Chapter 28 -- DUXUGJTAUWJM
Tommy and James were out in Utah for a week of training, and Jessica and Carter
had taken a couple of days off to drive down to Kansas City. Carter had come
to enjoy long drives on the highway, something he had never done while living
in St. Louis. Like any other couple on an outing they went to eat in an
upscale restaurant and did some shopping, though their type of shopping was
somewhat different. They visited several coin dealers and purchased tubes of
silver eagle coins. The one-ounce silver coins were favored by people
planning for disruption of commerce or other situations in which cash and
digital money were problematical. Jessica had suggested Carter follow her
example of accumulating the coins, and since there was not much to spend money
for, all their expenses being paid for by their employer, their pay either
accumulated in the bank or was converted into gold and silver. Or occasionally
other things. Leaving Kansas City that afternoon they drove on to Springfield,
where they checked into their hotel before going out for a late dinner.
The next morning, they lingered for a while before getting out of bed. While
their daily lives were no means stressful, they found an occasional day away
from home refreshing. Jessica had told him one of the things she enjoyed
about trips was staying in hotels. She liked going into a fresh, clean room,
staying in the big comfortable bed as long as she wanted. Carter had come to
enjoy it as well, and welcomed those days then the coming storm seemed not so near.
Eventually, though, they had to go. A late breakfast in the hotel restaurant
was followed by checking out and taking their bags to the car. There would be
a few stops around Springfield for more shopping. Although their purchases
were mostly with cash, there were cameras everywhere. Carter was using his
new identity, and along with the coin dealers there were visits to three gun
shops.
The first one was owned by an associate of the freeholders, like the owner of
the airfield over in Pittsburgh. Using Carter's identification for the first
time to purchase a gun, they wanted to be in a friendly establishment. He
recognized Jessica from past visits, and she introduced Carter with his new
identity.
Carter had decided on an old-fashioned Colt 1911 pistol as his main personal
weapon. It was still popular among the cops who were gun aficianados when he
last worked with them, despite the prevalence of the newer Glocks and SIGs
favored by many departments for official use. He had fired a couple, and had
found he liked the way they handled better than his more modern service gun.
"Dad likes the 1911 a lot," Jessica had told him. "He owns a few, mostly some
old Colts and a couple of newer ones from Springfield Armory. They make some
good guns."
It was a Springfield he selected, in the classic 1911 design, along with
several additional magazines. He was slightly apprehensive while the
background check was being done, even though she assured him it had been
tested beforehand. That done, the goods were packaged up and they said
goodbye to the owner.
Out in the car, the gun went into a hidden compartment in the trunk, along
with the coins. They visited a couple more coin shops and two more gun shops.
At each gun shop they purchased several boxes of .45 ACP ammunition. Carter
would have a carrying rig when they made their visit to the Utah freehold in a
couple of weeks.
Springfield was a pleasant enough city, much smaller than Kansas City or St.
Louis. Jessica wished it was closer. On the other hand, the farm was far
away from any major population areas, and that was important.
They left in time to be back home before dark, and spent the evening relaxing
and watching television. News was the only thing they watched most of the time,
and not because it was enjoyable. It was, however, necessary to know what was
happening. Of course, television being almost totally agenda-driven, and the
agenda was that of the government, for actual news it was necessary to review
the internet sites where actual news was published. They wondered how long
that resource would be available.
The news this night featured one police shooting and a couple of random murders,
and they watched the coverage of the police shooting with interest, the others
not so much. The daily killings in the inner cities were for the most part
the denizens killing each other, something Carter found uninteresting because
of the repetitive nature, and the news gave little coverage to because it was
a reminder of the conditions there.
The police shooting had happened earlier in the day and the narrative was
about complete. Apparently a miscreant had managed to fire several shots at
two cops, wounding one, before being dispatched by the other.
"Lucky guy," Carter said. "Maybe. It didn't help James, but the clear video
of the guy shooting at him before he fired a shot should clear him. You can
see that he took longer shoot though. That will get you killed. They'll
probably still have riots though. Any excuse will do."
"Luckily the perpetrators don't seem to be as good shots," Jessica said. "Still,
I wouldn't take the job. And I can't believe any sane person would."
"Yeah," said Carter. "And it looks like they aren't, in the cities anyway.
And a lot of them, if they want to stay in the business, are moving to smaller
places. The urban jungle just gets worse."
"I'd better call Dad and let him know we're back", Jessica said, tapping his
number on her phone's screen.
"Hi Dad," she said when he answered. "We're back and safe. How's everything?"
"OK," she said after a minute. "We'll be over for breakfast. Good night."
"Dad wants to talk over some ideas tomorrow," she said. "You ready for bed?"
After breakfast the next day they went to Donald's office, where he laid out a
what looked like a large engineer's drawing. On close examination it appeared
to be a plan for a small airfield. It showed a runway with a small parking
area and taxiway.
"Are we building our own airport?" asked Jessica.
"I've decided it's time," her father said. "We've discussed it occasionally,
but I believe it's a good idea. Our travel needs, especially mine with the
increased council business, are probably going to demand it. Probably we
should have already done it, but better late, as they say."
Carter looked at the drawing. Just a place to land and take off, no fuel or
hangars, shouldn't take long to build. It looks like it runs along the front
edge, by the road. You can eliminate driving to an airport."
"Pretty much," said Donald. "Now I have to meet an aircraft somewhere, I can
be picked up here. And fewer people know when and where I come and go."
