Chapter 53 -- SDYHKIUGDVTOP
Carter and Jessica were up early, watching the news over a quick breakfast of
toaster pastries and coffee. It had been a late night at her father's house,
but there was no way to sleep late now. The one news channel that still had
something close to real news was on, and the events of the previous night were
the only thing being covered. He suspected it would be for days to come.
The final body count appeared to be forty-eight, which was close to what had
been expected. Two missions were scrubbed because the targets disappeared as
they were being followed, and their destination was unknown. Both had been
caused by traffic accidents that had prevented the teams from staying with
them. Several people would never know how lucky they had been.
They watched as another official came on to be interviewed. He was a DC
police spokesman and fielded about a half dozen questions before being
replaced by yet another guest. The morning would likely be, as probably the
entire day, a non- stop parade of guests dispensing their particular bits of
commentary for a few minutes before moving on. Clearly many of them were
enjoying it, there was more than enough attention to keep them happy for days.
They had been up until almost three, and the strong black coffee would
probably be imbibed regularly throughout the morning. After watching a
tearful staffer who had seen her boss shot from just a few feet away, they
decided to head over to Donald's house.
Tommy and James had not yet arrived, and they sat with Donald in his office.
With Gordon having relocated to a safe place, along with Mary and Dalton, they
were alone in the big house. Donald updated them on his conversations with
others in the League.
"I'm still a little numb just now," he said. "After what went down last night,
it's hard to believe it's done. Three years of planning - more actually -
but three since the decision was made to move if we had to, made that happen."
"How are the teams?" asked Jessica.
"On the way back to their bases," Donald replied. "We won't have a full
report until late tonight, maybe tomorrow. I'm going over to the office
shortly, there should be quite a few messages to work through."
The office was the small law office in Chillicothe, which was always closed.
A computer in the office was a secure endpoint to a complex network that
allowed secure messages to be exchanged at a point unconnected with the
freehold. If it was compromised it could be abandoned with little chance of
it being traced to the freehold.
They watched the ongoing commentary, occasionally on one of the other channels
where the government line was always followed. The government needed to 'get
the army out and round up those people' was a frequent opinion. As to who '
those people' were, the general consensus was that they were militias,
religious cults, white supremacists, and 'anti-government' types for the most
part. Occasionally a guest suggested sweeping the country from one end to the
other, interrogating every single citizen.
Tommy and James arrived, and they continued watching the news and the program
streaming on their favorite patriot channel. They had news as up-to-date as
the regular media, usually better. The underground resistance channels were
congested with traffic. For the most part they contained only speculation and
questions, a sign that the true nature of the operation remained, for the time,
unknown to any outsiders.
Donald left for the office in town, a twenty minute trip each way, and he
would probably be spending some time sending and receiving new messages. The
others watched the news and discussed the events.
"They got your man," Tommy said. Carter knew he was referring to Erskine
McCormick, the man who had put him in prison.
"I suspect he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Carter replied. "A first-
term senator from Missouri shouldn't have been high on the list. Apparently
he was with the Majority Leader, who was at the top. He was extra points."
"Most likely," Jessica said. "He was definitely trying to make a reputation
early, in on everything from gun confiscation to taking home-schooled children
away from their parents. The epitome of a demagogue, he probably doesn't
believe a word he says. Or didn't."
"Well," said Carter, "he deserved what he got, if not worse. He made me
understand evil. Seeing that it exists, and what it looks like. And if in
the end he was just collateral damage, not important enough to be a primary
target but still got it, even better."
"And we used him as a test run for organizing our operations," Jessica said.
"I understand you once wanted to kill him yourself, looking him in the eye.
But if you wanted revenge this is better. Not that it was important to you,
after a while."
"No. I learned that there were more important things."
"James," she said, "was another important test. You and he were the only live
tests before now, in terms of carrying out actual operations. This operation
was tested a lot before, but what went down yesterday was the real thing.
When Dad gets back we should have some idea of how it went in that respect."
"We should probably get some lunch," Tommy said. "Donald should be back before
long - you want to call and check? James and I can go for pizza."
"Sure, good idea," Jessica said. She called and they spoke briefly.
"He should be leaving in a half hour or so," she said.
