"William W. Johnstone - Ashes 14 - Courage In The Ashes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

COURAGE IN THE ASHES

By William Johnstone




Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is the lightning that does the work.

Mark Twain



Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fearтАФnot absence of fear.

Mark Twain



Book One



1



The Rebels were getting restless and so was Ben Raines. He just hid his impatience better.

Ben Raines and the Rebel army had wintered inCentral California . So effective had been their previous
campaign against the criminal element, the street punks, and Night People in the state that during these
past three months not one shot had been fired in anger.

The Rebels had rested, cleaned weapons, mended gear, stored the supplies that came in on a weekly
basis from Base Camp One, and did the other small things that every garrison since the Roman Legions
have done and bitched about. Now, to a person, they were bored out of their gourds.

The Rebels were not accustomed to this much inactivity, and Ben knew if something wasnтАЩt done to
occupy their minds and bodies they were soon going to be fighting among themselves; it had happened
before. When highly trained personnel turn on each other in anger, it can get rough very quicklyтАФand
sometimes it can get deadly.

Ben called together all his unit commanders one raw February morning.

тАЬIn six weeks weтАЩre going to be heading into some of the toughest fighting weтАЩve ever faced,тАЭ he told
them. тАЬI want the troops in better shape than theyтАЩve ever been in. That goes for everybody, and I
include myself in that. WeтАЩre going to start PT, peopleтАФin the morning, and every morning and every
afternoon until the day before we mount up and shove off. WeтАЩve spent a long, lazy, loafing winter, and
itтАЩs time to shape up. We need to know who needs to be placed on limited duty for a while.
Suggestions?тАЭ