“The truth is, though, that we in the DHS are nothing but soldiers.
“We wear suits instead of uniforms. Carry handguns instead of rifles. But we’re sworn to obey the orders of the officers appointed over us, just as soldiers are. When we’re given our orders we don’t have the luxury of demanding to know why.
“We do what we’re told. The military has an old saying: ‘Whether you like it or not, you shut up and color.’
“Another old saying goes, ‘Ours is not to wonder why. Ours is but to do and die.’
“They pretty much mean the same thing. When we’re told to do something, we keep our reservations and concerns to ourselves. We do it. We shut up and color. And we hope the people in the higher pay grades who make the decisions know what they’re doing.
“As far as was the operation worth it? Was it worth the lives we took and the misery we caused to keep a lid on something that got out anyway?
“My personal opinion is no. No it wasn’t. But then again, my opinion doesn’t matter.”
She placed another form in front of Hannah. This one was titled
HOLD HARMLESS AGREEMENT
She read the first paragraph aloud.
“I, Hannah Rose Carson, agree not to hold the federal government, or any agency thereof, responsible for any bodily, emotional, or financial damages resulting directly or indirectly from my incarceration.”
She noticed the only signature missing from the page was her own.
The three blocks set aside for witnesses, who were supposed to watch her sign the document and then sign it themselves, were already filled in.
With names she didn’t recognize.
She strongly suspected they didn’t exist.
“Let me guess. If I refuse to sign I don’t get to go home.”
“I’m sorry. That’s the way it has to be. But you can look on the bright side.”
“And what is that?”
“At least you’ve suffered no permanent physical damage. Sometimes we release people with broken limbs or concussions. Sometimes, depending on the interrogation methods we use, we release people who are little more than vegetables.”
“I feel like I went to sleep in America and woke up in Russia.”
“Sometimes I feel that way myself. Unfortunately, keeping our nation safe can be a very ugly business.”
Chapter 53
Hannah suddenly thought of Tony and freaked out a bit.
“How’s Tony? He’s not one of the ones you’ve turned into a vegetable, is he?”
“My understanding is that he’s fine. He’s in Washington, D.C.”
“Washington? What in the world is he doing in Washington?”
“He went there to try to secure your freedom. He marched right into the Department of the Interior building and started making a scene.
“It was a gutsy thing to do. Not real smart, but pretty gutsy.”
“Yeah, well that’s my Tony. He’s always been my knight in shining armor.”
She realized she didn’t know where she was either.
“And where am I? Am I in Washington too?”
“No. You’re at an abandoned Air National Guard base just outside of St. Louis.”
“I always wanted to visit St. Louis. But not like this.”
“I understand. Maybe someday you can come back and see it like a tourist.”
“I don’t think so. Not after this.”
She signed her name on the bottom of the form and handed it back to Rebecca.
“When do I get my baby?”
“Your baby’s at a medical facility not far from here. But he’s ready to be discharged. You’ll be reunited this evening, after you leave.”
“How’s this all going to work?”
“You’ll be taken by car to a local hotel. Your room is already paid for and you’re already checked in. You’ll be given your room key and some money for food. You might want to stay in your room and order delivery instead of getting out to eat, since I don’t know what time they’ll deliver your son to you.
“On the table in your room, someone will leave your boarding passes. You’ll have a layover at O’Hare and will be back home tomorrow evening.”
“Will Tony already be there?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know that. His travel arrangements are being worked through our D.C. office.”
Hannah nodded. She was disappointed. She wanted Tony to be there to welcome her home.
“There will be a bag of baby articles in your room. Diapers. Formula. Whatever medications and vitamins the doctors prescribe for him. Baby aspirin if he needs it. We’ll also provide you with a baby stroller and a car seat to carry your baby in on the plane.
“There will also be a toiletry kit for you.”
“How will I get to the airport?”
“The hotel has an airport shuttle service. The cash they leave you with should be plenty to feed you until you return home.”
“Won’t I need a photo ID to board the plane?”
“No. We’ve got official documents for you to give to the TSA checkpoint. Remember, the TSA works for the DHS. They’re used to getting such paperwork for people who must travel without photo ID. It’s rather a routine matter, actually.”
