Ashes - D Day In The Ashes Part 9

of 150 but lousy in school. Rebelled against any type of authority.

Abused small animals. A smart-a.s.s. Put all those gang leaders in a bag, shake 121.

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them up and dump them out and you can't tell one from the other."

"We know all the signs," Jersey said. "How come society can't see them?""Oh, they can, Jersey," Ben said, standing up and stretching his tall frame. "They've been able to identify potential troublemakers for decades. It's always been a question of whether society had the right to go into a home."

"We do," Beth said. "Occasionally."

Ben smiled. "Yes. And usually we can turn a kid around. But those tactics are controversial even among our own people. It's a matter of educating the parents along with the kid." Ben walked to the window and looked out at the chilly and overcast day. He stared at the gray waters of the Channel for a moment. "Are we on timetable, Beth?"

"Ahead of it, boss," she replied. "But the riggers are having to dry out the chutes because of this weather. Ike is still p.i.s.sed because you nixed that SEAL operation he dreamed up."

"I didn't nix the operation," Ben said with a grin. "I just nixed Ike going along. He's too d.a.m.n old and much too large. Somebody would mistake him for a whale. But he's going in with the teams anyway, isn't he?"

Ben's team exchanged glances and smiles. "Yes," Cooper finally admitted.

"Old goat," Ben muttered. "They'll probably have to tie a submarine to his a.s.s to keep him underwater."

"Speaking of old goats," Come said.

Ben turned around, disbelief in his eyes. "You can't be serious!"

122.

William W. Johnstone "Stepped off the plane this morning," Jersey said. "Says he's going ash.o.r.e with the rest of us."

"Lamar is seventy-five years old if he's a day!" Ben shouted.

"I'm seventy-six," the chief of medicine said, walking into the room.

"But I'm still going to put my boots on Omaha Beach."

"I forbid it!"

"You can't forbid me from doing anything. But I can forbid you," Lamar reminded the commanding general of all Rebel forces. "I just might schedule your annual physical on the morning of D-Day if you aren't careful."

Ben knew when he was licked. As chief of medicine, Lamar could slap anyone in the hospital anytime he so desired . . . including Ben Raines.

"It's your a.s.s," Ben told him.

"That's right. And I'm rather fond of it. Now let's talk about projected casualties."

"Less than five percent going in."

"That's all LZ's combined?""Yes."

"What wave will you be in, Ben?"

"The first one."

"No G.o.dd.a.m.n way!" the doctor said.

"You have no say in the matter, Lamar. Just have your people ready to patch up the wounded."

Lamar shut up about it. He and Ben had been friends for too many years, and both knew when the other would not budge on a decision.

"When are we going in?" Lamar asked.

123 For two days the pilots flew their modified P-51 's over selected areas of the coast of France and did nothing except look. They had a few SAMs fired at them; but since they were flying practically on the ground, the SAMs were impotent against them. The reports the pilots brought back confirmed what Rene Seaux had said. The thugs and punks and warlords had a few mortars, a lot of heavy machine guns, some SAMs, but no artillery anywhere along the coast.

The defenders along the coast were getting nervous. For the past week the weather along the coast had been unusually calm and lovely, with clear skies and warm temperatures. The Rebels did nothing except fly those d.a.m.n ol' planes back and forth. What the punks did not know was that while their eyes were on the P-51 's, other planes had been dropping supplies just beyond the cliffs around Etretat-which, because of their steepness, were undefended.

Bad mistake. The sheer cliffs were just the spot for Buddy Raines and his special ops people to scale and 124.

William W. Johnstone then force-march down the coast toward Le Havre, which would be under attack by the battalions of Georgi Striganov, Danjou, and Buddy's sister, Tina.

Rene's resistance people had been collecting the airdropped supplies and caching them.

Ben had been uncommonly blunt with Rene Seaux. "Get your people to round up men and women who will fight. The ones who will stand shoulder to shoulder and fight with us are the ones who are going to be in charge of France once this sc.r.a.p is over."

