Chapter 7 frtdletvokwzieiopodritflwvglanfsnruicremkoemyuokthemleunoeo Myles walked over a growing carpet of leaves under a stand of old oak trees, leaves that were continuing to fall even as he watched. The air was pleasantly cool, there was only a slight breeze. He had brought a light jacket but it as present tied around his waist. Perhaps by the time he started home he would need it. His standard uniform of khaki shirt with long sleeves and two pockets with flaps, jeans, and a pair of lightweight hiking boots had not changed in years - nor had the usual weaponry. A pair of Atlantic Arms double action revolvers in .45 Colt rode in shoulder holsters, while a Morgan Mark II bowie hung from his belt. He wasn't likely to need weapons out here, unless a stray cougar or bear had made its way onto the estate. Bears could be unpredictable, but a cougar would be there for just one thing, and Myles had no interest in becoming dinner for one. The thought did remind him that it was getting late, the sun approaching the horizon and the lighter of the moons, nearly invisible on a bright day, was becoming brighter. Reluctantly he turned to begin the journey home. He wanted to go by the lake where he had spent many pleasant hours with Sarah, and later with Tanya as well, but it would be quite dark by the time he got home. He did not want to worry Frank and his security staff. Frank would never admonish him, even in the most gentle way, for taking risks. But he would worry, and causing his loyal retainers to worry was to Myles almost like disappointing his father, something he had always arduously avoided. Their father had died unexpectedly, and left Myles and Sarah suddenly feeling lost and purposeless. Wealthy and lost, but still much too young to deal with his sudden loss. They had comforted each other, in what some might judge an inappropriate manner, but they had never found a reason to change. Myles had greatly augmented his fortune through investments and a couple of profitable adventures, and looked after his sister, who seemed content to live the carefree life her wealth allowed. At least until his involvement with Freehold Mike Charlie and the larger designs of the League broke the comfortable shell around her and brought her into the dangerous world in which he had lived for years. And in the process he met Tanya. Tanya, his second lover - not in priority - he loved them both intensely, in different ways. Tanya, the mother of his child. Soon to be children, he thought, and he knew he should be there. But some parts of life he had had difficulty in dealing with, and children were one of them. He could enjoy having them around once they were teenagers - the girls were pretty and charming, the boys were ready to begin learning the skills men needed to know. In any case Tanya and Sarah didn't seem to mind, he had so much to do they saw little of him these days. Still, he knew he needed to get back. He knew he would likely have to abandon his estate if events came to pass as he expected. Even the freehold might have to be evacuated at some point, whether to a safe area within the country or to a new site on Atlantis, if it had risen and become habitable by then. So he enjoyed the times when he was able to visit, and put off leaving as long as possible. "I know, I'm late." he said to Frank as he approached. Frank grinned. The old soldier was about as imperturbable as a man could be - if he thought Myles was gone too long he would have made a polite radio call to see if he was all right, a hint that he needed to head home. "There's still a few minutes of sunlight" he said. "And a pretty good moon." "I have to leave tomorrow," said Myles. "And I've gotten used to this place. And I know you and the men have as well. I don't like to think about the time when we won't have it." "Maybe that time won't come" said Frank. "In the worst case, we may end up in friendly territory for the duration." That was a term often used by military men to describe a war. Frank was a veteran of a few, and he knew what was coming. Myles' men were members of Mike Charlie, assigned to guard the estate of one of the most important members, and knew the state of affairs - something a few hundred million other people did not. "Could be" said Myles. "We can always hope. Well, I'd better get in and get some sleep. Good night." "Good night" said Frank. