America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 2: Reenlistment by Walter Knight Page A

the
tunnels underground the fort,” I explained. “They all died when we
flooded the underground.”
    “Did you try to negotiate with the
prisoners?” asked Coen. “Was there any attempt to establish a line
of communications with the prisoners? Isn’t that procedure in all
prison riot situations?”
    “The minute I drove my armored car through
the prison gates, the car was destroyed by an anti-tank rocket.
There was no time for negotiations. I was pinned down against that
wall over there by machine gun fire and mortars.”
    “No time?” asked Coen. “Isn’t it true you had
time to order and eat five hundred pizzas from Pizza Hut?”
    “Lieutenant Lopez offered the spiders pizza
if they would surrender, but none would come out of their holes,” I
explained.
    “So, one of your junior officers did try to
negotiate with the prisoners?” asked Coen. He looked around and
recognized Lieutenant Lopez walking by. “Lieutenant Lopez, do you
have any comments about what happened here today?”
    “No habla English,” replied Lieutenant Lopez.
“Go fuck yourself.”

    * * * * *

    Private George Rambo Washington, the first
spider legionnaire, drove our only remaining armored car back to
Disneyland. It was a treat for Private Washington because he had
never driven a human vehicle before. I doubt he could get a
civilian driver’s license. His driving was scary. Even scarier were
his thoughts. I could read his mind with the chip Guido had sold
me. Private Washington kept thinking about running other drivers
off the road. He obviously suffered from road rage.
    As much of the company as possible was piled
into the back the armored car. I rode up front. As we entered the
outskirts of Disneyland, Private Tonelli began yelling about a
house we had passed. He said it was one of the safe houses that he
had been held in. We circled around the block. I noticed a video
camera mounted on the roof above the front porch. I ordered Private
Washington to drive through the front wall at fifty miles per hour
and warned everyone in the back to hang on. A spider guard in the
front room was killed instantly by the crash impact.
    Sergeant Green led legionnaires in a
room-by-room search of the house. In a bedroom we found a spider
that Guido’s dragon had killed. Guido also showed us the entrance
to the tunnel in the living room. We dropped a few grenades down
the tunnel and radioed in for the engineers to destroy the place
later. Private Washington stepped out onto the back porch to check
the yard. He noticed what looked like another trap door. A rug only
partially concealed another spider hole. Perhaps the occupant had
closed the door so fast, he was not able to get the rug completely
over the door. Private Washington pulled the rug away and threw
open the trap door, revealing a spider hole.
    A lone occupant called out, “Don’t shoot. I
will throw out my pistol. I am the Lion of the Forest. I surrender.
You will be quite a hero for capturing someone as important as me.
You will be promoted. I can give you information about the
insurgency. I order you to take me to Czerinski.”
    Private Washington pulled the pin on a
grenade and tossed it into the hole. The explosion made a mess of
the Lion of the Forest, but his remains were later positively
identified from DNA.

    <> <chapter>> <> <>

    CHAPTER 6

    General Kalipetsis came to Disneyland to talk
to me in private. He had the room scanned for listening devices
before dismissing his aides-de-camp and ordering Lieutenant Lopez
to leave.
    “I got an interesting E-mail,” started
General Kalipetsis. “It is from the Lion of the Forest.”
    “The Lion is dead,” I commented. “He died
heroically.”
    “I know, but I will read the E-mail to you
anyway,” said General Kalipetsis. “Dear General Kalipetsis: If you
are reading this message I am dead and my cause is lost.
Congratulations. My Emperor abandoned me and the Legion defeated
me. I am not bitter.