Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, Roland. Roland smelled the execution before it started.
Speaker 1: There'd been a lot of strong smells in downtown Plano
Speaker 1: when he arrived. Gunpowder and sour, fierce wet, the acrid
Speaker 1: stink of anxiety, and the warm, wet odors of grief
Speaker 1: and confusion. He'd smelled the stale reek of military rations,
Speaker 1: the sharp pang of anemia, and the boiling hot testosterone
Speaker 1: that wafted off the martyrs like a jet stream. But
Speaker 1: a half hour into his time downtown, something else had
Speaker 1: drifted over the packed masses of refugees and pilgrims and militiamen.
Speaker 1: It was hard to define. A bit of tension, a
Speaker 1: bit of anticipation. The odor was faint enough to suggest
Speaker 1: something unconscious, a collective emotion, the aggregate scent of a
Speaker 1: crowd of people who weren't consciously aware of how they felt.
Speaker 1: There was no neurotransmitter, no pheromone he could identify in particular.
Speaker 1: This scent was more elusive. He was only able to
Speaker 1: lock it down through the memory fragments that triggered col
Speaker 1: gray sky, a biting chill in the air. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: men and women bundled, clustered around barrel fires, everyone talking,
Speaker 1: excitement in their voices, Anxiety on the air mingled with
Speaker 1: the gun oil in anticipation something was about to happen.
Speaker 1: A few seconds later, the scent of anxious anticipation started
Speaker 1: to rise. Roland heard the deep bouncing thrumb of heavy
Speaker 1: rubber wheels on pavement. His hind brain tied the sound
Speaker 1: to a particular species of obsolete armored personnel carrier originally
Speaker 1: manufactured in Bulgaria. After following its route for several seconds,
Speaker 1: his hind brain guessed the APC was bound for the
Speaker 1: main square. Roland spent the next few minutes jockeying for
Speaker 1: a good position close to the gallows. He wasn't sure
Speaker 1: that's where the convoy was headed. It seemed like a
Speaker 1: good guess, though, and he was quickly proven right. When
Speaker 1: the APC pulled up to a stop just a hundred
Speaker 1: feet away. The crowd stopped and gawked as the heavy
Speaker 1: doors slid open. Soldiers in full body armor stepped out,
Speaker 1: dragging six men and women and honest to God, manacles
Speaker 1: and chains out into the dying light. The captives were
Speaker 1: all l stf. Roland didn't even have to make an
Speaker 1: educated guess on that one. The in the kingdom had
Speaker 1: made sure to dress them in their tattered and bloodstained uniforms.
Speaker 1: They were all of them emaciated and broken looking. The
Speaker 1: evidence of torture was so clear that Roland's enhanced eyes
Speaker 1: weren't even necessary. The captives had broken, bleeding fingernails, black eyes,
Speaker 1: painful limps, and feet that looked like they could barely
Speaker 1: stand to touch the ground. One of the martyrs, a
Speaker 1: tall man wearing a red beret instead of a combat helmet,
Speaker 1: strode ahead of the group. He had a voice hamp
Speaker 1: in one hand. He raised the other up in the
Speaker 1: air in a prayerful gesture that was matched by most
Speaker 1: of the crowd. Brothers and sisters. The martyr's voice boomed, today,
Speaker 1: the Lord and his loyal soldiers have delivered unto you.
Speaker 1: Are blessing it. The crowd tightened around Roland. He could
Speaker 1: see here feel as people rushed out from the cafes
Speaker 1: and shops to watch. The fear and excitement was so
Speaker 1: thick in the air. Roland was sure even unmodified humans
Speaker 1: could have sensed it. Here. We have six prisoners from
Speaker 1: the s DF, The martyr began. These men and women
Speaker 1: were all captured in the last week. Rather than accept
Speaker 1: their defeat, they chose to fight insurgents against the heavenly Kingdom.
Speaker 1: God and his martyrs are merciful, but these sinners have
Speaker 1: spat on that mercy. Now it is our privilege to
Speaker 1: execute upon them the judgment written this honor. Have all
Speaker 1: his saints praise he the Lord. A ragged cheer went
Speaker 1: up from the crowd. Many of the assembled sounded less
Speaker 1: than enthusiastic, at least to Roland's ears, but there were
Speaker 1: still dozens and dozens of voices full of reckless hate.
Speaker 1: The prisoners marched forward with their escort, ever nearer to
Speaker 1: the gallows. Roland's ear tingled, and he sensed Manny's presence
Speaker 1: out in the street. Now the kids smelled afraid. With
Speaker 1: a faint, fading tinge of phrmonal arousal, Roland backed away
Speaker 1: and escaped the main press of the crowd. In a
Speaker 1: few seconds he was behind Manny, and he put a
Speaker 1: hand on the fixer's back. The young man jumped and
Speaker 1: then shot rolland a furious look the hell. Manny caught
Speaker 1: himself and instead pointed up to the line of doomed
Speaker 1: men and women. Oh I know that. Hey, a girl
Speaker 1: ran up to them. She smelled scared too, but the
Speaker 1: scent was much deeper on her, sunken into her skin.
