The First Love Of Alipang Havens

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 off-road, 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 noncombatants approaching, he sent a man 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.....

2025: This is just using up too much time!
I'm _forced_ to do a shortcut. _Somewhere_ there was confusion with a character dying twice.
All I can do is tell you: the first death is retconned away, and the old guy lives until the second death scene.
 
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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 surviving 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 and reporting the completed action. The stalemated Great Condor crews also heard 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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October 2025: This post now cleared for any needed narrative insert.

##################### INTRODUCING THE ARMENIANS ##########################

"Lieutenant Yenovkian, Specialist Yenovkian? My name is George Preston, formerly of the Canadian Mounties."

Vartan and his sister Vartui rose from their conference-room seats; Vartan shook hands with the broad-shouldered Afro- Canadian, while his sister simply nodded. They had known to expect a ship- defense chief being loaned out by Canada, to affirm the multi-national character of the environmental cleansing mission.

Not failing to notice Vartui's hesitant manner, George decided to open with trivia. "I don't suppose either of you ever heard of an old radio and television series called 'Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'? He had a classic wonder-dog named King, and spoke to him regularly."

A new voice, with a Portuguese accent, sounded behind the Canadian. "Well, King, this case is closed." The Yenovkian siblings knew Adelma Oliveira, but George had not met her yet. Like a large percentage of all Brazilians, her skin was dark, almost as dark as George's, but her hair was straight.

"Ola, George. I am Second Engineer Oliveira, in charge of the solid-object capture system."

George nodded as they shook hands. "Meaning discarded plastic bottles, buoyant bottles emerging from Chinese coastal river mouths. But we won't nag the Chinese about it, since they're funding our ship's operations. Putting their money where the river mouth is. It enhances the international character of our mission. Not that anyone could find fault with our project. Who's going to say No, I don't want marine life to flourish"??

Conversation rambled. None of the four could think of any reason why anyone could want to terminate the project, unless it might be one country or faction hoping to pin blame on another country or faction. Conversation meandered long enough that Vartui fell silent. Suddenly, she spoke on a far-off tangent.

"Vartan killed him. Killed him, then drove a truck over the body."

George would have done a spit-take if he had been drinking anything at the time. "What?? Whom did he kill?"

"The man who assaulted me. But that maggot already had a criminal record, so the court let my brother off very easily. Still, Armenia was much less comfortable for us after that. Armenia is a landlocked country, but there's no divine commandment saying that Armenians aren't permitted to acquire nautical skills."

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

I SEEM NOT TO HAVE DECIDED THE IDENTITY OF THE SHIP'S CAPTAIN. IF SOMEWHERE I DID GIVE A NAME, LET US ASSUME THAT, FOR SOME REASON, THE ORIGINAL SKIPPER NEEDED TO BOW OUT. THE PROJECT BEING TRANSNATIONAL IN CHARACTER,THE NEW CAPTAIN SHALL BE A CERTAIN DOMINYKAS BAGDON OF LITHUANIA, WHO HAD WORKED A FEW YEARS ON MERCHANT SHIPS. THE CONFINED NATURE OF THE BALTIC SEA, TENDING TO MAKE LITTER LOITER, HAD ALWAYS BEEN A FACT OF MISTER BAGDON'S LIFE. IT WAS DEEMED BY THE INVESTORS THAT, AS LONG AS MISTER BAGDON HAD THE SENSE NOT TO TRY MICRO-MANAGING THE CREW, HE WOULD DO WELL AS CAPTAIN OF THE SCAVENGER QUEEN.
 
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REPLY TO GLENBURNE: I had a Mexican friend in Illinois, back before I enlisted in the Navy, named Uriel Rodriquez. Hence the Ranger character's first name.

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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 with guns, 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 scummy 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. The evildoers didn't know about his skin-hardening treatment.

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 would not 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 had 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 can pull up archive recordings of El Presidente's voice in a minute," 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 would receive more satisfaction from redeeming your soul than from sending it into eternal darkness. I advise you to grab this opportunity, and repent."
 
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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. Moving away, 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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"Please, I tried!" Formentera wailed. "Don't kill me!"

Jewel was holding Uriel's dataphone close to the captured tyrant. "His voiceprint reads as honest; he did try."

"Well, we'll just have to pray that the Sky Rangers think of something," said Porter.

Kostas turned to look eastward, toward where he and Porter had left their horses. "In the meantime, in the hope that everything _isn't_ lost, I suggest we sling these two former presidents over our horses, tie the others up in one long conga line, and start them walking for Casper." Porter joined him in going to fetch the animals.