"It looks long," said Carter. "What is it - about a mile?"
"That's what the plan shows," said Donald. "We don't operate any aircraft that
will need it - not many anyway - but for future needs we might as well do it
in one shot. Even though building a mile long runway may attract some
attention, it'll be forgotten soon enough. Our friend in Pittsburgh that
helped us out, has a near 5000 foot runway. And we may have to plan on
flights being diverted here. So we'll probably build it that way from the
start."
"Are we likely to have aircraft based here at some point?" asked Jessica.
"It could well happen," said Donald "if future needs require it. If necessary
we can have trucks to handle refueling if necessary, I don't see the need for
shelters now. They will draw unnecessary attention - if and aircraft is here
overnight or for more than that, there will be tie-downs."
"When does construction begin?" asked Jessica.
"Pretty soon. As soon as we can - I'd like to have it usable before things
heat up. We're encouraging the other freeholds who can to get some kind of
aircraft accommodations, even if only short grass runways. We will probably
find ourselves relying a lot on small aircraft as ground surveillance becomes
more intense. And it will."
"It will be convenient, and more secure, to go that way. They have an
airfield out at Mesa Romeo."
Tommy and James had used a charter flight out of St. Joseph to Provo, Utah
where they were picked up by members of the Mesa Victor freehold, the location
of the training facility. In a couple of weeks Jessica and Carter would be
spending a week there. The session consisted of two days of driving
techniques and two of mostly hand-to-hand combat. They would be returning on
Saturday. Jessica and Carter had driven them to the airport and would be
going to pick them up.
"Have you heard from them?" Donald asked.
"Tommy calls at night." Jessica said. "It seems to be going well. James
seems comfortable and is enjoying it. He was impressed by the driving
sessions - apparently we go way beyond what they get in police training."
"He should really like the combat part then," Donald said, grinning. "They get
pretty down and dirty."
Donald occasionally went to the training sessions as time permitted, and was
familiar with the programs at Mesa Victor.
"You may even be surprised, Darrell," he said. "The hand-to-hand stuff is
pretty serious. The course is run by a some special forces types, and one of
them is an old guy from the Vietnam era, did a couple of tours. I believe
there's an ex-SEAL. Guys who know what they're doing. Even if you're ready
for it, some of the stuff you learn about can be disturbing."
"I can vouch for that," said Jessica. "And they don't sugarcoat anything. And
They don't go easy on the women, and as you've noticed there are quite a few
of us. We get it just as tough as the men. In fact, some ex-military guys I
met said they wouldn't be impressed if they went back now."
"Today's Thursday," Donald said, "so they'll be wrapping up. Friday the hang
out and drink beer and let the aches and pains subside."
"That bad?" asked Carter.
"They're completely serious," said Jessica. "If you've had any martial arts,
like judo, jujutsu, it helps. Learning how to fall is handy - you'll be doing
it a lot. The military guys combine martial arts with general brawling, a
pretty effective combination. You'll get some bruises."
At noon they joined Gordon for lunch, and afterwards joined Donald in his
office and watched news for a while. The atmosphere since the election and
Donald's return and briefing seemed to have become permanently serious, even
foreboding. Post election the news was no longer seemingly non-stop politics,
and since the political climate was not likely to change, there seemed little
incentive to dwell on the subject. The establishment news media, with their
agendas on track and no opposition in sight, dispensed the usual trivial fluff.
Watching the one or two remaining actual news channels, one could keep track
of the murder counts in the various cities, and watch the mindless commentary
of the various mayors, governors, and pundits.
"You have to wonder," Carter said as a mayor of a city with ten homicides a day
and an even larger number of attempts pontificated, "if any of them are stupid
enough to believe anything they say. Or realize that no intelligent person
believes it."
"Good question," said Jessica. "and it probably depends. There are a handful
of them that are reasonably intelligent - not Mensa material for sure - but
not totally stupid. They're just playing the game, and with their
constituents easily in the majority their position is assured. But some of
them, that Chicago mayor for example, are genuinely stupid. Not smart enough
to come in from the rain, as they say down south. But they're tools, and as
long as they serve their masters they get to live in the big house and ride in
limousines, just as if they were actually capable of earning it."
"I think the tools scare me more," Carter said. "They can only be there with
an organization behind them. The situation is being created and maintained by
money and power."
"One advantage we have," Donald said, "is that the brains behind them aren't
that great. The money comes from corrupt business people, or in the case of
the big corporate supporters, they're mostly just naive. CEOs these days, for
the most part, didn't build their companies. They get there through politics,
and have little understanding of the real world. And they assume that, no
matter what happens with the government, their wealth will protect them. They
don't know how wrong they are."
"What will happen to them when they get their way?" Carter asked.
"Probably we could look at China for a clue," said Donald. "Since most of the
political class have either sold out to are are afraid of them. They built
their economy up out of the communist mess they had by allowing a some free
enterprise, but within limits enforced by the government. Get too big, or do
something that threatens the government's plans you can end up in prison, or
worse. That's where today's tycoons will probably end up - they can stay
alive and even keep most of their wealth as long as they don't get out of line."
"Seeing that most of them have already sold out to China," Carter said "I guess
things wouldn't change much for them."
"Right," said Donald. "Which is why, if we succeed, we must return to the
original intent of the founders. The federal government should return to the
boundaries of the constitution. Who knows how it will all shake out when we
try it, but first we have to win."