Chapter 40 -- ELKQTTRTTZGJRVPDSSHDI
William led Carter and Jessica from his office to a right turn in the corridor,
toward the back of the building. At the end was a pair of glass doors.
Opening one he held it for them to pass, and
they found themselves on a balcony overlooking a wide green field, with
patches of trees here and there, two small groups of buildings, and some paved
paths running among them.
"I am a very wealthy man," he said, "and with not a lot of time remaining to
spend my money. Not that money has had much meaning for me for quite a few
years, except as a means to an end. I was married at one time. Two children,
a boy and a girl, about your age, Jessica. They were not quite teenagers when
my wife left me, and of course the children went with her. She made the
divorce more acrimonious than it should have been, and my relationship with my
children was somewhat distant until they were adults and could make their own
decisions.
"In any case, they are both having what I hope are happy lives of their own.
And I would like for them to continue to do so, and their children. But as
you know, that is unlikely to happen unless things change. I intend to use as
much life as I have left to effect such changes."
He paused, looking out over the area before them. They watched as troops of
men emerged from the two groups of buildings, lining up in formations of four
rows each. One group was dressed in what looked like military camouflage, the
other in matching black outfits. Carter thought they looked like ninjas, or
at least like ninjas in movies. And indeed, they were wearing the
stereotypical swords. The men in camouflage had rifles slung on their shoulders.
"These are, you might say, my household guard," William said. "I call them
the Ninja and the Rangers. More to the point, while they provide security at
this time, that is not their ultimate purpose. About two hundred, maybe more,
of the freeholds' personnel have come here, as you have, for advanced training.
At some point in the future, they will be assigned targets. They are an
important part of our final operations."
He didn't have to explain. They already knew what would happen if things came
to the expected conclusion. Jessica knew when they decided to be a part of it
her father wanted them to have the best possible chance of survival. There
was no time now for recriminations, even if she had had any. Even without
Carter's vendetta, staying behind was probably never an option. They would be
unleashing a force of stealth warriors on the enemy, mostly in the nation's
capitol but in some other areas as well.
"Let's do down and meet them," William said.
They went back to the elevator and descended to the ground floor, and to an
exit at the back. As they emerged, two men approached. One was in black, the
other in camouflage. The man in black bowed, the one in camouflage saluted.
William returned the bow and salute.
"Jessica, Darrell," said William "this is Miyamoto Sakashi and Colonel Michael
Schneider, commanders of the Ninja and the Rangers. I leave you in their most
capable hands. I'll be seeing you occasionally over the next few days, but
for the most part they will be working to impart to you as much of their
knowledge and experience as possible."
William returned to the house, leaving them with their the two warriors of two
very different types.
"Well," said Michael, "let's do it. This way."
They followed them first to the side where Sakashi's men were standing.
"This is Jessica, and Darrell," Sakashi said in the perfect English of one
whose whose American ancestry was at least a couple of generations. The
ninjas all bowed in unison, and Jessica and Carter instinctively responded in
kind.
"Let's go meet my men," Michael said, "and we'll get started."
A similar introduction followed on the Ranger side of the field, and they went
with Sakashi and Michael into a small building that apparently functioned as
an office. They sat down in the small group of chairs in front of the desk.
"Miyamoto and I command the Ninja and Ranger platoons," said Michael. "There
are two hundred of us, four twenty-five man units in each platoon. Each platoon is divided into
eight squads of six. That's how they operate, in regular duty here and in
likely future operations. There are some differences in the Ninjas, which I'll
let Miyamoto explain.
"As for us, we are Mr. Randalls security force, and has he has said, part of
the ultimate contingency force. A little about my men - we're all former
special forces, mostly army. I retired as an army Colonel a few years back
and came to work for Mr. Randall, and have since created the Ranger force.
Miyamoto will give you a rundown on his side."