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back in his quarters, Myles had a glass of brandy and went out on the balcony to smoke a cigar. That done, he decided to have a second glass before going to bed. As he walked back inside he heard the sound of his phone announcing an incoming message. He picked it up and looked, just before the screen faded he saw the words "It's a boy!" Tanya's child, he thought. Then, what are you doing, man? It's your child too. Your son. You have two now. With two women. Nice. He felt a brief pang of guilt. He wondered if his difficulty emotions, or more accurately, his near lack of them, was a indicator of some sort of disorder. He hoped it was only the serious nature of his existence that made him keep ordinary matters of life at a distance - certainly he loved Sarah and Tanya, and their children. He loved Sir Walter like a father, and the men close to him were like brothers or, in the case of younger ones, sons. But he never could find much enthusiasm for interacting with younger children. Well, he thought, that was a period he would have to get through somehow. He was about to let himself off with just a text reply, but his guilt won that battle, and he tapped the call button for Sarah's phone. She answered on the first ring. "Hello, Myles. It's so good to hear you" she said. "That's why I called" he said. "I wanted to talk to you too." Sarah would never use guilt on him - he knew she really missed him and wanted to have him home again. Home being the Freehold. She had a house in Springfield, about an hour and a half from his estate, but it had never been the kind of home his estate had been. And now the Freehold was her home. She and Tanya would be here now except for the birth of their second child. "How's Tanya?" he asked. "She's doing well" replied Sarah. "She's still a little groggy, of course, but she and Walter are sleeping comfortably." They had agreed to name the next child Walter it it was a boy, after Myle's mentor. The first one had been named Thomas, after Myles' father. He knew that Tanya and Sarah were hoping for a girl at some point, and he hoped that would happen. Girls weren't that bad, he thought, once they grew up. "That's wonderful" he said. Wonderful was not a word he used much, but in this case it fit. And women talked that way. "I'll be back tomorrow - I'm leaving as early as I can - we should be able to have lunch together. Give Tanya my love - and you already know I love you girls more than I know how to tell you." "We love you too, Myles. We can't wait to see you again." He knew she was being honest - their own relationship went back to their childhood, although it had evolved with the events that shaped their lives. And he knew Tanya loved him with the same intensity, in a more uncomplicated way. Not that she wasn't a smart girl, he thought. She just didn't analyze everything the way he did. She loved Sarah like her own sister, and he was Sarah's brother, and that may have accounted for some if it. And rescuing her brother from a hellish prison probably added to it. But in the end, he knew, they loved each other for some reason he was sure neither of them could understand - it just happened. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Myles waited for some traffic to fill the roads between his estate and Mike Charlie before he departed his estate. His bland four-door sedan would blend in to the point of invisibility, but if he were alone on the road he might as well be driving a red sports car if he encountered a cop. Most cops had plenty to do and weren't going to be looking for anything other than obvious violations, or targets they had been advised of, but in light traffic each car got more scrutiny. Many of the new ones would be looking to enhance their resume and didn't care how how they did so - the training for new cops was not very subtle in teaching them that their future would be the enforcers of a new order, and would put them at a higher level, a warrior caste. Which was ludicrous, Myles knew. He had heard recordings of some of the classes, made by men who thought better of their new career at an early stage. They would be a caste of dogs, he knew. Guard dogs, hunting dogs. Keeping the subjects under control. And those who had been failures could now have their revenge on those who had succeeded. Thus a new cop seeing a man driving alone, early in the morning, might well detain him just to see what he could find. If he happened to be carrying a lot of money, or anything of value, it could be legally confiscated on the most trivial grounds. Few citizens, no matter how innocent, dared try to recover their property - it would take so long and be so expensive they might as well write it off. And if the person was armed without the proper permits, it would be a major credit to the cop who brought him in. Myles was armed, and legally so. But any cop who attempted to take him in for any reason was unlikely to survive the experience. It simply would not be permitted. He knew that several of his men were shadowing him in vehicles as inconspicuous as his own. In the event of an incident, they would try to end it without violence, but in the end the matter was negotiable. It wasn't a long drive, and a little over ninety minutes he was approaching one of the back gates of the freehold and shortly was waved through by a pair of guards who emerged from the brush near the gate just long enough to open the gate as he approached and then close it, disappearing back into their cover. He parked the car in the space beside Sarah's Bonneville. That was a red sports car that should not be on the road, he thought, and indeed it had not been in the past couple of years. There were a few miles of roads on the freehold territory, and he occasionally took Sarah's car and