Speaker 1: She'd been scared for quite some time. She seemed to
Speaker 1: know Manny, and he definitely knew her Sasha. Manny said,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just needed to. He paused, shook his head,
Speaker 1: and then put a hand on Roland's shoulder. This is
Speaker 1: my comrade, Martyr Aaron. We fled here together once the
Speaker 1: SDF retreated from Farmer's branch. Aaron, This is Sasha. It's
Speaker 1: good to meet you, Martyr Aaron, she said, and flashed
Speaker 1: him an anxious smile. I'm so glad God's grace has
Speaker 1: brought us all together. Oh yeah, Roland said, in his
Speaker 1: most convincing voice. God so so good. I'm really just
Speaker 1: he gestured towards the gallows. I'm a psych to see this.
Speaker 1: Oh look crossed over, her face discussed mixed with building anxiety.
Speaker 1: She was dressed to play the part of the good
Speaker 1: Christian woman, her hair done up in a tasteful bun,
Speaker 1: her face unadorned by makeup, her sleeves long, and her
Speaker 1: clothing baggy. But her scent didn't lie, It suggested she
Speaker 1: was pretty far from all in on this whole heavenly
Speaker 1: Kingdom thing. You're not excited to see God's justice, Roland asked.
Speaker 1: The young woman frowned and shook her head. I understand
Speaker 1: the necessity of such brute, of such extreme measures, but
Speaker 1: I don't have to like it, Manny, do you? She
Speaker 1: started to ask Manny something, but the young man broke
Speaker 1: off from their little group and darted forward towards the gallows. Oh,
Speaker 1: Sasha finished in surprise. I'll er I'll go check on him.
Speaker 1: Roland said, it's a probably best if you wait here. Huh.
Speaker 1: She looked confused, but she nodded. Roland followed behind Manny
Speaker 1: and caught up to him about four people deep into
Speaker 1: the growing crowd around the scaffold. The fixer's eyes were
Speaker 1: locked on one of the SDF prisoners, a middle aged
Speaker 1: man with a prominent black mustache and a look of
Speaker 1: courageous resignation in his brown eyes. He stood in the
Speaker 1: middle of the gallows, calm as a stone in the ocean,
Speaker 1: while one of the martyrs fitted a noose around his neck.
Speaker 1: Manny Roland said, that's Mr Browne. Manny said, someone you
Speaker 1: know then Manny swallowed and nodded his head. Tears threatened
Speaker 1: at the corners of his watery eyes. Roland felt like
Speaker 1: it would probably be a good idea to get the
Speaker 1: kid away from the gallows before he did something stupid.
Speaker 1: Roland's hind brain helpfully informed him that there were only
Speaker 1: around sixty armed men in the whole square, but he
Speaker 1: also knew there were one hundred and eighty three armed
Speaker 1: men within a mile of their current position. If ship
Speaker 1: started now, it wouldn't end for a while. Roland put
Speaker 1: a hand on Manny's shoulder. We have to do something,
Speaker 1: Manny said, What do you want me to do? Roland asked,
Speaker 1: Rush up there, beat that red braid fucking I get
Speaker 1: with his own side arm and then cock punched the
Speaker 1: rest of him into submission. You can beat them, Manny said, yeah.
Speaker 1: Roland nodded. But if I do, that's the end of
Speaker 1: the mission and probably the end of those hostages. I
Speaker 1: can't save your buddy, and you probably even that girl
Speaker 1: if she wants to come. But the Kingdom's going to
Speaker 1: assume some monster man from rolland fucked just terrorism them.
Speaker 1: They'll bury those captives too deep for us to find,
Speaker 1: and then Austin's as fucked as a blind pussy in
Speaker 1: a dick forest. A man in the crowd turned and
Speaker 1: stared at Roland volume. Man volume. Roland guessed he'd heard
Speaker 1: just the tail end of his last sentence. The word
Speaker 1: pussy had probably piqued his ears. Before the man could
Speaker 1: say anything, Roland point it towards the gallows and let
Speaker 1: out aloud whoop, followed by a Praise God, Praise God.
Speaker 1: The inadvertent eavesdropper started cheering along with him and turned
Speaker 1: back to the impending execution. Roland turned back to Manny.
Speaker 1: The boy was quiet, his face controlled, but fat tears
Speaker 1: ran down his cheeks, and his shoulders shook with silent sobs.
Speaker 1: Roland directed him back away from the worst of the crowd.
Speaker 1: Mr Perone baked the cake for my twelfth birthday. Manny whispered.
Speaker 1: He showed us Monty Python. He dropped us off at
Speaker 1: soccer practice. Manny had started to babble. He smelled on
Speaker 1: the edge of an outright panic attack. Roland's hindbrains started
Speaker 1: to identify potential improvised weaponry options among the crowd. He
Speaker 1: settled on a small, thick set man. He's got a
Speaker 1: real denscranium, good weight distribution. He'll make a great club.
Speaker 1: Roland shook himself out of it. Then he tried to
Speaker 1: shake Manny out of it by literally shaking him by
Speaker 1: the shoulders. Hey, listen, you're friend up there. It's gonna
Speaker 1: die or a lot of other people are going to die.