Henry tossed a length of rope toward the four surviving Aztlano airmen, telling them in Spanish, "Make a string of beads. You are the beads. You will be marching in single file."

While Henry, Alipang and Jewel were waiting for their two comrades to return with the horses, Jessica Trevette and Emilio Formentera provided them with grim amusement.

"Useless woman! How could you let that Flip take away your shock-rod?"

"Useless man! Why did you pick a traitor like Ybarra? Now he'll blow us all up!"

This turned into an artillery exchange of curses and accusations. It looked like a safe bet that, even if the threat of continental holocaust was averted, the love affair of the two presidents was irrevocably ended.

The aviators were strung together as ordered. Jewel had three sets of wrist binders with her, so she tied the hands of the first, second and fourth man while Henry kept his knife near each man's throat in turn. As for the one aviator for whom there were no binders, Henry broke one of that man's thumbs to prevent him from trying to undo the rope connecting their bodies in line. Presently, Kostas and Porter came in sight once more, leading the horses. Alipang remarked to Henry, "Let's make the presidents sit backwards on the horses, like Dudley Do-Right."

"Like who?" The young Apache had little acquaintance with old animated cartoons.

"Never mind. The point is that I don't think we have enough rope left to make them secure, so by making them sit facing the rear, they can't control the horses to gallop away."

"A lot simpler to make them walk like the others, and let Kostas and Porter stay mounted."

"Well, yeah; I just don't feel right about making Formentera walk after he just got kicked like that."

Hearing this, Jewel scowled. "You feel _sorry_ for that cucaracha?" She had in mind, not a song, but the literal meaning of the word, "cockroach."

"It's a guy thing," Alipang told her. "We men are all scared of getting--"

Before saying anything else, Alipang suddenly swung his rifle up. Shouting "Take cover," he squeezed off his remaining two rounds toward three figures who had just shown themselves on the nearest rise of ground to the west. He didn't hit the newcomers, but he made them duck, which delayed them from opening fire.

When they came back up from ducking, Vitaly Khloponin and his two companions fired bursts from automatic weapons; but Alipang's group and their prisoners had already taken shelter behind the downed presidential jump-jet. Seeing that he could not immediately kill Alipang, Henry or Jewel, Khloponin switched his weapon to single-round fire, and shot farther off-- at Kostas and Porter. Those men dropped to the ground to avoid being hit; but their horses dropped to the ground fatally shot.
 
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Chapter 143: Between Time and Eternity


The other Emilio in the situation, Texas Ranger Aviation Lieutenant Emilio Vasquez, would have been able to save the North American continent all by himself.... if he had been able to keep his light helicopter going as far as the vicinity of Old Faithful. But as he had been drawing close to the former Yellowstone National Park, his dear old Number 343 had come under attack. A stray Aztlano patrol had penetrated the western boundary of the Enclave in the same way as the larger force which had been stopped by Mark and Dana Terrell. They were from a small but pretentious Aztlano gang calling itself Los Espadas-- insisting on the masculine article "Los" despite "Espadas" being a feminine noun, since _they_ were all men. They were riding in what African revolutionaries used to call a "technical": a plain, unarmored truck, but a truck mounting armament as heavy as they could manage. In the case of Los Espadas, their truck mounted a serious 20mm rapid-fire cannon on the truck bed, plus a Russian-type 7.62mm machine gun attached to the roof where a standing man behind the cab could just reach it to load it and fire it.

Sighting the Texan helicopter, the Espadas had opened fire at it with both guns. Unable to evade all of their fire, Number 343 had taken serious damage; but Emilio had gotten a bead on them with his particle-beam projector just in time to save his own life. The single remaining shot in the beam weapon had exploded the motor of the "technical," and killed the two men seated in the cab of the truck. As the stricken truck had rolled off the road, killing one more of its occupants, Emilio's cherished helo had gone down for the count. With trees offering no safe landing, Emilio had bailed out, using the anti-gravity device the Indian spy had given him. It worked, slowing him enough so that when he came in contact with a tree, he was easily able to catch hold of it and control his descent.

One of the surviving Espadas came after Emilio on foot, seeking to kill him as he came to earth. As a result, this man ceased to be one of the surviving Espadas. Emilio shot the man through the head with his sidearm, then grabbed up the man's automatic rifle, with two spare magazines which were there to be found.

