"William W Johnstone - Ashes 22 - Chaos in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

coffee and relax. Simon knows it's going to take us some time to deal
with the groups on the east side of the river. While we're doing that,
he's going to be hard at work building up his army and defenses, right?"

"You got it."

"And Simon Border's people helped arm and supply the rabble, right?"

"Give the man a ci-gar."

"That no-good, hypocritical son of a bitch!"

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Mike smiled. "Right again, boss."

Ben drummed his fingers on the desktop. "Scouts reports that since the
takeover, those on the east side of the Mississippi River, most of them,
have turned once clean, quiet little towns into nothing more than filthy
squatters' camps."

"Right again, for the most part. There are a few who have maintained the
towns and villages, but damn few. Most don't know how to keep the
sewerage and water plants working, and don't know jack-crap about power
plants. It's pretty dismal. We're just about back to ground zero, Ben."

"We won't be for long," Ben said, a grimness behind his words and a hard
glint in his eyes.

As he had done so many times in the past, Ben began walking the long
lines of Rebels, his team a couple of steps behind him. Anna walked
Ben's Husky, Smoot, on a leash. Stretching out for hundreds of yards
were fifteen battalions of Rebels and Therm's short 19 Batt.

Therm's wife, Rosebud, had clouded up like a thunderstorm when Ben
finally relented and gave Therm a front-line command. Ben had quickly
backed down from that and Therm, with a sigh, finally accepted the fact
that he was going to be CO of a short battalion that handled all the
tedious paperwork and logistics and the thousand and one other details
that keep the machinery of war running smoothly.

Ben knew he had grossly underestimated both Simon Border and Harriet
Hooter and her pack of screwballs. He silently vowed never to do that again.

Ben, as always, wore no insignia. He didn't have to.

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William W. Johnstone