Chapter 65 -- MYWPDMDRITFOAG
Arthur and Douglas quickly drove back to their compound.
"We'll have to change clothes," Arthur said, "and hope none of them got a good look
at us."
Exchanging their BDUs for jeans and plaid flannel shirts, they got in Arthur's truck
and drove to the entrance of their settlement. A right turn and a half mile
down the road, around a slight bend, and they could see the vehicles around
the entrance to Luther's colony. When one of the troops directing traffic
waved them by, Arthur stopped and lowered his window.
"What's going on?" he inquired.
"Federal law enforcement operation," the man replied tersely. "Move along."
They could see Luther and Ted standing over by what looked like an improvised
command post, talking to some of the black-clad agents.
"Hey, that's Luther down there," Douglas said.
"You know these people?" the man asked.
Arthur looked at the man's uniform. Over his left shirt pocket he could see
the black lettering on a nearly black background. Simpson.
"Doug does," Arthur replied, nodding towards Douglas. "I've run into some of those people in town."
Simpson waved toward another man, who walked over. His name appeared to be Carter.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Guys here know these people. Can we use them?"
"Maybe, we may need somebody to help with those guys. We got people shot down
there, maybe dead."
You certainly do, Douglas thought.
"Let me talk to Luther," said Douglas. "Can we park somewhere?"
"Over there," said Carter pointing to an open area off the road just ahead.
Douglas got out and walked toward where Luther and Ted were, while Arthur
parked the truck. After a brief hesitation Carter followed him.
"Luther. What's going on here?" he asked as he approached.
"They came in here, started shooting people," Luther replied. "Some of us
defended ourselves."
"They started the shooting," Carter said.
Douglas raised a hand for quiet.
"For now, let's get medical attention for those who need it. Do you have any
ambulances on the way?"
Carter turned to one of the men.
"Get some ambulances out here," he said. "Whatever they've got in town, it's
probably not much out here."
Douglas wondered if he should be surprised at how a civilian passerby like him
could effectively take charge of a government military operation. Maybe not,
he thought, looking at the group, apparently confused and fresh out of ideas.
They had apparently never had their quarry return fire, except for the recent
incident that had brought the two fugitives into Luther's fold. The Waco affair
was far in the past, and they did not know what to do in the face of resistance.
But with the sorry state of the armed forces these days, the bureaucracy playing
at war could likely only do worse.
Arthur had just arrived from parking the truck, and Carter turned to address
them.
"You think you can help us end this without any more shooting?" Carter asked.
"Let me talk to Luther privately," Douglas said. "And you might want to try to
assess the situation. Can you send one of your men down with Arthur to do a
walk-through. Just one."
Carter delegated a man to go with Arthur, and the two of them left. Douglas
walked with Luther a short distance away.
"What are your casualties?" he asked in a low voice. They probably didn't
have any long-range ears directed at them, but they might.
"We've got three dead," Luther said. "About seven or eight wounded, they all
looked like they'll make it if they get medical attention soon."
"How about the others?" he asked.
"At least five or six dead, I'm pretty sure. And some others badly wounded, a
lot worse than any of ours. They and the ones who weren't wounded are under
guard in a couple of houses, down to the left of where I live."
"You know how many?"
"Wounded, eight to ten I'd say. And about ten or eleven unhurt."
"All right, let's see if we can make sure no one else dies. Either yours or
theirs. I'll be back in a little while."
He walked back over to Carter.
"It looks like there are some dead," he said. "I guess you figured that. On both
sides. I'll see what I can do, but with some of theirs dead and no prospects
but prison if they surrender, this isn't going to be easy. But first, get
those ambulances on the way. As many as you can."
Carter turned to a subordinate.
"How's it look?" he asked.
"We've got two so far," the man replied. "We notified the hospital in Taylorville,
it's not very big but they can connect with the closest ones and get them on
the way. We're looking at twenty minutes minimum for the closest."
"All right, stay on it." He turned back to Douglas.
"You might want to let Luther go down and talk to his people," Douglas said. "They're a
commune of sorts, have to agree on things. He can get that started. Ted
might as well go if he wants to - it's not like they're going anywhere."
"All right, you can go," Carter said to them. Luther and Ted walked back down
to the village.
"It may take a while for Arthur and your man to get back," Douglas said. "I
can tell you it doesn't look good. You've got, how many personnel down there?"
"Probably twenty, twenty five. We're still checking."
Douglas let out a low whistle.
"I'd like to ask you what the hell you thought you were doing," he said, "attacking a
religious commune." He couldn't resist needling the man. "Of course, that seems
to happen a lot lately."
