Chapter 19 -- VGPSVSIBTMMZP
Carter, with Jessica and Tommy, spent the next days doing their usual work, ensuring none of the
property had been disturbed. She explained the workings of the grain storage
bins, enormous cylinders of corrugated steel that looked to be about three stories
high, and about fifty feet or so in diameter. Jessica explained that the
center part of the bin contained a large compartment that occupied most of the
interior. It was then filled with corn up past the top of the compartment,
which could be accessed from the top, using a ladder on the inside.
The compartments were overkill in terms of size, easily accommodating their
contents, mostly caches of weapons acquired over a period of years - a few
hundred rifles in the common 5.56 and 7.62 military ammunition. The 5.56s
were of new manufacture, AR15 designs, purchased on the open market one or two
at a time, while a number of Kalashnikovs had been acquired through more shady
operators. Tommy's ability to blend with the biker culture he sometimes
associated with made it easy to acquire illicit arms. The hardest part,
he said, was taking delivery and getting them to the farm without anyone,
particularly the sellers, knowing where they went.
"Besides the rifles," Tommy told him, "we've got a fair amount of other handy
stuff - grenades, a handful of RPGs, regular rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
And armor. Never know when you'll need it."
Presumably, Carter thought, weapons like the RPGs could be useful in the hands
of some of their former military colleagues. And of course the other military
weapons would be useful in the hands of some of their former military types.
"We're a storage facility for the entire organization," Jessica told him. "One
of several hosted by the freeholds that large areas with places to hide things.
One of those things being some fairly large quantities of gold and silver,
along with some other valuable items. And of course cash, which is handy as
long as it remains usable. It they ever succeed in going cashless, some
things wouldn't be as easy to get done."
They spent some time at the junkyard, as they called it, a large fenced area
of several acres containing a few large shop buildings and a fleet of old farm
equipment. Most of the equipment was old tractors, with several bulldozers
and some large trucks. A number of the tractors were quite large - usually
with four sets of wheels all of the same size.
"These big old four-wheel-drive tractors are some that have outlived their
usefulness to farmers," Jessica said. "They're expensive to maintain, unless
you can do it yourself. You see a lot of them sitting around rusting and
rotting. Or being sold at auctions for next to nothing, compared to the
prices of the new ones.
"Several of these, and the bulldozers and trucks, have been returned to
operation for potential future needs."
Carter looked at a nearby tractor, which was probably taller than the average
house. He had seen them working in fields, from the highway, but had never
stood next to one.
"Let me guess," he said. "Battering ram. Gate crasher."
Tommy grinned.
"Sometimes I think it'd be fun to use one like that."
"There are all kinds of ideas that come out of Council meetings," said Jessica.
"They're serious about the possibility of an extended, unconventional war.
Every possibility is considered."
Finishing the tour, they checked on the other areas and the buildings. There
was rarely an intrusion other that a driver getting lost, or the occasional
local miscreant prowling around looking for opportunities to steal.
After lunch with Jessica's grandfather, they spend the afternoon visiting,
talking and watching television. Donald had called to say he was about
halfway home, and when Mary looked in to ask about dinner Gordon told her to
plan for about an hour later than usual.
The lead on the evening news featured a mass shooting in Chicago, with
four dead and eleven or twelve wounded, depending on the witness. They
watched as various scenes of the crimes were shown, interposed with various
location reporters interviewing locals, without a law enforcement or city
official in sight.
As the news hour was ending, Donald arrived. He didn't look like he had been
sitting in a car for over nine hours - he was, at just a year short of fifty,
quite fit and energetic. However, he allowed that a shower and change of
clothes was in order.
Dinner was accompanied by a little casual chatter - discussion of the meeting
would wait. Given the late hour, it would most likely wait until the next
morning.
The next day, after lunch, they assembled to hear Donald's account of the
Council meeting. Normally, the meetings consisted of updating the situational
status, along with debating and sometimes deciding proposals, and this one had
been no exception.
The consensus was, as usual, that the situation was worse. The riots and
other civil disturbances continued at a steady pace, strategically placed so
as to be distributed around the country for maximum effect. Several members
reported that they had observers inside the operation to the extent that they
could confirm a centralization of the operation. While the visible activists
appeared to be no more than tools, there was no way to identify the flow of
money and instructions. It seemed to be similar to the way the Council
operated, payment with cash and other items of value and laundering through
registered non-profit organizations.
"This may interest you, Darrell," Donald said. "One thing we've been
investigating for several years is the multi-targeted shooting incidents, what
the news calls mass shootings. Looking at the patterns, and the circumstances
of many of them, we looked at the possibility of them being deliberately
provoked, to raise support for anti-gun legislation.
