William W Johnstone - Ashes 07

Author:Smoke From the Ashes
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-08-09T13:50:42+00:00

Khamsin waved the man silent. He was thoughtful for a moment. “Wait, wait!” he said. “I don’t understand something here. What do you mean, Hamid … he whipped the warlord? Whipped him how?”

“With his fists, sir.”

“A general fought a person with his fists!”

“Yes, sir.”

“How crude. Go on, Hamid.”

“The woman told our recon team that Jake challenged General Jefferys to a fight, some sort of winner-take-all affair. One would have to assume that

type of thing is quite common in this primitive land, even before the Great War. Then, with several hundred people watching, the general beat this Jake person unconscious with his fists. Then General Jefferys threw out about half of the inhabitants; they left with this Jake. These people have such strange names. The others were formed into a new unit of the Rebel army.”

“To be used as what?”

Hamid lifted his shoulders. “That, I do not know, sir.”

Khamsin smiled. “Conditions are becoming desperate for General Jefferys, Hamid. That is surely the reason for his taking on of green troops.” He walked to a large wall map and stared at it for a long moment. “What do our teams report about Atlanta?”

“A place to avoid at all costs, sir. It is inhabited by what are called the Night P.”

Khamsin nodded his head. He knew about those people. “The survivors and the offspring of the bombings. The same in Europe and South America as here. Then it’s true; they’re moving into the cities across the land?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well. Advise our field patrols to stay away from the larger cities. Those people are surely unclean. We’ll have to deal with them, of course, but not now. One step at a time for us. Hamid, start moving our people into Georgia, using the southern route. Bring them up and form them along Interstate Twenty, east to west.”

“How many troops, sir?”

Khamsin stared at the map for so long Hamid thought he had forgotten his being there. Khamsin

turned and announced dramatically, “All of them, Hamid. We are going to take Georgia!”

“Found it!” Emil yelled, holding up a small box.

“What is it, Brother Emil?” Brother Carl cried happily. Whatever pleased Emil surely pleased the Great God Blomm. So everything was just hunky-dory.

“A miracle, Brother Carl.” They were standing in the rubble and litter of what had once been a fine hospital in Monroe, Louisiana. In what used to be the nut wing.

Brother Carl looked at the box. “That’s a miracle, Brother Emil. You could have fooled me. It looks like a box!”

Emil looked at Brother Carl. The guy was as loyal as a cocker spaniel and a damn good bodyguard, but a little bit short when it came to brains. “Our great and magnificent Blomm instructed me to come to this place. I am acting on Blomm’s orders, Carl. And this package and its contents are to be our secret. When it’s time for me to inform the others, Brother Matthew and Brother Roger, Blomm will let me know. Is that understood?”

“Oh, yes, sir, Brother Emil. I gotcha.

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