Number 343 was wreckage now, but she had taken some of the enemy down with her: a gallant end for a gallant aircraft. As for Emilio, stranded though he was, and having no more heavy weaponry, he still could not allow himself to give up. When he had been spying in Aztlan with Gloria Cervantes, he had seen what sociopaths were in charge of things in the People's Aztec-Maoist Republic. Such men really _might_ blow up the supervolcano, although it meant their own deaths, _rather_ than have to give up their dreams of conquest.

Accordingly, Emilio Vasquez put his anti-gravity device to further use: making superhero-style jumps across the hills and ravines, making for Old Faithful and Major-General Ybarra's force of world-champion suicide bombers.
 
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When Osmawani Jalil, in much worse condition than her friends had last seen her, was dragged into the presence of Major-General Ramon Ybarra, the self-appointed successor to Emilio Formentera had an inspiration. "Since this ________ has been put to as much use as she's good for, let's make her the first solar sacrifice of the new regime!"

Three ammunition cases were pushed together to form an improvised Altar of Solar Influence. Osmawani, draped across this, didn't even have the energy left to plead for her life.

But others were about to plead for her.

Vance Desmond had been standing with his Amish and otherwise-Christian friends, all helpless at gunpoint. He had been thinking about the difference between an individual person's death, and the death of an entire inhabited continent. Although he and all his family had the assurance of Heaven, it was grievous to imagine every place and person they had ever known being wiped out in one explosion. It was hardly more cheerful to imagine the neo-Marxist neo-pagans from Aztlan claiming rule all the way to the Atlantic Seaboard.

"Dad," came the voice of his teenage daughter Reagan. "You remember how I was healed of that engineered virus?"

"Yes, baby, I remember." Desmond's voice was quavering -- not knowing if what had been done to that Asian woman might also be done to Reagan and Polly. Even to Sheri and Lambert, if they fell into the invaders' hands.

"You have to remember, Dad: our times are in God's hands. I was healed then, so that I would live till _this_ moment. I love you, all of you. Trust Jesus."

Before Vance and Polly -- or the guards -- could catch what was happening, Reagan sprinted toward the makeshift altar, where Felipe Contreras was offering to do the "surgery." And Reagan was not alone. It had entered the minds of Ransom Kramer and Ulrich Reinhart that _they_ had also been spared alive in order to see this moment. The attempt to trick the barbarians into consuming tranquilizers had been a good idea; it just hadn't _happened_ to work. But the older man and younger man who now joined in Reagan Desmond's rush both knew, as Reagan did, that Miss Jalil had never made a decision to follow Jesus; she, accordingly, did not have the same promise of eternal life as the three believers had.

Too late, Vance Desmond and Greta Reinhart tried to restrain Reagan and Ulrich. Lydia was not there to try to restrain Ransom; so, unlike Vance and Greta, she was not clubbed into submission with rifle butts.

Reagan, Ransom and Ulrich all reached the pagan altar at virtually the same instant, all shouting a request that they be murdered instead of Osmawani.

Felipe looked at his leader, who directed him to toss Osmawani -- still living -- off to one side. The three volunteer martyrs were made to sit on the three ammo cases. But for a few heartbeats, an unseen power delayed the Aztlanos from carrying out their pseudo-spiritual sport.

"You cannot succeed forever," declared Ulrich; "and you will have to answer to the _real_ God."

"We have a Heavenly home to go to," said Ransom. "You'll never see it unless you repent."

"If you do repent," added Reagan, "even the murders you have committed will be forgiven. Jesus died even for worse men than you."

Felipe looked as if he might actually be considering taking them seriously. But Ybarra didn't wait for him to make up his mind. Shoving his underling away from the altar, and gesturing for all of his men on the other side of it to get clear, the Major-General and would-be ruler lifted a machine pistol and mowed down all three Christians.

All this time, Peter Tomisaburo had been as powerless as the others in his party, unable to make a move. But now, all of the Aztlano troops were preoccupied with laughing and applauding at the bloodshed. For three of the five men watching the Christian group, that laughing and applauding was the last thing they would ever do in earthly life. Peter had finally gotten his chance to bring his micro-whip into play; and three Aztlano gunmen were suddenly arriving in their place of eternal punishment, before the severed halves of their bodies had finished falling to the ground.

None of the surviving thugs had any idea what had just cut their friends apart; and the startled jumping of many prisoners distracted them. Thus, for three precious seconds, none of the Aztlanos detected Peter Tomisaburo as he began a low-crouching evasive dash for the bomb tower.
 
