"William W Johnstone - Ashes 30 - Tyranny in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

more and more people wanted to become citizens of the new nation called
the Southern United States of America: SUSA.

I Ben and the Rebels fought for several years, clearing the I cities of
the vicious gangs and growing larger and stronger I while the SUSA
spread out.

I In only a few years, the Rebel Army became the largest land most
powerful army on the face of the earth . . . with I the possible
exception of China. No one knew what was going Ion in China, for that
nation had sealed its borders and cut I off nearly all communication
with the outside world. I A few more years drifted by while the Rebels
roamed the I world at the request of the newly formed United Nations, I
kicking ass and stabilizing nations as best they could in the I time
allotted them.

I But back home, the situation was worsening. Outside the I SUSA, the
nation was turning socialistic with sickening I speed. The old FBI was
gone, in its place the FPPS: Federal I Prevention and Protective
Service. It was a fancy title that I fooled no one. The FPPS was the
nation's secret police, and I they were everywhere, bullyboys and thugs.
Day-to-day ac-I tivities of those living in the USA were highly
restricted. The I new Liberal/Socialist government of President for Life
Claire I Osterman and her second in command, Harlan Millard, was now
firmly in control.

There were border guards stationed all along major crossings in every
state. But now many of them had been moved south, to patrol along the
several-thousand-mile border of the SUSA.

A bloody civil war was shaping up between the USA and the SUSA. Rewards
had been placed on the head of Ben

I Raines: a million dollars for his capture, dead or alive. But Ben was
accustomed to that. He'd had rewards-of one kind or another, from one
group or another-on his head for years.

10

Anna, Ben's adopted daughter, had been kidnapped by the FPPS. She was to
be tried as a traitor against the Liberal/Socialist government and
executed. A very highly irritated Ben knew the taking of Anna was
intended to draw him out, for the FPPS was certain Ben would come after
her . . . which he damn sure did, with blood in his eyes. That abortive
move cost the FPPS several dozen agents and accomplished nothing else
for Osterman and her henchman. But it further heightened the already
monumental legend of Ben Raines . . . and made Claire Osterman and her
government look like a pack of incompetent screwups . . . which they
certainly were.