his own, for a short drive around the area. But the outside world was too dangerous these days, and they have become prisoners in their enclaves. One way or another, though, that would change. He had made his way upstairs to his most private area, a small living area that included his bedroom, and dropped his gear bag inside the door of a small room that served for a variety of uses, one of them being a place to deposit luggage when returning from outside. He had barely done so when he heard the approach of a woman running. That would be Sarah, he knew before he turned around. If Tanya were not in bed recovering from the birth of their child, there would have been two women running to embrace him. He turned in time for Sarah to throw her arms around him and hold him tightly, her soft warm cheek and silky golden hair against his face, and they stood there silently for a few moments before she loosened her grip enough to move her head to kiss him. Eventually them stood just a few inches apart, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes, her cool blue-grey ones connected as if by an invisible, preternatural link to his dark green ones. He always felt guilt, more lately, about the clandestine and often violent nature of his life away from her, and wondered what she saw when she looked into his eyes this way. She knew, of course. She had witnessed the assault on Mike Charlie and the incredible death and destruction that occurred in a matter of minutes, and later the attempted murder of Sir Walter and Myles, which ended with Myles shooting the young woman who had just shot him and Sir Walter. She hadn't seen it happen, but had been told what happened as she sat at his side after the surgery to repair his near-fatal wounds. And of course, she would eventually learn of what happened to Tanya's brother in the prison where he had been tormented and interrogated for months. She understood the situation well enough, but the gentle and person that she by nature was would never willingly accept it as anything other than an unpleasant business to be concluded as quickly and humanely as possible. Of course, the first order of business was to visit his newborn son and his mother. Sarah quickly escorted him to the quarters they had prepared for Tanya to spend the first few weeks with their new child. She seemed to be sleeping, the baby at her side, but opened her eyes as they entered the room, smiling up at Myles as he leaned over to kiss her and, more delicately, his sleeping son. "How are you?" he asked. "Wonderful, now that you're here." she replied. "Isn't he beautiful? Just like Thomas. And you." Myles had never been able to see the family resemblance in babies, so he took their mothers' word for it. He had never found them beautiful, either, but having his own did change his outlook somewhat. "Do you want to have dinner with us?" Myles asked. "Not tonight" replied Tanya. "Maybe in a day or two - I just want to be here for a while." "I understand" said Myles. And he did, to some degree. "I'll be in meetings a lot, and doing some other things, but there will be a lot of time to visit in between things." They talked for a while, Sarah sitting at the bedside, holding Tanya's hand and gazing lovingly at the baby, as they talked about various women's things, as Myles called them. He spent most of the time admiring the two beautiful women whose love he was fairly certain he did not deserve, but wasn't going to spend a lot of time analyzing it. Eventually it was time to go - Tanya looked somewhat tired and occasionally her eyes closed for a few seconds while Sarah was talking, and it was clear she needed some sleep. Saying their goodbyes they went back to Myles' private quarters to get ready for dinner. His message center had an invitation to dinner with Sir Walter, which he had been expecting. He and Sarah went to their rooms to get ready. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "How was your visit back home?" Sir Walter asked once dinner was underway. "Great, as always" replied Myles. "I wish I could have taken Sarah and Tanya, but they had other business. How was your visit?" "As always, enjoyable. Having a family you rarely see isn't easy to manage, but Katherine has always been understanding, and the girls have handled it well. They're in college now, and soon will be pursuing their own lives. Unless we fail. "But you're a father now. Twice. How's the baby?" "Quite well," replied Myles. "I'm thankful for that, and for now having Tanya and the boys safe and well is enough. The future, in their case, is some distance away." "Katherine and I would have liked to have a couple of boys, but it didn't work out. I hope he will be happy with his name." Sir Walter smiled. "And I suppose you will be hoping for a couple of girls now." "I'm fairly certain we will" Myles said, with a glance at Sarah. "And Walter will learn in time how honored he is to have his name." Sir Walter smiled faintly, with an appearance of looking at something far off. "I'm honored that you chose it" he said. "He will one day have a heritage to be proud