Read Online Survivalist - 12 - The Rebellion by Jerry Ahern - Free Book Online
Authors: Jerry Ahern
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you’d be dead.”
Rourke shoved the pistol from his left hand into his belt, making the right hand pistol disappear under his brown leather jacket. Then he repeated the process. It took two hands always to conveniently reholster his guns because of the trigger guard break design of the holsters.
“I’ll change, if I may,” Natalia began. “And, then, I’ll accompany you, Captain.” She didn’t wait for an answer— she handed back John Rourke’s sunglasses, leaned up on her bare toes and kissed his left cheek lightly, then started for her tent.
She didn’t delude herself. Dodd thought she was guilty, believed it. And nothing would convince him otherwise.
But if she let John Rourke commit some act of violence against Dodd, John—all of them, all the people she loved—they would be outcasts from human society forever.
She let the tent flap fall closed behind her, then sat on the edge of the cot.
Her mind was functioning on two levels. While she awaited the inevitable, she might as well be comfortable. She wouldn’t be going into battle. On impulse when she had left The Retreat she had taken a skirt and a pair of sandals. She also wondered how they would punish her for this murder—and how she could prevent John Rourke from ruining his life and the lives of his family by interfering.
Chapter Nine
Michael was awake, but not sitting up—his eyes seemed alert and clear though, as clear as they could with the medication. Paul Rubenstein had sat up, Rourke cautioning him before the younger man attempted it. Sarah sat at the small table beside the lit Coleman lamp, Annie and Madison respectively sitting beside Paul and Michael, at the edges of the cots. John Rourke stood near the tent flap, too angry to sit.
“I’m supposed to leave for Argentina tomorrow—I don’t want to. Dodd’s going to railroad Natalia—I can feel it in my guts. But if I don’t, and Mann’s faction loses and this Deiter Bern is executed, we’ll be facing Karamatsov’s forces alone and we may wind up facing the Nazis too—a no-win proposition, at least on the surface.”
“On the surface?” Sarah echoed. “Now I went through a lot since the Night of The War—and I learned you were right about a lot of things John. Don’t ever give up like that. And I know that if the Russians and these Nazis attack us, you never will give up. None of us will. But they have weapons that are a whole lot more sophisticated than ours, and there are at least hundreds of them—more likely thousands of them. And we’ll lose. I mean, maybe all of us here and Natalia—we can stay together and keep fighting from the mountains and harassing them—but we won’t win, John. You’ve got to go.”
“Momma is right,” Annie said softly.
“She—she is, Dad,” Michael agreed.
“It isn’t my place to speak, Father Rourke… .”
“No, of course you have a voice in what we do. Go ahead, Madison.”
“We will care for Natalia. But I think we will all die— Natalia, too—if you do not help the colonel-man in his fight for freedom.”
“She’s gonna make a hell of a sister-in-law,” Paul began. “Michael and Annie and Madison and I—we can take care of things here, John. Because if you don’t go—you and Sarah and Kurinami and those volunteers he’s been rounding up and Elaine Halverson—if you don’t go, well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And the whole idea of Nazis—it gives me the creeps. But if this guy Mann is what he says he is—and I don’t think he’d have anything to gain by lying to us—but if he’s what he says he is, then he wants to kick the real Nazis out of power. I gotta be for that, ya know?”
Rourke only nodded, staring past the Coleman lamp at his wife’s shadow.
“And as far as Natalia is concerned,” Paul continued, “like Madison said—she’ll be safe.”
“There’s a Russian agent at work in the camp,” Rourke answered. “That’s probably how Rozhdestvensky and Karamatsov before
Rourke shoved the pistol from his left hand into his belt, making the right hand pistol disappear under his brown leather jacket. Then he repeated the process. It took two hands always to conveniently reholster his guns because of the trigger guard break design of the holsters.
“I’ll change, if I may,” Natalia began. “And, then, I’ll accompany you, Captain.” She didn’t wait for an answer— she handed back John Rourke’s sunglasses, leaned up on her bare toes and kissed his left cheek lightly, then started for her tent.
She didn’t delude herself. Dodd thought she was guilty, believed it. And nothing would convince him otherwise.
But if she let John Rourke commit some act of violence against Dodd, John—all of them, all the people she loved—they would be outcasts from human society forever.
She let the tent flap fall closed behind her, then sat on the edge of the cot.
Her mind was functioning on two levels. While she awaited the inevitable, she might as well be comfortable. She wouldn’t be going into battle. On impulse when she had left The Retreat she had taken a skirt and a pair of sandals. She also wondered how they would punish her for this murder—and how she could prevent John Rourke from ruining his life and the lives of his family by interfering.
Chapter Nine
Michael was awake, but not sitting up—his eyes seemed alert and clear though, as clear as they could with the medication. Paul Rubenstein had sat up, Rourke cautioning him before the younger man attempted it. Sarah sat at the small table beside the lit Coleman lamp, Annie and Madison respectively sitting beside Paul and Michael, at the edges of the cots. John Rourke stood near the tent flap, too angry to sit.
“I’m supposed to leave for Argentina tomorrow—I don’t want to. Dodd’s going to railroad Natalia—I can feel it in my guts. But if I don’t, and Mann’s faction loses and this Deiter Bern is executed, we’ll be facing Karamatsov’s forces alone and we may wind up facing the Nazis too—a no-win proposition, at least on the surface.”
“On the surface?” Sarah echoed. “Now I went through a lot since the Night of The War—and I learned you were right about a lot of things John. Don’t ever give up like that. And I know that if the Russians and these Nazis attack us, you never will give up. None of us will. But they have weapons that are a whole lot more sophisticated than ours, and there are at least hundreds of them—more likely thousands of them. And we’ll lose. I mean, maybe all of us here and Natalia—we can stay together and keep fighting from the mountains and harassing them—but we won’t win, John. You’ve got to go.”
“Momma is right,” Annie said softly.
“She—she is, Dad,” Michael agreed.
“It isn’t my place to speak, Father Rourke… .”
“No, of course you have a voice in what we do. Go ahead, Madison.”
“We will care for Natalia. But I think we will all die— Natalia, too—if you do not help the colonel-man in his fight for freedom.”
“She’s gonna make a hell of a sister-in-law,” Paul began. “Michael and Annie and Madison and I—we can take care of things here, John. Because if you don’t go—you and Sarah and Kurinami and those volunteers he’s been rounding up and Elaine Halverson—if you don’t go, well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And the whole idea of Nazis—it gives me the creeps. But if this guy Mann is what he says he is—and I don’t think he’d have anything to gain by lying to us—but if he’s what he says he is, then he wants to kick the real Nazis out of power. I gotta be for that, ya know?”
Rourke only nodded, staring past the Coleman lamp at his wife’s shadow.
“And as far as Natalia is concerned,” Paul continued, “like Madison said—she’ll be safe.”
“There’s a Russian agent at work in the camp,” Rourke answered. “That’s probably how Rozhdestvensky and Karamatsov before
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