Ashes - D Day In The Ashes Part 29

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"Yeah, Dan. But what?"

The first meeting was scheduled for nine o'clock in the morning. With typical Germanic precision, Bruno and his people were there on the dot.

Blanton looked very presidential in his thousand-dollar handmade suit.

Son Moon was wearing a suit of equal monetary value. Bruno was resplendent in a tailored uniform. Ben wore a set of freshly laundered and ironed old French Foreign Legion lizard BDUs and polished jump boots.

Son Moon gestured toward Bruno, and the leader of the MEF stood up. "I have been accused of operating concentration camps," he began. "Of systematically executing those of the Jewish persuasion. I categorically deny that charge, and furthermore I defy anyone to produce one person who has even a modic.u.m of proof to substantiate those charges. I a.s.sure you all, your search will be futile because the charges are false. There are no concentration camps for Jews. None. There never have been any, and there are no plans for any to be built."

What he said was true. There was no hard proof that Bruno's MEF had imprisoned or tortured or killed any Jews. No pictures of the alleged atrocities.

"But we have ample proof that you forced Jews out of your claimed territory, General." The secretary-general was the first to speak.

"Guilty as charged," Bruno replied, sitting down. "I don't deny ordering that done. But it was done as peacefully, bloodlessly, and as orderly as was humanly possible. Yes, those that used force against us were killed or wounded. I admit that. And I also say this: 341.

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Those Jews were paid for their property-in gold. Anyone who says they were not compensated is a liar."

Ben remained silent, a faint smile on his lips. He thought he now knew what Bruno was doing, and if he was correct, it was a slick move. Ben would wait before speaking.

Bruno said, "Furthermore not all Jews were relocated. Oh, my, no. There are many of the Jewish persuasion still living and prospering in the territory we now control. Quite a goodly number, as a matter of fact.

Most of those of Spanish ancestry were not relocated. Few Americans, English, or French who were living in Germany and the other countries who chose to align with us were relocated-"

"All white," Ben finally spoke.

Bruno smiled at Ben. "Correct, General Raines."

Son Moon and Blanton were both looking at Ben."The blacks, now," Ben continued. "They are quite a different matter, are diey not?"

"They are proven to be genetically inferior beings," Bruno replied. "Not all. But many. At their very core is savagery. If you-any of you-try to deny that, you will be refuted by medical facts. The same applies to the group of people you Americans refer to as white trash ..."

Ben let Bruno talk. He now knew exactly what Bruno was doing, and d.a.m.ned if he could figure out how he was going to defend against it.

". . . The species called white trash," Bruno said, "are genetically inferior beings. They possess the same moral deficiencies as Negroes.

They breed like animals, without thought of how they will provide prop- 342.

William W. Johnstone erly for their offspring. They are ignorant and happy to be ignorant, and in spite of all your efforts, the majority prefer to remain ignorant. f.u.c.kin', fightin', fis.h.i.+n', and huntin' seem to be their preferred choices of recreation. Your own social programs in America, on which you have wasted billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money, have produced nothing of substance. And you know it. It was a dismally disappointing three-decade-long social and fiscal failure. Oh, occasionally, one or two out of a hundred will crawl out of the mold and make something of themselves, but we have found it isn't cost-effective to allow that. The percentages are too low to be of any value."

Bruno poured a gla.s.s of water and thanked an aide who freshened his cup of coffee. He waited for reaction from Son Moon, Blanton, and Ben Raines.

Son Moon's expression was totally bland, his eyes unreadable. He said nothing.

Blanton wore a look of pure astonishment.

Ben Raines smiled and waited for Bruno Bottger to drop the other boot. A very heavy boot that Ben knew was coming-straight at him.

But Bruno was not yet ready to do that. He said, "We relocated Jews who aided Negroes and continually invented excuses for their behavior. We first spoke with them, urging them to stop it. Most refused. Those are the ones we relocated.

"We waited to see what the Negroes would do to help solve the crime problems created by their kind. Ninety-nine percent did nothing.

Nothing. The same in America and you cannot deny that. You can not deny it. The only thing the Negroes did was blame the 343.

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whites for their own problems. And the liberals in your government sat back and cooed and nodded their heads in agreement and created wishy-washy programs that cost millions of taxpayer dollars and in the end accomplished nothing. Nothing!And that is only the beginning."Bruno took a sip of water and said, "You allowed the Negroes in America to teach myths to their young. Great centers of advanced learning in Africa. Bah! A lie. A lie that you all knew was a lie and allowed a myth to somehow become fact. Great centers of learning and fine universities in Timbuktu. A lie. Ben Raines has been to Timbuktu. He has read the accounts of Dutch explorers who were there centuries ago. What did those early white explorers find, General Raines?"

