Chapter 23 -- ZPNMOYHWYLMUVXMMYQJ
They got up late the next day and Jessica and Carter fixed breakfast and
woke Michael. Afterwards they went over to Gordon's house to meet with him and
Donald. After the introductions, they sat down to discuss plans. An unused
room in Gordon's area of the house held a small conference table and some chairs,
and with the exception of Gordon, who had other work to do. "First," Jessica said, "we need to get Michael acclimated to his new life."
She passed him a leather card case containing a number of cards - a Missouri
driver's license and insurance card and several debit and credit cards.
"How'd you get my picture?" he asked.
"We had plenty to choose from," said Jessica with a smile. "You were all over
the news, TV, internet. The nice thing about digital images is you can copy
and edit them with no loss of quality. We had your identity set up, just
needed to get a new license with the right picture. How is not important now -
you'll learn a lot of things as we go on. But you identity is as bulletproof
as if you were in witness protection. Maybe better.
"For now, the important thing is, you're no longer Michael Kucinick. You're
James Manley, and you've just aged a couple of years. Sorry about that, we
have these identities set up long before they have to be used. Anyway, given
your new life, you won't have a lot of the usual things to worry about. We'll
get some work done on your appearance - the only way you're likely to be
detected is by fingerprints or DNA. They'll have that, so when you're in
public places you'll have to be careful about touching things. Though I doubt
there will be much of a search after a while. In any case, you won't be
exposed to the public much. Certainly not before we get your
makeover."
"Since you'll be living here," said Donald, "in a rather secluded environment,
most of the time you'll be with one or two of us, learning what
we do, and preparing for your future. As to what your future is, I know we
didn't tell you much beyond the immediate problem, but I believe you'll find
it interesting."
"I'll have to go into town and get you a wardrobe," Jessica said. "If you're
all right with it, I recommend what we're wearing. Do you know your sizes?"
"Looks OK to me," said the former Mike. "34 waist with 36 legs will work, I
like shirts a little on the large side, so XL there. Shoes, boots or whatever,
is size 10. That do it?"
"I believe so," Jessica said. "If you're not particular about toiletries and
stuff, I can fix you up."
"Yeah, just the basics is fine."
"It seems we got up in time for lunch," she said as Mary appeared at the door.
"James, this is Mary. He'll be our guest for a while."
"Nice to meet you, James," Mary said, "and yes, lunch is ready."
Gordon had returned in time to join them, which James found
impressive for a midday meal.
"You have to get used to it," Carter told him. "I lived in St. Louis, after I
left home I mostly lived on fast food and whatever the restaurants had. This
is definitely better."
"Our supplies are better," said Jessica. "We raise a lot of our fruits and
vegetables here, and most of our meat is from the freeholds that raise
livestock."
"Freeholds?" asked James.
"That's what we are," Jessica replied. "One of many, some large, some small,
all over the country. We're preparing for the eventual failure of our society,
and whatever that brings. To survive it, and be around to pick up the pieces."
"Like the preppers?"
"That's the word some use," said Donald. "Back in the eighties they called us
survivalists. Usually as a pejorative, used by the news media. Luckily
they have no idea about us - we're considerably more than that.
"Our founders, years ago, saw that the republic was falling apart. The
original intent was to save it, and still is. But it's becoming less likely
that we'll be able to turn back now. Even if the next midterm election
changes the congress sufficiently to put a check on this regime, and that
seems unlikely, then it's pretty much over.
"Once elections are fully fixed, there will likely be a large-scale assault on
the constitution, rubber-stamped by the supreme court. And if they don't like
the court's decisions they'll simply ignore them. The only question is the
outcome. They're sufficiently arrogant and deranged to try confiscating
weapons, locking up people for objecting, or just killing them. We will
resist that, to the last man. They may win, but there won't be much left
afterward."
"You really think it will go that way?" asked James. He seemed to be
wondering if he had fallen in with a cult.
"We're not a bunch of nuts nursing conspiracy theories," Donald said. "Think
about how you got here. We had a plane fly into a private airfield outside of
Little Rock, pick you up and fly you to another facility before returning to
its home base. Then we had a convoy transport you up here, in the middle of
nowhere.
"There are groups of discontented and frightened citizens trying, usually in
amateurish ways, to form defensive groups. They see what's coming, as we do,
but they lack the resources and wisdom to get it done right. They end up
attracting the attention of the government, and often are doing illegal
things as well, and eventually they're wiped out. Killed, often, and sent to
prison if not.
"That's now what we are. We're well financed and well organized, lots of ex-
military, and some of us are inside - working in government. That helps us do
things like setting up new identities, with everything in perfect order."
