Chapter 43 -- OSPGZSNCSAFBVGWAVQXD
Carter and Jessica watched the television news, or for what passed for news in
these times. A year ago there had still been a couple of satellite news
outlets that, while for the most part lost in a sea of propaganda, still tried
to provide some useful information. But before long their carriers succumbed to
the pressure and dropped them.
The Internet had continued to provide some means of communication
for dissenters, although that was visibly eroding. And with no television or
print any hope of the general public being informed was gone. Even the radio
talk shows, which had even in their heyday had been pushing at open doors, was
being curtailed. The last lights, whatever good they may have once done, were
about to go out.
The news did provide some information, however. The attacks on the non-
compliant citizenry was no longer hidden, at last not all of it. With
effectively complete control of the message, events were depicted as
legitimate law enforcement against insurrectionists. The news segment now in
progress was more of that.
The usual banner at the bottom of the screen was this time proclaiming that
'DOMESTIC TERRORISM' was the subject. The scene was a common one - shot from
behind and over the tops of various vehicles, some of them in the livery of
the Illinois State Police, others unmarked but uniformly dark greens and greys,
In the area beyond, a number of houses and outbuildings could be seen, some
apparently burning, men in dark combat dress moving about. The smoke from the
burning buildings was being blown about, occasionally obscuring what could be
seen.
The cameras would be kept at a considerable distance. The requisite smoke and
flames, vehicles and personnel milling about, was little more than a
background for the narrative. Said narrative being delivered by the usual
suspects - a young blonde woman at a desk filled the screen now, with her name
and title.
"Shelby Mitchell," Carter said. "Don't get a lot of Shelbys."
"Who's the correspondent, or whatever?" he asked. He had been out of the room
when the segment began.
"Hasn't showed yet," Jessica replied. "Let's listen and see what they've got for us."
Although the joked about the antics of the television news actors,
the humor had always been overlaid with the unavoidable foreboding. The
naivete of the actors was rather depressing - most of them, Carter thought,
were as ignorant as the audience to which they were dispensing their propaganda.
Many, if not most of them, probably believed they were reporting facts.
The picture went to a split screen, and another young woman appeared. She was
a blonde too, albeit a dirty blonde as they were called. Of course, her hair
might well be natural while the anchor's was likely colored.
...that's correct, Shelby." she was saying. Her name was Michelle. "The task
force arrived about an hour ago, with search warrants for several of the
houses here. It is believed that most or all of them are occupied by people
who are either related to one another or involved in other relationships.
They had created what is effectively a fenced compound here, with entry
controlled at two gates here on the highway.
"People familiar with this area say the two gates, about a hundred yards apart
along the highway here, were normally closed, with the occupants using a
remote opener, like a garage door opener, when they entered or left."
"Do you know if there had been unusual activity there recently?" asked Shelby.
Of course there was. The question would have been on the teleprompter. And
Michelle would have the correct answer.
"Yes, Shelby, there was," Michelle replied, making sure to use her name. Name
recognition was important to careers. "It appears that for the past month or
so there has been an increase in traffic in and out, with some trucks, not
usually seen, apparently making deliveries and leaving."
"Are any of those trucks there now, Michelle?" asked Shelby.
"I can't see any from here, Shelby," Michelle replied. "But it's a large area,
I believe the compound was described as covering about twenty acres or so.
Much of it is wooded, so we don't yet know what might be out of sight."
"Do we know what the search warrants were for, Michelle?" Shelby asked.
"We don't have any specifics at this point, Shelby. We're waiting to hear
from a contact with law enforcement now. We have information from, at this
point, unnamed sources that some sort of terrorist plot may have been in
progress. The heavily armed force that was sent suggests that they expected
resistance, and apparently they were correct."
"Do you know if there was any inside information, perhaps from informants?"
"We don't, Shelby. But of course the authorities do try to get inside these
types of organizations, to find out what they're up to. We don't know if they
had anyone on the inside here."
Carter suspected they did. An inside agent who could infiltrate a group with
no unlawful intentions and convince them to if nothing else discuss doing
illegal activity, enough to get recordings that could be used as evidence of a
'conspiracy'. Once that was established, the search warrants were pretty much
rubber-stamped, and the operation was underway.
Michelle's box on the screen vanished, to be replaced by the full screen shot
of Shelby at the news desk.
"Next up," she was saying, "we have Dr. Lockhart, professor of political
sociology at University of Minneapolis. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Lockhart.
You've been following these events in Illinois, and while it's still early and
more information is probably forthcoming, are you able to form any ideas about
this and similar recent events?"
Dr. Lockhart was the generic television guest. Probably unknown outside
his academic clique, he was now able to expound to perhaps a million or more
people. Not much out of close to four hundred million, Carter reflected, but
for these sorts of people anything more, even a little, was to be eagerly sought.
"Here comes the white supremacist anti-government stuff," said Carter.
"Well, Shelby," Lockhart began in the usual professorial manner, "while we don't
have have much in the way of details on this incident, we see some similarities
to other incidents of this type. Unfortunately, incidents of domestic terror
have been on the rise in recent months."
"OK, OK," Carter said, "get on with the white supremacists already."
"With anti-government activity increasing," Shelby said, "do you see any common
factors in their motivation, goals, etc?"
"Well," Lockhart said again, "anti-government sentiment is often rooted in
extreme emotional reactions to events. Certainly, white supremacist sentiment
plays a large part in it. And that, in the minds of many of these people, is
directed at the government because it is perceived as being the author of what
they believe are injustices.
"This actually goes back to the Civil War, when the freeing of African-American
slaves, making them citizens and giving them the right to vote - all
of that caused fear and anger among a large part of the white population.