Speaker 1: Those are the two options. I know it sucks, I
Speaker 1: know it's ship, but we cannot fix this. If you
Speaker 1: stay calm, though, we can fix something worse. Do you
Speaker 1: understand me. Mannie's eyes came unglazed, The flow of tears slowed,
Speaker 1: then stopped. It was an impressive feet of willpower. Most
Speaker 1: people didn't have that kind of control over their emotions.
Speaker 1: Roland had to guess Mannie's work as a fixer had
Speaker 1: at least prepared him to function in the middle of
Speaker 1: a waking nightmare. Okay, the kid said, but I have
Speaker 1: to watch. Roland wanted to argue, but one look at
Speaker 1: Mannie's eyes made it clear that arguing wouldn't do any good,
Speaker 1: so instead, he stood there next to Mannie and kept
Speaker 1: his hand on the boy's shoulder until the terrible thing
Speaker 1: was done. It was as ghastly as these things always were.
Speaker 1: Most of the crowd cheered every snap neck, every jerk
Speaker 1: of a dying soldier's legs. Shock Waves of memory racked
Speaker 1: Roland's mind at the sight. He felt warm spring air
Speaker 1: blow across his cold chest. He saw a small sea
Speaker 1: of familiar strangers, men and women he'd known once upon
Speaker 1: a bloodier day. He felt a big gun kick in
Speaker 1: his hands. He felt a warm splash of blood across
Speaker 1: his chest and face. He heard the heavy final thump
Speaker 1: of a tiny body heading the round. He saw Topaz,
Speaker 1: She looked ill. He saw schoolfucker Mike with a hand
Speaker 1: on her shoulder. He heard Jim's voice, make sure the
Speaker 1: camera's catch this next one. Jim cried, We've got an
Speaker 1: honest to God Shaney with us today. Back in the present,
Speaker 1: Roland watched as Manny's friends turn came around. Manny swallowed,
Speaker 1: his face went pale. Tears streamed down the boy's face,
Speaker 1: and Roland felt a sudden, peculiar urge to bury him
Speaker 1: in a hug. He did not do that, though. Roland
Speaker 1: just stood still with a firm hand on Manny's shoulder
Speaker 1: while they tightened the noose around mister Perrone's neck and
Speaker 1: dropped him down to hang until he was dead, dead dead.
Speaker 1: Roland was proud of how straight Manny stood, how the
Speaker 1: boy held back from sobbing, and how once the sad
Speaker 1: spectacle was over, Manny turned back around and headed towards
Speaker 1: the Christian girl, Sasha. She still stood where they had
Speaker 1: left her. Roland could tell she'd been crying too, although
Speaker 1: she'd taken some pains to describe it. She was hard
Speaker 1: to get a read on that one. She struck him
Speaker 1: as one of the faithful, but she didn't strike him
Speaker 1: as a nut. Maybe she'd just gotten suckered into this
Speaker 1: awful place. Roland could surely understand in that. He was
Speaker 1: pretty sure he'd been suckered into dumber things. Praise God,
Speaker 1: she said, with hesitation. Praise God, Manny responded. Roland didn't
Speaker 1: say much. She gave him a look, but not an
Speaker 1: angry one. That was she locked eyes with Manny. Roland
Speaker 1: was pretty sure she'd blocked the rest of the world out.
Speaker 1: She must have seen the signs of his tears too.
Speaker 1: She coughed a little and continued, that was awful. I
Speaker 1: know it's necessary, but I'll never stop hating that. It's
Speaker 1: a good thing to hate, Manny said, and then look,
Speaker 1: we have to get back to base. Curfuse coming up soon.
Speaker 1: But if you want to hide from those undesirables tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'll be waiting outside the cafe. They kept talking, but
Speaker 1: what they said was beyond Roland's interest. He was busy
Speaker 1: listening as the prison convoy drove off. Now that he
Speaker 1: knew the sound of the prisoner transport a PC urally
Speaker 1: tracing it back to its origin point was child's play.
Speaker 1: Aaron Manny's voice jerked his attention back to the conversation
Speaker 1: happening in front of him. We should probably go, Manny said.
Speaker 1: The busses will leave soon. Oh ship, surely, surely right, right,
Speaker 1: surely right, we should go. Roland smiled at Sasha. It
Speaker 1: was lovely to meet you. Good evening. He put a
Speaker 1: hand on Manny's shoulder, and together they headed off to
Speaker 1: the buses. Manny only stopped twice to cry. Manny didn't
Speaker 1: say much the rest of the night. Roland was proud
Speaker 1: of him for holding back his tears during the bus ride,
Speaker 1: and they walked to the barracks. The kid broke down
Speaker 1: as soon as he got into bed, of course, but
Speaker 1: he kept his sobs silent, and Roland was pretty sure
Speaker 1: none of the other recruits noticed. It helped that they
Speaker 1: were all exhausted. At the end of the day, Roland
Speaker 1: puked up, then popped a handful of ambient and percocets
Speaker 1: and washed them down with a tall glass of the
Speaker 1: beer he'd brewed in his own guts. He offered Manny some,
Speaker 1: but the boy declined, so Roland had a second glass,
Speaker 1: and then a third. It wasn't enough to get him wasted,
Speaker 1: but the cocktail of drugs did a tolerable job of
Speaker 1: leading him into unconsciousness. He drifted off to sleep an
Speaker 1: hour or so after the rest of the men of
Speaker 1: the barracks. The next day was more army style bullshit,
Speaker 1: bush ups and windsprints in a big dumb obstacle course.