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Although Osmawani Jalil's heart had not been cut out of her body in Aztec fashion, her already-sustained injuries had brought her near death anyway. So she assumed she was dead when she found herself in a painless place full of joyful music and rich colors.

She could see that some of the other persons captured by the Aztlanos were nearby: Undersecretary Karen Milligan, Forest Ranger Hal Quigley, Amish farmer Ulrich Reinhart, Amish convert Ransom Kramer -- and, shining the most brightly of the group, the girl Reagan Desmond. The first of these souls to be welcomed individually was Ransom Kramer, who was gladly embraced by his father Wilson Kramer and elder brother Quinn Kramer. Osmawani was mildly startled to realize that she was being supernaturally made aware of who those two risen saints were, just as she had been made to know the identity of Reagan Desmond, who was a stranger to her. It was a clue of sorts, however, that Wilson Kramer was wearing what seemed like an angelic version of a United States Navy dress-whites uniform, complete with dress sword.

"Dad! Quinn!" Ransom cried exuberantly as they embraced. "It's so great to see you! Mom was well the last time I saw her; I guess my not seeing her HERE means she's still alive down there."

"That's right," replied Quinn. "She still has things to do down there."

His voice becoming as near to sad as was possible in Heaven, Ransom remarked, "I sure haven't accomplished much. We thought it was an inspiration from God, to offer food with tranquilizers to those gangsters, to prevent destruction without having to kill. But it all came to nothing."

"The effort to do good is never for nothing," his father told him. "When those evildoers have to stand before God and answer for what they've done, it will be pointed out to them that they were given a chance to choose peace, and they didn't want it. Then, supposing them not to have come to repentance, they'll know that their condemnation is just, and they have no right to complain."

Now someone came to greet Reagan Desmond also: a girl about her own age. Osmawani, watching, was made to know that this was the Mennonite girl, Eva Lederburg, who had been wantonly murdered by the Overseer hitmen Vargas and Huddleston.

"You were a brief blaze of light," said Eva to Reagan, "but one that will be remembered, when mortals have peace again TO remember.'

Reagan smiled. "I see the same light in you, also to be remembered below."

Ulrich seemed to be speaking directly to God: "Lord, You know why You called so many of us up here at once; but I must ask You to watch over the dear ones I leave behind."

That was when God's own voice was finally heard: "My good servant, your family is not as greatly bereaved as you suppose. Ransom Kramer is to be sent back to Earth, to live his full span of earthly life, and to sire descendants of his human father, nieces and nephews of his brother."

Looking torn in feelings about going back to Earth, Ransom glanced at his relatives. Wilson told him, "Quinn and I were defenders; you are a builder, and your service is only beginning."

Quinn smiled. "We'll still be around when you get up here again. And we'll be able to see you and Mom and Bill down there in the meantime. Greet both of them for us."

No one had spoken so far to Osmawani; she wasn't sure anyone was aware of her presence. But her own spirit grew painfully conscious of just how distant her way of life had been from the design and purposes of the Creator. She shuddered with fright when God's voice did after all reveal His knowledge that she was watching and listening; but the fright was not to last long.

"Behold, Ransom Kramer, that brave woman who is known to many of your friends. She is not ready to enter here yet. In large part by the fault of others, she has lived in dark ignorance, but her heart wishes for the light. Even in her habits of carnal sin, it was really My love she was searching for. She is part of My reason for sending you back to Earth. Not only do I choose for you to have a full human life with Lydia and the others down there who love you; I also intend for you to bear witness of your short visit to Heaven. Let those who grieve over these departed ones --especially Reagan's parents, who feel needless guilt for her death-- be comforted by your report that you have seen these souls being welcomed into glory. Even that older woman who served evil tyranny, having asked for My forgiveness before it was too late, is welcomed.

"Once you are in your body again, when you have the chance, you must make sure to tell Osmawani Jalil that she did not imagine any of this. Tell her then that you know she truly was here, for you saw her here. Now, trust Me that all is well with Ulrich, Wilson, Quinn, Reagan, Eva, Karen and Hal. You will shortly resume your service to Me on Earth."

The scene faded from Osmawani's eyes and ears. Everything faded, and for an instant she believed she was now dying the death expected by atheists, a fall into non-existence. But she had not ceased to exist. She simply was back in her badly wounded material body, and would need medical attention before she could ask that young man if he had REALLY seen the same things she had seen.
 
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Back at the airplane crash site, Henry whacked one end man of their string of prisoners on the head with a rifle butt; Alipang followed his example, the butt-stroke being his last use for his empty rifle. Henry then clapped a hand on Jewel's shoulder. "Try to pin them down, so our friends can get back here! Al and I will flank them!"

