The First Love Of Alipang Havens

In Rapid City, the woman bureaucrat calling herself Whipstrike Diamond had been making herself useful: this, with vague ideas of taking over the job of her immediate supervisor, the lazy and cowardly Undersecretary of Distribution who was still hiding inside Harney's Peak. Determining what landline telephone connections were still working, Whipstrike had facilitated the passing of information in many directions. The information she handled included the success of Karen Milligan and Hal Quigley at keeping the Aztlanos out of Thundering Mist and Spirit Smoke respectively, the death of Mark Terrell, and the arrival of eight Texan Great Condors to begin wiping out all Aztlano ground forces they could find.

Whipstrike was able to get word to the friendly attack helos that there were now Aztlanos invading Yellowstone; but at the time she got through to the tactical-air unit, she knew nothing about the Bucaneros' go-for-broke plan involving the continental supervolcano. She therefore could not give the rescuing aerial cavalry any cause to head for the geothermal plants in preference to doing what they were already doing. But with some prompting from a bystanding Avery Glass, she did make one worthwhile application of the information she did have about Yellowstone.

The Amish residents of the Enclave, their convictions prohibiting them to contribute anything at all to the Enclave's defense (besides running away), had formed an idea of trying to reason with the Aztec-Maoists. Ransom Kramer had been dubious of the benefits to be obtained by this course of action, but had felt himself obligated to force himself to agree with the men who were now his own freely-chosen spiritual mentors. There had been telephone contact with several Amish, and other noncombatant Christians, who were working with Sister Arabella over at Saint Labre -- these including the Evan Rand and Vance Desmond families. As of Saturday afternoon, with aviation activity seeming to decrease, the plan had been formed for two groups of optimistic pacifists to converge in the area straight north of Casper, so as to try to meet the main invasion force and offer it apple pies and fresh milk.

Whipstrike's updating of information had come in time to modify the diplomatic plan. The two groups would now converge in the vicinity of the geothermal power stations.

And, sharing a scrounged-up truck with some of the Saint Labre people, Peter Tomisaburo was also on the way to Yellowstone early on Sunday morning. He told none of his companions that he was armed.... but he had offered a suggestion which might make the diplomacy more effective, without offending pacifist scruples about killing evildoers.

The foodstuffs the Saint Labre contingent was bringing to offer to Los Bucaneros were now generously but inconspicuously seasoned with tranquilizers from the intake center's pharmacy.

On exactly one point, Ransom Kramer did make his voice heard. Although the Amish leaders were allergic to specifying just what heartless gangsters might do to defenseless persons, Ransom contrived to find sufficiently watered-down language to tell his beautiful fiancee Lydia that the Aztlanos, cough cough, just possibly might not respect her purity if they saw her. Lydia's parents grasped the point better than Lydia did, and excused Lydia from the expedition.

Vance and Polly Desmond were not at all naive about what was likely to ensue; but while they did leave Sheri and Lambert in the care of Sister Arabella, they felt themselves unable to gainsay the words of Reagan, their firstborn:

"Mom, Dad, you know that God holds my life in His hand. He gave it back to me when that virus would have killed me; and I don't believe He kept me alive so that I could hide and be afraid."
 
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Nebraska Sector had all its hostiles mopped up, and had been able to make this fact known to the Texan attack-helicopter crews who had come to the Enclave's aid. But this communication was difficult -- because, whatever losses the Aztlano thug-soldiers had sustained in military hardware, they did now have communications jammers working in several spots. This prevented the Texan rescuers from hearing when Los Bucaneros broadcast their threat to drop heavy penetration bombs right into the Old Faithful geyser, setting off the supervolcano underlying the North American continent.

What remained of the disintegrating Diversity States government did hear the threat. So did the Canadians, the Alchatkans, and the first African Union peacekeeping force to land on the Atlantic Seaboard. It gave them pause.

The Apaches, Navajos, and other Indian tribes rising up against the Aztec-Maoist Party, got word of the threat, but didn't believe it. They pressed forward to capture Los Angeles. But Emilio Formentera had gotten his aerial convoy underway, leaving his most fanatical Aztec-Maoist gunmen behind to die defending an abandoned Presidential Palace.

Enclave defenders who were no longer needed in Nebraska Sector wanted to head west and see if there was action for them in Wyoming Sector; but vehicles with any remaining fuel or battery-charge were few. Two men who were capable of riding horses undertook to ride west on their own, each with a spare mount to increase their travel speed. The two men were Forest Ranger Kostas Demophilos and Grange volunteer Porter Hennepin. The latter, to supplement his Grange weapons, was provided with four infrasonic stun-grenades.

