Settling Accounts_ Drive To The East Part 8

"Can't you use the n.i.g.g.e.rs you've got in the men's camp?" Koenig demanded.

"Well, I could, yeah, but dozers'd be a h.e.l.l of a lot faster," Jeff replied. "I figured that mattered to you. If I'm wrong, you'll tell me."

Ferdinand Koenig paused once more. "No, you're not wrong. All right-fair enough. You'll have your bulldozers. And I'm going to b.u.mp you up a rank to brigade leader. That translates to brigadier general in regular Army ranks. You'll get a wreath around your stars, in other words. Congratulations. When you were in the Army the last time around, did you ever reckon you'd make general?"

"h.e.l.l, no. I never even worried about making corporal," Jeff answered, which was the G.o.d's truth. "Thank you very much, sir."

"You're welcome. A raise comes with the promotion. I expect you'll earn the money," Koenig said. "More responsibility comes with the promotion, too. You're going to be in charge of a really big operation out there, and a really important one, too. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think you could swing it."

"I'll do my d.a.m.nedest, sir," Pinkard said. "It's for the Party and it's for the country. You can count on me."

"I do. So does the President. You've shown you've got what it takes," Koenig said, which made Jeff b.u.t.ton-popping proud. The Attorney General went on, "Those bulldozers and their crews'll show up in the next few days. You tell 'em what needs doing, and they'll do it. Anything else you need-barbed wire, lumber, whatever it is-you holler, and you'll have it. If you don't, somebody's head'll roll, and it won't be yours. Freedom!"

"Freedom!" Jeff echoed the Party slogan, but he was talking to a dead line.

He got up from his desk, stretched, and went to the window. Out beyond the barbed wire, and out beyond the railroad spur and the road that ran alongside it, what was there to see? Nothing but more prairie-sagebrush and tumbleweed and jackrabbits and little gullies that turned into torrents when it rained. Leveling them out would be the dozers' main job. They could do it, and it wouldn't take long.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," he said softly. "A women's camp." They were serious back there in Richmond. He'd known they were serious-he wouldn't have been a Freedom Party man if they weren't-but he hadn't known they were that that serious. If they kept on the way they were going, there wouldn't be a Negro left in the CSA before too long. serious. If they kept on the way they were going, there wouldn't be a Negro left in the CSA before too long.

Pinkard shrugged as he headed out the door. He wouldn't shed a whole lot of tears if that happened. If there weren't any Negroes, white men wouldn't have to worry about them taking away their jobs. They wouldn't have to worry about Negroes eyeing white women. And they wouldn't have to worry about Red uprisings. He'd got his baptism of fire in 1916 against Red Negro rebels in Georgia. They'd fought harder than the d.a.m.nyankees had. Of course, the USA and CSA took prisoners. Neither side in the black uprisings had bothered with that very often. So . . . good riddance to bad rubbish.

Out into the suns.h.i.+ne he went. Spring was in the air, but the sun wasn't biting down with full force yet. He'd grown up in Alabama and spent time in Louisiana. Texas summer was no fun for anybody, but it wouldn't be any worse than what he was used to.

With several submachine-gun-toting guards at his back, he did his usual prowl through Camp Determination. That he did it was normal. How he did it wasn't. He tried not to make his rounds the same two days running. He'd stick his head into barracks halls, or he'd go through the kitchens, or he'd go around just inside the perimeter checking for signs of tunneling, or he'd talk with prisoners, or . . . He never knew ahead of time. He just followed whatever gut feeling he had.

The Negroes had found they could complain to him if they stayed respectful. "Suh, we needs mo' food," a skinny black man said. He didn't ask for better food; that was obviously a lost cause.

"You're getting what I can give you," Jeff said, which was more or less true. "If I get more in, you'll get more, too." That was also true, although he didn't expect to see the camp's supply increased. To drive the point home, he added, "I can't make you any promises, mind."

"Do what you can, suh, please," the black man said. Pinkard nodded and went on to the next barracks hall. The Negroes there grumbled about the food, too. Jeff listened and nodded and again said he'd do something if he got the chance. As long as they were grumbling about the food and not about the trucks that transported them to other camps, everything was fine. The trucks were what really mattered-and the Negroes didn't seem to know it.

