"Lamar, I would accompany you to the gates of h.e.l.l to get away from paperwork."

"All in due time, Ben," the chief doctor said with a chuckle. "All in due time." They had inspected a dozen aid stations and Chase found them all well-stocked and meeting with his approval-which was no mean feat to accomplish.

At the next stop, Ben said, "I'll wait out here and grab a smoke."

Lamar gave him an odd look and nodded his head.

He walked into the aid station and b.u.mped into Emil Hite. The little man's mouth was swollen and bruised. He could see where several st.i.tches had been taken. "What happened to you, Emil?"

"I was giving a pep talk to my people and fell off the hood of my hea.r.s.e."

Chase shook his head, thinking: If future historians ever write about this army, it's going to be the G.o.ddam-nest story ever told . . . with the exception of the Bible.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, Emil. My people took good care of you?"

"Oh, yes, sir."

"Good, good." He patted the little man on the shoulder and walked on. He pulled up short and smiled when he saw the reason Ben had not wanted to come in.

d.a.m.nest bunch of warriors I ever did see, he mused. Harda.s.s Colonel Dan Gray has fallen b.u.t.t over elbows for Sarah Bradford and the leader of the greatest army on the face of the earth won't come into an aid station because of a little blue-eyed girl.

One thing about it, though, both of them have excellent tastes in ladies.

Then Chase grinned mischievously as he walked up to Jerre. "I read the reports on you, Jerre,"

he said. "You went through combat medic school with high marks."

"Thank you, Doctor Chase."

"You got a promotion, too, I understand."

"Yes, sir. Lieutenant."

"That's good. I have a new a.s.signment for you, Lieutenant. One befitting your rank."

"Oh?"

He told her and stepped back as he noticed her eyes narrowing and her jaw stiffening.

He'd been warned that she had a temper that was close to equalling a wolverine . . . and he believed it.

Then she smiled, with about as much humor in it as a shipwreck. "Why, thank you, sir. Does this meet with the general's approval?"

"It doesn't have to, Lieutenant. Medical people can call any shot they so choose."

"He has been informed of this, of course."

"Ah . . . not yet. Why don't you get your gear together and join the general out in that new tugboat he calls a station wagon. I'll just continue on with my inspection."

"Yes, sir. Whatever you say, sir."

Ben turned his head at the tapping on the windshield and looked at Jerre. He rolled down the window and eyeballed her duffle bag on the sidewalk.

"May we drop you off somewhere, Jerre?"

"Wherever you're going, Ben." When they were alone, she dropped all military t.i.tles and courtesies.

Considering what they had once meant to each other, and all they had been through, both of them felt ridiculous when she did display military courtesy.

"What do you mean by that?"

She told him.

Ben blinked a couple of times then slowly got out of the wagon, to stand looking down at Jerre. "This is Chase's idea of a joke. He can't be serious."

"He's serious, Ben."

"Well, by G.o.d, you can bet 111 have something to say about this!"

"You have nothing to say about it," Chase said, walking out of the aid station. "Because of your propensity for getting into trouble and taking unnecessary risks, all of your battalion commanders have, at one time or another, requested this. I have resisted because you would have made life miserable for anyone I a.s.signed to you.

However, I don't think you're going to make life miserable for Lieutenant Hunter. Because if you try, she'll tell you to go right straight to h.e.l.l, Raines! My inspection tour is over. Cecil has cleaned up the hospital over on 115. That will be my base. Take me over there now.

Lieutenant Hunter is permanently a.s.signed to your personal team, General Raines. Period!"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the afternoon air was ripped by automatic weapons' fire. The bullets slammed and whined off the concrete of the building housing the aid station, howling off as flattened and dangerous ricochets. Ben jerked Jerre and Chase to the sidewalk behind the wagon as the rest of his team sought cover.

"Guerrilla attack, Ben?" Chase shouted the question over the whine of unfriendly fire.

"I doubt it. Probably creepies. The city's full of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.Jersey , you have them spotted?"

"That's ten-four, General," the woman called.

"Top floor of that building right across the street."

"Corrie, call for tanks."

"Yes, sir." "You two stay down," Ben told the doctor and the medic. "And in this situation, I give the orders and you obey them."

He opened the door to the wagon and pulled out his M-14 just as the lead from across the street really began to fly in their direction. Ben's team returned the fire and a creepie was knocked out of an already shat- tered window. He hit the sidewalk and splattered.

Ben opened up with the old Thunder Lizard, the heavy .308 slugs pocking the outside bricks of the building and raising h.e.l.l with anybody inside as the lead found open windows. Screams of pain from those on the top floor drifted over the gunfire.

Sticking home a fresh clip, Ben said, "Gorrie, have teams from all battalions clear this city from the river back to Chase's hospital.

I'm not going to have three fronts to fight."

"Yes, sir." She began b.u.mping the other battalions, giving them Ben's orders.

Two fifty-ton main battle tanks rumbled around the corner and clanked into position. They elevated their 105's and began destroying the top floors of the building with HE rounds.

"No prisoners!" Ben shouted over the roar of the 105's. Corrie nodded and spoke into her headset mic.

Dan and a contingent of his Scouts, including Ben's kids, Tina and Buddy, slid around the corner in Jeeps and Hummers just in time to see the top of the office building blow apart.

"Tell the tanks to cease firing, Gorrie, and have Dan's people mop it up."

"Yes, sir."

Ben squatted down behind the wagon until a team of Scouts moved into the building, mopping up any Night People who might still be alive.