Riding through the night on the shoulders of old paved highways, Kostas and Porter lucked out when each was finding both his horses tiring: they came upon a farm where they could leave off their horses, gulp some coffee, and borrow fresh horses. In this fashion, they were drawing near the burned city of Casper on Sunday morning, around the time when the Amish and other non-combatants were making ready to try their inordinately optimistic diplomatic gesture.
 
Emilio Vasquez had not been able to track down Vitaly Khloponin. He had persisted in the attempt, because he was aware of the aerial reinforcements taking care of business behind him, so he knew he was not immediately needed back at Natrona. Word even reached him that the newly-arrived Texan expatriates had been informed about the brain-tampering suffered by Roosevelt Hill and others, and that they would be able to bring in the appropriate equipment to reverse the tampering. So Emilio had kept hunting for the former Commander of the Campaign Against Hate, glad to feel more like a police officer again and less like a besieged general.

Fuel running short obliged him, after sunset, to use the night-vision capability of his canopy and find a place to touch down, on a ridge top along the west edge of the Big Horn Range. He still had enough fuel to make one more straight-line, one-way flight to someplace, if he knew _where_ he should go. And he had his remaining particle-beam shot; it seemed a shame not to use it.

Setting a wake-up alarm in the cockpit, he slept for two hours. Awakening, he scanned frequencies on his cognitive radio, which had reserve power accumulated by solar cells during the day. Thus he learned of the ceremonious arrival in Washington of Miranda Bhekisisa, Thomas Guduza, and Carson Westmore: respectively, the Chairwoman of the African Union Commission, the African Union's General Ambassador to the United Nations, and the U.N. Ambassador from Liberia. They were in America to receive the formal turnover of power from the disintegrating Fairness Party, clearing the way for the national government of Liberia to claim possession of all Diversity States territory which was not otherwise claimed by claimants more legitimate than the Aztec-Maoists.

This process did not get far, however. Once the ultimatum came from Los Bucaneros, demanding the surrender of the _whole_ North American continent to Aztlan, and threatening to explode the supervolcano if the demand was rejected. Bhekisisa and Guduza hastily departed with their entourage.

Emilio called the Great Condor squadron under maximum encryption, to ask for guidance. He was told that the Mexican government, on their behalf, was secretly communicating with India, in hopes that the Indian intelligence network, much more intact right now than the Chinese one, could provide some overhead-satellite information to help them determine what to do.

After a spell of agonized waiting, a call came to Helicopter 343, in the voice of Texas Ranger Brianna Wallace:

"Lieutenant, we got through to the Indians! The next voice you hear will be one of their intelligence analysts."

An accented male voice followed: one which Emilio felt sure he had heard before. "Emilio Vasquez? Listen carefully. This is the engineer who gave you your anti-gravity emitter. I have a summary of the enemy dispositions in Yellowstone..." The Indian proceeded to upload to the helicopter's tactical computer a series of satellite images, portraying the whole current scene around the two geothermal plants and Old Faithful, with force-composition data. The spy then reverted to voice, adding: "Here's more. The Chinese have informed us that their agent, Peter Tomisaburo, is accompanying an Amish civilian party that is attempting to placate the Aztlanos. If he can get near the tower the Aztlanos are setting up to hold their penetration bombs in position, his micro-whip can bring down the tower.

"If Tomisaburo fails, _you_ are the last chance of stopping the bombing of the supervolcano. The Aztlanos now know where your gunship reinforcements are; if these come nearer to Yellowstone, the bombs will be used. But they are not giving thought to your own helo, which is insignificant in _their_ minds..."


 
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Emilio could not get through the enemy jamming to talk to Natrona; but at Natrona, the Texas Ranger personnel finally heard from the friendly tactical air contingent. Its cognitive radios had picked up a hard-beam transmission from India, providing the same information that had been given to Emilio. The commander of the Great Condors reluctantly judged that the Aztlanos would be especially looking out for these formidable gunships -- and would instantly blow up Yellowstone if they saw the gunships coming, or even saw what _might_ be their blur-cloaks approaching.

But Ranger Bob Chesterton, having gotten a light plane fueled with Brianna Wallace's fuel remnant, insisted on flying up toward Yellowstone in this. It would not look like a combat aircraft; and just getting _some_ Rangers up near the scene of the threat might result in an opportunity to take _some_ useful action.

Brianna herself, and Jared Hart, joined Chesterton on the flight, carrying as much in the way of small arms as they could. They didn't realize that they would very shortly be carrying golden crowns instead, to cast at the feet of Jesus in Heaven.