Thus we had the KKK, lynchings. and so on. And the more civil rights advanced
through the later twentieth century, the more angry some of these people became.
And without a solution to that, we continue to have these types of
organizations and their activities."
"What would a solution look like?" asked Shelby.
"Well, it's not a pleasant thing to deal with. And since it doesn't seem to
be disappearing on its own, it will most likely take a concerted effort by the
government to identify the sources and deal with them. An intense campaign of
finding the offenders and applying whatever remedies are appropriate could
certainly minimize their effects on society."
"Will the coming consolidation of education under federal regulation help
solve this?" Shelby asked.
"Certainly, education can help" Lockhart said. "A standardized education
could probably solve numerous problems. Eliminating home schooling, which is
being done, can eliminate some of the subversive elements. Home schooling has
always tended to coincide with disruptive and antisocial attitudes. And
the private schools - the ones that continue to exist - will be monitored for
signs of inappropriate teaching."
Suddenly Lockhart's half of the screen was replaced by a full screen of the
ongoing operation, the anchor's voice continuing.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Lockhart. We have breaking news," she said. "For that we go
to back to Michelle. Michelle?"
Michelle's picture appeared in the upper left corner, narrating as the action
continued.
"Thank you, Shelby," she said. "We have just had some new developments here.
You may be able to hear in the background, it sounds like gunfire and perhaps
explosions of some type."
The camera operator seemed to have gotten a better vantage point, looking over
the vehicles that had obstructed the view earlier. They could see people in
combat gear running about in an area between the houses and a wooded area
behind them. Frequent bursts of fire, some apparently from semi-auto guns and
others of burst fire, probably from military rifles used by the attackers.
Occasionally a louder sound indicated grenades were being used.
Michelle continued talking over the action.
"It appeared that the operation was winding down," she said. "We could see
what appeared to be persons in handcuffs being taken to the law enforcement
vehicles, and the shooting had stopped some time earlier. Then it suddenly
began again, and has been going on sporadically for the past ten minutes or so.
We're trying to get someone from the task force to speak with us, but they're
still pretty busy...let's watch for a few minutes."
"I wonder if something didn't go as planned," said Jessica.
"What I was thinking," Carter replied. "If it had, they'd be loading the
body bags and giving interviews."
The action continued for another fifteen minutes or so, with the anchor and
reporter occasionally interjecting an observation or question. The action
around the vehicles seemed frenetic, personnel running to and fro and moving
vehicles. There had only been a handful of vehicles inside the fence, now
several more were moving in, with some of the combatants taking cover. It
looked as if they were taking fire from the wooded area.
"They're going to need more that what they have," said Carter. "I'd have
thought they would bring some Humvees."
"Bet they will next time," Jessica said. "I would guess this is the first time
they've encountered resistance, if that's what is happening."
"Won't do any good out in those woods though," said Carter. "The trees are too
thick to drive through."
It appeared that the camera operator was getting the closest view possible. They could
occasionally see people moving around at the edge of the trees. The gunfire
had stopped, and it looked as if some sort of stalemate existed. The reporter
came back.
"Shelby, it looks like the shooting has stopped," she said, "and neither side is
making any moves. We do have someone here now that may be able to tell us
what is happening." The camera view expanded to include a man in a camouflage
uniform partly covered with body armor and various items of equipment.
"This is Captain Richard Stewart of the National Guard. Captain, what can you
tell us?"
"We're dealing with a barricade situation, possibly with hostages but we don't
know at this point. We accompanied the law enforcement task force here to
execute search warrants. The occupants refused to open the gates and
retreated to the houses, and when we breached the gates we came under fire.
We got those vehicles inside the fence and tried to start clearing the houses.
"We took several casualties doing that, but arrested the occupants. When we
sent personnel to check the woods out there, they came under fire. At this
point we're waiting for reinforcements."
"Were any of the casualties seriously wounded?" Michelle asked.
"I can't give you a definite figure at this time," the captain replied.
"Was anyone killed?" she asked bluntly, but the captain apparently anticipating
the direction of the conversation, suddenly keyed his mike and spoke to someone,
turning to run back to the staging area.
"Apparently Captain Stewart had do deal with an emergency," Michelle said. "We did
see two ambulances arrive and depart, and a third has just arrived. Since they are
awaiting more assistance, we may be waiting for a while."
"Any word on arrests?" Shelby asked.
"Nothing official," Michelle replied. "From here I could see what looked like
people being escorted to police vehicles, apparently under restraint. I'm not
sure if any of those have left. It looks like we'll have to wait a while for
more information."
"OK, thank you, Michelle," said Shelby. "We'll continue to monitor the
situation and bring you back when there are further developments."
An opportune commercial break arrived. Carter and Jessica sat for a few
moments, pondering the news.
"They've got deaders," Carter said. "At least one. That's why the captain
heard someone calling. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some more out
behind the houses, where they were being fired on from the trees."
"It looked that way to me too," Jessica said. "That's the first time they've
met resistance. What is it, at least a half dozen of these affairs since the
election, almost like throwing a switch."
"As we expected," said Carter. "But now that there's been resistance, we're
almost certain to see new tactics."
"Yeah, I wonder what kind."
"Well, they're not going to stop. With the gun grab that can't be far away,
they want to put as much fear into people as they can."
Jessica had her phone out, tapped a contact.
"Dad. Guess you're watching." A pause. "Yeah, pretty much what we were
thinking. No telling how long it'll be before it's over. They're going for
reinforcements." Then after another pause "Yeah, probably. We'll finish
watching here and come over in the morning... right, good night."