Speaker 1: Roland had to be real careful to act challenged. As
Speaker 1: the day went on. He instructed his body to elevate
Speaker 1: his blood pressure and temperature, to flush his face red
Speaker 1: with blood, and to send enough sweat from his pores
Speaker 1: to make a passable imitation of exertion. It was tedious
Speaker 1: and he hated it, but the first half of the
Speaker 1: day went by pretty fast. Then it was time for
Speaker 1: a close quarters firefight drill. The men were given actual
Speaker 1: rifles sans ammunition, and divided up into assault teams. They
Speaker 1: spent the next five hours taking turns defending or attacking
Speaker 1: different rooms in an old apartment complex that had been
Speaker 1: commandeered by the Heavenly Kingdom. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: shouting from instructors who sure as ship wanted the recruits
Speaker 1: to think they knew more about urban warfare than they did.
Speaker 1: At the end of one particularly long set of door
Speaker 1: breach and drills, one of the instructors dropped to his
Speaker 1: knees and started chanting in tongues. He seemed to be
Speaker 1: celebrating that one of his slowest squads had finally nailed
Speaker 1: a textbook entry. Roland wasn't sure what the to make
Speaker 1: of it. The man almost smelled that he was having
Speaker 1: a schizophrenic break. The heavy wash of neurotransmitters wafting off
Speaker 1: him made it clear this wasn't just some gesture for show.
Speaker 1: He seemed legitimately overcome with joy. Other soldiers and even
Speaker 1: a couple of instructors started kneeling around him. They were
Speaker 1: all chanting in some strange language. The first instructor kept
Speaker 1: repeating what sounded like hom noshkalashka, hom noshkalashka. Roland's heidenbrain
Speaker 1: knew a lot of languages, but this sounded like nonsense
Speaker 1: to him. He noticed the speech patterns of each chanting
Speaker 1: man were pretty consistent with American English. The actual words
Speaker 1: were gibberish, though, and many grabbed him by the shoulder
Speaker 1: and pushed gently down. Roland took the hint and then
Speaker 1: took a knee. The kids started to chant in a
Speaker 1: low voice, letish kila, josepha tinchala. It was more gibberish,
Speaker 1: but Roland followed suit. He started to spend out nonsense
Speaker 1: of his own, in a tone low enough that it
Speaker 1: didn't rise above the din of chanting maniacs. Manny's strategy,
Speaker 1: he realized, was to make big, exaggerated mouth motions without
Speaker 1: actually speaking at a high volume. It made him look
Speaker 1: right without drawing any attention. The whole weird scene went
Speaker 1: on for a little over two minutes. Eventually, the instructor
Speaker 1: stopped chanting and lay on his back, sweaty and spent.
Speaker 1: The other soldiers seemed to have ended their fits in
Speaker 1: the same way. Roland could tell from their heart rates
Speaker 1: and body temperature that about half of the men had
Speaker 1: been faking it, just like he and Manny. The humid
Speaker 1: stink of guilt was heavy in the air. Roland's heart
Speaker 1: went out for them. It must be agony to believe
Speaker 1: so hard and something so dumb that you'd castigate yourself
Speaker 1: for not buying into it enough. After that, they filed
Speaker 1: into the mess hall. They said their prayers ate their dinners,
Speaker 1: and then queued up for the buses down town. The
Speaker 1: ride was uneventful. In the instant their feet hit the square,
Speaker 1: Manny went off to find Sasha. Roland shook his head
Speaker 1: in appreciation for the all consuming power of human desire,
Speaker 1: and then bounded off to check out the presumed location
Speaker 1: of the jail. It was about a three mile jog.
Speaker 1: At full speed, Roland could have cleared the distance in
Speaker 1: a few minutes, but a low profile was the name
Speaker 1: of the game. He stuck to a fast walk and
Speaker 1: kept to the shadows and alleys as best he could.
Speaker 1: Plano hadn't been a very dense city before the martyrs
Speaker 1: had taken over, so there were a lot of times
Speaker 1: where he was basically out. He opened he had to
Speaker 1: trust that his uniform in the general state of chaos
Speaker 1: and the newly founded Kingdom would obscure him. This was
Speaker 1: the first look he'd gotten of the Kingdom. On foot,
Speaker 1: Roland decided he didn't care much for it. There was
Speaker 1: a great deal of foot and vehicle traffic, but most
Speaker 1: of the people seemed to be either soldiers or refugees
Speaker 1: without anywhere else to go. He passed two checkpoints where
Speaker 1: twitchy looking martyrs performed data scans on decks and personal
Speaker 1: hard drives. He even saw one soldier sorting through paperback
Speaker 1: books in the trunk of some poor fox car. Roland
Speaker 1: noticed several white vans with black crosses painted on the side.
