After a moment, the PSE operator nodded his head.

"He's telling the truth, General."

"That's nice. Very cooperative fellow. It's refreshing to meet someone who keeps his word."

Jersey and the others laughed. They knew Ben wasn't about to let the creepies go free. "Every city in Washington seems to be full of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," Ben said. "G.o.dd.a.m.nit, we were led to believe that the Seattle area took a nuke. Now we're learning that it's clean. Did any area take a hot strike in the Great War?"

"Kansas City and the Washington/baltimore area are the only ones that have been confirmed," Jerre said.

"Now I'm curious about Europe."

"So am I. Even the areas we've avoided because the government threw up Hot Zone warnings are begin- ning to intrigue me. To declare L.a. hot would be one way to keep any people out, wouldn't it? Oh, s.h.i.t, if what I'm thinking is true . . ." But he would not say his thoughts aloud.

"What do you mean, General?" Cooper asked.

Ben was silent for a moment before sharing part of his thoughts.

"I think that G.o.dd.a.m.ned general at Shaw AFB lied to me years back. He told me ... no, he didn't," Ben muttered. "He just implied that many cities had been hit. The government lied to the people. Deliberately lied." He laughed bitterly. "h.e.l.l, what else is new?

Kansas City is hot; that's a fact. We know that. And we know that Washington is hot. But everything else is clean!"

Ben turned and put his hands on Jerre's shoulders, gripping them hard. It was the first time he had physically touched her in a long time, other than tossing her to one side during an ambush. "Do you know what this news means?"

"Ben, you're hurting my shoulders! Ease up, please."

He laughed and let up on the pressure.

"Sorry, kid."

"What does it mean, Ben?"

"It means . . . there was a ma.s.sive cover-up, but one within a cover-up. President Hilton Logan was fed misinformation, and he took the bait."

"Fed it by whom, and why?" she questioned. "Who would do it.

It would have to be someone very close to the man, right?"

"Probably. And certainly someone who shared the beliefs of the Night P. We've learned that the creepie movement is about fifty years old.

That's a fact. So that means that probably people in congress were actually closet-cannibals; practicing this . . . bizarre religion while they were supposed to be representing the people. Not only here, in America, but all around the world."

"General," Jersey said. "That means . . ." She trailed it off.

"Yes. It was a hoax. A ma.s.sive, sick, and very ugly hoax on the part of our leaders; leaders from all around the world. Corrie, radio Buddy and tell him to abort the ambush. Tell him that I want these people alive. I want every shred of information they've got stored in their heads."

"Ten-four, sir."

Dan had returned from the rescuing of the men and women and children at the breeding farm. He had heard Ben talking and hypostatizing. And the news had shaken even his usually calm demeanor.

"They were neutron bombs, General. Not hot, but clean. Destroy the people, but not the cities. Maybe a half dozen very limited nukes were detonated around the world. Only two here in the States."

"Yes, Dan. That's what I'm thinking. L.a., Seattle, Miami, those cities were hit by clean bombs; very low level strikes. Then the creepies surfaced and moved in. What an ugly, profane joke to play on the decent peoples of the world."

"London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Dublin, Geneva, Moscow," Doctor Chase muttered.

"All the great old cities of the world and the huge cities in America. They're still standing."

"Yes," Ben said. "Havens for Night P. That was the plan all along. And we bought it. All of us.

We were so accustomed to Big Brother's slop from the mouth, we all bought it. h.e.l.l, we didn't even question it! That was why the relocation plan went into effect. To hide the truth from the people. And I'll bet you all every d.a.m.n country around the globe did the same thing. It was an international hoax."

"Ben," Jerre said softly. "If that is true, and I suspect it is, that means there are, at the most, eight or ten thousand of us, and millions of Night People around the globe."

"Yes. Hundreds of thousands of them right here in good oPeople America. That's why we don't see many survivors. That's why those still alive are afraid to approach us. They don't know what side we're on."

"What do you mean, Ben?" Chase asked.

"The creepies are constantly working the countryside, rounding up people."

"At night," Dan added. "Probably always working at night."

"General," Beth said. "Those uniforms we found in New York City. The creepies are wearing uniforms just like ours."

"Yes. Telling the people they're Rebels and then when they've won their trust, they grab them."