As Emilio Formentera's aerial convoy crossed into Enclave airspace, one of the escorting fighters acquired Bob Chesterton's plane on his radar. The Great Condors were grounded because of Major-General Ybarra's ultimatum, but Formentera's escort pilots were nervous enough to open fire on _anything_ airborne. The Ranger plane was indeed not a combat aircraft, and lacked any stealth technology, or even the electronics to give an alarm when painted by fire-control radar. The Aztlano jets were obsolescent; but they didn't _need_ to be the latest thing, to mount air-to-air missiles with a range of better than a hundred kilometers.

Brianna, Bob and Jared had no time to realize what was happening to them, before they found themselves being awarded a new type of wings.

Back in the mortal universe, the remaining Rangers at Natrona managed a visual sighting of the aggressor aircraft -- and opened fire on these planes furiously with all of the railguns they had accumulated. Ultimatum or no ultimatum, they were not going to be passive in the face of someone actually _shooting_ at their fellow Rangers.
 
Not related, but that IS why I decided to give that surname to one of my Texan heroes. Similarly, I named another of the Texas Rangers Rip Falkirk because as boy I read a sci-fi novel with a hero named Rip Foster. And my most faithful readers already know the surname Havens is in the story to honor the mother's-side family of my deceased first wife Mary Scudellari Ravitts.
 
Swapnil Vamsa, the gangster from India who was supporting the Aztlano invasion, had wanted to be in on the action. He had gone along one of the utility-tunnel routes, accompanied by his own henchmen and TWO of the strength-boosted men from Nora Daley's laboratory. Emerging farther west than most of the combat action, this team had lucked out initially, with chances to do entertaining violence to defenseless victims.

But their luck had changed when the Great Condors came sweeping to the Enclave's rescue. Caught in the act of committing unspeakable acts, some of Swapnil's thugs had been captured alive as one Great Condor used sonic stunning to incapacitate them without harming their victims. But the super-strong gangsters had been able to resist the level of stunning energy being used, and had made a run for it. Since they were FIRING back at the Texans as they ran.... they did not live to run very far.

Thus, their strength did them no more good than the strength of one of their compadres had done him when shot by Eric Havens.

Swapnil and his three remaining gunmen had fled in a stolen truck. But after an hour or longer of dodging, trying not to be noticed, it had run out of fuel. They found themselves near some buildings -- among which only Swapnil was quick enough to take cover when another Great Condor appeared. This was just before the ultimatum from the Aztlano general caused the Condors to suspend operations. While his men died shooting at the Condors, the Rajput Racketeer kept fleeing, as inconspicuously as possible.

An abandoned bicycle helped him to cover more ground. He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he came in sight of the Gas Hills uranium complex. This place having repelled its attackers, there were civilians wandering back and forth.

Swapnil approached a group of women. One was black, one looked Middle Eastern, and three others were white.

"You another of them ___________ white supremacists?" the black woman snapped. One of the white women -- none other than Vera Strother, the dentist with whom Alipang had worked for a brief while -- had more discernment than Aretha Shabazz, and called for help.

Swapnil drew his gun and shot both of these women dead on the spot.

But he wasn't watching Salwa Jalalu.... who moved with startling speed, scooping up a large rock and smashing the Indian-mafia chieftain's head with it. She struck the murderer again, and again, and again, until he was unrecognizable; then she fell to the ground and wept inconsolably for the lady dentist who had been kind to her.

No one grieved much for the ever-quarrelsome Aretha Shabazz. No one grieved AT ALL for Swapnil Vamsa, whose body ended up being left for the coyotes.
 
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Ulrich Reinhart was in the lead as the largely Amish peace contingent came within sight of the Aztlanos gathered around Old Faithful Geyser. The geyser had just completed an eruption six minutes previously, which had suspended the erecting of the bomb-holding tower. But now Los Bucaneros were swiftly assembling the prefabricated structure, along with a mobile crane to lift the penetration bombs onto it.

Ramon Ybarra was there. When he saw the noncombatants approaching, he sent a man whom he addressed as Lieutenant Sepulveda to challenge them. Two soldiers with automatic rifles accompanied him.

It crossed Ulrich's mind that his life had been saved from the grizzly bear a year and a half ago, so that he would live to serve Christ at _this_ moment in _this_ place.

Hailed in Spanish, Ulrich said meekly, "Forgive me, friends, but I don't speak Spanish. Do you--?"

His only answer was the stroke of a riflebutt to his head. His wife Greta dropped, screaming, to cling to him. Hanging on to consciousness, Ulrich soothed her before trying to stand up again. Lieutenant Sepulveda now deigned to speak in English:

"Don't move, gringos! You are trespassers on the rightful territory of The Race! Those who are allowed to live, _will_ be required to master the _proper_ language of this continent! Now, why have you disturbed us?"

