Chapter 33 -- VJICGUEOUPHKJC
"Darrell, check this out," Jessica called.
Carter replaced the cork in the wine bottle and carried the two glasses he had
just filled into the living room where Jessica was watching the television. He
handed her a glass and sat down to watch.
The scene on the television screen looked like any of the numerous ones they
had seen in recent times, but it appeared to be in a rural area. Police
vehicles and others painted black and dark olive, like military equipment were
shown against a background of smoke and flames, apparently emanating from at
least a couple of houses. He caught the ongoing narrative as he arrived.
"...we are being told that this was a joint operation of local, state, and
federal authorities. At this time we have not been able to speak with anyone
involved as the operation is still underway. Back to you, Angela."
"Still no Savannah?" Carter asked. "What's up?"
"Raid on suspected terrorists, if you can believe that," Jessica replied.
"I can believe someone said that."
"...identities of any of the people inside," the anchor he guessed was Angela
was saying.
"We have some names, Angela, based on the addresses. We don't know at this
time if any of them are inside. There were four houses on this small rural
plot, in a relatively secluded location."
The smoke was suddenly dispersed briefly by a landing helicopter. It was the
same dark almost-black grey as some of the other vehicles. It settled into an
open area mostly obscured by the fire and the vehicles between it and the
camera. They could see just the rotor as it slowed and stopped.
"...at this time, Danica."
"No," replied the on-site reporter. "We're waiting for confirmation on the
identities of the residents. All we have at this point are the names of the
owners in public records."
"How nice," said Jessica. "They check first."
"Danica's a new one," Carter said. "Don't hear that often."
"You guys." Jessica smiled. "You think they make up names?"
"Probably. Can't top Jessica, though."
"I could have been a television news star."
"You're better looking too, naturally I might add."
Teasing aside, both of them were seriously in love, and the ever-darkening
clouds over their world were the more tragic for it. They watched the screen,
knowing that other lives were being affected even now.
They sipped wine and watched the unfolding the story. Their plan to spend a
quiet evening together and perhaps sleep late was dampened. Whatever they
were watching was not good. Few things were these days.
By the time the wine was finished and it was time for bed, a reasonably
concrete narrative was established. It would of course be modified as needed as
time passed, but it would probably be at least the outline. The problem being
that even the parrots in the news business had to be trained, and in their
eagerness to be first they still gave prefiltered accounts while an event was
in progress. But since the audience had an attention that extended no further
than the previous day's lunch it was easy enough to handle.
It seemed that a small rural settlement of several related families was
suspected of being involved in one or more - that could be decided later -
conspiracies to commit acts of 'domestic terrorism' against as-yet-unspecified
government targets. Naturally a undercover agent had managed to get inside
the plotting just in time to alert authorities.
The rest was routine - search warrants were obtained, personnel from the
relevant agencies were armed and equipped to investigate and dispatched to the
site. As authorities surrounded the 'compound' those inside refused to allow
entry. At some point shots were fired from inside the compound and a police
vehicle was damaged.
However, return fire from the task force, including high-explosive and
incendiary grenades set fire to some of the houses, at which point a number of
men inside began firing on the task force. The battle ended when the fire
from inside ceased, and after receiving on response to repeated calls to the
occupants, members of the task force began to enter and clear the area.
The preliminary report was that eleven adult males and three adult females,
along with one minor male were dead. Seven children were found in a storm
shelter that had escaped the destruction.
A few on-site interviews followed, mostly with authority types - a state
police officer, a spokesman for Homeland Security, a couple of residents from
down the road who most likely only saw the vehicles go by, heard the noise and
saw the smoke, but you always wanted some local color.
"They didn't say anything about survivors other than the children," said
Carter. "You know what that means."
"There were never supposed to be any survivors," Jessica replied. "Which should
tells us something about whoever did it. They would have known about the
children."
"Yeah, it's certain they would, with an insider. Whom I presume was
conveniently not there when it happened."
"Presumably," said Jessica. "But you never know - depending on who it was, he
may have been expendable. And knew too much. After Ruby Ridge and Waco, and
some others there were survivors who refuted the official version. Even
though they were were suppressed by the news media even then,
no witnesses is better if you can arrange it. And these people will."
One of the last interviewee was the county sheriff. He disavowed knowledge of
the affair and stressed that no member of is department had been involved.
Since it was outside the city limits apparently no local authorities had been
involved.
"He may not be sheriff for long," Carter said. "One way or another."
"He could be one of those who aren't going along," said Jessica. "There's
still some resistance there, hopeless as it ultimately is. If he is they
may not have asked him, or even let him know it was happening."
With the event over as far as the news was concerned, they went to bed. But
sleep did not come easily. With each passing day the specter of the final
conflict, in whatever form it might take, loomed higher and darker on the
horizon.
The next day the four of them gathered with Donald at breakfast, as they often
did. The news of the previous day was the only subject - it was a significant
development meriting close examination.
"Well," said Donald, "we certainly learned something, and it's not good. The
malevolence of the regime is clear. This was a massacre, pure and simple. It
can only be a warning to anyone thinking of resistance. We're still
investigating, so we don't have a lot of details on the commune that was
destroyed, but I had a couple of calls last confirming that it was targeted
for such a purpose. We have a freehold near there, and they were aware of the
place and its people, had looked into it. They tell me it was in no way
planning anything, and the mole was nothing more than an agent provocateur
sent in to set them up. It's been a common tool for a while now."