"Where do I fit in?" James asked.
"Don't be insulted," said Donald, "but our main motivation for your rescue was
to prevent another innocent cop from being sacrificed for the political
ambitions of the enemy. And make no mistake, those people are the enemy. To
be sure, the mayor, police chief, the prosecutor - they're just tools. They,
and those like them - for example in St. Louis where they did the same thing
to Darrell. Most of them aren't even very bright. Literally stupid, in fact.
They're enjoying the power, the wealth - most of them get rich from graft -
and the other benefits of their position. That's why these inner cities are
hellholes. But, anyway..
"Darrell had just been through that. He saw the same thing happening to you
if something wasn't done. From our perspective, we being the governing
council of the freeholds, it served a couple of other purposes. It was a test
of our ability to pull off such an operation smoothly, and it was a warning to
the enemy.
"As to where you fit in, I suspect you'll want to join us. You don't have to,
although the alternative is eventually being caught and going to prison for
the rest of your life, but we believe when you learn more, if you haven't
decided, you'll want to."
"I don't need any time," James said. "I don't know much, but it's enough to
know is what I want. My old life is gone, was gone before you got me out."
"That's good to hear. Not only will you like it, you'll be a valuable
addition to the team."
"Besides," James said, "the food's pretty good."
"I think that's the first time you've smiled since you got here," said Jessica.
"It's going to be all right. I'm going to leave for a while and go into
town, to get James outfitted. Darrell, you or Tommy want to go, or need
anything?"
"If you'll be all right by yourself," said Darrell.
Jessica was getting up, and turned to look at him, then saw his grin.
"All right, smart guy. See you all later."
"I guess this would be a good time to show James around." Carter said.
"Jessica probably took her car, so the Trailblazer should be there. James, you
ready?"
"You want to drive," Carter asked Tommy, "or be the tour guide?"
"Go ahead," said Tommy. "James, take the front seat and I'll point out the
points of interest as we go.
Carter took them on the tour Jessica and Tommy had given him on his arrival.
Tommy did the narration, but was didn't go into details on most of the features.
There would be time to discuss those things later.
They had decided to install James in the mobile home Carter had occupied,
rather than one of the empty houses, as they had planned. It was closer to
Jessica and Carter, and had already been prepared for occupancy.
"This place isn't as interesting as some you'll eventually visit," Carter told
James. "There's considerable variety among the freeholds, and we visit each
other a lot, for various reasons. Our primary contribution is funding -
Jessica's grandfather is rather wealthy, and is one of the founders. He's not
active on the council now, having passed that duty to Donald."
By the time they finished the tour, Jessica had returned. They went into the
house, and as it wasn't time for dinner they turned on the television
to watch the news.
The lead item was a double homicide in Cincinnati. They watched the as the
presentation was delivered with the usual polish, as the incident had happened
several hours earlier. First the on site reporter with a synopsis, then the
first interviewee. This was apparently a witness - if so she must have stuck
around to be on television. Not surprising, Carter thought. He remembered an
incident at a high school some years back, when, once the police had arrived
and dispensed with the perpetrators, several of the female students who lived
nearby went home to improve their hair and makeup so they would look good on
television. In her case, it wouldn't have helped, and her contribution wasn't
worth much either.
"They was back there behind the store when the police came up," the witness said. "I don't know
why they came back, maybe they couldn't get out. So they got behind that car,
there. Both of them was pointin' guns over at the cops. They got down behind
their cars too, was yellin' at them."
The scene shown was several small buildings with parking lots, not quite a
strip mall but the components of one. There were now several police cars,
cops standing around, and the news crews. Two of them.
"What happened then?" the reporter asked.
"Well, neither of them, the cops or the robbers, did nothing for a while, and
then one of them shot over the hood of the car at the cops, and while he was
doing that the other one ran out into the street, shootin' back at the police.
There was cars going by, he got across, and then the other one took off. Then
the cops stood up and put their guns away and one of them was talkin' on his
radio. And some more police cars showed up."
The reporter thanked the witness and scene switched back to the studio.
"Do we have any more information on the suspects, Ashley?" the anchor asked.
"Not at this time, Linda," the reporter replied.
"Wonder why they say their names so much," Carter said. "No I don't. It's all
about them. They couldn't care less, and neither do most of the people
watching. The maddening thing is, it's all a bunch of amateur theater being
consumed by a largely numb-brained audience. The pretty news people get big
paychecks and the cops get in trouble if they do their jobs right."
