Chapter 39 -- KGAAANTZTUFCOTZMRNV
Grant Page and Bill Clayton had driven over the neighboring community to see how
things stood with them. They had called Luther earlier, and he greeted them
as they parked their truck and went to the door. After the usual minimal
pleasantries were exchanged - none of them being given to idle talk - they sat
down to talk.
Their main interest was in the church community's reaction to the recent news,
particularly with respect to the upcoming election. The primaries were almost
wrapped up, but they all agreed that the election was no longer in question.
"We're interested in what you're thinking about what the Democrat candidates
are saying," Grant said, "in particular about the home school issue, and the
likely action on guns."
"I'm sure you're hearing the same thing we do," said Luther. They're promising
to end education outside of public schools, and to put private schools not under
government regulation. And of course the Republicans are opposed, but they
are too few to stop anything. So I'd guess that once the new government is in
next January, it will start soon after."
"Same here," said Grant. "Do you have a plan? For when they come to enforce it?"
"We're discussing it," Luther replied, "and praying. We don't know yet how we'll
deal with it. A lot depends on how fast they move. If they come around
looking for our children right away, they it's likely there will be trouble
right away. They probably won't try to enforce it until the next school year
starts."
"Probably," said Grant. "It may be they'll spend the remainder of the current
year and the summer preparing, and then we'll see how they go about it. They
probably don't have the means, yet, to find every child that isn't in the
public schools. They're probably close though, and if most people comply they
won't have to many to look for."
"Sadly, many will," said Luther. "I expect there will be just the small groups
like us to be rounded up."
"And when they show up at your gates demanding your children?"
"The only thing I can say with certainty is that our children will not be in
harm's way," Luther replied. "We'll have them somewhere safe if it looks like
violence will occur."
"You plan to refuse then?" asked Bill.
"If we surrender our children, they will be sent to government schools to be
indoctrinated in submission to the state. If we do not, and we resist, we
will be killed or imprisoned, and our children still be taken. We will have
given up our lives or freedom without accomplishing anything. Unless you know
of a better way."
"Short of hiding out in the wilderness, even more remote than this, we don't
know of one," said Bill. "At this point it's looking a lot like we may go down
fighting, take as many of them as we can with us. At least there will be some
retribution."
"You are not yet determined on this course?" Luther asked.
"It just doesn't look like there will be any other choices," Bill replied.
"The other major item," said Grant, "is guns. That's the other big thing. They're
promising to essentially disarm the population. Probably very restrictive laws,
like Australia did a few years back - nothing more than single shot or double
shotguns, bolt action rifles, and no handguns without a license. And
everything registered. I'd expect a lot more resistance to that."
"I'm sure there will be," said Luther. "I wonder which will come first?"
"Yeah," said Grant. "You'd think they would go after the guns first thing, to
make the rest easier. But that can take a while, and each faction wants its
own agenda to have priority. And those who want do capture the children don't
want to wait."
"Is your attitude the same as with the children?" asked Bill. "When they come
for your guns?"
"Afraid so," Luther replied. "When that starts, it's about over anyway. With no
organized resistance, they can pick off the resisters at their leisure. And
there's no point in living for just a few more miserable years."
"That's about the way we see it," said Grant. "If it's the end, then so be it."
"Something you may or may not know about," said Grant, "is that there some
rumors out there - none we've been able to confirm - but there are more
and more of them as time goes by. There seem to be some indications that
there is a big operation of some sort, maybe capable of preventing what's
planned.
"It sounds too good to be true, and may well be. But a persistent thread that
they plan to use independent groups like us to augment their operations when
they make their move. So we're watching that, hoping it's true, and preparing
to play whatever part we may. I don't know how much you monitor the talk on
the internet, but we have people working on analyzing it, trying to figure out
what it means, if anything. In any case, we'll let you know what we find."
"We appreciate that," said Luther. "We don't have that ability, and we just
try to get through our lives as best we can in these days, trying to do what
is right."
"We understand," Grant said. "One other thing you might notice at some point.
We've been making a trail from our place up to here. It's not that noticeable
if you aren't looking for it, just a little brush clearing where necessary and
some markers. In an emergency, people could pass, on foot, from one place to
the other without being seen from the road. Since we never know what may
happen in the future, it could prove useful."
"We'll keep that in mind as well," said Luther.
Returning to their place Grant and Bill held a meeting with the other leaders.
After filling them in on their visit, the talk turned to the chatter they had
discussed a couple of weeks earlier.
"Any more info on Samson or Mike Charlie?" asked Grant.
"We've picked some interesting things," said Gerald. "As you know, Jeff is one
of the sharpest guys around on this stuff. He and a couple of the guys have
developed some tools for finding patterns of activity over the internet."
Jeff was Gerald's son and a systems analyst of considerable abilities. He
and several of the younger men in the community provided its technical needs.
"They've fingerprinted the relevant references to Samson and Mike Charlie, and
gone back to see where they first appeared and what growth there has been. We
should probably go get them to give us a more detailed presentation, but
briefly, it looks like it went from nothing to having a considerable presence
in just a matter of about five or six months.
"It mostly appears in chat sessions centered on doomsday scenarios. It's a
pretty diverse group of interested types - preppers, off-grid types,
resistance groups. Resistance as in planning for a totalitarian takeover.
Needless to say, their outlook is universally pessimistic.
"Most of what they've seen seems to be suggesting delaying direct action until
a signal is received. Almost as if someone is trying to keep the various
groups out there, at least some of them, in a sort of holding pattern."
