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Benny narrowed his eyes "Running for what office?"

"Chief badass of the whole dareed White Bear "Y’see, e heard that your brother Toured it was a ripearound with the silly rules they got in nowhere places like Mountainside and Haven and suchlike Charlie was getting ready to do that too, but he was … um … reluctant to make his move with Tom in the mix"

"That’s because he was afraid of Tom!" snapped Benny

The smile flickered on White Bear’s face "Boy, you don’t need teeth or both eyes to go into a zoly before I feed you to--"

"Bear," said Preacher Jack quietly It was all he said, but it stopped White Bear for aman nodded and took a breath

"Yeah, okay," he said, but he fixed his wicked eye on Benny "Charlie wasn’t afraid of nobody on God’s green earth, you little snot He was a man of honor, and he showed respect to your brother Not fear … respect"

Benny didn’t want to s worse, so he said, "Okay I understand that"

White Bear gave a single, curt nod "Tom Imura may be a pain in my butt, but he’s a warrior, and I won’t put the lie to it and say he isn’t" Heap and Digger grunted agree, and he’s as much as said that this area ain’t his concern no a in and taking over I got big plans for this area Big plans Good plans, and you want to know the funny part? The real knee-slapper of a joke?"

"Um … sure," said Benny

"I’ll bet your brother would even approve of what I got in mind"

Nix made a sound low in her throat, but White Bear didn’t hear it

Benny said, "What do youafraid of the dead," said White Bear "The, um, Children of Lazarus" He shot a sideways look at Preacher Jack, and Benny caught a flicker of disapproval on the older man’s face "We have to share a world with them, but there’s roooing to reclai the dead out of here We’ll herd theuide the new fence lines, but we’ll do it at rivers and gorges and natural barriers We’ll take back farain Not just a few hundred head like they got in toe’ll run tens of thousands of heads We’ll plant a ure out how to start the ain Mills and factories, tractors and co s to do all that labor?" asked Nix dubiously

White Bear grinned "There’s a lot of lazy people sitting behind the fences Me andall the risks Now it’s tiot their hands dirty"

"You’re talking slave labor," said Nix

"It’s not slave labor," protested White Bear, trying to look innocent, "it’s cooperative labor No different froot now They want to eat, then they’ll work They work, and we’ll protect ’em"

Benny turned to Preacher Jack "What about the Children of Lazarus? I thought you said that this world was theirs now?"

The preacher’s lips twitched "Don’t confuse philosophy with practicality, child"

"What’s that mean?"

"It means that the dead don’t need farmland and clean water," said White Bear "They’s already been raised up to the Lord, so to speak All they need is to be So … we’ll just herd--Idown on us Hell, nobody’s using Utah and Arizona and New Mexico Who needs fricking deserts? We’ll keep ’em there, and they won’t know or care"

"Such is the will of God," agreed Preacher Jack, and the two thugs with hiuide ht hiuide all those dead?"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>