"I want everybody to visualize Princess Freya in your mind. Sweet little blonde, blue-eyed Freya. They'll probably sell her to some brown-skinned illiterate who spends his time praying when he's not forcing himself on her. We're attacking this compound to save her from that fate. When you return home with her, you will be treated as heroes."
Bean let the murmurs of disgust ebb before whispering, "Everybody disembark quietly now."
# # # # # # #
In Minneapolis, Jak was meeting with Fred Brown and the Vice-President in charge of the ranches.
"I identified ranch #4's security leak and informed the Big Momma," Jak started. "A young boss had been collaborating with her housekeeper. I suspect that the two of them are meeting regularly; she's going to catch them and deal with them."
"Any chance that more slaves are involved?" the vice-president asked.
"I didn't see any signs of that. I did see signs that the slaves were terrified of her."
"Do you agree, Fred?"
"I never personally checked the little blonde girl in Ranch #4. We had two good operators working with the girl. They never sent me any complaints of problems."
"Does that mean that you approve of our security, Jak?" The vice president wanted a decision from Jak because the budget officer at Headquarters was asking him that question every week.
"I'll approve the extension to our contract with you provided that the next time I'm at Ranch #4 the housekeeper is dead and the boss is neutered as Big Momma #4 promised."
"And the little girl we promised you? Any closer to finding her?"
"My partner is working on a lead, but she wasn't optimistic. I'll contact her in the next day or so. If we don't find her, you're still facing the penalty. It will be severe because you broke the contract not only in not keeping her secure, but also in grabbing her in the first place. I have determined that the Smythe girl that you kidnapped was underage. I believe this man was in charge of that initial kidnapping." Jak turned and looked at Fred Brown who began to stammer a reply.
# # # # # # #
Everything about Bean's plan worked perfectly, up to the point where they attacked William's security fence. Then everybody died instantaneously. Well, almost everybody.
After she had given the signal to attack, Bean had taken a step forward before diving to the ground. When the shooting stopped, she turned to scan the line and found the persistent charmer from her first night at the fire staring at her. The business end of his rifle was staring at her too.
"I wondered about you when the captain didn't come back," he said. "He had promised to give you to me after he was done. I was looking forward to it."
"The captain and I didn't see eye to eye."
"Is he dead?"
"Yuh."
"Tell me why you did all of this and I'll shoot to kill. Otherwise, ... well, you know."
"Your platoon invaded a community in Stockholm and raped every woman you could find. I have had this thing about rapists ever since I was raped by somebody like you."
"We only rape women carrying the pestilence. That's the directive."
Bean prepared herself. She was on her belly. Her rifle was in her right hand and pointing at the security fence. She wouldn't have time to twist around and re-aim her rifle. She decided that she didn't mind dying. This operation had given her forty rapists in exchange for her one pestilence carrying life. It was an honourable way to go.
The charmer finally realized why Bean wasn't saying anything.
"You're not pure white? You're a coloured..."
The charmer didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. The perfect round hole though his forehead and out the other side was probably the reason. A bit of steam curled out of the hole and up over his head. Brain matter boils in high heat.
Bean looked around frantically, re-aimed her gun into the security fence, and burrowed down into the leaves and branches of the forest floor.
"Relax," a woman's voice said. "You're not in any danger so long as you clean up the mess you made. I'm not going to do it."
# # # # # # #
Theo and Lucas were relaxing in the command center. Lucas was on duty there and couldn't leave; that didn't mean the Theo couldn't visit with his brother.
"Have you stopped growing yet?" Lucas asked.
"I think so. I have energy again."
"You've changed a lot."
"It was like somebody gave me growth stimulants of some kind. I'm way taller."
"Bigger in the chest too. Deeper voice. Black whiskers coming in."
"I feel really strong. Like I could wrestle a bear."
"Well you do wrestle with a panther."
"Nary and me wrestling is off limits, Lucas."
"I know. I'm teasing. I like Nary. I'm glad for you. Just don't make her mad. She's one big intimidating.... I dunno, force of nature? Like nothing can stop her if she puts her mind to it."
"She's still Nary. She's sweet."
"You do remember who her mother is, right?"
[Narrator: speaking of mothers...]
# # # # # # #
Yolanda and Bean were working in tandem. Yolanda would drag a dead soldier to the copter; Bean would lift the body up and heave it inside. Yolanda started helping with the bodies after Bean had described what was happening back in Scandinavia and why.
"How old were you when you were raped?" Yolanda asked.
"Thirteen."
"And your age now?"
"Nineteen."
[Narrator: During all of this conversation, Yolanda and Bean were pulling and heaving. I won't bother describing that again.]
"And you have just killed thirty-nine soldiers and their captain before that."
"Yuh. I have one more to go. My ex-partner."
"Because?"
"She planned and executed chemical attacks on innocent Scandinavians who were guilty of nothing more than being different."
"I admire you for what you're doing."
"You shouldn't admire me. I've done my share of killing. It was part of the job. No longer."
"I killed four men when I was your age," Yolanda admitted.
"What did they do?"
