Snareville (30 page)

They could hear something. The guards at the gate in Milan glanced at one another in the darkness. Something was moving out there. Diesel engines carried a distinct sound, especially when nothing else was moving. But it was still pitch dark. No moon, no streetlights. Nothing but the flashlights they had in their hands, and right now, nothing showed up at the far reach of the beams. Those trucks could be anywhere.

When they heard gravel crunch on the street in front of them, they knew they were in trouble. Still, no shots had been fired yet, and zombies didn’t drive. One guard raised his rifle. The other raised his flashlight. The weak, yellow beam reached out and touched the front grill of a green Humvee. All the lights flashed on from the trucks.

Both guards tried to block out the light. Over the engine noise, they heard the actions of guns being cocked. Boots tread on the pea gravel in front of them. Three shadows emerged from the glare.

“
Good mornin’ to ya,” the lead shadow said. He was dressed in old-style, green-and-brown camouflage from the eighties. Two gold bars were pinned to his collar. Above his shirt pocket, his nametag read
Death
. The patch identified him as a Raider, and he carried an AR-15.

“
Good morning,” the guard to the left stammered. A large black man, more muscle than anything, he held an SKS rifle in one hand and flashlight in the other. “Help you boys?”

His eyes fell on the other two. Both wore dark green digital camouflage. One had two red-and-gold stripes up, one rocker down. The other had three gold stripes up. Marines. The guard figured they were in a world of shit.

“
We’re here to carry out a warrant,” the leader said. “I’m Captain Death. You boys are…?”

“
I’m Ronnie White,” the black guard offered. “My partner is Jim Black.”

Black was a skinny white man, all of a hundred fifty pounds soaking wet.

“
You guys work that out ahead of time?” Captain Death asked with a chuckle.

“
Nosir, just happened that way.” Black managed a smile. With quick, nervous eyes, he glanced at the three troops, then the small convoy behind them.

Danny watched them for a moment. “You need to open the gate and let us through. Lance Corporal Jeffers here will help man the gate. The other one of you needs to take Sergeant Moody to your town leader and serve her with the papers.”

“
Sir, I’m not sure—” White began.

Danny’s hand shifted on his rifle. “Is there a problem here, Mister White? We are authorized by the Northern Illinois, East Iowa Alliance to carry out this warrant.”

Both guards swallowed and glanced at one another.

“
Yessir, Captain Death,” Black said.

He stepped back and started to swing the gate open. Danny raised his hand, and the headlights snapped off. Back in the dark, four Humvees drove though. Death mounted up in the first one, night-vision glasses flipped down over his eyes. The gates closed. Lance Corporal Jeffers stayed at the gate with Black. White took Sergeant Jessica Moody to Mayor Olivia Van Wassenhove’s house.

They rolled down the main street behind the defenses in darkness. NVDs were the handiest thing invented in awhile. The military liked to say American forces owned the night. With gear like this, Danny could understand why. While things had a greenish cast, the picture was clear as noon. They stopped the rigs four blocks from the target house.

Troops piled out and lined up on the sidewalk. Cindy to his left, Jinks and Hunter to his right, Danny laid out the plan with Lieutenant Gibson. Two guards would be outside. The targets were in the house. Anyone held inside was to be rescued. Radio silence was to be maintained from this point on. At a trot, the fifteen troopers headed up the street.

“
I’m tellin’ you, something’s movin’ out there, Pecker,” the first guard said. He stood on one corner of a deck in front of a plain, white house.

The other guard stood, straining his hears. “You’re nuts, Marcus. Only thing out there is cats an’ possums.”

It was the last thought in his head before a hand clamped hard over his mouth and yanked his head back to the point his neck popped. A Marine’s K-Bar combat knife sliced his throat deep enough to hit bone.

Pecker struggled for a second, then Private Heather Tomas dropped him silently into the grass. Her fiancé, Corporal Jim Cody, did the same with Marcus. They motioned for the rest of the unit to move up.