"Arabs holding black slaves used to carry mud in baskets to build homes."

"Any Negro centers of advanced learning, General Raines?"

"Not that early explorers could find, General Bott-ger. At least not to my knowledge."

"Oh! Well. Then who finally did discover the ruins of these great black inst.i.tutions of higher learning? And all these marvelous cultures I keep hearing about?" He looked at President Blanton. "You answer that, Mr.

President of the United States. You've had your nose up a n.i.g.g.e.r's a.s.s for years. Surely you would know the answer to that."

Homer lost his cool. "I don't have to sit here and listen to this bigoted bulls.h.i.+t!" he thundered, slamming one big hand on the table top.

"Proof." Bruno matched his shout. "Give me con- 344.

William W. Johnstone crete proof of all these accomplishments the Negroes claim they had, and then were lost-quite mysteriously I must say-and I'll eat humble pie.

People can lose their cultures, their past. I'll readily admit that. But something remains of it. Some shard of pottery. Some crumbling bit of stone with words on it... proving they knew how to read and write. But nothing like that exists, does it? Only lies and half-truths and myths."

No one in the room chose to reply to that. Certainly Ben didn't. . . and he was probably the most qualified of any there to offer a reply. He had worked in Africa while in the employ of the Company.

Bruno said, "I have seen with my own eyes remnants of a culture twenty thousand years old. Just to the west of us in France. Do you know of that, Ben Raines?"

"The Lascaux Cave. Yes, I know of it. I've seen it."

"Marvelous, isn't it?"

Son Moon spoke for the first time. "I fail to see what this line of conversation has to do with why we have gathered, General Bottger."

"Oh, it has everything to do with it, sir," Bruno said. "I'll get to it.

Humor me."

Homer had his explosive temper back under control. Ben had never lost his. Son Moon's face was expressionless as he waved a hand, meaning unclear, but Bruno plunged ahead."My people have cold-bloodedly killed no Negroes. The outlaws aligned with us killed them as a test ... a test that I did not sanction.

Believe it or not-it's the truth. Negroes were killed-a few of them-when they resisted our efforts to remove them. I do not have now nor have I ever had concentration camps for any 345.

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group of people. I will allow the UN to send representatives to scour the countryside if you ask. They will find no concentration camps. Now then, I do have proof that citizens of the countries that my forces now occupy-for want of a better word-asked me to send troops in to restore law and order. I have those doc.u.ments with me."

Bruno took a sip of water. "Gentlemen and ladies, I control all of Germany, and we are a sovereign nation. Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungry, and the northern half of Italy have asked to be aligned with us." He cut his eyes to Ben. "Just as portions of Canada and several of your western states asked to be aligned with your SUSA, General Raines.

Any attempts to invade any country aligned with the New Federation of Germany will be considered an act of war and will be met accordingly.

"Now ... I will not tolerate Negroes in the New Federation. None. I detest them. I think they are inferior beings, only a cut above savages, and I will not have them residing in the Federation. And the UN has no right to tell us who we might have in our country. None."

"I cannot believe the good people of Germany would allow this," Blanton said.

"The people will do what is best for our New Federation. Negroes have sullied everything they have touched. Music, theater, sports, morals, values, the family structure. You love them so much, President Blanton, you take them. You're welcome to them. We don't want them. There are d.a.m.n few countries in the world who do want them." He smiled. "And it was that 346.

way for years before the Great War. Whether you will admit that or not."

Blanton glared at him but said nothing. Ben studied the blank notepad in front of him and was silent.

"What are you doing with those you so euphemistically call 'relocating'?" Son Moon asked.

"We're s.h.i.+pping them back to Africa just as fast as we can. They love that d.a.m.n miserable country so much, they can live there. And by the by, South Africa is now and has been for some time under white rule. And it will remain so. If they ask for our help in seeing that their rule is maintained, we will give it."

"What happened to the blacks in that country?" Blanton asked, a depressed note to his tone.

"After a civil war that lasted for several years, the warring tribes were defeated and relocated.""And you knew this was going on?" Son Moon asked.

"Of course."

"Then for years a lot of misinformation was sent out of Africa," Ben said. It was not a question.

Bruno's reply was a smile.

"Are you quite through?" Son Moon asked.

"Almost," Bruno said. "Once Ben Raines has pulled his troops off German soil and out of Italy, I will order my troops to leave Switzerland. They have not agreed to join our alliance, and I will certainly honor their sovereignty.

"You all have condemned me for my actions in dealing not just with minorities, but with certain types of people in general. You sent the greatest mercenary army in the world in to 'restore order,' as you so 347.

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quaintly phrased it. I find that amusing. For you see, there isn't a modic.u.m of difference between what I am doing and what Ben Raines has been doing for years."