"It's what they were trying to do. Rape me; kill my husband-to-be."
"How'd you do it?"
"Very efficiently," Yolanda said. "Why were these soldiers so easy to persuade to attack us? I couldn't hear what you were saying in the copter."
"You were watching us that long? How? I landed way outside your security fence."
"We have an excellent security system. Why did they try to attack the compound?"
"To snatch the little blonde girl you have here. The one who rides the dogs."
"You and your partner have been after EmmaGee?"
"We call her Freya. She was born in Scandinavia. Somebody stole her from us. The regent who runs Scandinavia wants her back. His name is Wilhelm."
"Why does he want her back?"
"Unless I'm mistaken about what happened to her mother, your little EmmaGee is the current Queen of Scandinavia. Wilhelm probably wants her back so that he can kill her, but that will come later. He has something else in mind for her, but my partner has been very secretive about that. I believe she was the one who assassinated the queen."
# # # # # # #
Bean was in the copter, the door still open, finishing the conversation with Yolanda.
"I never got your name," Yolanda said.
"People call me Beanstalk or Bean for short. Yours?"
"Yolanda. Where will you go? What will you do?"
"This Scandinavian expeditionary force has been massacred. I can't be its sole survivor returning to Scandinavia, so I guess I'm out of a job. I have a hobby that I will probably work full time on."
"Care to elaborate?"
"No. I'm not a very nice person, Yolanda. You wouldn't like what I do for a hobby."
"I like what you did here. Perhaps we'll run across each other some time."
"Not likel
y. Yolanda, a word of advice."
"OK."
"This thing with your EmmaGee? Wilhelm won't give up. I don't know why he is so determined to bring her back to Scandinavia. He wants her alive, but I know somehow that he's planning to kill her. That doesn't make sense. I don't know how he's going to abduct her, but somebody from Scandinavia will be back here to try. They know that you're called the Wilizy. I gave your name to my partner before I realized what I was doing. She almost certainly would have told Wilhelm. I'm sorry I did that, but anybody could find you. You're not exactly a secret organization. My partner thought that the Saskatchewan army might be part of the plot, but I think she gave up on that option. Wilhelm's soldiers will find this compound easily. And they'll find only one storekeeper woman to defend it. And nobody to defend you if you step outside this fence."
"We have others who can help. They're looking at acquiring some cattle operations right now."
"It's too bad that you lost Will and Izzy. You might have a chance otherwise. Wilhelm will bring his entire army into this valley if killing you from the shadows doesn't work first, Yolanda."
"What are we facing, Bean?"
"Conventional weaponry only. They don't have hand-held lasers like you do. They have one submarine that you shouldn't have to worry about because it's only used to move personnel from Scandinavia into Finland and back. Most platoons have several solar copters, but they won't be a threat against your airplanes. Scandinavia's biggest threat to you are its assassins and saboteurs. These are the people who will kidnap EmmaGee if she ever steps foot outside this compound."
"Thank you, Bean. I'll return the favour. If you are ever in difficulty and you need a place to hide, go to any Wilizy Cloth and Dye store and ask to speak to the store manager. Tell him that you have a large shipment of beans if he's interested in buying it. Tell him that you had heard that Yolanda really likes beans."
Beanstalk nodded and shut the door. As the copter lifted into the air, Yolanda knocked on the door panel. Bean opened it and hovered. Yolanda stepped inside the open door and put both hands on the bottom of the doorframe to keep the copter close.
"We spotted you earlier, Bean. Be sure to repaint this copter. It's obviously military. Nobody has black copters in North America. You're obviously military too. Grow your hair longer. Let it curl. A little make-up wouldn't hurt if you're somewhere where women wear make-up. Don't march when you walk. You have a weapon in your right front pocket. I could kill you before you reach it. Move it onto your belt, or use a strap that will attach it to your forearm. Wear long loose sleeves. Perhaps take off your glasses to soften your stare at people? Smile more. When you kill, kill quickly and thoroughly. Don't go soft. A girl all by herself, undercover...”
Bean nodded, saluted in thanks, and finished her ascent. An ex-RCMP undercover operative saluted back and then vanished.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 34
The Wilizy's Sunday morning battles in South Dakota went very smoothly. I don't have much to say about them. Six ranches, six successful endings. No casualties to the slaves. Again, the Warriors went back to the Wilizy ships to sleep while the ships sailed on autopilot to North Dakota.
By Sunday noon, the Safe Haven managers in Minneapolis were fretting about their regular courier not arriving on time. The Petunia man started making I told you so noises so they asked Jak to contact her partner to see if she had heard anything. Jak couldn't reach Beanstalk; the platoon captain wasn't responding either. She assumed that both were out of range. Perhaps Jak was with them and they were out on a training exercise somewhere. A one-day delay was nothing for the courier system. It had happened numerous times in the past. Safe Haven management decided to wait one more day before sending out a copter to investigate.
They stopped fretting after Beanstalk contacted Jak that afternoon.
