Chapter 47 -- GOCWGECAMCE
Carter and Jessica, along with Tommy and James, joined Donald in his office after
breakfast, as they did on most days. The maps were consulted as he related
the news of resources being positioned for the strike on the capitol. While
the communications among the planners - the chiefs of the freeholds supplying
the resources and the Council members - were on secure phones, they knew that
the encryption could, in time, be broken. So the communications themselves
were in an elaborate code which even if exposed was unlikely to be comprehended.
"We're about there," Donald said. "The teams are in position, and the
objectives are being frozen. At this point it's a matter of determining when
the optimal number of targets are presented in the window. We're analyzing
surveillance data to find the sweet spot, and then we'll set the day."
For the past two years congressional activity had been slow as the August
recess approached, and with each year of diminishing opposition to the ruling
party it had become slower. Sessions were rather perfunctory now, and there
were rarely late hours in the chambers, with the members regularly heading out
by early afternoon to get a start on an evening of dining and drinking. The
numbers of inebriated members of the congress exiting the various
establishments on any day was impressive.
The teams were in place, with weeks of blending in to the local environment,
watching their targets coming and going, oblivious to their impending fate.
The city was calm, the few demonstrations sometimes put on by the opposition
had been non-existent for weeks, and a carefree, almost festive atmosphere
infused the area. Donald and the group watched the news at least once a day,
usually in the early evening, with the favored patriot channel running on
another screen. In recent days the programming on it and some like it had
been subdued, mostly talk with various obscure members of the opposition.
They knew that the word had been passed to some of those outlets, and they
were observing the desired protocol. Like hunters on the hills watching the
buffalo grazing, Carter thought. A gnawing disquiet lurked now at times,
the idea of what was about to happen. He had asked Jessica, and she felt it
as well. He supposed the others also did, and all were keeping it hidden.
They watched as the six o'clock program went by, almost dull with the lack of
any violence outside of the usual urban slaughter. With no significant events in
the news, Donald updated them on the operation.
"We've now got about four dozen, fifty-one in all, kill teams in place and
with targets selected. Some of them will almost certaily be multiples,
So we could be looking at fifty, sixty kills. And
then we'll see what the reaction is.
"We're expecting, of course, some raids on suspects, probably selected at
random from their pool of targets to eventually be hit anyway, they'll
probably go ahead and take out a few of them. And since they don't know who
did it, they'll be wasting a lot of time on guesses. Meanwhile, we'll be
preparing our first communique.
"What's in it depends on how the operation goes - if we get most or all of our
targets and don't lose anyone we can be quite obnoxious in our approach,
address them with contempt, let them know they're helpless in terms of
actually finding the perpetrators. If it doesn't go so well, much will depend
on whether they manage to capture any of our people. We hope they don't, but
if so we'll have to evaluate the situation more carefully."
"What if we do lose some?" asked Carter.
"That will depend on whom and how many," Donald replied. "If we were to lose one
or two, captured, they will know that we'll be working to free them, so they'll
just lawyer up and that pretty much puts a stop to everything - they could sit
there and say nothing for weeks, months. It wouldn't be much fun but they know
it's part of the business and we won't leave them behind. And we have lawyers
standing by for that eventuality.
"If someone gets killed, that's another matter. None of them will be carrying
anything to disclose their actual identity, so it's likely the artificial persona
will become part of the official record - unless they have fingerprints or DNA
somewhere, and probably most of us don't. The ex-military guys would have
fingerprints, and DNA since they started collecting that back in the nineties.
Since most of us are off the grid it's unlikely they could track them to their
freehold, even with their legitimate ID. And if they did they could simply
deny knowing anything about it. They'd come under suspicion, of course, but
since we'd know already we could get damage control underway immediately. It's
quite likely they would never make the connection."
"I wonder what the status is on the commune they attacked," Jessica said.
"Good question," said Tommy. "I've been chatting with a guy at Republic25, let
me see if he's got anything new." He turned to one of the computers that now
crowded the large conference table. James rolled his chair over to look. In
recent weeks they had visited with Steve Austin, the tech guru down near
Columbia and absorbed as much knowledge as he could impart in a week. Which
was quite a lot, and both were more comfortable with the League's
communications network.
"Here's something," said Tommy, moving and clicking his mouse a few times.
"Looks like a recent update."
A young woman about Jessica's age appeared in a frame. Tommy expanded it and
turned up the volume.
"We have some information about last week's attack on the community near Camden,"
she said. Unlike a television personality, she was plainly dressed in a khaki
shirt much like those favored by the freeholders, and without the expensive
hair and makeup work looked quite normal.
"As you may know, the small religious commune known as the Mount Carmel
Communion was attacked by state and federal agents, resulting in the
destruction of the commune and several deaths, with the survivors being
arrested. Most of them, anyway. I've just been talking to Randy, who's on
the scene now. Randy?"
"Hello Sarah," a voice replied. Evidently they didn't have a camera crew on site.
"I've just been talking with some of the nearby residents, and ran into
someone interesting. Essentially, though, this is what seems to have happened -
the feds and state police showed up around nine, and when the residents
refused to open the gates they broke in and began attempting to corral the
residents. There was some shooting, the latest information we have is that
two of the LE types were killed, both of them feds. Several, we don't know
how many, were wounded. A still unknown number of the residents were killed
and wounded.
"After they had cleared the houses, they went toward the wooded area behind
the houses and were fired on, killing two more. Apparently thinking their
quarry had fled, they entered the woods, setting off an IED which killed
another. They retreated and waited until the next morning to continue. They
found no one in the woods."
"Did they burn the houses?" asked Sarah. "Surely they didn't all catch fire
at once, after the occupants had been taken away."
"No, Sarah. Some of the locals watched them go house to house firing
incendiary grenades through the windows, then watching them burn."
"Any word on those who escaped?"
"The only thing we know, Sarah, is that there some people in the woods who
were not found when they cleared the area. Presumably they escaped during the
night. There is mostly farm land around here, and it would be easy enough to
walk out the back way. What we do know is that the authorities are searching,
earlier on one of the news channels, the were interviewing someone from the FBI,
and he said they were 'casting a wide net'. I would suppose they will
interrogate the prisoners for information on who they were and where they
might have gone."
"A wide net means they'll fan out around the location," said James. "Looking
for any family and acquaintances that might shelter them. Hope they're good
at hiding and don't trust anyone."
"They'll certainly be on this hard," Donald said. "Agents killed. That's why
they slaughtered those people at Waco years ago. And more recently the people
at Sunset Meadow. They want people to get the message that resistance is not futile,
it's fatal. I wonder if we have any contacts in that area."
He looked through some files, Tommy was doing the same on his computer.
"This is close," said Donald. "About a hundred miles. A few months ago we
made contact with a group out in the hills, prepper types, good-looking
organization, apparently with some money. Couple of our guys, Brad and Alex
from Zebra Pass, had been out that way when they moved in a couple of years
back. They left them a shield and some vague clues, in case they could be of
any use. Wonder if we should check in with them, see what they know."
"It could be useful," said Jessica. I suspect these people aren't as good at
covering their tracks as we are. And if the fugitives from Mount Carmel show
up there, and the feds track them there, they should be prepared. And it
would be good to know how they plan to respond."
"I'll see if our friends at Zebra have a quick way to contact them securely," Donald said.
We should warn them if we can. We have a secure channel to Zebra, it's a
little cumbersome using OTPs, but we can do it. I'd better get on it - as
close as they are it might not take long to find them."