The street scene was back, but it was a recording. As the citizen said, a
couple of cops were crouched behind the doors of their cars, guns drawn but
not aimed at anything. Except the asphalt. They could hear the police
shouting at the perpetrators, and then as they broke to run the cops stayed
where they were, never moving to fire back.
"I suppose they couldn't have done much anyway," said James. "Couldn't risk
hitting a civilian. I suppose they could have chased them, but those things
sometimes don't end well."
Another clip was playing, the reporter was speaking with a cop, apparently one
of the two who were first on the scene.
"...and they'll have to see if they can get an identification and see if they
can find them." he was saying.
"Couldn't you have chased them, maybe see where they went? They may be hard
to find if the victims can't identify them."
The cop was fairly young, probably younger than James.
"Not my problem," he replied. "I catch him and he tries to shoot me, which he had
already done, one of us will get shot and maybe dead. I'm not getting killed
for people who don't care, and I'm not about to shoot a criminal. There's
cops in prison already for just doing their job, doing it the right way.
Politicians will throw you under the bus in a second."
"So what is the public supposed to think?" the reporter asked. "You're a police officer,
you don't try to catch a criminal because you could get shot or prosecuted?"
"Is she really that stupid?" James asked. "Nevermind."
"I have a feeling that kid isn't going to be a cop much longer," Tommy said. "He'll be
fired before the week's out."
"It's Saturday," said Carter. "I suspect he wants to be fired. He gets it - being a
cop these days is dumb. I suspect that was his parting shot."
"I didn't see the rot when I was there," said Carter. "And seven years later,
I guess you didn't either."
"It's hard, even now," said James. "We saw stuff like this, like what happened
to you and other guys, but were so wrapped up in our work we didn't take time
to analyze. But I think more guys are starting to."
"And now an update on another police shooting." The anchor was back. "Almost
four months ago, after another deadly police shooting, this one in Little Rock,
Arkansas, two officers were indicted by a grand jury. One of them, this man
here..."
"You're coming up," Carter said. James's mugshot appeared in the usual
location on the screen.
"...Michael Kucinick, was charged with murder. He was free on bail, and was
wearing a GPS tracker. Sometime last night the tracker was cut off he has
disappeared. For more on that we go to Wendy Wolsack."
"Tell me that's not a real name," said James.
"Has to be," said Carter. "Who'd make up a name like that?"
"...right, Linda," Wendy was saying. She was indoors, probably in a police or
court facility of some kind. "Sometime last night the monitoring service
noticed that locator had been removed. It was found in a park close to Kucinkck's
home, and there was no sign of him. Police went to his home but when they got
inside he was not there either. His car was at the house, so police suspect
he was taken away by an accomplice."
"And no sighting so far?" Linda asked. "It was over twenty-four hours ago
that the alarm was triggered."
"I hope they don't watch recordings of their banal dialogue," Carter said.
"But they probably don't notice. Probably think they're doing something useful."
"That's right, Linda," the exchange continued. "We have no more
information at this time, other than that the police are investigating."
"And now for reaction from the community," Linda continued. "we have Reverend
L. D. Hastings. Do you have any information or comments?"
The reverend appeared on the other half of the screen.
"This is obviously an attempt to thwart justice," he said, "and it must not
succeed. If this murdering cop is allowed to escape there will be no justice.
The police department must do whatever it has to do to bring this killer to
justice."
"Thank you, Reverend Hastings. And now to Henry Tutor for sports."
Jessica turned the sound down and left the television on.
"Wonder how much time they'll spend searching Little Rock," she said.
"And you're over four hundred miles away," said Carter. "Never to be found."
"I'm still amazed at what you pulled off," said James. "The idea that
something like this exists - no one would believe it. I'm glad you were here
to do it. When I think about spending thirty, forty years in prison - I don't
know what I would have done. Probably I wouldn't have the courage to live -
my life would have been over anyway."
"That's why we did it," said Carter. "We couldn't let that happen again. That
guy in Philadelphia got forty years, and he was already forty-two. He'll
never see freedom again."
"All that remains now," said Jessica, "is to let them know what happened. And
that there's nothing they can do about it."
"We're going to do that?" James asked
"Yeah," Carter replied. "It's an essential part of the deal. They have to know.
We really are at war now - that was a first shot. Of course they won't know
the rest of it - only that there is someone out here that can do it. There
are some people, in some places, who'll be running around like chickens with
their heads cut off, as we country folk say."
Jessica laughed.
"You've become a country boy pretty quickly," she said. "Hopefully James will
make the same rapid progress. It's getting late - James, let's get you over
to your new place."