of. It's good that we have our children to remind us of the importance of our work." Eventually the dinner wound down, ending with cigars and brandy on the terrace outside the dining room, before Sir Walter and Myles went to his offices for a late meeting before retiring, while Sarah went to check on Tanya. She was waiting when Myles returned to his quarters and prepared for bed. He had been away for over a week, and knew that Sarah, even with Tanya for companionship and to keep her busy, had been eagerly awaiting his return. He also realized he was quite tired - he was doing too much these days without enough time to get it done, and rest was in short supply. With Sarah snuggled beside him in the big bed, sleep arrived before he had time to think about anything. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He awoke just in time to see the time on the clock on the bedside table turn to 0528. "Two minutes to spare," he thought. He could get out of bed and switch off the alarm and allow Sarah to sleep a little longer. As he did, his dreams flooded into his consciousness - the usual images of war and dangerous, violent people dressed in black, and usually masked. But the one he had just before waking was quite strange, unlike any he could remember. He was walking along a dirt road in a vast landscape of farmland - as far as he could see everything was plowed dirt in various shades of brown. It seemed that the entire world was nothing else. He had parked his car somewhere, but had no idea where. He walked endlessly on the roads, it seemed, seeing no people or other signs of human presence. While not as unnerving as some of his dreams, it was becoming unpleasant, even frightening. It was time to end it, he thought, and opened his eyes. It seemed, he reflected, as if he had passed into another dimension, another universe. "But enough of that" he told himself as he headed to the bath. The refreshing ritual of shaving, brushing his teeth, and a leisurely shower brought back clarity and focus, as he dressed and went back into the bedroom. Sarah was awake, looking up at him with a sleepy smile. "Time already?" she asked. "Afraid so" he replied. He leaned over and kissed her. "I suspect Sir Walter and I will be fairly busy until lunch at least - we've both been away for a while. Probably too long - I'll call you later." Leaving so abruptly, even though she understood, was a little much. Myles knelt by the bed and hugged her, holding her for what seemed at once to be forever and just a few seconds. But it had to end, and he let go and stood up. "See you in a little while" he said. He and Sir Walter began working over breakfast, beginning with updates of the state of the nation, which was the paramount concern and probably would be for a long time. "You know about the Third SOG incident, of course" said Sir Walter, as they discussed the role of the League in the deteriorating situation. "Most of it" said Myles, "although you seem to be about to tell me there was more to it." "In a way" said Sir Walter. "You were leaving when it happened, and it wasn't that important to bore you with all the details. In any case, I was awaiting some information when you left - so here it is. "There are two small groups of men, militias in current parlance - at least according to government agencies and their mouthpieces in the news media. Fifty to sixty men seems a little small to be a militia, but what do we know? "They're mostly ex-military, a handful of retired senior enlisted men among them. For the past several years they have been organizing and discussing their future plans, and not much else. But they're clean and professional, and we been watching them for a while now. "About a year ago, there was a small war out in Henderson county - between the local law enforcement establishment and a number of unknown persons. It suddenly ended, very quietly, with no arrests - despite a number of fatalities, all on the government side. Specifically, before it was over two county deputies and a municipal police officer from Greenville were dead and several more had been shot up rather well. "I should say, shot up, beaten, knifed, and in one case burned - all in deliberate attacks that appeared to be carefully planned and executed. We eventually found out, through an operative who is quite good at finding out such things, what happened. "Essentially, the two groups, who mingle a bit socially, call themselves the Reds and Blues. One of the Reds it seems, had a brother who is somewhat disabled both mentally and physically. Apparently his disabilities are not readily apparent to strangers, and that can lead to unfortunate situations if they find themselves in an incident involving law enforcement. And with the rather low quality of police these days, they can become unfortunate indeed. "The young man was accosted by police for what they said was behaving in a suspicious manner, which generally means whatever they want it to, as you know. The incident escalated as the confused young man continued to irritate them, and they beat him severely, even after he