Alipang salvaged Emilio Formentera's dropped sidearm. To test it, he held it up over his head, in such a way that it could fire past the airplane fuselage, while his own head was to one side as well as beneath. A single round expended in the direction of the enemy satisfied Alipang of two important facts: that the pistol was not DNA-coded to work only for its owner, and that there was no trick to it that would make it explode or shoot backwards when he fired it. Henry was already crawling and rolling and snaking off to the right of their position, so Alipang went left. Jewel, securing one of the fallen Aztlano rifles, began wasting ammunition like an action-movie star, keeping the newcomers' attention on her and making them keep their heads down. As soon as the weapon she was firing went empty, she started right in with the spare one.

Kostas and Porter understood that they were being given their chance to dash forward and rejoin Jewel in cover. Porter took the risk of rising more fully than Kostas did, thus making better speed. One enemy bullet grazed him, but not badly; and in another instant, he was to be glad that he had risked his upright sprint. Jessica Trevette, momentarily forgotten, made a break for liberty -- as far as where another of the Aztlano rifles lay. She swung it up to her shoulder, intending to shoot Jewel in the back; but Porter caught her just in time. Not feeling as chivalrous as Alipang, the African-American Grange huntsman socked Jessica in the jaw with an unrestrained fist, and Jessica was definitely out of action for an hour at least.

Before Porter could complete his rush to cover, a second bullet hit him -- still not a fatal wound, but serious enough that he could hope his own contribution up to now would be enough. As he slumped into place near Jewel, Kostas brought up the rear, and also brought up the rifle Jessica had briefly held.

Alipang and Henry both noticed that a friendly had been wounded; so, having held their fire up to now, they both began shooting at the three enemy marksmen, to take some heat off their friends behind the crashed jump-jet. Alipang was more sparing of his ammunition, having no reloads for the pistol; but between them, he and Henry succeeded in suppressing their adversaries' fire for a minute. This allowed their friends to regroup. Kostas handed the rifle he was holding to Jewel, so she could keep up the shooting from her position; then he concentrated on first aid for Porter.

But presently, Alipang was out of bullets. Sensing a weak spot to attack, Vitaly Khloponin led the two Lagartos accompanying him in a move to their right. They had the advantage of several spare magazines apiece for their weapons, and they made the most of this as they came around the hillock which had been sheltering them.

Alipang, only scantily shielded by a log as he lay on his belly, suddenly felt burning lines of pain furrowing his back -- and more deeply furrowing both of his buttocks, which had none of the skin-toughening. He uttered an involuntary yell of pain, which was to prove helpful, because it convinced Khloponin that whoever was over there was surely dead or disabled. So the former Commander of the Campaign Against Hate, and his gangster companions, continued their charge toward the downed plane, where Jewel and Kostas were now the ones being pinned down.

Henry started over from his side, firing the last rounds from his rifle at the trio who he feared had slain his Filipino friend. He killed one of the two Lagartos; but the other Lagarto saw him, and wounded him in return, while never ceasing his charge with Khloponin.

Alipang was about to try to run to Henry's aid, which would probably have only gotten him killed; but as he rose, Henry saw him before anyone else did, and hand-signalled him to stop. The Apache pointed to his wound; it was in the stomach, which would be fatal if not treated in time, but it would not kill him immediately. Alipang understood Henry's meaning: Deal with the most urgent peril first.

Therefore, Alipang turned to try to creep up on the last two hostile gunmen from behind. His wounded buttocks made it agony to walk, and he had to walk wide if he didn't want to be in his own friends' line of fire when they reacted to the new threat; but he kept going.

It was the Moro warrior who was pursuing his foes now.
 
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Up in Yellowstone Sector, Emilio Vasquez had gained skill in the use of his antigravity device as he went; but after getting him across Lake Shoshone and some kilometers more, it ran out of power.

Tumbling to earth, rolling with the fall, Emilio sighted a stray horse, a buckskin mare, unsaddled but with a rope halter on her head. She might have belonged to one of the Grange volunteers, or maybe a rancher. She allowed Emilio to approach and mount her. He had to leave his tablet-shaped flying device behind, because he had no way to hold on to it while concentrating on riding bareback.
If I live, I'll retrieve it. Getting what use he could from the halter, he started the mare on a trot toward the geothermal site near Old Faithful.