Rene smiled. "And those who will not? Those who have collaborated with the enemy?"

"Deal with them any way you see fit."

"It will be my pleasure, General. Do you have any objections to a firing squad?""I prefer a noose for traitors."

By 0500 of the jump-off day, the fog had rolled in, the seas were rough, and it was pouring rain.

"Perfect," Ben said from the deck of the ship.

Dan and Rebet had made the night jump just moments before the rain set in, and they were down and safe, with only a few minor injuries. Buddy and his people had scaled the cliffs at Etretat, and Ike and his people were set to strike at Cherbourg.

"I can't see a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing!" one of the sentries above the beach said.

"Can you, Charles?"

"There is nothing to see," the Frenchman to his right said. "This is very stupid. The Rebels will not land here. Especially in this weather.

They will be 125.

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landing in Calais or Dunkerque. Not here. Those planes were a ruse, nothing more."

The worried sentry was not convinced. He started to lift his binoculars to his eyes, then gave that up as a bad idea. The visibility was zero.

He could not see five feet in front of him. He cussed and lowered his binoculars.

"Launch boats," Ben said. The boats were small, with m.u.f.fled engines that could scarcely be heard a dozen yards away.

Ben was in the first boat, over the very loud and often profane objections of his batt corns. He had given orders for his people to inflate life vests as soon as they were in the boats, for the water was very cold.

Ike's SEAL teams were already ash.o.r.e, guiding the boats in with tiny flashes thajt could be seen only through special lenses. ; "Almost there," Ben said. "That water is going to take your breath away when you hit it, so be forewarned."

Since Jersey was barely five feet tall, Ben had, without her knowledge, arranged for a tall Rebel to stay with her and make certain she didn't flounder in the deep water. "Just don't grab her by the b.u.t.t," Ben cautioned the man. "She'll think it's Cooper and knock the p.i.s.s out of you." ; The fog was just beginning to clear when Ben and his Rebels touched French soil and made a dash for the dunes on the beach. But the rain had intensified, and that saved them from being spotted. They ditched their life vests and began crawling toward the low dunes.

The SEAL teams, as soon as they had guided the boats in, began their deadly work on the sentries. They 126William W. Johnstone could not take them out prior to the boats landing because the Rebels'

communications people had found that each sentry was checking in with somebody by radio every five minutes. Failure to report would have spelled disaster for the entire operation. As it was, Ben felt that luck was fast running out for them. It was going too smoothly. Something had to break.

It did. Just as a special op made his knife thrust, the sentry turned and the blade struck jawbone and glanced off. The sentry screamed, and the cold rain was suddenly warmed up considerably with gunfire.

Ben pulled himself to one knee and gave the flashes from a machine-gun nest a full clip of .45-caliber slugs. The machine gun fell silent. Ben rolled behind a small dune and slipped in another clip. Corrie flopped down on the wet sand beside him.

"Ike is facing heavy resistance in Cherbourg," she panted. "Dan and Rebet just blew through Bayeux and are pushing hard to get here. General Striganov reports he has a toehold in Le Harve."

Ben leaned close to be heard over the rattle and roar of gunfire. "Tell Raul to push in from the right flank, Jackie to push in from the left.

Just as soon as the flanking maneuver is complete, tell Greenwalt we're going over the top at my command."

"That d.a.m.n Scolotti grabbed me by the a.s.s," Jersey b.i.t.c.hed, falling down between Ben and Cooper.

"Felt good, didn't it?" Cooper said, coughing up seawater.

"Cooper," Jersey said, shaking the sand off her M-16, "one of these days . . .".

"Promises, promises," Cooper said.

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Fire from a heavy machine gun stopped the conversation for a moment. A Rebel tossed a Fire-Frag grenade and the machine-gun nest went silent.

Ben was up and running, zigging and zagging, his team right behind him.