Speaker 1: They cruised the streets, clearly on patrol for something. He
Speaker 1: watched one stop in front of a family of refugees,
Speaker 1: heavy with backpacks and carrying intake papers in their hands.
Speaker 1: Men in white jumpsuits with gold cross badges piled out
Speaker 1: and surrounded the family. Roland concealed himself behind a dumpster
Speaker 1: and watched as the patriarch of the family handed them
Speaker 1: his papers and spoke in a frantic, animated tone. One
Speaker 1: of the men pointed at his daughter, who wore a
Speaker 1: stained T shirt and a ragged pair of denim shorts.
Speaker 1: They were baggy and hardly stylish, but the men in
Speaker 1: the jump suits seemed furious. They pointed and shouted. The
Speaker 1: man put his hands in the air and tried to
Speaker 1: say something, but one of the jump suited men smashed
Speaker 1: his head with a cane. Cold rage bubbled up inside Roland.
Speaker 1: Fuck this place, he simmered to himself, Fuck these jinkiest
Speaker 1: throwback fundamentalists and their fascist bullshit. He wanted to charge
Speaker 1: out from behind the dumpster and tear into these low
Speaker 1: rent his bomb motherfucker's. He wanted to shove those thick
Speaker 1: wooden rods so far up their asses they'd be shipping
Speaker 1: splinters for weeks. The mission, he reminded himself, the fucking mission,
Speaker 1: And so he watched as the men in white beat
Speaker 1: the old guy. He watched as they pulled the poor
Speaker 1: bastard's daughter into a van and forced a hideous gray
Speaker 1: woolen dress over her head. It didn't fit, and it
Speaker 1: looked liable to give her heat stroke in the late
Speaker 1: Texas summer. She didn't fight them, though. Roland moved on
Speaker 1: reluctantly and found what his hind brains suspected was the
Speaker 1: old jail. The a PCs he'd seen last night were
Speaker 1: parked out front. The compound was guarded and busy. Roland
Speaker 1: counted fourteen guards just outside. Mind you, there were human guards,
Speaker 1: no powered armor, no heavy artillery, nothing at hand that
Speaker 1: could do much more than tickle him. They wouldn't present
Speaker 1: a danger, but they would cause a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot of noise if he attempted a daylight prison break.
Speaker 1: He scrambled up onto a half collapsed condo building that
Speaker 1: had been abandoned after a heavy mortar shell gutted the inside.
Speaker 1: It provided a good view of the jail. For the
Speaker 1: next hour, Roland just watched. His hindbrain mapped the pattern
Speaker 1: of the guard rotations and noted the security protocols they
Speaker 1: followed when each new vehicle arrived. He took a lot
Speaker 1: of deep breaths and gradually pulled enough sense from inside
Speaker 1: the jail to have a decent idea of how many
Speaker 1: people were in there. He'd never smelled Marigold or the
Speaker 1: other rolling fuck negotiators before, but his nose picked up
Speaker 1: on three people with a handful of aftermarket modifications. Most
Speaker 1: of the martyrs he'd met had been limited to civilian
Speaker 1: grade healing sweets and sensory upgrades. It was a safe
Speaker 1: bet that these were their targets. Then, and you've got
Speaker 1: the message. Put down the phone. Roland wasn't sure where
Speaker 1: or when he'd heard that aphorism, but it came into
Speaker 1: his head, and a moment later he realized the sun
Speaker 1: was pretty low in the sky. It'd be bus time soon.
Speaker 1: He headed back through the eyeshadows and across the cracked
Speaker 1: and bullet scarred boulevards until he was able to merge
Speaker 1: back into the evening crowd at the square. Manny and
Speaker 1: the Christian girl had moved on from the cafe by
Speaker 1: that point. He actually ran into them in front of
Speaker 1: some building with a sign that identified it as the
Speaker 1: House of Miriam. They were saying weird, chaste, religiously goodbyes,
Speaker 1: Oh hello Aaron. Sasha smiled when she saw him. Manny
Speaker 1: turned around and flashed him a weary smile too. Roland
Speaker 1: could see pain in the kid's eyes, but it was
Speaker 1: at least cut with a bit of arousal. He decided
Speaker 1: that was a good thing. Ever since Oscar's death, Manny
Speaker 1: had been writing the line between function and complete emotional collapse.
Speaker 1: He decided to encourage the fixer's weird little friendship with
Speaker 1: the Christian girl. Hey, Roland said, how is the guffy?