was handcuffed." Sir Walter paused and took a sip of coffee. "I can see how that would get a cop or two killed" said Myles. "It got worse," said Sir Walter. "They took him to jail, despite obvious serious injuries and physical distress. When they finally got around to checking on him a couple of hours later, he was dead. Of course they made up a story, despite several witnesses, about how they did nothing wrong, and got away with it. "His brother investigated, with the help of his militia brothers, and they got the entire story. He was inclined to settle for suing everyone involved and demanding the cops be prosecuted, but as usual, neither action came to anything. So, as some say, he took the law into his own hands. He offered to resign from the militia before taking any action, but they refused to accept it and instead made retribution an official mission." "There seems to be a lot of that going on these days" said Myles. "Like the young guy we talked to a while back. Went to the Sierra Whiskey group." "Very much" said Sir Walter. "And there does seem be a lot of it - probably we don't hear about most of it - the news will only report it if it suits the government agenda, and they you can be sure there is little truth in it. This case was no exception. "Their plan was to abduct the two perpetrators and extort a large sum of money from the city, but ineptitude and corruption seem to be the only notable traits of governments these days, at all levels. They stalled and tried to find out where the cops were being held, without success. Having a good idea of who was involved, they went after the sister of the dead kid. Nice young lady, married with a couple of kids, works as a legal secretary. Or did. "The harassment, which included arresting her and threatening to kill her and her family, was eventually too much for her. Once she got out of jail for the second time, she and her husband took the children and fled, beyond the reach of the local authorities. "That was enough. The two cops were found in the emergency room parking lot of a local hospital a few days later, barely alive. While it may not be literally possible to break every bone in a man's body, they seemed to have come fairly close. "What followed was several weeks of war with an unseen enemy - police cars were shot up, with the cops inside. Others were blown up in the precinct parking lots with some apparently rather clever devices. A handful of times there were gunfights between the militia and police, and a cop was killed in one of them. The sheriff's department got involved and lost a couple of deputies the same way." "Presumably it was resolved in some way." Myles said. "In the end, the locals were out of options. They could call in the state police and escalate the conflict, which they seemed to understand would create an even bigger disaster. They didn't even know whom they were dealing with - for all they knew there might be hundreds of men and weaponry they could not envision. It seems there was a back-channel parley, and they understood that if they called if off and delivered a large sum of money to their tormentors, the war would end. They got the money together and successfully delivered it and it was over. The Reds certainly had their revenge and more, and the local governments were not interested in stirring up more trouble." Sir Walter looked down at his computer screen and smiled wryly. "If I go on like this we'll be here all day." he said. "But you need some background on these groups before you meet them." "Am I going to be working with them?" asked Myles. "To some degree" said Sir Walter. "I don't like having you away so much, but we need to continue putting together the puzzle - who and where the various organizations are, those who aren't connected to the League - and assess their qualities, to see which ones will fit in with our own actions if we eventually find ourselves in a real war. If we end up in a guerilla war - the only kind that is conceivable under these conditions - we will need all the assets we can find. "We already know a bit about them, which is why we supplied then with some weapons for the attack on the Army convoy. We have a reliable contact who had given us enough information for us to make that decision - they were a little short on uniform military-grade small arms, so we shipped out a hundred CA AR-M30s. They seemed to like them, by the way." "Nice rifles" said Myles. Cougar Arms was a small gun manufacturer, one of several owned by the League, that operated in the outside world. It was a profitable enterprise that contributed to the fortunes of several large freeholds, of which Mike Charlie was one. But all of the arms manufacturers operated by the League members had another side, one which supplied untraceable weapons for the freeholders to use - or provide to allies, and their stockpiles were of considerable size. "They seemed to like them" said Sir Walter. "Anyway, if I haven't left anything out, that's the story. Actually, I did forget one thing. We also provided the explosives used to take out the bridges, and