As it happened, none of the Amish persons present had anything like an adequate command of Spanish -- except their young convert. Ransom Kramer stepped into the silence, forcing himself not to look at the injured uncle of his fiancee Lydia. In Spanish, he told Sepulveda, "We are pacifists. We have no part in any war. We came to offer you refreshments, as a token of peace and reconciliation." He gestured toward the members of his party who were holding baskets and jugs brought from the truck which had been the main vehicle of their caravan. "Surely our differences can be settled without-- Surely we can reason together?"

Sepulveda, his two riflemen, and another three Aztlanos who had drifted closer, all burst into laughter. One of the latter barked out a series of obscenities in Spanish, until the Lieutenant silenced him and spoke to Ransom:

"Do you think we are as stupid as you are? We already _have_ settled the differences, by _conquering_ you; and now you think you can change it by poisoning us?"

"The food and drink are not poisoned," said Ransom. "If you like, I'll eat some in front of you, to prove it's safe."

"That will prove nothing, gringo! I know that poison immunization is widely available now. I should--" But at this point, he was interrupted by a shout from his commander.

"Sepulveda! Move those people over to one side! Watch them, but don't kill any of them until I say so! We have some other fun coming up."

As the prisoners were marched a short distance, Vance and Polly Desmond were trying to stop the bleeding from Ulrich's head even while they were all being forced to walk....and Peter Tomisaburo was calmly watching for the best chance to make his move against the bomb tower. A minute later, a small party came from the direction of the two geothermal power stations. The Aztlano trooper leading this party called out to the Major-General: "Sir, the power plants have surrendered, to prevent us from bombing the geyser! Look at this woman who was inside one of the buildings! She cried and begged us not to touch her; but her own friends dragged her to us and begged us to _take_ her!"

The woman to whom the soldier drew his general's attention was none other than Osmawani Jalil. The Aztlanos didn't know that she was an actress; they didn't know that she had _volunteered_ to draw attention to herself, _pretending_ to beg and plead in terror, so that the cruelty of the Aztec-Maoist barbarians might be diverted from the virginal Amish girls.

Osmawani's plan succeeded, more horribly than she would have liked; but she could not bear the thought of those naive teenage farm girls having to suffer this, if there was any chance she could cause them to be spared. What was done to her was far worse than anything depicted in the "adult" movies she had made for Zimmo Garland; but the Almighty, knowing _why_ Osmawani had offered herself up for this, took a _very_ different view of her action than His view of her past performances.....
 
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Chapter 142: For All the Marbles

Call it good fortune or bad, the mixed group which Alipang and Henry had joined was placed perfectly to intercept those Aztlanos who had gotten a holographic illusion-unit working. As what seemed a flock of sheep had advanced along the prairie land east of Casper, Texas Ranger Tom Noritaka probed them with an electromagnetic-field scanner he carried, and it registered the electrical signature of the holograph projector. The projector was not of a sufficiently sophisticated model to mask that signature. Upon Tom's silent signal, another Texan who had a grenade launcher fired the last grenade he had for it. This was only a smoke grenade, but when it burst among the platoon-sized group of aggressor infantry, it put them in confusion -- and caused the operator of the illusion device to lose control of it.

As soon as the real shapes of the hostiles were even half perceptible, the Enclave defenders poured gunfire into them, then moved laterally before the Aztlanos could be sure of the direction of danger. Alipang and Henry both had rifles their friends had scrounged for them, and simply emptied these to force their foes to duck, while the Texas Rangers and Forest Rangers fired for deadly effect. Using all available cover, the Enclave people whittled away the Aztlanos' greater numbers. Some five minutes after the firefight had begun, the only living Aztlanos were two who were running away with all their might.

They left behind an overlander vehicle, similar to a dune buggy, which seemed to have been carrying their ammunition -- and their now-smashed holograph projector.

But the victors had casualties as well. Tom Noritaka had been killed, and most of the Rangers of both types were wounded. Besides Alipang and Henry, the only uninjured members of the party were Texas Ranger Uriel Morales and Forest Ranger Jewel Pressman.

Dropped enemy weapons were salvaged, and first aid was rendered to the living casualties. Based on their paramedic experience, Alipang and Henry both were confident that their patients were not in imminent peril of dying. Uriel switched on his secure dataphone, calling the few Rangers who remained at Natrona to report the completed action. The stalemated Great Condor crews were also able to hear this report. A moment later, word came back from the airfield about the deaths of Brianna Wallace, Jared Hart and Bob Chesterton; also about the fact that all the enemy planes responsible for these deaths had themselves taken serious damage from retaliatory fire, and seemed likely to make forced landings, possibly near the mixed party's location.

Catching Uriel's eye, Alipang gestured toward the abandoned motor vehicle. "Is that big enough to carry our wounded? Even just our worst wounded?"