"All right," said Tommy, "that's about right for us to get to town, the the
pizzas and get back. See you in a while."
That they were too far out for delivery wasn't a problem, in fact they didn't
want delivery vehicles coming out - being unnoticed was important.
They continued watching the news, with few if any new developments. It seemed
as if the killers had appeared from nowhere, done their work and vanished to
the same place. At times it seemed surreal, as if it were something in a dream.
What they had done was so massive it probably would not be believed if it were
known. The talk, now no more than speculation about what happened and
reactions to it, was largely the same on all the news channels.
Most of the theories involved domestic terrorism, but the source was debated.
The usual suspects were invoked repeatedly but that soon became dull, so the
talk turned to how to find the perpetrators. It didn't take long for the talk
to turn to the need for gun control, but as was increasingly the case, the
need for more surveillance and control of movement.
The ability of people to travel at will with no accountability, a guest argued,
was an invitation to such terrorist acts. More surveillance, more control of
travel and transportation, a national ID card, even passports for travelling
within the country - all of this and more were pontificated upon by what
seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of supply of guests.
"They don't know how close to the truth they are on some of that," Carter said.
"We would have had a much harder time if they got all of that in place."
"A double-edged sword, our success," Jessica said. "Now they're in a panic,
and are likely to do anything."
A light on a panel near the door indicated someone had entered the house.
Carter pulled the Springfield .45 from its crossdraw holster and stood to face
the door, Jessica behind him placed her hand on the Springfield XDM-40 in its
belt holster. It was probably Donald or Tommy and James.
"Anyone home?" It was Donald.
"In he office," Jessica called. Carter holstered the gun. In a few moments
Donald entered the room.
"Tommy and James went for pizza," Jessica said. "You probably haven't had lunch."
"No," he replied. "I didn't want to stop until we were through. We had quite a
bit to go over."
"Is it good, bad, or ugly?" she asked.
"Mostly good," he replied. "In fact, in spite of a couple of problems, it
looks very good - so far."
The light came on again, and they heard Tommy's voice outside.
"Come and get it," he called. They got up and went to the dining room.
They opened the boxes and got the meal underway before any conversation.
After a while Tommy asked "How did it go?"
"I'd say quite well," Donald replied. "Of course, the operation is one thing, and
the long term prospects are another."
The dining room had always had a large
television screen at one end, where everyone at the large table could see it.
It was on now, the sound down, and all of them, especially Donald, looked up
at it frequently. Deciding to continue the conversation there for the moment,
he continued.
"The statistics from last night are unchanged. By the time we went to bed it
had been over, as far as we were concerned, for several hours. By midnight
the information they had was stable, but of course they wouldn't know it. As
far as we know, as of when I started back, there were only two serious problems.
At least potentially serious - it remains to be seen.
"All the teams successfully egressed, anything left behind, such as disposable
vehicles, was completely clean. And as you know, we left a few red herrings.
With us leaving no traces and the false clues readily available, they should
be distracted for a while. In addition, they'll create plenty of wild geese
on their own - we've already seen the gravitation to various groups, real or
imagined. Even though they know the racist, anti-government, religious cult,
and other cliches are mostly manufactured for political use, in time they may
begin to believe them. That's likely to be reinforced now."
"And the way it looks," Carter said, "they seem to be about to go full-bore in
that direction. I wonder how long it will last before they realize they're wrong."
"I would suspect," said Donald, "that it may take a while, but they're going to
be under incredible pressure to show some results. What they do when they
can't figure it out, that's hard to say. Right away, probably arrest a whole
lot of people on minor offenses or completely made-up charges, and hold them
and try to get something out of them. Of course, they'll have nothing to give,
some of them will try making up something or pointing to someone else,
whatever works. A lot more wild geese. If we haven't had any leaks, they'll
be running around like headless chickens. The confusion will do us a lot of good."
"You mentioned a couple of problems," Carter said.
"Yes," Donald replied. "Actually only one potential problem. A cop was shot and
killed in one of the hits. Just a statistical risk, with that many hits, in a
city like DC, a cop showed up at just the wrong time. He engaged one
of the shooters and went down, and we learned later he was dead.
"It was always a risk, and we were lucky it only happened once. Or twice, in
terms of cops showing up. In the other case, it was our man who got it. One of
the observation teams. He's
in custody, and we're watching it closely. Luckily it's the only thing we
have to deal with, so it may work out."