Speaker 1: Smelled like it was mostly chickory and food die when
Speaker 1: I walked by earlier. But maybe they sold you all
Speaker 1: the good stuff they did not, Manny said, you must
Speaker 1: be blessed with an exceptional nose, Sasha said, and gave
Speaker 1: him an odd look. Then she asked, what did you
Speaker 1: get up to? I had checked out the farmer's market, Roland,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, some uh, some good freaking cucumbers
Speaker 1: up in there. That's where I was cucumbers. Sasha's odd
Speaker 1: look deepened. Manny brought a hand up to the bridge
Speaker 1: of his nose and needed his brow and frustration. We
Speaker 1: should head back to the buses. I'll I'll see you tomorrow, Sasha. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: of course, Sasha replied with a genuine smile. If this
Speaker 1: was a sane world, Rowland thought the two of them
Speaker 1: would have had a real date by now. But this
Speaker 1: was the Heavenly Kingdom. They were surrounded by extremist militants,
Speaker 1: and Sasha probably wasn't even allowed to look at condoms. Also,
Speaker 1: she's one of those militants, Roland reminded, himself. He let
Speaker 1: the kids say their goodbyes and then walked back to
Speaker 1: the bus with Manny. The kids seemed unsettled. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm making a real dumb decision, he said, what
Speaker 1: Rowland asked, talking with that girl? Manny shrugged. She's told
Speaker 1: me all she knows about those prisoners already. But we're
Speaker 1: supposed to meet at the one shitty cafe in this
Speaker 1: town tomorrow. I know it's stupid, but I kind of
Speaker 1: want to make that meeting. Why is it stupid? Rowland asked.
Speaker 1: They had to drop their voices a little as they
Speaker 1: drew closer to the line for the buses, because Manny said,
Speaker 1: we're not going to be here long. Sasha confirmed, our
Speaker 1: people are in the jail, and you scattered it out today,
Speaker 1: right yep, So we're confirmed twice over. It's time to
Speaker 1: do this thing and get out. I don't have time
Speaker 1: to eat shitty food with a pretty girl. Roland turned
Speaker 1: and fixed his eyes on Manny's. He leaned in until
Speaker 1: their noses were almost touching, and then he poked the
Speaker 1: boy's chest with his index finger for emphasis while he
Speaker 1: spoke Emmanuel Sanche's listen to me, there is always time
Speaker 1: to eat shitty food with a pretty girl. Fuck the war, funk,
Speaker 1: what's a good idea? Go eat some garbage and stare
Speaker 1: into her eyes. Do something human in this in human place.
Speaker 1: Late night will be a better time for the rescue. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Manny was silent for several long seconds, then he said okay.
Speaker 1: The next day started with more pete as usual. Then
Speaker 1: it rolled right into an extra long trip to the
Speaker 1: firing range and three more hours of close as salt drills.
Speaker 1: Roland found himself disgusted by the king tactics. Their go
Speaker 1: to was to dump heavy artillery on any embedded resistance.
Speaker 1: No heed was paid to the civilian cost. They were
Speaker 1: fine having untrained kids lob mortars in de crowded neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: The Lord will recognize his own. Martyr Carruthers had said
Speaker 1: over and over again that evening before the dinner prayer,
Speaker 1: the raspy voiced Priest, the raspy voiced Priest came by
Speaker 1: to speak to all the recruits in the chow hall.
Speaker 1: Roland missed Martyr Ditmar's introduction of the priest. He was
Speaker 1: too busy puking up and surreptitiously eating his last bag
Speaker 1: of drugs, but his ears perked up when the wild
Speaker 1: haired old nut fuck launched into his speech. The burdens
Speaker 1: placed upon the warriors of God are great. You men
Speaker 1: have sworn yourselves to a ponderous duty, but that duty
Speaker 1: does not end on the battlefield. If the heavenly Kingdom
Speaker 1: is to remain and expand, we will need you to
Speaker 1: fight in the field and with your other God given attributes.
Speaker 1: This elicited a dim chorus of chuckles from the audience.
Speaker 1: It took Roland an embarrassing amount of time to realize
Speaker 1: what the preacher was talking about. Not jeez, this each
Speaker 1: is about fucking. The Lord commands us to be fruitful
Speaker 1: and multiply. The priest wheezed. But he also calls us
Speaker 1: to respect the sacred bonds of holy matrimony in times
Speaker 1: of war, at the times we all live in now.
Speaker 1: This might seem to create some difficulty, but that's only
Speaker 1: because most of us are trained to think of marriage
Speaker 1: in the secular context. The average married couple in the
Speaker 1: American Federation dates for eight years before being wet. In California,
Speaker 1: it's closer to ten. Of course, in both those places,
Speaker 1: dating is more or less a form of cash less prostitution.
Speaker 1: Roland had to strain to avoid rolling his eyes. Next
Speaker 1: to him, many listened dutifully. His face was almost unreadable.
Speaker 1: Perhaps people who don't trust their creator need years of
Speaker 1: time to decide if another person is a suitable partner. Happily,
Speaker 1: we have the will of God to guide us. You
Speaker 1: young men, are strong and virile and faithful. Your Lord
Speaker 1: wants you to find love. He wants you to bring
Speaker 1: more children into this world. This is why, as the
Speaker 1: hour of action draws closer, we still encourage each of
Speaker 1: you to spend time every day going out into the
Speaker 1: city and mingling with the other sheep of our great flock. Aha.
