who ride with them, I mean. The kids can tell you all about them."
"We'll send Ro or Wade in," Ike suggested.
"No," Lora quickly spoke. "Send girls in. Some girls out of Ro or Wade's group.
Boys will tell more to girls than to other boys.
I'll go in."
Sylvia put an arm around Lora's shoulders.
"No, I don't think so, Lora. You have to stay here and help us. Right, Ben?"
"Right. Who would you suggest, Lora?"
"I'll go pick them now." Before anyone would ask any further questions, or object, the child was gone, taking her carbine with her.
Dan shook his head. "Kids fighting wars.
General, are you seriously considering sending young girls into enemy territory? To face the possibility of capture and rape and ... other forms of perversion?"
Ben sighed. "I don't know, Dan. You listened to Wade and Ro's verbal report this afternoon, did you not?"
"Yes," the Englishman said softly.
All present had. They silently recalled the words from the young men.
"We kilt ten times ten of the enemy, General.
Some we shot with bullets, some we kilt with arrows.
Most of them we just cut their throats."
A girl of about twelve stood off to one side, slowly honing a big-bladed knife back to razor sharpness. Blood from the enemy had splattered her clothing. She seemed oblivious to it.
A boy of perhaps thirteen, maybe younger-with the woods-children it was hard to tell ages; they were almost all undernourished-stood by the girl, sharpening his knife. Like the girl, his clothing was stained withblood.
"I done three myself," the girl said proudly.
"Come up from behind them. Barry, here, got two."
She looked at the boy by her side.
Dan broke the silence around the table. "Yes,"
he said with a sigh. "I see what you mean, General. But not Lora. I ... ah, rather like the child.
I would not like to see harm come to her."
All knew Dan was fond of Lora. But the ex-Sas man had little firsthand knowledge of dealing with kids.
And kids knew his gruff manner was only a bluff.
"No," Ben said-and he knew he was being un- fairly prejudiced with the statement-"certainly not Lora."
Lora returned, bringing with her three girls.
The girls appeared to be very uncomfortable in the presence of Ben Raines. Ben asked them to be seated and then looked hard at them.
"Did Lora tell you anything about why you're here?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," one replied. "We're ready to go."
"What are your names?"
Judy, Kim, Sandra.
"Your ages?" Ben asked.
Judy was twelve, Kim and Sandra thirteen.
"Have you killed before?"
All had taken life.
Ben leaned back in his chair. He did not like this, not one bit. He had not liked the idea of committing the woods-children to any type of action; but knew no way to keep them out. They had come to him originally to fight, and that they were going to do. Whether General Ben Raines liked it, or not.
"Have you spoken with Ro or Wade about this, girls?"
They had. But they took orders from General Raines. They would go wherever the general chose to send them.
"I don't choose to send you on this mission,"
Ben told them. "I don't like it at all. Not one bit. If you go, it will be solely voluntary on your part. I personally wish you would all refuse."
"Why?" Kim asked.
"For heaven's sake!" Dan said, considerable heat in his voice. "Because you're all children, that's why.
You should all be back in Georgia, attending school, going to parties, dancing, getting all ...
ga-ga over the boys. Not running around in the woods slicing throats."
The trio of girls sat in silence, looking at Dan.
Lora came to Dan's side and put a small, and clean, hand on his big shoulder. "Mister Dan, we don't know nothin" about no dancin'.
Ain't none of us ever been to no party in our life.
And there ain't nothin' about boys to go ga-ga over.Whatever that means. All we know is fightin' to stay alive. We know what plants in the woods to eat, and which ones not to eat. We can catch fish with our hands and build traps to catch rabbits. We can hunt and make shoes and jackets out of the skins of animals.
We know how to catch snakes and skin and eat them.
The woods is our home, and when it ain't ra*', the sky is our roof. We know things about gettin' by that none of you grownups do. We ain't afraid, none of us. What is there to be afraid of? Can't no man do nothin' to us that ain't been done before. Front or back."
Dan looked at Kim and Judy and Sandra.
They met his gaze with hard, wise, knowing eyes.
Dear God, the Englishman thought. Did You know what the aftermath of this evil would bring? Surely, You did. But by all that is Holy, I will never understand why You permitted it. Here I sit, in the wilderness that was once America, listening to three children speaking of getting pronged with less emotion than if they were discussing how best to dress up dolls.
Dan leaned over and, quite unlike him, kissed Lora on her cheek. "All right, child. I don't understand, but I will accept your words." He looked at the girls. "Go with God, children."
Ike stood up and cleared his throat. When he spoke, his words were pushed out with a husky timbre.
"I'll get them equipped with radios." He quickly left the room.
Then the girls shocked everyone in the room, except Lora, when Judy said, "If we get in a tight, don't send no people in after us, sir. You treat us just like you would any other Rebel."
"I'll bear that in mind," Ben said. "But you keep in touch with us by radio. Ike will show you how to operate the equipment you'll be going in with. I want you in and out fast. Do you understand?" They understood.
"No heroics, girls. Stay down and out of sight as much as possible. Do you hear me?" Dan asked.
They nodded their understanding.
"Go get some sleep," Ben told them. "You'll be moving out before dawn."
The girls left.
Ben waited until he was sure they were out of earshot before he exploded.
"Shit!
Goddammit, what have I done?"
Sylvia came to his side and put a slender hand on his shoulder. "You're doing what you have to do in order to defeat an evil, Ben. You have to look at it like that. None of us like it, but it has to be."