For once, Cincinnatus Driver felt as if he were leading a charmed life. The Confederates had arrested him-and they'd let him go. To him, that went a long way toward proving white men weren't as smart as they thought they were. He might even find himself on the U.S. border one of these days before too long. He dared hope, anyhow.

Meanwhile . . . Meanwhile, life went on in Covington's colored quarter. It wasn't much of a life. Even compared to what he remembered of times before the Great War, it wasn't much of a life. He shrugged. He couldn't do much about that. He couldn't do anything about it, in fact. All he could do was try to get through from day to day.

He thought about staying away from Lucullus Wood's barbecue place. He thought about it, but found he couldn't do it. His showing up there wouldn't make alarm bells go off at the police station. The only Negroes who didn't show up there were the unlucky ones too poor to afford any of Lucullus' barbecue.

He hoped-he prayed-he wouldn't see Luther Bliss at the barbecue place anymore. He hated, despised, and feared the former head of the Kentucky State Police. Of course, he also hated, despised, and feared the Confederate States of America. Bliss was one of the CSA's sincerest and ablest enemies-and gave Cincinnatus the cold horrors just the same.

If the Confederate police didn't have informers posted in the barbecue joint, they were missing an obvious trick. Despite the risk, talk there was freer than anywhere else in Covington that Cincinnatus knew about.

By now, everybody who worked in the place recognized him when he came in. More than a few people also recognized that he had a special connection with Lucullus. They would always find a seat for him, even when the ramshackle restaurant was packed. He got extra barbecue when he ordered, and some of the time they didn't bother charging him. He'd always been a man who paid his own way, but he appreciated that now, because he didn't have a whole lot of money.

Policemen and Freedom Party stalwarts came into Lucullus' place, too. They also recognized Cincinnatus-recognized him and left him alone. They'd caught him once, and it hadn't stuck. Not all of them understood why it hadn't stuck, but they knew it hadn't. They were no more energetic than most mere mortals. They didn't feel like doing anything they didn't have to.

Lucullus came up to Cincinnatus while he was eating a big plate of beef ribs. The barbecue cook was a ma.s.sive man, muscle more overlain by fat with each pa.s.sing year. Who could blame him for liking his own cooking? Everyone else did, too. His father, Apicius, had been even wider and thicker.

Cincinnatus set down a rib. "Afternoon," he said.

"Afternoon." Lucullus had a big, deep voice that went with his bulk. "Mind if I join you?"

"You throw me out on my ear if I'm dumb enough to tell you yes in your own place," Cincinnatus said. "I done plenty o' dumb things in my time, but nothin' dumb as that."

"Glad to hear it." Lucullus squeezed into the booth, across the table from him. He waved to one of the waitresses. "Bring me a cup of coffee, would you, Aspasia honey, when you git the chance?" Nodding, the woman waved back.

The coffee arrived faster than when you git the chance. when you git the chance. Cincinnatus hadn't expected anything different. When the boss asked for something, only a fool kept him waiting-and Lucullus wasn't the sort to put up with fools. Casually, Cincinnatus asked, "So what do you hear from Luther Bliss?" Cincinnatus hadn't expected anything different. When the boss asked for something, only a fool kept him waiting-and Lucullus wasn't the sort to put up with fools. Casually, Cincinnatus asked, "So what do you hear from Luther Bliss?"

He'd timed it well; Lucullus was just taking a sip. The cook choked, but the coffee didn't-quite-go up his nose. After managing to swallow, Lucullus sent him a reproachful stare. "d.a.m.n you, you done that on purpose."

"Who, me?" Cincinnatus was innocence personified-not easy for a black man on the wrong side of fifty with a ruined leg. But he'd been only partly malicious. "What do do you hear from him?" he asked again. you hear from him?" he asked again.

Lucullus didn't bother pretending he hadn't had anything to do with the white man with the mahogany eyes of a hunting hound. "Says he owes you one on account of you done that truck for him."

The truck had held mines that went into the Licking River. At least one of them had blown a Confederate gunboat sky-high. The news should have gladdened Cincinnatus' heart. And so it did, in fact. All the same, he said, "Reckon I owe Luther Bliss more'n one."

"Mebbe." Lucullus calmly filched one of the ribs off Cincinnatus' plate and took a bite out of it. Fiery barbecue sauce ran down his chin-an occupational hazard. "How come you didn't spill your guts to the Confederates when they done grabbed you, you feel that way?"