Uriel glanced at it. "The two or three _worst_ hurt, anyway, along with Tom's body. The less badly hurt can walk alongside as we drive slowly."

"But as _who_ drives slowly?" asked Jewel. "Do we all stay together to give the most protection to our wounded? Or do some of us go searching for those downed planes?"

"We didn't see or hear them passing close to us," Henry noted. "I'll bet they landed before coming _even_ as far east as us. If they're jump-jets, they might have been able to touch down without any such great crash as we'd be sure to hear. So I suggest we start westward all together--"

"Northwestward," Uriel corrected. "No reason to make our casualties travel all the way back to Natrona, even if all hostiles _have_ been cleared out of the intervening real estate. The camp up there by Teapot Creek is good enough to head for; they have some medical supplies."

"All right," agreed Alipang. "We'll start together; but at some point, Henry and I might peel off, to scout both for enemies generally, and for those enemy planes in particular. Who knows, there might be someone interesting on board them."

"After all this," grunted Jewel, gazing at the deceased Ranger Noritaka, "my idea of 'interesting' is enemies that I can take some satisfaction from killing."

"Not so hasty," said Alipang. "If we're too obvious about payback, the gangsters up in Yellowstone may just call an eternal time-out on this continent."
 
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By a series of encrypted calls, Uriel was able to ascertain that they had a clear path ahead of them to take their wounded to Teapot Creek. Soon after this, Forest Ranger Demophilos contacted Uriel, reporting that he and Porter Hennepin were converging on them.

From a piece of high ground on the way, looking east by northeast, Alipang caught sight of what must be the downed Aztlano planes. They had, after all, made it farther east than Alipang's group had guessed. A hasty conference led to a decision. Uriel would proceed on for Teapot Creek with the casualties, letting one of them take over driving the vehicle while he walked, ready to shoot if necessary. Alipang, Henry and Jewel would try to pass by the Aztlanos on the south, and meet up with their friends from Nebraska Sector before those came near enough to run into the hostiles.

Jewel had a dataphone, but with less encryption capability than Uriel's. Jewel and Uriel were both government officers, so they could trade phones. Uriel would not need maximum comms security on the home stretch, and now Jewel could keep secretly in touch with friendlies. One more call warned Kostas and Porter to veer further south to avoid prematurely encountering the Aztlanos; then Alipang, Henry and Jewel, all in good aerobic shape, set out on foot at a jog to meet their mounted friends. As they went, Jewel heard that whoever was around the downed planes was not leaving the location. "They may be expecting help from their own side," Jewel remarked to Alipang and Henry.

It was late in the day when the three trotting east caught sight of the two riding west. They exchanged news, and inventoried their total weapons. Porter had two full quivers of arrows, so he lent one to Henry to use with the Everstrain longbow.

Pausing for a mouthful of rations, the five Enclave defenders left the horses behind and began sneaking closer to where the aircraft had come down.

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

In his solitary travels, Vitaly Khloponin had hit a windfall: a former Overseer facility, whose fence, now lacking electric charge, he had been able to tear down. Likewise breaking down the locked door, he had been able to requisition an abandoned suit of Overseer's reflective body armor.... and one of the Overseers' electric motorcycles, which still held a battery charge for its motor, though its particle beam had been removed. Receiving a distress call from his new master Emilio Formentera, he had started back southeast on the old highways, as fast as he could get the motorcycle to go.

At the time Alipang and his companions reached a spot where they could observe the forced-landing site, Khloponin was less than an hour away.
 
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Of the five Enclave defenders watching the downed Aztlano planes, only the two Forest Rangers had been in a position anytime recently to peruse the mass media; and only Kostas Demophilos had paid much attention to political news in particular. So it was Kostas who first recognized the President of the People's Aztec-Maoist Republic of Aztlan when he came in view.

"God bless us, that's Emilio Formentera!" he hissed to the others. "We've got our own bargaining chip now, to abort the supervolcano bombing!"

"Maybe not," Jewel whispered back. "He and his cronies were prepared to die blowing up this continent; will our threatening to kill him sooner make any difference?"

"It's worth a try," said Porter, catching Henry's eye and pulling an arrow from his quiver.

Henry nodded. "We take out the armed guys fast, then close in to grab him."

"Wait!" whispered Alipang. "Look who _else_ is with him!"

Government facilities even in the Enclave had prominently displayed pictures of Jessica Trevette in her true likeness, not the altered image that she had offered for streamcasting; and each of the three Grange volunteers had seen these pictures as surely as the two Forest Rangers had. All five knew that either Trevette herself, or a convincing double, had just walked up alongside El Presidente Formentera; and none of them could imagine any reason why Formentera's current plans had any need for a _fake_ Jessica Trevette.

