Chapter 50 -- QINLGFSVOFAVHINUVQ
Carter and Jessica were at the usual meeting in Donald's office. They had
driven over to St. Joseph the previous day, followed by Tommy and James in
another vehicle, to purchase supplies that might be needed in the
next few days. The farm was well supplied with all basic necessities, and
could go without trips outside for weeks if necessary, but they were being
more cautious than ever with the event of a lifetime about to occur.
It was now only three days away, and they could not avoid occasional feelings
of apprehension. They were about to cross the Rubicon, and the water was
the line beyond which there was no retreat. "Burn the bridge behind you,
leave no retreat, there's only one way home," James had said, quoting a poem,
or maybe a song, Carter didn't remember if he had said. It was certainly
fitting - the Rubicon, ships and bridges burned, it seemed that for such times
there was a line at which one could stop and wait for a moment or two of
contemplation, or plunge ahead without hesitation.
There were probably times, he thought, when in that moment doubt prevailed and
great deeds went undone. And no one would ever know what might have been.
What might be was in this clear, as was what would be if they hesitated. His
life might not be worth the proverbial plugged nickel a short time from now,
and if he survived it might be as a prisoner of the enemy, a fate likely worse
than death. He had been a prisoner, and the thought of the miserable life
awaiting if he failed and survived made that an easy choice.
"Everyone all right?" Donald asked as they took their seats.
They all responded as nonchalantly as could be managed. They all felt tension
at times and were at other times able to push it into the background. Each
felt a need to avoid any feelings of doubt or fear, and since those were
natural emotions the act of keeping them inside made them all a little tense
at times. Alone at night Carter and Jessica were able to find some comfort in
their emotional closeness, but still it was difficult to get to sleep at times.
He wondered how it would change once the battle was joined.
"There's not much new," Donald said. "Which is good, inasmuch as there's
nothing to put the targets on edge before the strike. We're hoping for three
more calm days. This time of year, particularly with the congressional recess,
us usually fairly slow. A lot of people still on vacation, the school year
still a few weeks away. And the teams are comfortable with the setup.
"Any more from William?" Carter asked. "They hit a couple of bumps in the
road early on."
"Looks good," Donald replied. "I spoke with him briefly last night. They were a
little uneasy about getting everyone in place in time for an effective pre-op,
but it looks good."
"That was the only really big operation," said Jessica. "And all the smaller
ones look good."
"Yeah," said Donald. "A lot of five, six man teams working independently is a
lot easier, the only real problem is not bumping into each other. And the
plans are all well separated in terms of the locations. Fortunately DC is a
big place and the targets are scattered at any given time."
"Is there anything else we should be thinking about?" Carter asked. "Now that
everything is sitting on go, it's a little spooky. Let's run through Friday
evening, on paper, and see how it looks."
"OK," said Donald, getting up and walking over to a large whiteboard. "Let's see."
He drew a large square, drew several small circles in it. Drawing lines from
the clear area to the circles, an arrowhead on the end at the circles.
"The teams will be in the areas where the targets are expected, using
intelligence gathered in real time, or they will pick them up as they leave
the Capitol area and follow them. They're all comfortable moving around
the area, getting in and more importantly, out. Which can be tricky if things
don't go smoothly. And there's no reason to believe they all will.
"Essentially, for most of them we're looking at the classic mob hit. Catch the target entering
or leaving a business, like a restaurant. Or a car. Those moments when they're
both exposed and at a low level of vigilance. They'll be distracted, by their
companions, driver, or employees like valets. Most of them will be taken that
way. It's a Friday night, the last weekend in DC for most. With the atmosphere
even more calm than usual, and their natural arrogance, they won't be expecting
anything. The trick is to do the job and egress quickly and cleanly."
Donald clicked on the television, the usual news broadcast on. The ubiquitous
young blonde woman was speaking, and they watched for a while. The current
segment was about a large-scale shooting in Oakland California. Due to the
large number of dead it looked as if it would go on for a while, with a parade
of witnesses, experts and others. He turned down the sound.
"Is there anything on that raid in Tennessee?" Tommy asked.
"I haven't heard of them catching anyone yet," Donald replied. "They've had a
dragnet out since it happened, unless they've scaled it back in the last day or two.
One of the shows had supposed reliable source who said they weren't getting
anything from the ones in custody, so they don't know who or how many they're
looking for. Another one said they had some IDs on the fugitives, so who knows.