Danny ran forward in a crouch with half his unit strung out behind him. Seven others went with Gibson. The house was well surrounded. He clicked his headset twice to say he was in position. Two clicks came back. Gibson was in place. He pulled a flash-bang grenade from his pocket and clicked once. Gibson replied the same. Danny counted three, pulled the pin, and tossed the grenade through an open window.

With an explosion of light and noise, the grenades shattered the early-morning still. Screams came from inside one of the rooms as troops burst in. Two men, probably in their forties, were quickly zip-cuffed and laid on the floor. A third came out of the back room where all the screams were coming from—a thick, hairy man with a leather gimp hood over his head and a cock cage around a throbbing erection.

“
What the fuck’s going on out—”

A half dozen rifle barrels abbreviated his sentence as the soldiers swung the muzzles of their guns under his nose. He raised his hands, which were quickly cuffed behind him. Screams still issued from the back room.

Danny took Gibson, Jinks, and Private Tomas back with him. Cody moved the men out into the yard and sent four other troops after the rigs. In the candle-lit back room, they found twelve large dog cages. Five of them were occupied by girls ranging in age from about ten to about seventeen. Four other cages held boys of the same age range. All were naked. All were cuffed.

In the center of the room, a young black girl was bent over with her hands cuffed behind her, a black leather blindfold over her eyes, and a red ball gag in her mouth. Between her ankles, a black spreader bar ensured she’d be in position for as long as the gimp wanted.

The kids in the cages cried and whimpered. Danny found a set of keys on a nail in the wall. He handed them to Jinks. Tomas followed. They lifted the tube of their night-vision goggles, and some of the cries stopped. Danny called Cindy into the room and whispered for her to help.

Gibson had stood frozen for a few long minutes, eyes glued to the girl on the floor. Gently, he took the spreader bar from between her legs and lifted her up. She trembled on her knees—from weakness or fear, he didn’t know. The ball gag was next, followed to the floor by the blindfold.

“
Shar? That
is
you.”

The girl looked up and burst into tears. Tomas knelt beside them, found a key, and popped the cuffs open. The girl flung her arms around Gibson’s neck.

“
Uncle Tony! Uncle Tony!”

Danny stepped out of the room. The house was empty, but he heard his Humvees roll up outside. In the yard, the three men stood against the deck, between the dead guards. They jabbered questions no one answered. A Humvee with a pickup bed backed up under an impotent streetlight. Two nooses were thrown over the light fixture. One of the troops quickly spun out another noose and flung it over the arm as well.

“
Bill Jefferson, Hank Anders,” Danny said as he walked over to the men, “and Mister Gimpy. Now the three of you have been found guilty of child molestation, rape, and human trafficking. You’ve been sentenced to hang by the neck until dead, in accordance with this warrant issued by the Northern Illinois, East Iowa Alliance.”

“
You can’t do this,” the guy in boxer shorts said. “You got no rights to do this. I got rights. I want a lawyer!”

A woman’s voice cut in. “Only lawyer in this town is me, and you really don’t want me as your attorney, Hank.”

Danny watched as Mayor Olivia Van Wassenhove walked across the lawn, accompanied by two men in tattered blue uniforms. Badges glittered around their necks. With them walked Sergeant Moody.

“
The writ’s legal, Hank. According to the laws of the Alliance that we joined, they can do this.”

“
Fuck you, bitch!” the man in the gimp mask shouted. “
We
run this town! We never agreed to no alliance!"

Lieutenant Gibson strode across the yard. With his left hand, he ripped the mask from the man’s head. The man underneath gasped. Gibson smashed the spreader bar across his face. With a crack, the man’s jaw broke. A wet scream issued from the man’s crooked mouth. Gibson raised the bar for another swing, and Danny caught his arm.

“
No, Lieutenant.” Danny shook his head. “No.”

“
You seen what he was doin’ to my niece. My Shar.”