Speaker 1: Suddenly Roland understood it. It seemed odd to him that
Speaker 1: the Heavenly Kingdom, a state still so unformed and tumultuous,
Speaker 1: devote time and resources to bussing their military recruits downtown.
Speaker 1: It made sense now, they wanted all these young men
Speaker 1: to find women and fill them up with babies before
Speaker 1: they went off to die. It was grim as hell,
Speaker 1: but it was also quite logical. The truth of it is,
Speaker 1: the Pastor rasped. Marriage is a simple process. When you
Speaker 1: find the right person, the right arrangements can be made
Speaker 1: in an hour or two. That is why I'm here
Speaker 1: along with Pastor Sandor Ellsworth and Biggins. You can find
Speaker 1: us at any hour of the day or night to
Speaker 1: bless your unions. Once God shows you to your wives,
Speaker 1: and there are more pastors at the House of Jacob
Speaker 1: near the square. I urge you to go out into
Speaker 1: the kingdom in search of love and make use of us.
Speaker 1: Our chief job and our chief joy, is to help
Speaker 1: our noble martyrs find the love and bless God promises
Speaker 1: every faithful man. Wives are his lessing to us. Children
Speaker 1: are our duty to him. Now, the man said with
Speaker 1: a rakish grin, go forth and multiply the flock. The
Speaker 1: line for the buses was extra long that day. By
Speaker 1: the time Roland and Manny actually made it to the square,
Speaker 1: there were nearly an hour later than usual. Manny rushed
Speaker 1: right off to find Sasha. Rowland found his way to
Speaker 1: an alley and then darted across town and towards the jail.
Speaker 1: Once again. They'd already confirmed the location of their targets,
Speaker 1: so Rowland's last job was to mark out a good
Speaker 1: exit route from the city. He didn't expect it be
Speaker 1: a quiet prison break that would draw attention and fighters.
Speaker 1: The good news was that nothing within the Heavenly Kingdom
Speaker 1: looked particularly well organized. A ton of fighters patrolled the streets,
Speaker 1: but most of Plano was still pretty war torn. Their
Speaker 1: camera grid was far from comprehensive. If they had a
Speaker 1: sizeable drone force, it was kept nearer to the front
Speaker 1: than here. The quickest route seemed to be to head
Speaker 1: straight north from the jail, up k Avenue and pasted,
Speaker 1: an old housing development filled with crumbling mansions. That route
Speaker 1: would take them past two fortified aces. There'd be a
Speaker 1: couple hundred infantry to deal with, along with their attendant
Speaker 1: d PC's and a handful of drones. Roland felt confident
Speaker 1: he could have punched a hole through all that on
Speaker 1: his own, but he expected to have four or five
Speaker 1: civilians in tow The odds of one of them taking
Speaker 1: a stray round were just too high. Another possible route
Speaker 1: took him up and to the left towards an old
Speaker 1: tollway that seemed to mark the end of the Heavenly
Speaker 1: Kingdom's static defenses. They controlled a lot of the territory beyond,
Speaker 1: but the patrols there looked random. There were no fortifications
Speaker 1: or checkpoints. It was a much longer route than the other,
Speaker 1: but potentially one that required a lotless fighting. The last
Speaker 1: option was to veer right and take Park Avenue to Richardson.
Speaker 1: The Heavenly Kingdom had controlled that territory for even less
Speaker 1: time than they had held Plano, and the fighting there
Speaker 1: had been heavier. They'd pass a lot of checkpoints, but
Speaker 1: not much in the way of troop concentration, as long
Speaker 1: as they kept south and away from Dallas proper. The
Speaker 1: scouting work itself was exhilarating. Roland had a lot of
Speaker 1: ground to cover, so he spent most of his time
Speaker 1: sprinting and scaling buildings, leaping from roof to roof and
Speaker 1: in between shattered windows. His senses were in full use.
Speaker 1: There were always passing convoys of civilians, or patrols of martyrs,
Speaker 1: or those odd white police fans somewhere nearby. He was
Speaker 1: close to caught a dozen times, and he loved every
Speaker 1: minute of the work. By the time he got back
Speaker 1: to the main square, it was quite late and almost
Speaker 1: time for the buses to leave. He did a quick
Speaker 1: loop of the square to see if he could find
Speaker 1: Manny and Sasha. He caught traces of their sense, but
Speaker 1: neither of them seemed to be out and about. He
Speaker 1: eventually tracked Sasha's pheromone trail back to the house of Miriam,
Speaker 1: but Manny seemed to be gone. That was strange. Roland
Speaker 1: headed back to the buses and the hope of finding
Speaker 1: him there. But Manny wasn't in line or on any
Speaker 1: of the buses. So Roland headed back to the base
Speaker 1: and tried to ignore the unease as it blossomed in
Speaker 1: his belly. Maybe he headed back early. Maybe the date
Speaker 1: went bad. That made sense. Sasha seemed nice for a
Speaker 1: religious extremists, but you couldn't predict Zellots. It was so
Speaker 1: damn easy to set them off. Manny might have just
Speaker 1: said the wrong thing. That decided it'd be safest to
Speaker 1: head back to base and chill in the barracks. The
Speaker 1: bus pulled into the school Coomb training facilities, little vehicle deep.