Cincinnatus couldn't squawk at Lucullus' scrounging, not after all the free food the other man let him have. As for the other . . . "Well, I didn't know where the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was at, or I might have."

"Better be more to it than that," Lucullus said severely.

There was, no matter how little Cincinnatus wanted to admit it. Scowling, he said, "Don't reckon I'd tell the Confederates where a dog dog was at, let alone a son of a b.i.t.c.h like that one." was at, let alone a son of a b.i.t.c.h like that one."

Laughing, Lucullus said, "That's better." He lit a cigarette.

"Gimme one o' them things," Cincinnatus said. Lucullus did, and leaned across the table so Cincinnatus could take a light from his. After a long, satisfying drag, Cincinnatus added, "You don't know you're playin' with a rattlesnake there, on account of I ain't told you."

"He is one, sure enough." Lucullus sounded more pleased than otherwise. He explained why: "Dat man be a serpent, sure enough, but he be our our serpent. He don't bite n.i.g.g.e.rs. He bites Confederates, an' they shrivels up an' dies." serpent. He don't bite n.i.g.g.e.rs. He bites Confederates, an' they shrivels up an' dies."

That wasn't quite literally true, but it made a telling metaphor. Cincinnatus wanted no part of it, or of Luther Bliss. "He done bit me," he said angrily.

"Well, but he reckon mebbe you got somethin' to do with them Confederate diehards back then." Lucullus c.o.c.ked his head to one side and studied Cincinnatus. "Plenty other folks reckon the same thing. My pa, he was one of 'em."

And Cincinnatus had had had something to do with them, not that he intended to admit it now. "That man steal two years outa my life," he growled. "You reckon I gonna trust him far as I can throw him after that?" had something to do with them, not that he intended to admit it now. "That man steal two years outa my life," he growled. "You reckon I gonna trust him far as I can throw him after that?"

"Trust him to give the Freedom Party a boot in the b.a.l.l.s," Lucullus said. "He do dat every chance he git."

Before Cincinnatus could answer, a gray-haired, stooped, weary-looking black man came into the barbecue place. One of the small h.e.l.ls of Cincinnatus' injuries was that he couldn't jump to his feet. He had to make do with waving. "Pa! I'm over here! What is it?"

But he knew what it was, what it had to be. Seneca Driver didn't only look weary. He looked as if he'd just staggered out of a traffic accident. "She gone, son," he said as Cincinnatus did fight his way upright. "Your mama gone." Tears ran unnoticed down his face.

Lucullus had risen, too. He set a hand on Cincinnatus' shoulder. "Sorry to hear the news," he said in a low voice. "Why don't you set your pa down, he tell you what happened."

Numbly, Cincinnatus obeyed. As numbly, his father accepted the cup of coffee Aspasia brought him. His hands added cream and sugar. Cincinnatus didn't think he knew they were doing it. He said, "She done laid down for her nap-"

"I know," Cincinnatus broke in, wanting to say something. "She was asleep when I went out."

"Uh-huh." His father nodded. He sipped from the coffee, then stared at it in surprise, as if wondering how it had got there. "Sometimes I'm glad when she go to sleep, on account of I don't got to worry none fo' the nex' little while."

"I understand that," Cincinnatus said. "Feel the same way my ownself."

"But she don't usually sleep this long," Seneca said. "I go in to see how she is, an'-" He wrinkled his nose. "I don't think nothin' special of it, on account of she makin' messes a while now."

"Yeah." Cincinnatus looked down at the gnawed ribs on the plate in front of him. His mother had cleaned him when he was a baby. He'd found cleaning her one of the cruelest parts of her slide into senility.

"I put my hand on her shoulder, an' she gettin' cold," his father said. "Jus' like somebody blowed out a candle. She go easy. I bless the good Lord fo' dat. Pray to Jesus I go so easy when my time come."

Cincinnatus made himself nod. Grief and relief warred inside him, along with shame that he should feel relief. "It's over now," he said, and choked on his own tears.

Aspasia brought Seneca a plate of ribs. "Why, thank you, child," he said in mild surprise. "You didn't have to do nothin' like that."

"On the house," she said softly. "You need anything else, you jus' sing out, you hear?" She hurried away.