“
I saw. Beating him to a pulp won’t change that. He’s going to die naked with a cock cage on. That’s enough.”

“
No, it ain’t.” From his pockets, Gibson pulled out the sex equipment he'd removed from Shar. With shaking hands, he strapped on the blindfold, cranked the gag into the man’s mouth, and cuffed his hands behind him.

The captives were led to the back of the truck, cursing at first, then begging. Troopers lifted them into place when they refused to climb in.

“
I never had enough officers to do much about you boys,” Van Wassenhove said, “but we’ve got laws. Tough laws where you don’t get to weasel out of them on some technicality. Carry out the sentence, Captain.”

Danny raised his hand. Cody dropped the truck into gear. The condemned felt the truck shift as power hit the axle. They screamed. Danny dropped his arm, Cody hit the gas. Three men fell three feet. Necks popped; legs danced on open air. Fingers twitched, then stilled.

In the yard, they posted a sign decreeing the charges and the sentence. It was signed by Major Tom Jackson and Captain Danny Death. Everything would be left in place for two days. After that, anyone who wanted to bury the scum was welcome to.

“
You got people to take the kids in?” Danny asked.

“
Yes,” Van Wassenhove said. “We’ve got people wanting to rebuild their families. Thank you for your help tonight, Captain Death.”

She held out her hand.

Danny took it. “You’re welcome. Call the Arsenal if you need us again. You need more uniforms, though. I think if you ask around, you might find some volunteers.”

“
I think you’re right. We’ll have power next week. That’ll help a lot. Our fences have held. People need to start to rebuild their lives.”

They watched as the children came into the night. They were wrapped in blankets the troops brought with them. As they were handed over to the mayor and her police, Danny loaded his troops. Gibson collected Shar as they climbed into his Humvee. Three bodies dangled from their tethers, a few feet from the death warrant in an overgrown yard.

Danny picked up Jeffers on the way out of town. At the Arsenal, they crashed into bed and slept through half the morning. Their replacements were already out at the Farm.

Near dark, they rolled through the first checkpoint. Old Walter flagged them through and radioed ahead. The second gate opened as they drove into town. Gibson’s driver turned down Owen Street and dropped the Lieutenant at Catfish Cori’s. He walked to the door, Shar’s hand in his. Cori opened the door, flung her arms around Gibson’s neck, and held on. Slowly, she let go of the blushing Marine and took the quiet young lady into her embrace.

The driver moved on to his quarters. He caught up to the rest of his unit on Brewster Street. The houses along this street now belonged to military. One hundred troops from the Arsenal lived here in rotation. The Marines were here on a permanent basis. Private Banks parked in front of his house, mouth agape as the garage door rolled up. He smiled as Susan waved at him from the inside door. She wore little more than her uniform shirt, and that was unbuttoned.

Danny drove slowly through town. Jinks and Hunter rode in the back seat, Cindy in the front. Cindy was in the process of worrying her fingernails down to the quicks. She glanced over at Danny, then glanced away.

“
Nervous?” Danny asked.

She spat a fragment of her fingernail on the floor. “That obvious?”

Danny chuckled. Cindy smiled briefly, then went back to her nails.

They turned onto Hill Street. Danny dropped off Hunter and Jinks first at their house, then dove the rest of the block to his home. He parked in the drive, shut off the motor, and sat for a few seconds. The door burst open, and Ella jumped the three steps down and ran for the truck.

“
Looks like we’re home,” Danny said.

He stepped out and swept Ella up in his arms. She squeezed him around the neck.

“
Glad you’re home, Dad! I read the last email you sent Mama Pepper. Sorry it was so rough, but you saved those kids like me. That’s a good thing!”

“
I know, baby. I know.” He put her down.

Ella turned and wrapped Cindy in a bear hug. “And you’re cured!”

“
Yes, I am,” Cindy whispered. She held the girl as tears streaked her face.

Pepper stood on the top step. She watched without a word. Danny went to her and slid his arms around her waist.