provided them with the setup for the best effect." "It seems to have been quite effective" said Myles. "Word is, if you can trust the official report, it may be close to a year before they are rebuilt." "And if you can't trust the news," said Sir Walter "it doesn't matter much. Some of our contacts in the industry confirm it." "I wonder how often anyone in the government things about the consequences of having that happen hundreds, even thousands of times." said Myles. "Highways, railroads, broken into pieces - everything comes to a stop, including military traffic." "Let's hope they don't think about it" Sir Walter replied. "We might have to do it." He looked down at his computer screen for a few moments, seemingly thinking about something. Almost to himself, he said "It's rather annoying to forget things. I'm too old and there's too much going on." "There is a lot going on" said Myles. "I'm beginning to have difficulty keeping track of things." "I'm not getting any younger" said Sir Walter. "You're going to be a much bigger part of this, and I don't like having you away so much. But there is much to do. For now, though, it's about time for lunch. Why don't you round up your ladies and we'll meet in my dining room in a half hour or so?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Myles found Sarah with Tanya. Tanya needed some more time, and suggested having dinner with them might be possible. Myles looked at the two women, thinking that neither of them had ever looked more beautiful. It seemed Tanya was acquiring that look of women who only become more beautiful with age. He suspected it might have something to do with being a mother, and felt a pang of guilt, knowing that in their arrangement Sarah would never be a mother, at least not of his child. He had considered whether she might find a man she wanted to marry. They had never had any problems with the other lovers in their lives, but that had ended. There were many good men in the freeholds, beginning with Tanya's brother, but he suspected that Sarah would give up everything for him and Tanya. And, he thought, she might well do so and never be unhappy with the arrangement. He hoped that would be the case. After lunch, Myles went back to work with Sir Walter, who picked up the pre-lunch discussion. It seemed some field work was in his future. "As you remember" said Sir Walter "When General Williams visited us, we did little more than discuss the nature of our organization and his possible participation. Of course, I made the judgment long ago that he was good material, and expected him to turn up one day - if only from curiosity. Once we knew he had returned home from his trip, I had Tyler contact him to set up a meeting with Alex. Alex handled the arrangements with the Reds and Blues - having the rifles and explosives delivered. He remained in the area to set up the meeting with General Williams. "I may have forgotten that as well - that I sent Tyler to work on that project. You were back at your place then." "I knew he was away on a mission" said Myles, "but didn't have the details. How much does Tanya know?" "Nothing at this point, other than what Tyler would have told her - that he is on a 'business trip' - none of us wanted anything to worry her with the baby days away. He'll be back soon enough, and seeing him safely back so soon will be good for her. "Once General Williams has the operation underway - assuming he accepts the mission, and I see no reason to believe he won't - Tyler will be back. I'm hoping to have him help us, reduce your workload some and help you in the field. As much as I dislike having you away, I like having you out there alone even less. You're always shadowed by our men, and those of League members in the area, but I like you having someone close. "In any case, your primary task will be as liaison to what we are calling Operation Grasshopper. Essentially, we want to weld together as many suitable organizations as we can, into a distributed battle force - one that is in many small parts, with few direct communications channels to anyhere, either the League or each other. The Blues and Reds operation was quite succesful, and in the event of a long war we will need all available resources. General Williams, with his long military career and his understanding of the situation, will be a valuable asset, and you know how to protect our interests. "General Williams is likely meeting with Alex even as we speak - Tyler checked in earlier and said the meeting is on. General Williams' ranch is a good safe house, and the land out there is full of hiding places. So, regrettably, you time with Sarah and Tanya is going to be a little short - you leave tomorrow." "They've accepted the situation" said Myles "better than most people would. It's something we have to deal with for now, but they're a couple of remarkable women, and they couldn't be in better hands." "They are indeed" said Sir Walter. "There's no point in wasting time wishing things could be different. Let's go over the plans and maybe we can sneak in a drink and a cigar before dinner.