As automatically as he'd fixed the coffee to suit him, Seneca started to eat. He said, "What am I gonna do without your mother?"

"Got to let the undertaker know," Cincinnatus said.

"I do dat. dat." His father sounded impatient, almost irritable. "Yeah, I do dat. dat. But so what? Your mama an' me, we been together close to sixty years. Now she ain't there no more." He waved before Cincinnatus could speak, so Cincinnatus didn't. "I know she ain't hardly been here this las' couple years, but it ain't the same. It just ain't." He started crying again, as unknowingly as he had before. But so what? Your mama an' me, we been together close to sixty years. Now she ain't there no more." He waved before Cincinnatus could speak, so Cincinnatus didn't. "I know she ain't hardly been here this las' couple years, but it ain't the same. It just ain't." He started crying again, as unknowingly as he had before.

"Maybe we get you up into Iowa," Cincinnatus said. "Start everything all over up there. You got great-grandchildren you never seen."

"I don't believe no ofays. I especially don't believe no Confederate ofay po policeman," Seneca Driver replied with a shrug.

"Even if he lied, maybe we get there on our own." Cincinnatus knew it would be easier-not easy, but easier-with his mother gone. He didn't say that; even thinking it gave his relief and shame fresh ammunition.

"We see." His father sounded altogether indifferent. "Got other things to fret about right now."

With Cincinnatus at his side, he arranged them. The funeral was four days later, on a bright spring day. Cincinnatus wore a suit he'd brought down from Des Moines. It wasn't funereally dark, but it was the only one he had. None of the neighbors and friends who'd come presumed to say anything about it.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the preacher intoned. "G.o.d bless and keep Livia Driver, who is free of the evils of this world and free to enjoy a kinder one beyond. We pray for her in Jesus' name. Amen."

"Amen," Cincinnatus echoed. Preachers always said such things. He knew that. But for a Negro in the CSA, the evils of this world were altogether too real.

Part of Clarence Potter wished he hadn't gone to school in the USA. It wasn't that he begrudged the education; he didn't. Yale was a first-rate school. Back before the Great War, quite a few Confederates and Yankees had studied in each other's homelands. Some people had thought that would bring the CSA and USA closer together. It hadn't. It never would. They were as different as chalk and Friday.

So it seemed to a patriot from either one, anyhow. Potter, despite his own differences with the government he served, certainly qualified. But not even the most ardent patriot from either country could deny that they were similar in some important ways, too, language high on the list.

Potter listened to a sergeant talking. "Where did you learn to sound like a d.a.m.nyankee?" he asked.

"Sir, I grew up in Pittsburgh," the noncom answered. "My father was in the tobacco business, and he lived up there. Wasn't much fun when I came down here, because I already had the accent, and people got on me for it."

"I believe that," Potter said. Somebody else would have to check the man's story. If it was true, it accounted for the accent. If it wasn't, it was outstanding cover for the Yankees to sneak one of their own into a secret Confederate operation.

But that wasn't Potter's worry, or not directly. All he could do was note the possibility. Somebody else would would have to deal with it. His job was checking the way the sergeant sounded. And the man sounded pretty good to him. He scribbled notes in a loose-leaf binder, then nodded to the sergeant. have to deal with it. His job was checking the way the sergeant sounded. And the man sounded pretty good to him. He scribbled notes in a loose-leaf binder, then nodded to the sergeant.

"I think you may well hear back from us," he said.

"I hope so, sir," the man said, still sounding much too much like a d.a.m.nyankee for comfort. "This sounds like a good way to give the United States a good, stiff kick in the nuts."

Potter hadn't said much about the operation. The sergeant, however, plainly had the brains to add two and two and get something close to four. "If you do hear from us, you'll get the details then," Potter told him.

He also had the brains not to ask too many questions. He said, "I hope I do, sir," saluted, and left the underground room in the War Department.

Instead of calling in another candidate, Potter telephoned Nathan Bedford Forrest III. The chief of the Confederate General Staff said, "Forrest here. What can I do for you, General?"

"You've already done it, sir," Potter said. "You've got me playing G.o.d for these fellows you're recruiting."

"And so?" Forrest said. "This isn't the first time you've had to select people for a dangerous mission. That's part of your job."

