Chapter 7

Ben heard feet in the darkness as the remaining three men were led forward. He raised his head tiredly to look towards the approaching group. The last five years had been grueling in the extreme. Ben never hesitated at any task given him. He often thanked God for the extra strength and stamina because he would have died from exhaustion otherwise. Assignments flowing from one to another seemed to grow intensity. He often healed from wounds while in the saddle because of the urgency to save the next innocent. Ben would never stop but sometime he felt weary to the bone.

The three men walked into the firelight and Ben stiffened. The men's hands were tied behind their backs with an extra rope tying their elbows together. A Cherokee was on each side of each man to guide and control him. Whenever one of them struggled their arms were wrenched backwards causing a gasp of pain.

The auras of all three men were a darker bruised yellow-black color than Ben had seen in bad men he had encountered. These were three of the worse he had seen in his long five years as a Protector. One man's aura had red flashes streaking through the dark nimbus surrounding him and that was partially responsible for catching his attention. The real reason was that he knew the man with the red streaks in his aura very well. Frank Parsons was the man that shot him in the back and head and left him for dead five years before.

Frank goggled when he saw Ben and blurted, "Jake said he thought you might still be alive. How the hell did you live through that? I shot you in the head."

"Maybe you did kill me, and maybe not," Ben said grimly as the men were halted in front of him.

Han stalked up beside Ben and glared at the big man. "ah I ih im?" Han asked with a guttural growl.

"What did she say?" Frank asked startled at the strange sounds coming from the little black woman.

"She asked if she could kill you," Ben replied in a voice colder than he believed he possessed. He turned towards Han and said, "You know we aren't supposed to kill for revenge."

"U ca il or eng u I an," Han replied angrily.

Ben heard "You can't kill for revenge but I can." He shook his head and translated to Frank before asking for guidance. "Joseph, what should I do? There are some people that should die and Frank Parsons is certainly one of them. Besides, from the looks of his aura he is nearly a Red Agent now. You did say the red in the aura indicated a Red Agent and that Red Agents were fair game," Ben said in his mind.

There seemed to be a slight hesitation before Joseph replied. Ben could feel the soul shattering grief in Joseph's reply when he said, "All I can see of him is a vague outline of emptiness. I can't see him except through your eyes. He is not a Red Agent, yet. You will see the difference when you meet one but you are right. He is close to turning. He is lost to me and to what he could have been to make your world a better place. Now he is a parasite in the lifeblood of humanity."

Frank had been looking at Han with his brows knitted as if he were trying to remember her. Then his face cleared and he laughed. "Damn! I remember you," Frank guffawed with an evil grin. "Jake's going to have fun with you honey. He doesn't often get seconds with his toys. Hey, maybe you came back for seconds with me since I was your first," he said with a leer.

Ben grabbed Han's arm when she tried to lung towards Frank and forced himself to focus on the man's aura. He was sickened by the man's deeds and wondered how a man could live with such evil in their soul. Ben saw rapes and murders and tortures roiling through the fetid miasma that was reflected in his aura from his soul. He saw the man's hatred when he shot Ben in the back and how he reveled in the power he felt when he repeatedly raped Han. Ben was surprised when he saw that Frank was one of the men that had killed Walking Elk's family. He wasn't surprised that Frank would kill them but there were a lot of evil men in the world. The odds of Frank and Walking Elk ending up in the same camp were astronomical. Ben's view of what happened to Elk's family went far beyond what he saw in Walking Elk's aura. Walking Elk had only seen the aftermath of mutilated dead bodies. Ben was seeing it as it happened and it was much worse than Walking Elk knew. There were other acts of atrocity that Ben had to witness in Frank's aura complete with the screams of agony and terror, spurting blood and death. Ben had to clench his jaws and swallow to keep his stomach from spewing his dinner at the repeated images of mayhem and death as men, women and children were raped, tortured, mutilated and killed. Ben forced himself not to lunge and kill the man when he saw what Frank had done to children in front of their parents in an effort to increase the parent's pain and agony even higher. He wished he hadn't eaten anything for supper.

"So Jake is the Red Agent," Ben said quietly in disgust. All the atrocities he had committed during the war and while riding with Bloody Bill Anderson flashed back through his mind. The guilt that surged in his mind and boiled through his soul was almost overwhelming. He had ridden with these men. He had participated in some of the carnage he saw in Frank's aura. Ben choked on his shame and self loathing.

"You chose to stop. You have paid for your sins and have been forgiven," Joseph said in Ben's mind. "The guilt you feel isn't the result of a stain on your soul. Your guilt is being caused by your exposure to someone that is nearly a Red Agent himself. One of the weapons a Red Agent can use is causing you to doubt yourself. I have warned you against his temptation, lies, and deception. The Adversary is the Father of Lies but he doesn't just generate the lies that you hear. He also spawns the lies you tell yourself and the lie you are telling yourself right now is that you are not worthy. That is not your decision to make. It is mine and I deem you worthy."

"Thank you God," Ben murmured with a bowed head as he fought to hold back a sob. He raised his head and looked at Frank again with a diamond hard determination.

Bear Brother and Walking Elk had been standing slightly behind Ben during the interrogations. Ben had been vaguely aware of Bear's soft murmuring as he translated what was being said for Elk. "Bear," Ben warned in a steely voice. "Please don't let Elk kill him when I explain what I see in this man's aura. We need his information. Elk can have him after we have the information we need."

Frank sneered and said, "You aren't going to do anything to me boy. You are too weak to do what you need to do. You might try to kill me but that doesn't scare me because I've been promised that I can't be killed and you don't have the guts for torture. Don't forget boy. I've ridden with you and I know you."

The men behind Frank weren't so sure and they were struggling against the men holding them. They were terrified.

Ben's winter cold smile didn't reach his eyes when he said, "You're right Frank. I don't believe in torture but I'm not the one you need to worry about." One hand was still holding Han's arm preventing her from lunging with the knife in her hand. "You're also probably right that Han would simply kill you after she cut off some souvenirs. Maybe, since you pointed out that you were her first man, she would like to keep that part of you that she was so intimate with as a souvenir but she's not what you need to worry about." Ben grabbed Elk's arm with his other hand. He was relieved to see Bear grab Elk's other arm. "You see Frank. Your deeds have caught up with you. You were the leader of the group that killed Walking Elk's family and he is a master at seeing how long his enemies can last."