"Thank you, Michael," said Miyamoto. "You might find referring to my platoon
as ninjas to be somewhat theatrical, they are in fact trained to a very high
level of what are often called the the ninja arts. Stealth, hand-to-hand
combat, guerilla tactics, whatever it take to carry out a strike against a,
usually, more powerful enemy. All of us are of Japanese ancestry, our
families having lived in this country for generations. We are all determined,
as are Michael's men, to preserve what our ancestors and yours built and seek
to preserve."
"We'll be on the front lines when the time comes," Michael said. "Meanwhile,
we'll do our best to prepare you for that time. What we'll do over the next
few days is give you advanced training in both the covert martial arts of the
ninja and the conventional military weapons and tactics. So I'm going to
leave you with Miyamoto for the next couple days."
For the remainder of the day and the next two days, they joined the ninjas in
their regular practice, learning some new fighting techniques but mostly the
use of escape and evasion, improvised weapons and other skills of the shadow
warriors.
Despite the nature of their work and the legends attacked to the term, these
men were all quite normal in their demeanor away from the practice floor or
yard. Jessica for the first time was the only woman among a large group of men,
but found nothing uncomfortable about it. She was accustomed to being just
one of the guys among her fellow freeholders, only now they were all men.
Whether they had any idea of her relationship with Carter, none acted in any
improper. Not that she expected anything different - the freeholders way of
life was based on respect for their comrades and never being presumptuous.
They certainly did not treat her with kid gloves, however, again in keeping
with the way things were done. She and Carter both acquired the usual
complement of bruises and scrapes during the activities. They did some
exercises with the cliched ninja tools, but as Miyamoto told them the ninja
connection was more for effect than anything else. They might wear a black
outfit when stalking a target at night or penetrating a facility, and they
certainly would use some of the traditional weapons and techniques, but the
ninja way was spiritual and philosophical.
He presented each of them with a daisho, a matched set of the
swords once carried by the samurai.
"Each of us has a set," he told them. "Even though they are a symbol of the
samurai, while we're taking liberties we might as well do this. We would use these in
combat under the right conditions, as we would any weapon. You may, at some
time in the future, find them useful."
They had dinner with William each evening, joined by Hugh and and once by the
leader of another small, in numbers, freehold that was like theirs and
Williams quite wealthy. Theodore Turner was, like William, a man who made a
fortune at a relatively early age and retired to work for the rescue of
the republic. Like William, he used his fortune to finance a group of
personnel who would be useful in the coming fight, while working on useful
projects while waiting. An experienced pilot and owner of several aircraft,
he provided routine air transport for the league, and would play an
important role in events to come.
He was well acquainted with Jessica's father as well, as a member of the
Council they saw each other regularly. He was interested by Donald's
construction of a runway at Sierra Verde.
"That will certainly prove useful," he said. "Especially as you and your
other comrades will be involved in the action at the center of the battle. I
would have liked to meet them - yours is an interesting story. And I'm glad
they were fortunate enough to get hold of you, Darrell. I'd guess that you
are as well."
Carter allowed that he was, but not much beyond that.
"I understand, to the degree that I can without being there, your feelings,"
he said. "I understand your other colleague was in a similar situation when
you... acquired him."
"What they did to me," Carter said. "I couldn't watch that happen again. And
it gave us a chance to poke the bear and do a logistics exercise at the same time."
"Which apparently went flawlessly," said William. "As for the bear, he's still
angry. We've monitored the situation to see what reaction is. And we
occasionally stir things up. We have someone call in to a local talk show or
drop a tip to the local news to send them on a wild-goose chase. More for our
own amusement than anything else, but things like that could be used to divert
resources at an opportune time in the future."
"To be fair," said Jessica, "they had no way of anticipating it. So they weren't
prepared for it."
"Of course," said Carter, "the next poor guy gets in a jam like that, they'll
lock him up without bail. But I guess a cop that finds himself in the situation,
is probably asking for it. By now everyone should be warned."