"Okay, we let her live too," muttered Kostas; "until she stands trial."

Alipang gestured for everyone's attention. "I'm probably the poorest marksman, so let me do the call for surrender once you take out the immediate threats."

Less than fifteen seconds later, silent arrows had ruthlessly slain the five armed guards who were visible. One second after that, as Kostas and Jewel drew beads with their rifles, Alipang leaped into the sight of the two enemy leaders. He held a rifle as well, and did not happen to mention to the hostiles that it only contained another two rounds.

"Formentera, don't move! You're covered! Try anything, and you and that slippery witch will be in Hell before you can say 'proletariat.' If you have any more men hidden, order them to come forth with hands raised! I won't tell you again!"
 
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Four unarmed men in flight suits emerged from behind El Presidente's jump-jet with hands raised. Two more came from the direction of a downed escort jet. Alipang said to Henry, "My Spanish is poor. Tell them to walk over to one side, where we can keep an eye on them, and lie on their stomachs with their hands in plain view." Coming up alongside his friend, Henry gave orders in Spanish accordingly. The grounded aviators obeyed, and so did Emilio Formentera.

But Jessica Trevette suddenly dashed straight toward Alipang and Henry. Since her hands were empty, none of the Enclave defenders shot her. "Slow down, miss," Alipang began to say, but further words from him were cut short by her frantic jabbering.

"Save me, save me! You're Doctor Havens, aren't you? Formentera's a bloody loosh, worse than his father! I swear to Gaia, I never knew about this volcano-bombing strategy until today! Promise you won't kill me, and I'll give you the secret abort code that I found out from him! Then you can stop the whole--"

The suggestion that she might be able to cause the enemy force in Yellowstone to stand down was worth a hearing. Thus, as his left hand kept hold of his rifle, Alipang gestured with his right hand for everyone with him to stand by and allow Jessica to speak. But his openness to any hope of avoiding genocide did not cancel out his martial instincts. His eyes caught a stirring in one sleeve-cuff on the jacket the ex-President was wearing....

Like a spring-sheath dagger, a compact electric shock-rod leaped out of Jessica's left sleeve into her hand when she was close to him. Her right hand was ready to try to grab away Alipang's rifle. But Alipang's right hand closed directly on the business end of the shock-rod, as his left arm swung the rifle farther back out of reach. The electrical weapon broke apart in a shower of sparks as Alipang crushed it-- without injury to himself.

More accustomed to fighting wild beasts than armed humans, Henry had not spotted Jessica's hidden device. Its abrupt appearance and abrupt destruction startled him enough that he also failed to notice one of the Aztlano airmen trying to get to the fallen gun of one of the dead guards. But Kostas did notice, and that airman died with a bullet through his brain. This outcome halted Formentera's tentative effort to draw a hidden gun of his own. Kostas made sure that El Presidente's pistol was now tossed aside.

As for Jessica, there still was fight in her. Instead of giving up and asking why Alipang had been unaffected by her shock-rod, she attempted a crotch kick, which Alipang blocked, then a throat punch, which he also blocked, then a wild roundhouse kick, which he caught with the same hand that had crushed her weapon-- and spilled her on her ex-presidential rear end.

Henry and the rest closed in on the captured men. Jewel Pressman, also fluent in Spanish, told Formentera, "That bruja with you said there was a mission-abort code for your bombs at Old Faithful. What is it?"

Emilio Formentera replied with a burst of obscene filth which did not sound like a military stand-down signal; so Jewel gave him a kick which succeeded much better than Jessica's attempt against Alipang.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Meanwhile, Vitaly Khloponin, evading Enclave defenders as he homed in on the emergency radio beacon from El Presidente's plane, picked up stragglers from his own side: three members of the gang Los Lagartos, who had stolen an Agriculture Department truck and were trying to flee south. Placing his motorcycle in their way, Vitaly induced them to stop, identified himself, and told them, "You have to come with me, to rescue President Formentera!"

Their minds being focused on self-preservation, the three Lagartos were inclined to argue. But a moment later, the two surviving Lagartos forgot to argue, as they stared in disbelief at the remains of the man who had argued the hardest of the three. Vitaly had literally torn this man's head right off his neck, and hurled it fifty meters away like a baseball.

After this, it was a motorcycle and a truck heading for the plane-crash site.
 
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Seeing that President Formentera was not going to be talking for the next minute or two, Alipang crouched beside the supine Ex-President Trevette. "In case you wondered why your shock-rod couldn't hurt me, it's because I now have electricity-resistant skin. Enhancement experiment. Now, what about you? Are you going to tell me how to abort the volcano-bombing mission?"