Ben stood up just as Dan walked up, accompanied by Buddy and Tina. "I heard your orders, General," the Englishman said.

"I'll take this sector back to I-fifty-five and commence immediately. Tina and Buddy will accompany you."

"All right, Dan. As you go, set up secure zones and establish perimeters."

"Right, sir."

Ben looked at Chase and Jerre. "Come on, people. Let's take a drive over to Chase's hospital."

Cooper stayed on 1-55, making the loop around the city, taking 1-70 just past the downtown area and cutting northwest. He left the Interstate at Goodfellow Boulevardand hit 115, taking that to the hospital.

"It's about three miles to the airport, Ben,"

Chase said, as they pulled up by the emergency room entrance. "Ike tells me a couple of runways should be cleared and patched in a couple of days -- with any kind of luck. There is a hospital plant closer to the airport, but it's been vandalized beyond repair."

"It's a good choice, Lamar." He lifted his mic and b.u.mped Buddy. "Rat, take your teams and double-check the area south for creepies.

Tina, you go north. Ham, take the west side and I'll take the east." He hooked the mic and said, "Let's go, people."

As they worked along 115, the unmistakable odor of Night People drifted out of the first building they came to. Ben motioned a Rebel with a flamethrower up to him. "Burn it."

A stream of pressure-backed-thickened gas whoosed into the building. It was quickly followed by intense screaming as the clothing of the creepies ignited and their cannibalistic flesh was cooked.

"h.e.l.l with this," Ben said. "Get me some Dusters up here right now." The quick little M-42 Dusters soon zipped into the hospital sector. The five-man crew Dusters looked almost small and dainty when parked alongside the huge fifty-ton main battle tanks, but their 40mm cannon and quad-.50 machine guns could spew out an enormous rate of firepower and destruction.

The explosive warheads in the 40mm sh.e.l.ls began pounding the buildings around the hospital compound, knocking holes in the brick walls. Creepies ran from the buildings in a panic, to be gunned down by the Rebels lying in wait for them.

"Stack the bodies inside a building and burn them," Ben ordered. "Look for any prisoners the creepies might have stashed around for a snack and take them to Doctor Chase." He checked his watch.

Several hours of daylight left. "Corrie, we don't have time to go house to house, building to building, so I want demolition teams up here right now. I want them to clear a two-block area around the hospital ... all the way around it. I don't want any building left standing."

"Yes, sir."

"Tell Ham and Buddy to stay up here with their teams and a.s.sist. Tell Tina to bring her team and come with me."

"Ben Raines, the one-man wrecking crew,"

Jerre muttered, not unkindly.

Jerseylooked at her and grinned. "Was he always this way? I mean, even when you first met him back in Virginia?"

So everybody knows the story, Jerre thought about that for a moment, as they jogged along the littered sidewalk.

She wasn't sure if she liked that or not. But then figured she couldn't do anything about it, so what the h.e.l.l? "Yeah. Yeah, he was,Jersey .

He was tough even back then. He snowed me how to use weapons and made me learn to be good with them."

Ben had taken the point, naturally, and waved them to a stop and down with arm and hand motions. Tina was by his side, and they were arguing. Ben didn't look like he was buying any of what she had to say.

"Tina will threaten to call her Uncle Ike if the general doesn't give up the point. He'll b.i.t.c.h and fuss about it, but he'll give in,"

Jerseysaid.

"You know him well, don't you,Jersey ?"

"I been with him a long time, Jerre. We been through a lot of battles."

Jerseylooked every bit of twenty-five years old. But Jerre knew that many Rebels joined the main force as just teenagers.

"Let's go!" Tina called, taking the point.

Tina came to a building whose windows had been boarded up coma sure giveaway that the building was, or had been, inhabited. Tina sniffed at the doorway and grimaced. All watching her knew she had smelled the foul odor of Night P. She removed a grenade from her battle harness and pointed to four others, telling them to do the same. She waved them forward.

Jerre spotted movement across the street, on the rooftops and cut loose with her M-16. "On the rooftop!" she yelled.

Half the team spun to cover their rear while Tina and the others dropped in grenades and scrambled for the protection of rusted-out vehicles parked haphazardly along the curb.

Several creepies were firing from the rooftops just as a main battle tank rounded the corner and opened up with HE and WP rounds, in addition to .50-caliber machine gun fire. The coaxial gun, normally a 7.62 machine gun had been replaced with a second .50, beefing up the firepower. The entire second floor erupted in a roar of flame and smoke and brick and mortar just as the grenades blew in the building behind the Rebels.

"Let's go!" Tina yelled, jumping inside the smoke-filled and shattered room.

Ben was right behind her, his M-14 set on full rock and roll. Father and daughter began clearing the littered room of any living things.

When the first floor was clear, Ben took over and waved the team outside. "Corrie, tell that tank to blast this building."

Ben led the team out of range of falling debris and they squatted behind cars and trucks while the main battle tank dealt some misery to any creepies who might still be alive on the floors above the cleared first floor.

Ben looked up the street at movement. The first of the demolition teams had arrived. Ben looked back at the team. "Everybody all right? OK, good.

Corrie, tell the tanks to stick around and cover the explosives people. Let's get out of here.

The next day.

Across the river, the commanders of the opposing forces were having breakfast as they met in a building along Kingshighway Road, laying down the ground rules and clearing the air of any personal grievances they might have.

"I must insist upon remaining in command of all forces," the Hot Wind blew.