Speaker 1: Roland noticed at once that Martyr Ditmar and a small
Speaker 1: bodyguard of armed men were waiting. That was unusual. Roland's
Speaker 1: hindbrain warned him that this was probably related to Manny's disappearance.
Speaker 1: He felt a thin drip of adrenaline start tapping on
Speaker 1: the back of his amygdala. It was the feeling he
Speaker 1: associated with shit about to happen. Roland tried to enjoy
Speaker 1: it without letting it push him into action. Before he
Speaker 1: knew what was really going on, Martyr Aaron Ditmar said
Speaker 1: as he approached Roland, the instructor's bodyguard stayed close behind.
Speaker 1: Would you come with me. We've got some news for you.
Speaker 1: Where's a manual? Roland asked, we'll explain everything. The older
Speaker 1: martyr said, just come with me. Roland followed him into
Speaker 1: the maze of buildings and towards a small office occupied
Speaker 1: by a white haired man in what looked like the
Speaker 1: Heavenly Kingdom's equivalent of a dress uniform. It was blue,
Speaker 1: bedecked with medals and had a shining silver cross on
Speaker 1: each apulett. The fancy man looked very tired. Roland could
Speaker 1: smell cheap caffeine wafting from his pores. This is Commandant Dawkins,
Speaker 1: Martyr dit Are explained, he's in charge of this facility.
Speaker 1: We've been telling him about you. Martyr Ditmar is hard
Speaker 1: to embrass, the commandant said, but to his eyes, you're
Speaker 1: some sort of latter day sampson. The strongest man i've
Speaker 1: ever seen, said Martyr Ditmar. He's a darn fine shot too,
Speaker 1: something of a marvel. Where's my friend? Roland asked, where's
Speaker 1: a manual? The commandant gave an indulgent smile. It didn't
Speaker 1: meet his tired eyes. Listen, Martyr, I know you can
Speaker 1: appreciate how important unit cohesion is during a situation as
Speaker 1: stressful as combat. We've had to make some changes in
Speaker 1: order to ensure unity. Emmanual is one of a number
Speaker 1: of soldiers we've transferred to special duty. Roland could read
Speaker 1: between the lines. He was sure if he checked in
Speaker 1: the barracks that Manny Jonathan and the other handful of
Speaker 1: non white recruits would all be absent. What kind of
Speaker 1: special duty? Ditmar growled behind him. Now, listen, son, just
Speaker 1: because the commandant called you a Samson doesn't mean you're
Speaker 1: in charge around here. We're prosecuting a war. You be
Speaker 1: privy to every decision made above you when you're just
Speaker 1: going to have to get used to that. The commandant
Speaker 1: was a bit calmer. He put his hands forward in
Speaker 1: a placating gesture and tried it again. Your friend is fine,
Speaker 1: he's better than fine. He's going to get a chance
Speaker 1: to serve his Lord and the heavenly Kingdom and glorious martyrdom.
Speaker 1: You should be happy for him. Ditmar stepped forward and
Speaker 1: squatted down next to him. He put a hand on
Speaker 1: Roland's thigh. A third of a second later, Roland had
Speaker 1: calculated the best way to rip that arm free of
Speaker 1: its socket and beat the other men in the room
Speaker 1: to death with it, but he held still for now.
Speaker 1: Manny would have been proud. Listen, boy, Ditmar said, I
Speaker 1: know you got used to having that brown kid help
Speaker 1: you talk with people, and I'm sure he did a
Speaker 1: fine job. I get that you're not much for social graces,
Speaker 1: but we're going to take care of you now, all right,
Speaker 1: You've got a whole army of brothers here. Just do
Speaker 1: what you do best and we'll handle the rest, okay,
Speaker 1: Roland said. He put a hand on Martyr Ditmar's wrist
Speaker 1: and clenched it hard enough that everyone in the room
Speaker 1: heard the bones snap. The look of dawning terror on
Speaker 1: the other man's face was the best high Roland had
Speaker 1: gotten in days. He savored it for a quarter second
Speaker 1: before finishing his sentence. I'll do what I do best. Then, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Robert Evans. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the chapters to come. You can find
Speaker 1: the free e pub of every chapter and eventually the
Speaker 1: whole book at a t r book dot com, complete
Speaker 1: with illustrations. If you want to support me in writing
Speaker 1: the sequel, you can crowdfund me at After the Revolution
Speaker 1: the Sequel at go fund me. Just type and go
Speaker 1: fund me after the Revolution the Sequel. Um. I'd like
Speaker 1: my books to always be free, so I'm just going
Speaker 1: to try to crowdfund the next one and see how
Speaker 1: that works. So After the Revolution the Sequel on go
Speaker 1: fund me. You can also find the community of fans
Speaker 1: of this book online at our slash after the Revolution
Speaker 1: on Reddit. So after the Revolution the Sequel on go
Speaker 1: fund me and our slash after the Revolution on Reddit.
Speaker 1: A t r book dot com for the whole book. Thanks,