Quisling troops (the Moondaggers) following close behind. Valentine eventually becomes second in command and continues to beat the enemy even though Southern command is always outnumbered and in a constant state of retreat. They are eventually pinned down across from Evansville, IN, on the Ohio River. A general uprising in Evansville and throughout Kentucky sparks the attacking spirit in Southern Command soldiers and the remnants of the Legworm Clans. They make a final charge at the enemy lines and win the day. For now. Winter Duty Southern Command has a new president, uninterested in holding the Evansville and Kentucky territory gained in the last book. Valentine organizes his own forces of former Quislings to provide support when the official troops march off. Almost immediately, a large group of Reapers takes over the Evansville power plant, but, with significant help from Duvalier and a squad of Bears, Valentine is able to kill the Kurian controlling them from the Owensboro bridge and retake the city. A convention of Kentucky clan leaders is interrupted by a bomb planted inside a legworm, tipping the scales in favor of opposition to the Kurians. Valentine worries that his own side planted the bomb to achieve just this result. Valentine is then ordered to accompany wealthy cattle baron Bethany O'Coombe to look for her son, MIA in the long retreat across Kentucky. Along the way, one of the new avian-type Reapers warns the group that if Kentucky does not remain neutral, Kurian forces will exact a terrible retribution. They catch up to O'Coombe's son at a meeting of Kentucky clans, where he is providing what appears to be inept artillery advice; when this meeting is attacked by Kurian forces, it turns out this was a ruse to draw the Kurians into a devastating ambush. As Valentine returns to Evansville with the O'Coombes, a terrible snowstorm slows their progress, and they are attacked by a vicious strain of Ravies (zombies), called Woolies for the excessive hair growth of its victims. He captures a musical armored car, which is able to soothe or enrage the Ravies, and uses it to turn the Ravies on their Kurian creators. He is horrified to discover that his protege Frat is a Kurian agent, and has been travelling with them to spread the Woolly virus. Despite his obvious crimes, Valentine can't bring himself to execute Frat, and grants him amnesty. March in Country