Carter got it, all right, briefly letting a venomous expression pass before
speaking, but Douglas stayed ahead.
"In any case, once they get the dead and wounded out we may be able to
accomplish something. It's going to be dark before they get them all out.
You'd better make some arrangements for your people. And hope this doesn't
drag out."
"Where are you from?" Carter asked, suddenly suspicious. "How'd you happen by?"
"We've got a hunting club over there," Douglas replied, pointing vaguely down the road.
"We're mostly retired or self-employed and live there most of the time. When
we bought the place a few years ago this place was already here. I've seen
Luther a few times in town. Found out he was the leader here."
"You never knew he was a religious fanatic?"d Carter aske. Probably payback
for my remark, Douglas thought. More likely he believes it.
"Never noticed," Douglas replied, glad for the distraction of Arthur and the
agent approaching.
"What's the situation?" Carter asked.
"As of now," said the agent, "six of our personnel dead. There are a couple
more who may not make if they don't get help quickly. Of the remainder, twenty-
two in all, ten are wounded and the others are unhurt. Three of the persons
in the compound are dead and seven wounded. None of their wounds
appear to be life-threatening."
The first ambulance arrived, and was soon followed by another. When the last
one left, almost four hours later, it had been dark for close to an hour.
"You're not going to get anything done tonight," said Douglas, surprised at the
ease with which he had essentially taken charge. Perhaps he shouldn't be,
he thought. The man was in over his head, and appeared to be representative
of the new crop of bureaucrats. Substituting indoctrination for education didn't
bring out the best in people, since it essentially conditioned them to not think.
"If you don't do anything, I'm sure they won't either. You want to have
Luther come up and make sure you're on the same page?"
Luther arrived and, satisfied with the arrangements, went back to his people.
Carter called in for some meals to be delivered and some relief personnel.
"What are you going to do?" he asked Douglas and Arthur.
"Since we live just a few miles away, if you can keep from killing each other
any more tonight, we'll go home and have dinner and to to bed. We can be back
over at, when, seven or eight in the morning?"
"That seems satisfactory," Carter said, having regained some of his composure.
It looked as if the situation would be resolved shortly and he would be back
in his office with additional points toward his next promotion. He didn't
much like the two men who had helped him, but that didn't matter. By this
time tomorrow he could be back in the field office in Knoxville, and be on
television the next morning delivering the narrative of his successful operation.
Once back at their headquarters, Arthur and Douglas joined the other committee
members for a conference.
"How do we get them out of this?" Gerald asked.
"How about the easy way?" Grant replied, grinning.
"You worry me when you do that," said Douglas.
"Not this time," Grant said. "At least if we're lucky. The goons up there on
the highway are going to be asleep, except for a few observers. They know the
people in there can't go anywhere. Only they can."
"You think they've left the back entry unguarded?" asked Bill.
"They may very well have," Grant said, "but if so we'll use the path through the
forest. But I'm guessing they never even noticed it. If so we'll use it.
And we'll be sure their prisoners see which way they went, so they won't bother
looking for the hidden road."
"Well, let's get over and see," Bill said.
The back road was indeed unguarded, and it wasn't likely to be checked now.
The five of them kept an eye on the sentries up on the highway, using their
night vision goggles. The four rather tired and now bored men leaned on the
vehicles or talked to their comrades, rarely bothering to look in their
direction. They were far enough away for the vehicles to be unheard as they
made their way up the road, lights off until they were well away. It was slow
going as even the members of the group who used the road frequently had to
take care in the dark. But in a little more than two hours they were away.
There would be questions, to be sure. About the men in dark green BDUs who
did not look like the 'cult' members. With any luck they wouldn't be asked,
and if they did some hints about a local militia would probably be eagerly
consumed. Their own camp was clean, and if the secret road was not discovered
they could probably avoid further contact with the authorities. Probably they
would be glad to have it behind them.
By noon the next day it was over. Whether or not they believed that Douglas and Arthur
didn't know about the road they didn't press the matter. A few investigators stayed to comb through
the settlement, and until they were gone cameras covering the hidden trail
would be monitored. Inside the headquarters, the committee watched the news
reports and occasionally got updates from Jeff and his crew. There was plenty
of chatter on the underground channels, with plenty of celebration over the
dead federal agents and outrage over the murder of the civilians.
With the increasing unrest all over the country, there was probably little
time to spare chasing down rebels, so probably they would soon be
confined to responding to attacks instead of initiating them. It seemed they
had, for the time, escaped notice.