The major flinched as if slapped, then his jaw tightened. “I’ll give you a week, Mayor. As I understand it you’ve poached 22 people from my camp. Taking in 220 more shouldn’t be too great a strain on your town.”
Matt couldn’t believe the man could blithely say that. 220 more mouths to feed could end up being twice that many who didn’t survive the winter because of insufficient food if they tried to stretch what they had. Besides, that number didn’t include the families of those they’d already taken in. “Don’t waste your time, Major. The answer will be the same when you come back.”
“It better not be.” Rogers gave the assembled leaders and townspeople a warning look. “I would think carefully about this, before you let this man steer you into trouble you’re not prepared to deal with.”
His words were met with frosty silence, which didn’t seem to bother the major as he settled down in the backseat of the jeep and his escort hopped in and started the vehicle, tearing them off up the road in the direction of their camp.
A man who truly believed in the rightness of what he was doing. Another Ferris in the making, as far as Matt was concerned. And like everything else the man was wrong about, he had no idea what Aspen Hill’s people were prepared to deal with.
Chapter Eight
Honor
“Well first off,” Catherine said firmly, “one of the biggest mistakes we made with Ferris was assuming everything he did was sanctioned. We never contacted his superiors in Price to confirm his decisions, or protest them for that matter.”
Chauncey nodded. “I’ll get on the radio asking around to try to see just how many of his threats Rogers is capable of carrying out, as well as if it’s even any of his business how the rations are distributed and where refugees are sent outside his camp.”
“That’s a good start,” Matt said. The town’s leaders had adjourned to the town hall tent to discuss the problem of the major and his ultimatum. “But it doesn’t answer the question of what we do when he comes back.”
An uncomfortable silence settled. “220 people would be crippling for us, but not impossible,” Lucas said. “It might be better to absorb the hit if it will prevent problems with the military. They have more force to bring to bear than we do.”
That was the understatement of the century.
“Half our people are already looking at starvation before winter’s through,” Catherine snapped. “Do you want to bring in hundreds more when it’s your wife or daughter who might be starving to accommodate a bunch of useless eaters?”
Ben bristled. “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t,” the former mayor responded. “Because you know Rogers will fob his biggest problems off on us. Young children, women who have no skills and are likely troublemakers to boot.” She glanced around and caught the uncomfortable looks. “And don’t pretend I’m wrong, just because it’s awful to think of the plight of widows and orphans. We’ve got our own to deal with.”
Matt held up his hands to calm the chaos that was about to break out. “I guess it all depends on what Rogers can do to us,” he said reasonably. “In the meantime we should prepare for the worst. Thoughts?”
Trev nodded. “I’ll put the defenders on high alert. Rogers might not expect us to be able to mobilize a full quarter of our people as a reasonably competent fighting force if the need arises. If he’s acting on his own we might be able to handle whatever soldiers he’s got under his command, if it comes to it.”
“And we should redouble our efforts gathering food, just in case,” Ben added. “It might be we can work our way out of this problem through sheer elbow grease and ingenuity.”
Matt wasn’t sure about that. As far as he knew everyone in town was already scrambling nonstop to gather every scrap of food in the area and preserve it for the coming winter. They couldn’t do more than their best, which most were already doing. He glanced over at the nook where they kept the radio gear. “Chauncey?”
The retired teacher shook his head. “It’s not looking good. We’re in Rogers’s area, and the refugee camp coordinators have a tremendous amount of authority with very little oversight. Too much of the military’s attention is focused on the continuing war with the Gold Bloc back east.”
To be honest Matt hadn’t been expecting good news on that front. For as much good as they’d done the military wasn’t perfect, and at the moment their word was law. There wasn’t any civilian authority to keep them in check, and it was only their sense of patriotism and decency that held them back from whatever they wanted to do. Unfortunately it looked as if Aspen Hill’s current problem came from a man who believed he was acting in the finest tradition of both.
“Again,” he said heavily. “What do we do when he comes back?”
“Take them in,” Scott said immediately. “I’d rather take the hit, no matter how bad it is, than risk armed conflict that might get just as many people killed.”
Catherine gave her husband an impatient look. “We need to turn them away. I’m not willing to lose even one of ours to starvation because of some bureaucrat’s power trip.”
Trev wasn’t helpful. “Whatever we decide, the defenders will be up for it,” he promised.
There was a short pause. “There is one thing to consider,” Lewis finally said. Matt noticed with interest that even though his friend had stepped away from any authority in the town, he still got everyone’s immediate attention when he spoke up. “Rogers might not be as reasonable with his terms when he comes back. What if he considers the veterans we took in as poached as well, and demands we take in 500 people? Or what if he tries to take back the surplus food we were given?”
Either of those things would be a disaster, even beyond what they were already looking at. Matt grimaced. “Are we going to reach a consensus on this, one way or another?” he demanded. The awkward silence seemed answer enough. “Fine. Then for now we plan to refuse Rogers’s terms and see what he says when he comes back, and before then see whether we can convince his superiors to call him off.”
He turned to Trev. “Make sure our defenders are ready.” His friend nodded, and he turned to Ben. “Let’s redouble our scavenging efforts. We don’t have food to offer, but maybe he’ll be interested in some other trade goods we can stand to part with if it’ll make this all go away.”
The older man looked doubtful. “He didn’t seem like the type to leave with a sackful of gold watches.”
“Better than the food we need to stay alive.” Matt nodded to his friends. “I’m sure you have scavenging expeditions planned.”
Lewis nodded, although he also looked doubtful. “There’s definitely things we can pick up,” he agreed. “I doubt any of them will help in this situation, though.”
With any decision basically made until they knew more or something else happened the meeting broke up. As everyone either drifted towards the exit or gathered in smaller groups Matt overheard the cousins talking.
“Now might be a good time to go after the reloading equipment I’ve made an offer on,” Lewis said in a low voice. “Before we’re potentially cut off from the outside world, possibly until winter.”
“I’m not sure I can break away, especially when I’ll need to keep my people on high alert,” Trev replied.
“No, I wasn’t expecting you to. I’ll go with Jane, maybe Gutierrez if he’s interested. I just wanted you to know where we are.”
“You’re not going into Rogers’s camp for this, are you?” Matt cut in. “That’s probably not a good idea.”
Lewis gave him an amused look. “No, I’m not nearly that crazy. It’s a place much farther west, almost to Sanpete Valley. Probably still a trip we can make in one day, depending on how things go. And don’t worry, we’ll steer well clear of the Major’s camp.”