# # # # # # # #
Bean had returned to the platoon's campsite after leaving Yolanda Saturday afternoon. She had stripped the men's bodies and left them scattered over the desolate prairies for the animals to find. She burned everything personal that could suggest that forty men might have lived at this campsite and then she slept comfortably through the night.
Sunday morning, Bean woke well rested and decided to have a little holiday. An R&R. Rest and Recreation. By 2 p.m. Sunday, she had had enough R&R. Beanstalk had never been the kind of person to sit and watch clouds float across the sky.
Back to business. What was she going to do? Bean made a list of her assets. Two large copter transports; the captain's command copter; another small copter; lots and lots of weapons and ammunition; enough money to handle living expenses for months. Oh, and two obsolete walkie-talkies. She could use this camp as her hideout. Pursuing her hobby would mean living in a large urban area where she could be anonymous. Then, depending on how visible she had been, and how active, Bean may or may not move on to another urban area, but she'd always have this place as a refuge.
But first, she had to deal with her partner. Jak needed to die because of her active management of the chemical attacks on innocent men and women in Scandinavia. These people were citizens, but not the right colour or religion for some people. Bean could continue to pretend that her walkie-talkie wasn't within range to hear Jak's attempts to communicate with her. (One such attempt had come through loud and clear.) But that would leave Jak with unanswered questions. Jak knew that she was researching the Wilizy. Bean's silence might cause Jak to think that she was dead at the hands of the Wilizy. Bean couldn't do that to the Wilizy, not after Yolanda had been so understanding and full of advice.
The thought of those WTs prompted a memory to surface. Why had the captain's orders warned him about excessive use of the WTs when Jak and Bean hadn't been similarly warned? Why did the words terminate the operation in the captain's written orders make her visualize a dead man's bony hand rising out of a grave. She hiked back to the captain's hidden copter to remind herself exactly what words appeared in the orders.
Use antiquated broadcast communications only in emergencies. Why use them only in emergencies? Why the restriction? WTs were obsolete. Nobody would be listening in to those messages.
You are to terminate the mission as instructed. As instructed where? As instructed when? There were no instructions in the Captain's orders on how to terminate this mission. That meant that somebody had to have given him those orders previously. Back in Scandinavia. If the asset cannot be acquired and discovery is imminent, you are to terminate the mission as instructed. That was military-speak for an order that would look like this in English: If the operation is in danger of failing, cut off all the loose ends. Those loose ends were Jak and the Beanstalk.
Bean brought the captain's copter back to the camp. She had taken her own WT on the operation to the Wilizy compound solely for show. This is what officers do. Carry around communication devices. It was still in the transport copter.
Bean undid the screws holding the back plate of her WT to the WT's body, but she did not try to pull off the back plate. That action might trigger an explosive device hidden inside.
Bean found a long stick and attached her barber blade to it. It had a very small sharp point. She tried to insert the point into the tiny gap between WT's body and the WT's back plate. She was standing as far away as possible. That far away, she couldn't slip the point of the knife into the gap.
More thinking.
This time, she turned her WT over – making very sure that the back plate did not separate from the body. Next she attached a rope to the WT's wind-up handle, threw the end of the rope over a tree branch, walked the loose end of the rope as far away from the WT as possible, hid behind a tree, and then hauled on the rope pulling the WT into the air while leaving its back plate on the ground.
No explosion. Perhaps she had been wrong.
Bean anchored the loose end of the rope and approached the hanging WT carefully. She peered up into its interior and saw Special Op's favorite explosive for u
se in small spaces. She could disarm it easily enough. But she didn't.
More thinking.
Opening up the WT had not created an explosion. Therefore, something else would create the explosion. Only one other thing could cause her WT to explode. That something was the captain's WT. After all, he had been ordered to terminate her. He'd do that by calling Bean's WT and he'd explode it remotely when she had the WT close to her ear.
The exterior of the captain's WT was no different from Bean's. A crank to generate enough electricity to power the transmitter, a Send button and a Receive button. So what would cause the transmitter on the captain's WT to send the type of message that would explode Bean's WT? Logically, it wouldn't be the Receive button; it would be the Send button.
More thinking.
Bean grabbed the captain's WT and moved far away from her own WT which was still hanging from a rope looped over a tree limb. She put another very big tree trunk between her and her WT. Only afterwards did she push the captain's send button two times in rapid succession.
Nothing.
Three times in rapid succession.
Nothing.
One push on the button but held down for...
The explosion was impressive.
# # # # # # #
No time like the present. She already had the lieutenant's WT in her hand.
"Bean to Jak. Come in Jak. Over."
"Bean! Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you. Over."
"I found the compound of those store owners and thought I saw something we wanted. I took some friends on a high-speed run. It was a false alarm. We just got back. What did you want? Over."
"Some of my friends are worried that their communications service has been broken. They're wondering if you have heard anything they should know about. Over."
"You're in their place of business? Over."
"Yeah. They're in the same room as I am right now. Over."
That works for me. What kind of people make money by raping teenage girls so that they'll give birth to slaves.
"Jak, I have something to tell you. I've been thinking about my career. I'm not happy about the way you've been treating some people in our country. You know – that chemical program that you and your boss have been operating. Over."