"It does look that way," said Arthur. "As with most
things, we can only wait and see. It would be encouraging to find that there
is some sort of organized strategy we could join with."
"Wonder if there's a way for this to work in the other direction?" said Bill.
"For interested parties to contact whomever this Samson operation is, if it
exists, and see how we can help."
"I have to wonder what such a plan would look like," Douglas said. "Exactly
how would you go about taking down the U.S. government, illegitimate as it may
be, once it firmly established. It has control of all military and law
enforcement resources, including the state and local levels by then - and what
could they do anyway - just how would you attack them?"
"My only thought is that there would have to be some really big, under-the-
radar operation already prepared, funded and manned," Arthur said. "An
invisible army with considerable resources, positioned to strike at an
opportune time. What that would look like I have no idea."
"It's difficult to envision," said Grant. "Assuming you had everything set up,
how do you go about removing the existing government and replacing it with one
that can function?"
"That could be either easier or harder than one would think," said Douglas.
"It might seem next to impossible, even if you succeeded in, shall we say,
removing the existing power structure - or at least crippling it to the point
if impotence - how would a new government, assuming the people were waiting in
the wings, even, take over and stay in power?"
"We're definitely uncharted waters," said Grant. "I guess you have to start
with doing the deed. How do you shut down the existing government?"
"OK," Arthur said, "what is the federal government? President, Congress, and
the Supreme Court. You can dismiss the Court because it has no power at all
if the other two branches decide to ignore it. Or even just the president, as we've seen
Its rulings have to be enforced by the executive branch. Next you have Congress,
which has no power to carry out an action, only to make laws which again must
be enforced by the executive branch.
"And you can't just walk in and replace the president. And if you could the
vice president would take his place, and removing the entire chain of
succession, the House and Senate leaders and all the Cabinet officers would
require nuking the place and even then you couldn't guarantee the outcome."
"I'd say in the situation we're looking at," said Douglas, "you would have to
have some way to use the minimum amount of force to make the changes happen in
a more or less legitimate manner."
"What would that be?" inquired Bill.
"Well," said Douglas, "suppose you would go into DC at the right time, Congress
in session and relative calm, and suddenly oh, about half of the members of
each house suddenly drop dead. So, no governing going on for a while, until
all the seats are refilled. Now, initially they would be filled by
appointments by the governors, meaning the replacements would be just as bad.
Or maybe not, if they got the idea that continuing the policies of their
predecessors might not be a good idea. With me so far?"
"Go ahead," said Grant, the others nodding.
"So, you let the new congress assemble. At this point it'll be harder to to
in and eliminate the new ones if they act up. Not that it can't be done, but
a better idea is to be causing enough trouble elsewhere in the country that
they can't get back on balance."
"So what happens then?" asked Arthur. "At this point we've got at least two
things. One, someone has just knocked off a couple hundred members of congress.
Assuming that could actually be done. So you've got the country in chaos,
which apparently is the idea. Two, Congress can't actually do anything to
help the regime - that's completely the President."
"Right," said Douglas. "Now see if I'm getting close to the idea. The
manhunt for the assassins is a separate issue. Even if nothing else happened
they would be trying to find the killers. It consumes massive resources,
resources that would otherwise be used to suppress dissenters. Meanwhile,
suppose this great conspiracy exists and is working toward its goal. What next?"
"Since the President is in charge, and it's completely his baby, he has to
deal with everything that happens. Martial law is no good - they don't know
where to use it, and they can't shut down the entire country. Sure, the big
cities can to some degree be controlled, but what if the threat isn't coming
from there?
"Now stay with me - I think there may be something here. Suppose that while
the feds are chasing the assassins, other stuff starts happening. Buildings
get bombed, stuff like that. It wouldn't take much to have the feds chasing
their tails and getting nothing done. And since martial law isn't feasible,
what do they do?"
"You got me," said Grant. "I don't think any of us has an idea."
"And neither will they," Douglas said. "Interesting situation."
"This doesn't include all the spontaneous stuff," said Gerald "Organic
activity as Jeff calls it. Happens naturally in response to the environment."
"There's that, too," said Douglas. "Added to an already irresoluble situation.
Once the military option - which will no doubt be attempted, constitution be
damned - fails, what do they do?"
"Assuming, and that's obviously unwise," Gerald said, "that the person occupying
the presidency has, or his advisers have, the ability to deal realistically
with the situation - they will at some point agree to negotiate. Assuming
again, that the option is available. I would guess that at some point whoever
is doing this will issue demands."
"Presuming again," said Bill, "that whoever the advisers are - and I'd have to
say that even now the advisers are actually running the show - aren't
suicidally obstinate, they'll advise him to negotiate. But that depends on
whether they are smart enough to know the jig is up."
"Yeah," Grant said. "A lot of them are genuinely dumb, and don't know it. And
a stupid enemy can be the more dangerous. A lot of the Nazis were very
intelligent men, and knew early when all was lost. We may be facing an enemy
who does not have a grasp on reality - they may do like Hitler and stick it
out to the end."
"And then what?" asked Arthur. "At that point I'd expect the military to take
a hand. And that would probably not end well. Especially with the shape they're
in. It would be best to avoid that.
"I wish we knew more about it, and whoever this outfit may be, if it
exists. Maybe we could get some idea of where things stand."
"We'll stay on it, of course," said Gerald "We're getting bits here and there.
It may be that as the time approaches, if we're right about their timetable,