"Anything on his condition?" asked Jessica.
"Just what the news has, and that's not much. He's in the hospital,
under guard, of course."
"What does the worst case look like?" she asked.
"In a situation like ours, anyone's guess. Worst case, at least to start, is
that he's relatively undamaged physically and they should have him out of the hospital
and into police custody soon. Then they start interrogating him. Of course,
he's lawyered up already. We have legal assets - they don't know anything
about what we really do but they're well paid and do some occasional work -
they'll take care of it for a while. They simply tell them he refuses to talk,
and at any attempt at interrogation the lawyer will tell him not to answer
every time. That can buy us days, and we don't plan on him being there that
long.
"And of course the ID he had, like all of the operatives, is for one of our
carefully constructed fake identities, leading them nowhere. When they investigate,
they'll find he's Joe Sixpack from Jefferson Alabama and works for a trucking
company, something like that. They'll eventually figure out it's false but it won't tell
them who he really is. Even if his fingerprints or DNA are available, and
they find his real identity no knows where he is except his comrades. But it's
not likely to get that far."
"Are we planning to extract him, and can we?" asked Jessica.
"Eventually," replied Donald. "If he's awake and cognizant, he'll be able to
string them along for quite a while. Longer than it will take to extract him.
The only real danger is if he's unconscious he might give away clues, or if
they become desperate they might try drugs - without the knowledge of his
lawyer, obviously. That might reveal something, but should have him out by then."
"We have people inside the DC police?" asked Carter.
"No. Be nice if we did. We would have to catch him being transported, to court,
a doctor, something like that. The only way they can hold him securely is to
put him in a cell under 24/7 guard and never let him out. So it's not likely
to be a major problem.
"Other than that, the operation was completely successful. We had scrub three
hits because the pieces didn't fall into place, but that was expected. We
were surprised it wasn't more."
"What's the status of the operatives?" Carter asked.
"Some are not back to base yet, due to the nature of the transport arrangements.
But all are accounted for, and we don't foresee any."
"We've just started a war," Jessica said. "What happens next?"
"Now we wait," Donald replied. "Our analysts are monitoring the reaction. Our
plan has always been to contact the government after the first strike, to see
if any kind of dialogue can be established. The question of how soon was left
open. What we're doing now is making that determination. But at some point,
fairly soon, we will send a communication to the government - specifically the
president and all members of Congress, the live ones at least - stating our
demands. It's unlikely that we will get a useful response, but a
communication channel will be offered, and if they accept then we'll talk.
Obviously they're not going to comply, and at that point the war will be on.
A paper similar to the one we distributed on Monday will be distributed, in
the same quantities, nationwide. It will show the offer we made to the
government, and the statement that it was rejected.
"At that point, further actions will be taken. Our only possibility for
success, or even survival, is in a successful campaign."
"What is the next step?" asked Tommy.
"Once the notice has been distributed, a few days later, there will be an
attack on infrastructure. At this point the plan is to cut Chicago off.
Highways and railroads. Not only is it one of the worst, maybe the worst, of
the cities for crime, but like most of the cities - all of them in fact - it
depends on a non- stop flow of the most basic necessities.
"While people in the suburbs probably have enough food for a few days, maybe a
couple of weeks, the bulk of the population doesn't. Once the trucks and
trains, trucks especially, stop, you have chaos in a few days at most. Think
about what happens when hurricanes, earthquakes, other disasters damage the
infrastructure of an area. And if there's no prospect for relief, you can't
get supplies in, it will be very bad very soon. And as we have some ability
to hit the water and electricity, we can make enough misery in one place to
make a lot of people uncomfortable. We'll have to see how it progresses from
there."
They continued watching the news and talking until it was time for dinner.
Later they took a final look at the situation and decided that there would not
be much in the way of developments that day.
"You kids might as well go get some sleep," Donald said. "We'll pick it up in
the morning."
Carter and Jessica went home and sat with glasses of wine while watching the
television for another hour or so, until they were sufficiently tired to go to
sleep. He had wondered if he would be able to sleep easily - last night he
had been worn out and had no trouble sleeping. As it turned out, tonight was
no more difficult.