Those Rebels who could see Ben surged forward, gaining another twenty or so yards.

"If we're on this beach at sunrise, we're dead meat!" Ben shouted over the gunfire and explosions.

"Jackie and Raul are moving inland, flanking," Cor-rie returned the shout.

"Getting light in the east, boss," Beth said.

Ben rose to his knees. "Let's go!" he shouted. "Follow me. Go, go, go!"

With a roar of defiance, the Rebels moved forward. The defenders of the coastline must have thought there were many more Rebels than therereally were, for when they saw the misty shapes moving toward them, many of the defenders broke and ran. They crossed the coastline highway and hotfooted it to the east.

Those that stayed died.

When the rain had changed to a drizzle and then finally stopped, and first faint rays of the sun broke through the grayness, the Rebels were in command of Omaha Beach.

Before the Great War, Cherbourg had been a busy town of about fifty thousand people. Most of the population had been driven off, and it was now a haven for modem-day pirates and slavers. Ike and his people established a toehold in the harbor and began driving 128.

William W. Johnstone inland, with Pat O'Shea cutting away from the main group to take the airport a few miles outside of the city.

Dan Gray and Rebet had roared through the town of Bayeux, putting the few defenders there into a rout. They had commandeered anything with wheels on it, including motor scooters and bicycles, and were now driving, rolling, and pedaling toward Ben's position on the coast.

Georgi Striganov and his forces were in a hard battle with creepies. Le Harve, once the second largest port in France, and a major city of more than two hundred thousand, was proving to be a tough nut to crack. Buddy and his special ops people, at Striganov's orders, had angled off and set up just outside the town of Bolbec, and spreading down to the small town of Pont de Tancarville, closing off any escape by the creepies. For the next two days it would be search and destroy for Georgi's 5 Batt, Danjou's 7 Batt, and Tina's 9 Batt.

Ben and his people had moved inland and were nearing the town of Bayeux, linking up with Dan and Rebet and members of the French Resistance Forces. The FRF. Greenwalt and his 11 Batt had stayed on the beach to oversee the off-loading of tanks and trucks and other supplies from ships now approaching the coast.

"We'll push down to within a few miles of Caen and hold up there," Ben told his people. "We don't want to get too far ahead of the others. Caen is filled with creeps, so we'll have to dig them out. But we'll wait for armor before we do."

"Ike and Georgi have taken the harbor areas and are ready for supplies,"

Corrie said. "The airports at 129.

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both cities are ready to receive planes from England."

"Get them airborne. I want all battalions on the Continent as quickly as possible. I want every MASH unit we've got set up ASAP. I want to know what types of diseases we're facing over here and our people inoculated.

Where is Doctor Chase?""He's ash.o.r.e and should be here in a few minutes."

"Make sure every Rebel has a Pro-kit. I'll court-martial anyone who comes dojsvn with a venereal disease. Make G.o.dd.a.m.n sure they all know that."

"Right, boss."

"There are venereal diseases over here that our medical people have never even seen before. Make sure that everybody knows that!"

"Right, boss."

"In other words," Cooper sjaid, "all the men keep their p.e.c.k.e.rs in their pants and i all the ladies keep their legs crossed." ; "I couldn't have stated it better, Coop," Ben said, to the groans of Beth, Corrie, and Jersey.

Duffy Williams had argued for months for the major gang leaders to come together. It took a Rebel invasion to finally accomplish that.

The leaders of the eleven biggest gangs in France and several dozen leaders of smaller gangs met in Tours to attempt to map out some sort of strategy. Just a month before, they had been a swaggering, arrogant bunch. Now they sat silent as Duffy walked to the front of the room.

"We can do one of three things," Duffy said. "We 130.

William W. Johnstone can run, we can surrender, or we can fight. But we'd better, by G.o.d, make up our minds one way or the other today. Because we're running out of time."

"Run where?" Tom Spivey asked.