Chapter 66 -- GKDUPWNYYXSANX
Carter helped Tommy and James load the last cases of dynamite into the truck,
then went around to get in the passenger side. Jessica was driving, and Tommy
and James followed in another truck. The drove away from the enormous steel
grain bins toward the runway, where an incoming flight was expected.
The forty boxes of dynamite in each truck would be loaded onto two flights,
each taking half. A thousand pounds was close to the limit of the small
aircraft, but a thousand pounds of dynamite could do a lot of damage, in one
place or in several, depending on the objective.
The bricks of thermite that had been flown away two days ago was very likely
already being put to use, as more accounts of toppled cross-country
electric transmission lines came in, along with bridges, water towers, and
other parts of the infrastructure. Television reports routinely showed miles
of traffic backed up on highways, mostly the interstate roads supplying the
largest cities. In some places water mains had and pumping equipment had been
damaged, along with electrical distribution stations. The war was on and
there was no going back.
Carter looked over at Jessica as they waited. They often did not talk much
when they were alone, each likely dealing with the stress of their position.
A major insurrection was going on all over the country, and they were part of
the prime mover. The fact that their involvement, even their existence, was
still unknown was surprising. He hoped their luck would hold.
They watched the small aircraft approaching, waiting as it landed and taxied
to their position. The pilot opened the boarding door and helped them load
the boxes, returned to the cockpit, and started the engines. He had been on the
ground just over an hour.
"Now for the other," Jessica said, looking at her phone. "We're looking about
twenty minutes. We should be just in time for lunch."
They would spend the afternoon and evening as usual, watching news reports and
monitoring the chatter on the patriot channels. Both were quite heavy and
that wasn't likely to change soon. They sat in the cab of the truck, Jessica
reached over to put her hand on his. He looked over, both tried to smile but
the effort was forced.
"Are you ever afraid?" she asked. "I mean, feeling like we're waiting, for
something bad that's about to happen?"
"Sure I worry," he said. "We wouldn't be normal if we didn't. But there's no
way out, and we knew when we chose - try for freedom or live a pointless life.
And I believe there's little chance now that they can win. Prolong it, maybe.
Probably. But I hope not for long."
"I've sometimes wondered what would happen if I'd just tried to have a regular
life," she said. "But I know that there wouldn't have been one, the way
things have gone. This is our only chance to have one."
"You will," he said. "We will. We just have to get through this, whatever it
takes."
The second aircraft arrived, and the process went as smoothly as before.
There were still large quantities of materiel in storage, and likely there
would be more requisitions ahead. The pilot who had picked up the thermite
was one who had helped fly the strike force out of DC. He told them their air
traffic was busy and expected to increase.
After lunch they assembled in the command post as usual. Donald briefed them
on the developments so far. The operations continued at a steady pace,
slightly increasing day by day, diverting more and more resources to repairing
the damage. At some point there would be a complete breakdown.
"Chicago is, just from what they're letting out, not just a figurative
hellhole but an actual one," Donald told them. They're averaging a dozen killings
a day - and that's just the ones we know about - and the crowds are
uncontrollable. The police are fortifying areas and defending them,
protecting the critical parts of the city, and everything else is being left
to burn.
"Food, water, electricity, everything is compromised not only in Chicago but
most of the other big places. We stayed away from New York for the most part, and LA
hasn't seen it bad yet - if we hit the aqueducts they will - but the other
trouble spots are getting it. Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta. We're
also going easy on Texas because they're still in our camp, but we did take
some gratuitous hits at Austin and Houston. But the main thing is to spread
their resources so thin they can't stay up.
"Aside from that, for the moment, here's something important. Tommy, James,
this is something to look for. This morning I got a triple-coded message from
the Council. Here's what you should be looking for."
He handed a paper to Tommy.
"Mustafa Shakespeare?" Tommy asked.
"The letter to the White House, but not in the other copies, stated that if
the government wished to communicate we would call the number in the letter
and use that as a passphrase. The other copies just said we would call.
Apparently that name has been introduced into the chat networks. They know we
monitor them, and so they threw the name out there.
"We believe they want another chance, and if we call the number and give them
the passphrase they'll know it's us."
"So their only chance was to throw it out there for everyone and his dog to see."
Tommy said. "But only we know how to use it. I would guess that's what they are
saying."
"We're preparing a message to the White House," Donald said. "It should be
delivered in the next day or two. The Council head and two lieutenants have
already left the country, with several key personnel to handle communications.
When the call comes in it will not only be routed through a dozen or more
relays, but it will originate from outside the country. And if they manage
to identify the source, he can move quickly. In our case, he can be gone much
more quickly than the government could contact the government where he is and
attempt to have him arrested. Not that it would matter if they did."
Carter knew that the Council structure was designed to be fault-tolerant, so
that if one or more, even several of the members were eliminated, it could
continue to function.
"The call, if it happens, will be recorded and shared with all the members,"
Donald said. "It would be naive to expect them to agree to our terms, but if
not, we go forward with a clear conscience."
Carter wondered how clear his conscience was already. He suspected innocent
people had died by now, and more would. But if noncombatants died when
bridges were blown up or dams breached by them, in spite of warnings being
given, was there blood on his hands?
"So maybe in a day or two we have, almost certainly, a rejection," Jessica said.
"Escalation?"
"Yes," Donald replied. "They're in a bad way now, resources already stretched.
And hurricane season is here. It can't hurt us but just adds to their problems.
We hope that at some point someone will read the writing on the wall before it
gets too bad."
"Who's going to do that?" asked Jessica. "The administration, they're not
much better than idiots."
"If nothing else, desperation might accomplish something. They probably still
think that as a last resort they can impose martial law. It won't work, but
they don't know that yet. I don't know who the inner circle are, who pulls
the strings, but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is still there. He may be
the only one who can talk some sense into them."
"Well, Mustafa Shakespeare is definitely trending, as they say," Tommy said.
"When did they put it out?"
"Early yesterday, I believe," Donald said.
"Well, news travels fast," Tommy said. "I see the fiasco in Tennessee is
getting a lot of interest."
"That one is interesting," said Donald. "That place is near the one we were
talking about, that Brad and Alex from Zebra Pass visited. It was located
near them. From the descriptions so far, I wonder if they were involved."
"Something strange happened," Tommy said. "Just a brief synopsis - this is from
someone going by GreenRipper. He usually has good info, usually ahead of time
because it can take a while to confirm it. Here's what he's got:
Early Monday morning a federal task force approached the settlement with
search warrants. Doesn't know what they were for. During the search, the
agents were dispersed around the village, he calls it. So apparently a
number of houses. Shooting started, and went on for a while, finally stopped.
Apparent discussion between the two parties. The feds stood down for the
night, apparently thinking they controlled the only egress points. The next
morning they went in and found everyone gone, apparently through an unknown back
road they weren't watching."
"After all that shooting?" Jessica asked. "Who got shot? If the any feds got
it they'd stay there until everyone inside was dead."
"Yeah," Tommy said. "Let's see if there's anything later."
He and James worked for a few minutes. Carter and Jessica looked up at the
television screens. There didn't seem to be anything new, but with constant
scenes of destruction it was difficult to know what was new. Even 'Breaking
News' was often hours old.
"Here we go," Tommy said. "This is from another source, usually pretty good.
It seems there were several wounded or killed on both sides. A large number
of ambulances were seen arriving and leaving over a period of two to three
hours. That would be strange if some feds got shot and they just walked away."
"There are going to be some strange things going on, if there aren't already,"
Donald said. "They're spread pretty thin and it's getting worse.