​Les Mousquetaires – Chapter 3 (Where Only Angels Dare Fly) Part 2

Les Mousquetaires – Chapter 3 (Where Only Angels Dare Fly) Part 2
 
 
 
     “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.” Carl Sagan
 
 
 
 
“But you don’t realize what you’re asking.  There’s no way.  There’s no way in hell you can unite all of the lightning farmers under one banner.  It’s just not possible.  They knew what they was doin’ when they handed out these positions.  There’s no way ANYONE can get these people to stand in the same room as one another, let alone see eye-to-eye.”
 
The tall, middle-aged man with the ever-youthful face, was nearly panting in distress, as he tried, yet again, to make the maddening women see sense.
 
“You just don’t realize what you’re asking.  Wolf Clan alone won’t have it.  And they’re not you’re biggest hurdle.  Even if you could talk Wolf Clan into your crazy scheme, and it is a fucking crazy scheme -  I don't mind telling you - you'd still have to convert the Catholics.  And that’s not gonna happen.  No matter what, it’s just never gonna happen.  Cuz every single one of them tossers thinks they're on some sorta higher-mission, or something.  They won’t deviate for nobody.”
 
Lynnette Parker smiled at the man, but then again, Lynnette Parker knew quite a few things Benny Norton didn’t.
 
“Never you mind about the Catholics.  I’ve got someone else working on them.  You just tell me how we unite the rest of them.”
 
“Can’t be done,” Benny said, as he plopped himself down in his one-of-a-kind Montestro chair.  He’d nicked it off of another lightning farmer, for a dime-bag of chez, and two hours with his little misses.
 
Of course afterwards, the little misses had decided to stay with the suave bastard, but… oh well.  Ya win some, ya lose some.
 
“Benny, is it possible you have forgotten who you’re speaking to?” Bruce asked then, as he came to stand next to the taller, and yet quite a bit less imposing man.
 
Benny looked at the short redhead with the phenomenal rack and swallowed.  Because he did recall.  He recalled quite clearly how the woman who stood in front of him just then was both one of the most powerful people in the world, and also… one of the most elusive.
 
“I remember how she left me to twist in me knickers, up in Glasgow, back in twenty-six.  And I remember how it took all me savings to just get out of that retched country!”
 
Benny, who was a wee bit sauced at this point, ducked under Bruce’s arm and went to stand by the window.  The storm, had picked up significant force since they’d boarded the lightning ship known as ‘Poor Man’s Caviar’ and now what had before looked like a regular old window seemed more like a light-up display in Times Square, as every three or five seconds a lightning strike would hit the center of the ship.
 
“You set yourself up as the wrong cult leader.  Your cover had been blown.  What was I supposed to do?  Any special handling would have tipped off the real target.  Who we got, by the way, no thanks to you,” Lynnette told the man in as clear a way as she could, given that she knew he wasn’t exactly stellar in the ‘free-thinking’ department.
 
“Still, you could have reimbursed me the trip home,” Benny said, just before he downed a hefty sized glass of the verdant liquor the duo had brought with them.
 
“You spent three months floating home on a dozen different party barges.  Don’t think I didn’t have you tracked.  You were off the rails.  That’s why no one would hire you after that.  Because everyone knew you played for you first, and then the team.  Well, Benny… that’s just not gonna cut it this time.  Because this time, if we don’t unite the lightning farmers and bring them under one banner, we all become slaves.  Even you Benny.  Even you.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Raena Exe 2021
 
 
*Inspired by life.
*All characters, places, and events are completely fictional.
*All rights reserved.