"It would seem that they are," said Theodore. "Cops, the ones that are left,
aren't taking chances. There have been numerous cases of them watching the
perpetrator escape rather than fire on them. Apparently if it's a choice of
losing your job or going to prison, it's not hard for most of them to make."
"Yeah," Carter said. "The cities are pretty much jungles now.
The ones that can get out have done so, the rich are safe behind their gates
and armed security, and the animals are killing each other off."
"We should be so lucky," said Theodore. "Even at the rate they're going it'll
take forever. They still propagate too fast."
"We'll see what happens when they're cut off," said William. "I suspect that
alone could sap the government's resources to the breaking point. With what we'll
throw at them.."
He didn't need to finish the sentence. While it was difficult to predict an
outcome, it appeared that the regime was at the cliff's edge and had no idea
of what was coming, and without even a plan, it would be quickly overwhelmed.
"The real challenge will be preventing something worse from replacing it," said
Theodore. "I suspect that our greatest risk is when the regime is helplessly
facing complete chaos and has to act. Probably the worst thing that can
happen is for the military to come in on their side. We could probably still
keep them off-balance more or less permanently, but at a much higher cost."
"How prepared are we to deal with that situation?" asked Jessica.
"We're not completely at a loss," William replied. "The top-level generals are
the most political - that's how they get four, even three stars. The ones
just below, especially the ones nearing retirement, are more reasonable. More
likely to follow their conscience. And despite the destruction of the
military ethos over the past twenty years or so, it remains surprisingly
strong in the ranks.
"We have quite a few contacts there, and it's likely that if the forces -
that would be primarily the Army, the others have not much of a role to play in
internal affairs - are given the choice of trying to continue in the same
direction and continuing chaos or returning to constitutional rule and having
order restored very quickly will choose the latter."
"It's a matter of getting the picture in front of them," said Theodore, "and
being able to demonstrate that we are the ones with the power to end it. That
will be the crucial factor. At some point negotiations will have to happen,
and we will have to have a way to make them happen without endangering ourselves."
"So," Jessica said, "on a scale of one to ten as they say, what's the outlook?"
"If we're able to carry out most of our objectives," said Theodore, "eliminating
a large number of the troublemakers, creating a state of fear and confusion in the Capitol,
and demonstrating our destructive power - we can probably bring them to the
table. Adding in the chaos created by free-lance opportunists, and the
independent ones that we have some influence with, we're confident they will
make some offer to talk, hopefully fairly soon. But that depends on how
many rational minds are left up there, in any positions of influence."
"If you were, let's say, a cabinet member, or maybe a high-level military type,"
Carter said, "and you were in a meeting discussing what's going on - after we've
started the attack - what would you be telling the president?"
"There was a time," said William, "when I would think they would tell him the
truth insofar as they knew it. Particularly the military men. Now, they
would most likely say whatever they think he wants to hear, even if they know
better."
"So it will probably take longer for them to come around," Jessica said.
"Most likely," said William. "Unfortunately that will cause more people to
suffer, but not nearly as many as we do nothing."
"Yeah," Carter said. "It looks like we're carrying the load alone. For seven
billion people."
"In the end," said Theodore, "we can only do as our conscience dictates. Most
of those billions probably aren't worth saving. If they were they would do
something. It's surprising there are as many of us as there are. This
country really is, as Reagan said, the last, best hope. Actually, that hope
is us."
"He also said if we fail we are looking at a thousand year of darkness," said
William. "And I believe he was right. There's no way to see that not happening
if this country falls."
Carter and Jessica would spend the next two days working with Colonel Schneider's
unit, which was more of the sort of combat they had practiced in sessions at
other freeholds.
The Rangers focused more on advanced hand-to-hand and close-quarters shooting,
primarily with lightweight carbines and with some handgun practice. Carter
had become quite proficient with his .45, but quickly adapted to the somewhat
lighter .40 caliber pistols they favored. The larger magazine capacity would
be useful in the situations they were likely to encounter.