= = = = = = = = = =

Peter Tomisaburo's dash brought him close enough to the bomb-guiding tower and its crane that, with his micro-whip at full extension, he could slice through the two main legs nearest to him. His jump to get out of the way of the toppling structure had the added benefit of making a burst of gunfire miss him. When the closest gunmen in their turn also jumped to avoid the crash, Peter was able to charge at them, cutting two more of them in half. This caused enough panic among the Aztlanos that Peter dared to turn his attention to the fusion bombs now lying on the ground. With his micro-whip, he began cutting their detonators off.

Then, one of the few Aztlanos who _weren't_ panicking, Felipe Contreras, drew a bead -- on single-shot, the better to avoid hitting any of his friends -- and put a bullet through Peter's right lung. A second bullet grazed Peter's head as he was falling forward.

Felipe would have closed in to finish Peter, but just then a female Commerce Inspector named Belinda, who had been among the powerplant defenders, saw her chance and tackled Felipe from behind. In an ugly struggle which none of the other alarmed Aztlanos noticed, Belinda was almost strangled by Felipe, but she grabbed the sidearm from his holster and shot him dead with it.

So Felipe Contreras never did get to enjoy his imagined revenge on Samantha Ford and Cassandra Jefferson; but for whatever consolation it was, he did suddenly find himself in an environment which closely resembled what the explosion of the supervolcano might have been like.
 
From her side of the downed jump-jet, Jewel Pressman made Vitaly Khloponin and his last companion dive for cover with snapping single shots. They tried splitting up, to catch her between them; but this led the surviving Lagarto back toward Henry. Far from dead yet, Henry hurled his axe, which fatally cracked the skull of the Aztlano gunman. But Henry had no more strength left to try to take the dead man's gun, or indeed to intervene further in any way.

Seeing himself alone, Khloponin was not frightened, but was enraged at his limited success. He realized he wasn't sure whether Emilio Formentera was even still alive for him TO rescue. He thought of attempting a bluff: telling the Enclave defenders that he had reinforcements coming, and they had better surrender; but given the trouncing that the invading ground forces had suffered, they probably wouldn't believe him. So, instead, he decided to show them what his amplified strength could do.

The first thing it did was to send a stone larger than his own head flying at JEWEL'S head. As the stone came flying over the top of the fallen plane and right at her, the lady Forest Ranger reacted only barely in time to escape death. Her frantic dodge was only partly successful; her head was not smashed like an egg, but the stone drew blood as it knocked her out.

Kostas Demophilos, who had been striving to halt Porter Hennepin's bleeding, was called back to action when Porter shouted "Look out!" while turning his head in the direction of the four tied-up enemy airmen. Two of those four hostiles had NOT been clubbed unconscious at the beginning of the firefight. Of these two. one had his hands tied together; but the other, the one with a fractured thumb, strained to get close enough to Jewel's dropped rifle that he could get hold of it with his undamaged hand. His one conscious friend helped pull against the weight of the unconscious ones.

Kostas reached the rifle first, by a quarter-second margin, then kicked each of the defiant aviators in the head to quiet them. This done, he rose and fired a wild burst over the aircraft, in hopes of slowing down the enemies whose whereabouts he was unsure of. Then he crouched to try to help Jewel, while hoping that Alipang and Henry could handle the other hostiles for the moment.

He still was in that posture, when one OTHER enemy who had been counted out proved still active. Recovering from the agonizing kick to his manhood, Emilio Formentera staggered to his feet, and lurched toward Kostas from behind.... until the hidden knife he drew from the back-of-neck sheath inside his shirt was ready. With a shout of "Glory to The Race!" he plunged the knife into the big Forest Ranger's back.

Gasping at the impossible pain that seemed to turn him inside-out, Kostas nonetheless retaliated. Whirling around, he caught hold of El Presidente with his left hand, then rammed the heel of his right hand up under Formentera's jaw -- so hard that he broke Formentera's neck.

As the would-be conqueror fell dead, his vanquisher fell dying. But a voice spoke to him: "Hold on just a little longer, My servant; you will have one more deed to do, and then you shall come home to Me."

It was not because of slothfulness that Alipang had played no part in this deadly drama; his wounded buttocks were slowing him down as he pursued Vitaly Khloponin. But before Khloponin could circle around the crashed planes and get at Porter and Jewel, Alipang hurled his own axe. The weapon struck and disabled Khloponin's rifle, and certainly got Khloponin's attention.

"Turn around, murderer!" Alipang roared, not at all dismayed by his enemy being nearly twice his size. "Your sentence is about to be passed!"
 
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