/ was right, Ben thought. / had him pegged. Now here it comes.

"Nonsense!" Son Moon snapped.

"That's ridiculous!" Blanton said.

"Is it?" Bruno questioned, a smile playing on his lips. "Oh, I don't think so. Do you, my dear General Raines?"

"Speak your piece, General Bottger," Ben told him.

"Oh, I shall. I shall. All the years Ben Raines has spent setting up his little nation within a nation, what has he been doing? Why, throwing out any and all who don't agree with the Rebel philosophy ..."

That wasn't exactly true, but close. Ben said nothing.

". . . Search the SUSA until you collapse from sheer exhaustion," Bruno continued. "I'll wager you won't find a single white trash family in the SUSA. There are no n.i.g.g.e.rs in the SUSA. n.o.body who could work but won't on the dole. No shacks with a dozen junked cars Uttering the yards; no horde of half-naked kids with dirty diapers and runny noses. Ben Raines won't permit it. No gra.s.sless yards where those leaping savages spend their time playing basketball instead of working. He kept the cream and threw away the milk, so to speak. Back before the Great War, social services in my country almost bankrupted the nation feeding and housing and clothing and providing medical care to worthless people. Just like in America. Ah, but your precious Ben Raines, he got rid of those types of peo- 348pie. Just like I am doing. Yet I am condemned, and Ben Raines is allowed to continue his purging of citizens. Any of you care to deny that?" He met each eye in the room. Bruno chuckled. "No? I thought not. You, Mr.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, you commissioned Ben Raines and his army of Rebels to destroy me for doing the same d.a.m.n thing that Ben Raines has been doing for years! You, Mr. President of what is left of the United States, you went along with it because you knew if you sent your armies against General Raines, they would be defeated. And defeated quite soundly . . . and then Ben Raines would control all of North America."

Bruno cut his eyes to Ben. "You don't like the press, General Raines.

But I love the press. Especially your American press. I intend to hold a press conference when this farcical meeting is concluded. Oh, my yes.

Indeed I shall. I want the world to know what hypocrites you all are.

I'm going to invite the press to come visit our New Federation. See our accomplishments. Film them, write of them. Pro and con. I will insist upon that. I don't expect glowing reports from them ... just a few pros among the many cons will please me greatly."

He looked hard at Son Moon, then at Homer Blan-ton. "You hear me well, gentlemen. I have a standing army of a quarter of a million righting men and women. With a reserve of over one hundred thousand. If you persist in sending Ben Raines and his Rebels against me, I will squash them like bugs." He smiled unpleasantly. "And then I will turn my armies against any who supported Ben Raines. But I will promise you 350.

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this: I will never wage war against any country that does not first wage war against me. But I warn you all: Do not continue this fight against me. You cannot win. I will return to this meeting room tomorrow at nine o'clock in the morning. I shall expect your answer at that time. I pray it is the right one."

"We'll need a bit more time than that," Blanton said unexpectedly. Both Son Moon and Ben gave him sharp glances.

"Three days?" Bruno asked.

"A week would be better," Homer said, after cutting his eyes to Ben and receiving a slight nod. The man was catching on how to play the game.

"Very well. A week it is. I shall see you then. Not before. Now I will meet with the world press." Bruno and his aides stood up together and marched out of the room. The heavy door closed behind them.

"Jesus Christ!" one of Blanton's senior people said.

Every eye in the room turned to Ben Raines. No one could understand why he was smiling. Ben pushed back his chair and stood up. "I'll see you all in a few days. Here." He looked at Blanton. "Have your Secret Service people sweep this room for bugs." He walked out of the room.

351 "He just might be able to field an army of 250,000," Mike Richards told Ben a couple of hours after the meeting had concluded. "And probably 100,000 to 150,000 of them would be crackerjack soldiers. The rest would be cannon fodder. He has practically no air force. What hehas is some helicopter guns.h.i.+ps and a few old prop transports. The group that destroyed Europe's jet fighters years ago did the world a service, I suppose. Although the reasoning behind that move still escapes me."

"They didn't just destroy the fighters over here," Ike said. "They systematically destroyed ninety-nine percent of the world's jet fighter and bomber fleets. PTV."

"Peace Through Violence," Dan said. "Interesting name. I wonder what ever became of that group? There must have been thousands of them."

"They vanished into history," Ben said. "What the h.e.l.l has Bottger got up his other sleeve?" He glanced at Mike, but the man's eyes were clouded over. His 352.

William W. Johnstone people are on to something, Ben thought. But he's not yet ready to spell it out.

"The press types are hot to travel into Bottger's New Federation," Buddy said. "They're lining up in droves."

"Good," Ben said. "I hope they never come back."

Tina Raines laughed and leaned over and tickled her dad under his chin.