Jessica's preferred obscenities came in English. Although she had never met Alipang before today, she had heard of him. While still in the Rainbow House, she had read dossiers on all the most prominent Biblicals relocated to the Western Enclave. Everything available about Alipang had indicated that he never did any violence to anyone without serious provocation, and that he was an incurable primitive where women were concerned-- meaning that he was extremely reluctant to do violence to any female. Here Jessica had just attacked him physically, and he had used no more force than necessary to stop her. Now, he was not hitting her or choking her or even shaking her; only sitting, looking at her, giving her a chance to answer his question.

If he weren't also a primitive in monogamy, Jessica reflected, I'll bet I could charm him into helping me escape. Let him think that, once defeated by him physically, I was ready to melt in his hands.... Well, I have to deal with him as he is. It still is something that he isn't eager to kill me.

"There is no abort code," she finally told her captor. "We expected all along that your government would soil itself in fear and capitulate."

"You know what, I believe you," replied Alipang; "since when _you_ were in charge of that government, you worked around the clock to _make_ it a government of cowards, ready to murder your _own_ defenseless citizens anytime, but afraid to stand up to any military threat. But with or without a formal code signal, it has to be possible for you to order your detachment in Yellowstone to cease hostilities."

"Why should we?" Jessica sneered. "Washington _will_ surrender. As for that, no nation in the Western Hemisphere Union is unaffected by our threat, so they'll _unanimously_ call on the Diversity States, and Mexico, and Canada, and Alchatka, to yield to Aztlan's authority."

"You forgot one power on the North American continent, and _that_ power is the one defending the Western Enclave."

Trying to maintain her customary smug self-assurance, Jessica forced a laugh. "You mean the cowboys from Texas? What can they do?"

"Who do you think shot down your planes?" Alipang retorted. "But enough of this." He looked past her. "Jewel, did your dataphone pick up enough of Miss Trevette's voice?" Jewel Pressman had no idea what he was talking about; but Alipang acted as if she had nodded, and spoke again: "Good. Now you can call up the Yellowstone attackers in Trevette's voice, and tell them that Formentera wants them to hold off on the explosions."

Her enchantingly beautiful face twisted with sudden fury, Jessica-- believing Alipang's words to be true, since the deception he described was perfectly feasible for modern technology-- tried to kick him from where she lay on the ground. Brushing off the awkward attack, Alipang suspended Mister Nice Guy, pulling her up to a sitting position by her hair, and giving her the leathery palm of his hand hard enough to make her skull ring like noon chimes.

"Jewel will be able to pull up archive recordings of El Presidente's voice in a few minutes," he told the beautiful mass murderer. "Then we can follow up your postponement message with confirmation in _his_ voice. Which means we don't _need_ you anymore. And I haven't forgotten that members of my family, like my Uncle Doug and Aunt Tracy, were murdered by _your_ orders."

He pulled her up to her feet from her sitting position, to force her back down in a kneeling position. "Your Overseers and Pinkshirts enjoyed mocking Christian prisoners, taunting us with questions about why our God wasn't setting us free. Well, now let's see if Mother Gaia or the Solar Influence will save _your_ life."

Gathering in one hand as much as possible of the hair at the back of Jessica's head, Alipang opened his high-grade balisong knife and cut off that hair within two centimeters of the woman's scalp. Then he forced her into a new position once more: flat on her belly.

"There, now I have a good clear target for my hand axe," he told her. "Probably won't need more than three or four strokes to take off your head. But I'll need to go much slower if I want you to feel a separate cut for _every_ person dear to me who--"

"NO! NO! PLEASE, NO!" the former tyrant of the D.S.A. sobbed in terror. "Please don't kill me, please, please give me another chance-- IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!"

Right then, Kostas Demophilos, who had been dividing his attention between those dealing with Formentera and what Alipang was doing with Jessica, made a "Stop!" gesture toward Alipang. Seeing that he had caught the warrior-dentist's eye, Kostas pointed to Formentera, who was visibly recovered from Jewel's kick and looked as if he were going to do what he was told.

Alipang nodded to the Forest Ranger, then tapped one finger on the master criminal's shoulder. "Can you tell me anything useful, to help make sure your men accept the stand-down order?"

"Yes," she whimpered. "You need the name of the officer in charge at Old Faithful. He is Major-General Ramon Ybarra. And, although there wasn't an abort code specfically for that mission, 'Guadalajara' serves as a message preamble to show urgency. That will make the call more authentic."

Suddenly, Henry was leaning over Jessica. "Guess what, princess? The rest of us _already_ found that out from your lover-boy. So _you're_ useless now."

Jessica exploded into fresh begging: "Please, no, I don't want to die, please, you've got to--!"