It looks like it's gone quiet for the time being."
"Quiet is good," Carter said. "Let's see. East coast is an hour ahead. Do
our teams have an idea of when the action starts?"
"It's Friday," Donald replied, "so expect an early exit from the Capitol. There
could be some action as early as mid-afternoon. Once it starts, it'll take a
while for anyone to notice something's up, and longer to actually do anything.
Since the earliest ones will have already put a strain on the police, with our
pre-op diversions, it could take quite a while. The longer it takes them to
start locking things down and figuring out that there's an entire class being
targeted the more time we have to work."
"What does Saturday morning look like, I wonder?" James asked.
"That's a good question," Donald replied. "The way if comes off, is a sudden,
high intensity attack taking out a large, we hope, number of members of
Congress. That's going to be a big shock - we can't know how they'll deal
with it. And when our operatives vanish without a trace, we hope, it will
probably take even longer for any kind of reaction. Other than immediately
putting the ones who are still alive under heavy security. Sapping more
resources from an already overloaded system. If all goes well, confusion and
uncertainty will be the rule for a number of days."
"And then?" Jessica asked.
"And then," Donald said, "if things look right, we'll make the first communique
to the regime. It will be simply that a state of war exists. A state of war
between the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America, and the
incumbent government of the United States. It will contain an offer to
negotiate a peaceful resolution, and a warning that a failure to do so will
result in more attacks."
"What does the offer look like?" Carter asked.
"If accepted, and that is unlikely, it will offer to have our representatives
meet with theirs. Should that offer be accepted, then we will offer to cease
hostilities when our terms are accepted and implemented. Of course that isn't
going to happen, so we'll have to continue to impose pressure."
"I wonder at what point a direct communication between us and them begins,"
Jessica said. "And how does that go? I know the Council has a spokesman in
mind, and presumably he would be talking to the president. Is our link setup
solid?"
"When the first communication happens," said Donald, "I can of course only speculate.
Probably our first overture will be ignored outright - no reply. At that
point we apply more pressure, and again it will be a heavy blow. I suspect
that the second one will at least get a response - what it will be I have no
idea. But once they are persuaded they're dealing with a real threat, and
they have few options in dealing with it, we may get some constructive dialogue,
or not."
"What are your thoughts about the president?" Jessica asked. "He's obviously
a puppet, so the puppet masters will be giving him the words to say. We know
that and they may know we know, or not. We know most of them are not very
smart. Cunning, but not smart. How do we ever get them to understand they're
beaten?"
"We probably never will," Donald replied. "Our assessment is that very few if any
of them will make the right decision. The majority will take the attitude
that if they can't have it, no one will. At that point, we hope, the cooler
heads will be provided by the military. While it's true most of the upper
ranks are hopelessly corrupt, they are generally more intelligent than
politicians. You don't even get into a service academy or an officer training
program unless you're pretty smart. Not necessarily ethical or idealistic,
but intelligent. And their survival instinct is better - career politicians
who know nothing but infighting and buying and selling themselves and each
other don't have that. Once those things don't work for them, they're lost."
"So the military ends up deciding it?" asked Jessica.
"In a way," said Donald. "Once they're against the wall and the situation is
one they're not likely to survive, they'll appeal to the generals to do
something. By which they'll mean, save us, thinking that afterwards the
status quo will be resumed. The generals will know better. Whether they
manage to persuade them to be reasonable or kill off a few more of them to
make their point, we believe that ultimately we may find ourselves dealing with
them, even if they're speaking through the political mouthpiece."
"And that may take a while," Carter said.
"No doubt. Phase two will be outside the capitol. People will
be affected and demand action. Since they can't find us, they'll probably
stall for time by acting like they're doing something. A few raids on some of
the usual suspects - they'll have a list of disgruntled outfits they want to
attack anyway, and would eventually. They'll hit some of those and hope
nothing else happens.
"And when that doesn't work, and we hit them harder each time, who knows how
many iterations we go through. But if we hold together, stay off the radar,
they'll run out of options at some point. Then they beg the generals for help."
"And the generals' response?"
"With any luck it will be to tell the government to capitulate. If it isn't,
it won't take long to convince them. But we're nearing the end now. In a few days
we'll be in it. for whatever it brings."