"To eat," Dan finished it.

"You tricked me," the Judge said, staring balefully at Ben. "I was told you were not a man of your word."

"I'm fighting a war, whatever-your-name-is. Not running the Boy Scouts. But I'm curious as to who told you that."

The Judge did not miss the very obvious fact that Ben was pulling on thick leather gloves although the day was warm and it didn't appear very likely that General Raines was preparing to go work in a garden or change a flat tire on a vehicle. The Judge had a pretty good idea that what was going to happen was Ben beating the s.h.i.t out of him if he didn't tell the truth. i "We don't have to resort to violence, General.

I'll tell you."

"I'm waiting."

"It's doubtful you will remember him. He was a man who tried to live in your old Tri-States but simply could not abide by the rules."

"Name?" "I ... think his name was Peter something. He is dead."

"By your hand."

"Yes."

"And then you had him for dinner."

"Lunch, actually."

Ben suppressed a shudder at the man's cold reply. He was not trying to make a joke. He was deadly serious. "Where did this . . . movement, this religion of yours have its beginning?"

"I was told it began in the forties. Before I was born. I suspect it began long before that. But its roots are in California."

A light sprang into Ben's.

"Yes," the Judge said, seeing the glimmer of understanding in Ben's eyes. "Los Angeles."

"Pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place. I had guessed L.a. Go on."

"By the mid to late 1960's, many were groping for something to believe in. They came to us.

Already the group was big and growing larger very rapidly.

It was inevitable that people of power would join."

Ben nodded his head. Everything was falling into place.

And he had guessed very accurately. "Give me some names and positions of people in power."

"Names are unimportant now, are they not?" the Judge asked. "Most are dead. We had United States senators and representatives among us.

Police chiefs and sheriffs. Military people.

Mayors and city council members. State senators and representatives. Millionaires and paupers. Housewives and CEO'S. Young and old."

"How did you get them in? n.o.body in their right mind would willingly accept such a life as yours."

The Judge smiled at the slur. "General, we are now in our third generation of Believers."

"Believers?"

"You call us the Night P. A misnomer. We are the Believers."

"Go on."

"Drugs, General. It's easy to find recruits among those hooked on drugs. And easier still to keep them."

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! You people controlled the flow of drugs into America."

"Oh, not just America, General. The world.

Certainly, we did. And still do, to a large degree."

Ben recalled back in the Midwest; the woman telling him about drugs, and something dark stirred in his mind.

"You people are not just in the cities, are you?"

"No. That is something you people dreamed up, General, and we let the myth continue. We are in cities and hamlets. Urban and rural."

"Everywhere."

The Judge nodded his head.

"Miami?"

"Alive and doing very well."

"I've sent fly-bys over that city! The pilots reported a dead city. Destroyed."

"It appears that way only during the day, General.

Not at night. Parts of that city, and others thought to be hot, have been destroyed. But only small parts of them. You yourself concluded years back that few nuclear bombs were used in the Great War; that most were germ and neutron. You were right."

"And how I wish I wasn't."

"You won't win, General. You have made small gains, yes. But you can't win in the long run. We are too many and growing."

"Yeah," Ben said, disgust thick in his voice.

"By feeding off the population."

The Judge shrugged. "It is our way of life and we are ent.i.tled to it."

"Are you saying you have a right to eat other people!"

"Of course. We don't subscribe to your silly concept of G.o.d and Jesus and life after death and all the rest of that absurd bulls.h.i.t. This is all there is, General. When one is dead, one is dead.

Period. The only rules one must follow are the ones he or she believe in."

"The Believers."

"Precisely."

"Obviously you and your followers don't believe in it too strongly, or you wouldn't have offered me the deal you did."

"Let's just say I'm flexible."

Ben stared at the cannibal and the man stared back, no fear in him. He pointed to the equipment and to the mic in front of the Judge. "You know we can tell if you are lying or telling the truth."

"I am aware of that."

"Your answer to the next question I ask will determine if you live or die. Be aware of that."

For the first time, Ben saw a flicker of fear dance across the man's eyes. "All right, General. I fully understand." "You'd d.a.m.n well better understand," Ben warned.

"If I cut you loose, will you return to the ways of the Believers? Yes or no."

"I cannot answer that question."