"The .40 was a good thing to have come along when it did," Michael said. "The
venerable .45 was in danger of becoming extinct in the 1980s, which would not
have been a good thing. The increasingly popular nine millimeter was becoming
the universal standard, but it was not reliable in stopping an attacker. Jeff
Cooper, one of the pioneers in handgun combat, developed a good compromise in
the ten millimeter. It eventually became the .40 caliber. The bullet it
still lighter than the .45 but heavier than the nine, and it's wider and still
fast. So you can still get reliable one-shot stops."
He took a pair of carbines from a rack and handed one to each of them.
"Also in .40 caliber," he said, "and shares magazines with the pistols. And of
course a little more velocity. In the kind of operations we're likely to be
involved in, these are likely what we'll be using."
"We used some of these at Cripple Creek," said Jessica. "Handle real well."
"They do that," said Michael. "We'll practice some maneuvers, indoors and out,
to get you accustomed to the kind of action we may see in streets and inside
buildings."
Over the the next two days they went through a variety of such scenarios,
including laser tag and paintball battles, giving them,
of Jessica anyway, the feeling of shooting to kill a human adversary. Even
for Carter, who had carried out a deliberate sniper attack, learned some
things about himself in these exercises.
The night before they departed, Miyamoto and Schneider joined them as they
dined with William and Theodore, and afterwards had a couple of drinks
together before retiring.
"The way it looks," William said, "is that we will, in a few months, be
embarking on the most momentous, for lack of a better word, event since the
founding of the nation. It will be, if it succeeds, a rebirth, because of how
far we have fallen. Most of us at the Council have said at one time or
another that our own government has gone far beyond the provocations of the
English overlords. They embarked on a war for far less that what the
government has been doing to its citizens for many years.
"And if we fail, there will likely be nothing to be reborn. The present
rulers will, as some have said, burn down the country just to rule the
ashes. We must ensure there is something more than ashes left. Which is why
the Council, after much debate - years in fact - arrived at the plan we will
be executing.
"We hope the death and destruction will can be minimized, and our best hope
for that is to so decisively and thoroughly damage the system that somewhere,
down the line, reasonable people will be making the decisions. People who,
even if they disagree with us, hate us even, will see the ashes that are their
future if they do not come to the table. We pray that can be done."
He paused for a moment and looked around at the group, then continued.
"The one assuagement of our emotions is that when that time comes, we will
have already done everything possible to avoid it. By that time matters will
have progressed to the point that there will be no need to seek justification.
It will be burned into us, as it is now. The killings and
imprisonment of dissenters has been going on, on a small scale and in relative
quiet. Once the restraints are gone there will be no question."
"William and I will be at the epicenter," said Theodore. "Jessica, you father
will be part of the command and control team. I understand that you and
Darrell intend to be on the ground in the initial attack. And your reasons.
I have to ask you, Darrell, are you certain this is the right thing to do?
The job will be done with or without you."
Carter was silent, looking over to meet Jessica's eyes. She betrayed no
emotion, but he knew it was there and what it was. He looked at Miyamoto and
Michael, and back to Theodore and William.
"No," he said. "I'm not sure. In fact I'm sure it's not. If even a small
part of the operation is tainted by emotion, that's an unnecessary risk and
not a good thing. I'd come to regard McCormick as the ultimate in evil, and
maybe he is - at least to the same level as the worst of them - he just hasn't
been at it as long. I won't jeopardize the mission."
There's plenty for you to do regardless," said William. "The added training
you received here is likely to be crucial to our success at some point.
Miyamoto and Michael represent two very different ways of doing things - but
both will be vital to our success. As you probably suspect, they'll be in the
first strike. And what that is, we don't know. We have some ideas and have
analyzed various strategies, but we're still refining the final plans.
"It's been said by military men that no battle plan survives first contact
with the enemy. In this case, the battle plan likely won't exist until it's
executed.
"Tomorrow you'll be going home. I hope we've enhanced your survival chances,
and if we don't see you again before then, we'll hope for a reunion at a later
date and do everything to still be alive, except surrender."