"Our theory was that interested parties could, in the same way law enforcement
sometimes tries to lure people who sexually abuse children. Instead of posing
as children, our agents pretended to be young adult or pre-adult men,
expressing themselves in such a way as to appear mentally unstable and angry -
the profile of many of past perpetrators. Since little information about the
interactions of previous subjects - either their computer traffic was not
examined in many cases or such information was suppressed - we generated our own.
"We knew that past subjects were known to discussed their intentions in this
way, little information was available. It took a while to set up and do a
data collection operation wide enough, but we definitely noticed a pattern.
We were able to confirm a lot of the sources in contact with our agents, and the same
ones contacted multiple agents. Most of the time all we can get is IP
addresses, since they are smart enough to use different identities and web
sites. But not only is the pattern of systematic contacts there, but they did
in fact attempt to push the intended victims in the direction of committing
such acts.
"What we don't know is if they are deliberately grooming potential actors in
preparation for another such event. We know the riots are being managed, and
it seems that something similar is going on here. What I was wondering,
Darrell, is whether your department ever looked at investigating that angle.
I know we have a number of former cops in the organization, and none of them
knew of such a thing - and some of them are from areas where these things have
happened."
"The only ones I've heard of were conducted by the FBI," Darrell replied.
"Usually they get the local PDs to work with them, but I can't remember of
hearing of a bust in the St. Louis area. I certainly never knew of the local
DA being interested."
"That's where it is most places," said Donald. "And of course when they do it,
it's usually to advance a political career. But if anyone is behind
instigating these shootings, it could only be people interested in, as I said,
getting anti-gun laws passed. And that could, and most likely is, the same
sort of organizations managing the riots, or operators in the government. Or
both, working together."
"So we have cases of people actually encouraging it, how far do they go?"
Jessica asked. "Does it go to the point of saying 'do it'?"
"Yes," said Donald. "That's why we wonder if some dry runs are being made,
or if they keep a certain number of likely candidates on the hook at any given
time, ready to be pushed over the edge. It looks like that might be the case.
And we have to wonder if similar activities are underway, for other types
of crimes."
"That," said Tommy, "is a kind of evil you don't want to know exists."
"True," Jessica said, "but we know it does - it's just thinking there's so much
of it. Do we have any idea how many operators have been identified?"
"From what analysis we've done so far," said Donald, "we've found a dozen or so. And
with our limited resources. So it's probable there are plenty more."
"That kind of evil, as you say Tommy," Jessica said, "the scary thing is that
there's so much of it. When you look at the people caught in the child
predator stings - they can only carry out so many of those, and yet they
always catch a lot. That says something really unpleasant about the state of
society in general."
"Of course," said Darrell, "those sex stings haul in a lot of dumb guys, a lot
of whom wouldn't actually do anything but don't have enough sense not to play
those games. Or those trying it for the first time out of curiosity - the really hardcore guys
are too smart to get caught that way. Still, it's disturbing all right."
"Where does that leave the shooter investigation?" asked Jessica.
"Unfortunately, we're not sure where to go next. We can demonstrate, with the
weight of evidence, that it happens. But the news media isn't interested - it
would work against their agenda. And going to law enforcement would be worse
than useless - they would come after whoever gave them the info. They
sometimes do it to people who do their own investigation of predators.
"I suppose we could get together a well-documented investigation, and
anonymously get it published somewhere. Of course it wouldn't get mainstream
exposure. But we're still working on it."
Donald went over a few routine details. There were now something over two
hundred freeholds, with over eighteen thousand members.
Carter had not known the full extent and was surprised.
"That many people and never a security breach?" he asked.
"As far as we know, of course," Donald replied. "The majority of them are
small. The average size is less than a hundred, and some are much smaller.
The ones that are up in the hundreds, have to consider that possibility. But
so far, there's nothing to indicate a problem. The only members who leave
a freehold, are carefully monitored. And the compartmentation of information
makes most of the members relatively small risks, in terms of what they know.
"Here, everyone knows everything. But we're family, and a lot of the smaller
ones are similar, several closely related family groups. But the main thing is,
we're good at evaluating people before we recruit them. So the most likely
place for a compromise is in the really large ones.
"There isn't any other urgent news, except that the Council is interested in
your proposal. Of course, it depends on the prosecutor down there actually
charging someone, but if it isn't this time, there will be one sooner or later.
So, with no other urgent needs, we can start planning."