Alipang smiled at Henry, certain that the Christian was in command over the Apache in his friend's heart. "Stop scaring her," he half-chuckled. Then he turned Jessica face-up and let her see an unthreatening expression on his face.

"I was bluffing about hacking your head off. I don't kill for fun. But your way of pleading for your life was well chosen. Although you're _certain_ to find out when you die that the Lord Jesus is real, I would not want you to pass out of this world believing that His name bears no authority. You called for mercy in His name, and I'll give what mercy I can. You have crimes to answer for; but subject to the safety of people more innocent than you are, I give you my word that I'll do anything I can to spare your life. Make no mistake, you _deserve_ to die and then fry; but the Living God will receive more satisfaction from redeeming your soul than from sending it into eternal darkness."

 
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The defenders holed up inside the two geothermal plants had seen imagery, transmitted to the communication systems of both power plants from a dataphone carried by one of the Aztlanos. The imagery first gave a schematic of a deep-penetration bomb; then a chart of how these bombs were to be set up on a tower over the mouth of Old Faithful; and last, a live image of the invaders gathered around Major-General Ybarra, with the bombs, a crane, the completed tower-- and the partly Amish, all defenseless party of civilian captives.

Karen Milligan, sometime Undersecretary of Sustainable Energy, knew the feasibility of cracking open the continental supervolcano with those bombs. Even without the bombs, there were the hostages; and if Aztlan actually triumphed, retaining possession of two geothermal plants for awhile would not matter. So Ms. Milligan reluctantly ordered all the defenders in both buildings to give themselves up. Her party emerged from Thundering Mist, and Hal Quigley's from Spirit Smoke.

Once everyone was in the open and disarmed, the thanks she got for this from the Aztlanos was to be shot through the head. Her mind had just enough time for two movements of thought before she died. The first was to realize that the Texas Rangers had always been right about the possibility of appeasing evildoers. The second -- and this was the one which produced a desirable result for her in eternity -- was to ask the Lord Jesus to forgive her for having been a party to persecuting His followers.

The Apostle Paul himself had a few pertinent things to tell her from his own experience, when he welcomed Karen into Heaven. Also present, also with relevant observations to make about last-minute salvation, was The Thief From The Right-Hand Cross. They were joined a moment later by Hal Quigley, who as leader of the other defending party had been shot after Karen was.

Back below on Earth, in the Western Enclave, the surviving members of Karen Milligan's little band were hustled away from Spirit Smoke and Thundering Mist, toward where the main Aztlano airborne group waited. One prisoner, however, was not at once moved with the rest. Having wounded one Aztlano trooper with a pistol shot while resistance was still continuing, and being by far the best-looking woman present even after the violence just committed upon her, Osmawani Jalil was detained by a fresh group of four thugs, who promised to bring her along -- in whatever condition -- after they had indulged in what they considered well-earned amusement with her. Osmawani tried not to give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

She had managed not to scream for her first assailants, but she was not to blame for failing in the same intention this time.

= = = = = = = = = =

At the geyser-bombing site, an urgent cognitive-radio call came from El Presidente, directed to the dataphone of Ramon Ybarra. Letting no one else hear, Ybarra said, "What is your situation, Presidente?"

It was the actual Emilio Formentera who was calling, not a synthesized imitation. Henry Spafford had informed the dictator that he, Henry, knew some of the more colorful games which past generations of Apaches had played with expendable captives. "They should interest you, Senor Formentera, since you reportedly like to re-enact Aztec human sacrifices." Formentera had accordingly made the call to Ybarra.

"General, this is a 'Guadalajara' call. The tactical situation has changed. It may not be necessary to continue the supervolcano threat. If the bombs are in position on their tower, I want you to remove them from there at once. Take no further action with the bombs until I am able to join you."

Since no one else at his location was hearing this, Ybarra said out loud, "Yes, Presidente, I will obey your dying orders. I will do my best to be a worthy successor to you!" Then he cut off the horrified Formentera, and shouted to his men:

"Compadres! I have sad news. El Presidente Emilio Formentera was mortally injured in a plane crash. With his iron will, he found the strength to call me and let me know. I am his chosen successor in leadership. His last commands to us were to proceed with preparing the bombs for use; to use them if the gringos will not surrender; to disregard any more calls to us claiming to be from him, because those will be technological fakery.... and to offer at least one sacrifice to the Solar Influence in his memory, before we either die gloriously ourselves or become rulers of the continent! All glory to Emilio Formentera! All glory to The Race!"

"And all glory to Presidente Ybarra!" cried Felipe Contreras, realizing which side his bread was now buttered on. Lieutenant Sepulveda was quick to emulate him.
 
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