"Do we know anything about him?" asked Tommy. "Or her?"
"Good point," said Donald. "Don't assume a sex when looking at suspects. We
know women have been used in the past, to get close to a man in an organization.
They tend to be majority male in terms of membership, so female agents, or
informants are often used. Of course, to actually provoke some kind of action,
even if it's just enough to get some recordings of discussions or preparation
attempts, an agent would have to be in fairly deep - not just a girlfriend of
a member."
"What sort of action are we looking at," Jessica asked, "if any?"
"That's a good question," said Donald. "At this point, we're just
investigating. If we find cause and opportunity for action, that's something
we'll be looking at."
"If someone recently joined them," said Carter, "and turns out to be the lone
survivor, he would bear looking into. Do we have people on the ground in the
area?"
"Vienna Prime is about an hour away," said Donald. "The first call I got was
from them. They were aware of the place, knew a little about the people but
didn't consider them much more than a group of preppers, well armed,
but that's not unusual. As far as they knew they weren't up to anything that
should have attracted any special attention. They've got a couple of people
going over that way to look around. But that's about all so far."
"The sheriff denied any involvement," said Jessica. "They almost always
involve the local law, usually just for show. Wonder if they asked him and he
refused, or if they didn't want him around."
"I'm sure we'll find out," Donald replied. "Vienna is in the next county, but it's
rural Tennessee, and all the LE types talk to each other. It'll be interesting
to know."
"How does this affect our strategy?" asked Jessica.
"Interestingly," said Donald, "it gives us an opportunity to implement what we
call Plan X-ray, which was at one time believed unworkable, and very likely
still is. That is to engage the enemy at opportunities like this, make them
pay a price each time, and see if they can at least be stalled, giving us time
to pursue other methods, in terms of avoiding the big one.
"In this case, we would retaliate, in one of two or three ways. In one case,
we would simply take out an enemy installation and a number of personnel,
probably trying for a two or three to one kill ratio. See if they back off -
the Oklahoma City affair did moderate their methods for a time - even though
they did it, that fact probably wasn't known to at least some of the policymakers.
If they do, there might be a period of such exchanges until something turns one way
or the other.
"You don't believe we'll beat them at that game?" asked Carter.
"No, we don't. But only because those who've set the course aren't suffering
the consequences. All the agencies are just pawns, expendable in the big picture."
"So we eventually end up at the big one?"
"Most likely. We can delay the inevitable, but we can't prevent it."
"And while that's going on?" asked Jessica.
"One thing we're looking at," said Donald, "is organizing some of these groups,
some of the more capable and disciplined ones, to carry out attacks
independent of us. It could weaken the enemy while conserving our resources, but
more importantly keep us under the radar. When we're ready to strike, it will
come out of nowhere. Plan x-ray could buy time to get resources in position."
"We have some viable candidates, I suppose," Carter said.
"Some fairly solid ones," Donald replied, "and we're working on more. The way
it looks, they probably won't really drop the hammer until after the next
election. If it confirms the trend, they'll feel invincible. They won't
start running the trucks to the camps until some time after that. But our
insiders tell us that even now lists are being compiled, and it's a low bar to
get on one. We're talking about belonging to a dissident organization, being
seen at demonstrations, even writing letters to members of congress. So after
the start of year after next, if the trend continues, we move."
They sat in silence for a few moments. In perhaps less than two years, they,
and their country, could be on the cusp of a leap into the unknown. At worst,
they would lose and the country would go into the darkness, perhaps never to
return. Certainly not in the lifetimes of their descendants for generations.
Generations, Carter thought. In another life he and Jessica would get married,
have children and watch them grow up and have children of their own. Whether
they would even live another two years was questionable.
Jessica, sitting close enough to touch, put her hand on his knee. Trying not
to be conspicuous, Carter put his hand on hers. Tommy and James were lost in
their own thoughts.
"We'll have to go forward a step at a time," Donald said. "When we're idle we
have time to worry and doubt. Let's see where we stand." He turned the sound
up on the television, which was turned to a non-stop news channel.
The previous day's events had already been downgraded to an hourly segment of
a few minutes, and there was not much new. At least no of any importance.
It seemed that few in the surrounding area knew much about them - apparently
they kept to themselves. Which was suspicious, according to one of the guests,
an analyst with some think tank. To another guest the questions about
domestic terrorists and white supremacy were presented and responded to in the
usual way.
The local sheriff was asked why he had not known about the activities or if he
had even been suspicious. He rather acerbically that apparently no one had
known and wondered if there even were any. He said the informant might know
and wondered where he was.
Apparently that question wasn't on the list and the anchor had to ad lib it to
the next guest. He was apparently prepared, however, and simply replied that
the identity of the informant was not known and it was up the the agency to
release that information.
"If we find out that the FBI, or whoever, planted someone in there to
manufacture an incident, and he could be identified," asked Carter, "what would
be likely to happen to him? Wonder if any of these people have next-of-kin
that would be interested."
"That would be one way," Donald replied. "Let's do some research of our own while
we're waiting on input from our colleagues."