"Oh, yes, sir," Potter agreed. "Usually, though, the men I pick and choose from aren't so eager as these kids. They're going to get killed. Some of them will get a blindfold and a cigarette if they're lucky, or a bullet in the back of the head if they aren't. But they don't care. I could give you a division if willingness were all it took."

"Well, willingness d.a.m.n well isn't," Forrest said. "These man have got to be good. good. They'll have to convince Yankees that they're Yankees. We don't want just anybody here. We want men who can get well behind enemy lines and raise h.e.l.l." They'll have to convince Yankees that they're Yankees. We don't want just anybody here. We want men who can get well behind enemy lines and raise h.e.l.l."

"I understand that. There was a fellow a couple of days ago who'd played a Yankee two or three times in amateur theatricals down in Mississippi." Potter sighed. "He was every bit as bad as that would make you think, but he didn't believe it. He got mad as hops when I told him he'd have to fight the war the regular way."

Forrest laughed, not that it was really funny. "Amateur theatricals, eh? I believe you-you couldn't make that up. He must have convinced somebody somebody he could sound like he came from the USA, or he never would have got as far as you." he could sound like he came from the USA, or he never would have got as far as you."

"I suppose he did." Potter drummed his fingers on the binder. "Have to see who he did convince, and weed that man out-whoever he is, he's got a tin ear." He wrote himself another note.

"You think of everything, don't you?" Forrest said admiringly.

"Don't I wish I did? If I'm so smart, how come I'm not rich?" Potter said. Forrest laughed, though again he wasn't joking. He went on, "I'm just trying to stay one step ahead of the d.a.m.nyankees."

"We'll be farther ahead of them than that if things go the way I hope they do," Lieutenant General Forrest said.

Potter almost asked what kind of things the chief of the General Staff had in mind. He refrained at the last moment, at least as much because he feared Forrest would tell him as because he feared Forrest wouldn't. He didn't have a need to know, no matter how badly he wanted to know. He didn't want to make Forrest responsible for breaching security. I really have spent too much time in Intelligence, I really have spent too much time in Intelligence, he thought. he thought.

Instead of prodding at things that weren't his proper concern, he asked something that was relevant: "Any sign the United States are training infiltrators who wear b.u.t.ternut?"

He got silence on the line for about half a minute. Then Forrest said, "Thank you for reminding me that anything we can do to the USA, the USA can do to us. No, General, I haven't had any reports like that. But just because I haven't had them doesn't mean the d.a.m.n-yankees aren't doing something like that. They could, couldn't they?"

"Oh, yes-maybe more easily than we could," Potter answered. Kentuckians loyal to the USA had no trouble sounding as if they came from Confederate Tennessee. Men from the less mountainous parts of West Virginia sounded like their Virginia neighbors. And the United States had their share of people who'd grown up in the Confederate States or gone to school here.

"One more thing we'll have to watch out for," Forrest said mournfully. "The President won't be jumping up and down when he hears about it."

"No, he won't," Potter agreed. "But I'll tell you one thing: he'll be a lot angrier if you don't tell him about it till it ups and bites you, if it does."

"You're likely right," Forrest said.

"Yes, I think so," Potter said. He'd known Jake Featherston longer than even the President's oldest Freedom Party buddies. He didn't know Featherston so deeply, but he'd spent a lot of time brooding over what the head of the Freedom Party was likely to do next, and he'd been right more often than he'd been wrong.

"All right, then. I will pa.s.s it along," Forrest said. "And I'll try to make sure no more ham actors get as far as you. So long." He didn't quite suppress a snort before hanging up.

It was was funny. Potter couldn't deny that, though he'd been annoyed at the inept Mississippian and even more annoyed at the officer who'd pa.s.sed the man. That officer would soon find himself in a new a.s.signment. Potter didn't know whether it would be defusing mines with his teeth or just counting thumbtacks in Georgia or Alabama or somewhere else far away from the real war. Wherever it was, the fellow wouldn't have anything to do with this project. funny. Potter couldn't deny that, though he'd been annoyed at the inept Mississippian and even more annoyed at the officer who'd pa.s.sed the man. That officer would soon find himself in a new a.s.signment. Potter didn't know whether it would be defusing mines with his teeth or just counting thumbtacks in Georgia or Alabama or somewhere else far away from the real war. Wherever it was, the fellow wouldn't have anything to do with this project.