Hannah looked at her. She appeared to Rebecca to be as helpless as a newborn kitten.
But that was understandable. Her counterparts worked hard to break her, and they came very close to succeeding.
“Are there any other questions?”
“I can’t think of any right now.”
“I’ll wait a few minutes. Once you get in the vehicle to take you to your hotel you and I will never see one another again. We’ll never talk again, and you won’t have my phone number. Or any other phone number related to our operation.
“Because of that it’s essential you get all your questions out before you leave.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t think of anything else to ask. You’ve been quite thorough.
“And thank you…”
“Don’t mention it. Let’s get going then.”
The two women arose and walked out of the hanger and into the bright sunlight.
Hannah winced and held a hand up to shield her eyes.
Rebecca had forgotten something and felt bad about it.
She removed the sunglasses from the top of her own head and handed them to Hannah.
It was the least she could do for this woman they’d put through so much hell.
Hannah stepped into a black Yukon with heavily tinted windows.
There was a blackout partition between her and the driver. No one else in the back with her.
No one to talk to.
No one to commiserate with.
The driver had no need to ask if she was ready to go. He already had his instructions. As soon as Hannah buckled in the vehicle began to move.
Having no one to talk to, Hannah was alone in her thoughts.
She looked out the window as they drove along, off the abandoned Air National Guard base and onto the interstate highway heading toward the city’s outskirts.
She watched out the window to occupy her mind. She saw the Gateway Arch, off in the distance, and a bank of rain clouds threatening to turn into an evening downpour.
As they drove along she began to see airliners coming in on steep glide slopes for landing and knew she was getting close to the airport.
It made sense that’s where they’d find a hotel to billet her.
Try as she might to occupy her mind, she couldn’t stop thinking about Samson.
What did he look like? Did he have his daddy’s nose? Her eyes? She was told he had thick black hair, like his dad’s.
She hoped it had a bit of her curls as well.
And Tony… what would he do when he got to meet his son for the very first time? Heck, what would Hannah do?
She couldn’t wait to find out.
Unfortunately, she’d have no choice.
She arrived at the hotel without incident
.
The boarding passes and travel documents were, as Rebecca promised, on the bedside table and in order.
The toiletries and baby items were there.
But little Samson never showed.
Chapter 54
“I still have an uneasy feeling about signing those documents,” Tony said to Bud.
They were sitting in a departure lounge at Dulles International Airport, waiting for their flight to O’Hare Airport in Chicago.
“You did the right thing by signing them,” Bud explained. “If you refused they’d have kept you for a few more months. If you refused a second time they likely would have considered you no longer worth wasting their time on. They likely would have disposed of you at that point.”
“How can they be so cavalier about the lives they’re taking? Or ruining?”
“First of all, young man, if you start using big words on me I’ll go over there and leave you sitting here with nobody to talk to. I told you early on I’m just an old country bumpkin.”
“Sorry.”
Bud smiled.
“They’re so cavalier about it because they can get away with it. You see, the Patriot Act was a wonderful piece of legislation. But it gave the government too much latitude to bend the rules. Or to outright break them if they wanted to. It basically gave them permission, in writing, to do whatever they deemed necessary to protect the country from terrorists.
“It also gave them the okay to apply the term ‘terrorists’ any way they wanted. So they got real loose with the term.
“Terrorists went from people trying to blow up buildings and airplanes to just about anyone doing anything the government didn’t like. Say, for example, someone who was trying to give citizens information they desperately needed to know but which the government wanted to keep hidden.
“Which is, after all, why you and I are sitting in this airport at this very minute.”
They were among the few people in the lounge conversing. Most eyes were glued to the televisions.
The government had failed. The good guys had won.
The word was out. Now it was all over the news, twenty four seven.
On the screens at the airport, CNN was interviewing a Senator who was in charge of the homeland security committee. He was saying with great pomposity how he and his committee were going to get to the bottom of this.
“I assure you, heads will roll. This should not have been kept from the American people. It’s shameful.”
Bud leaned over to Tony and said, “I’ll bet he knew about it. Senators get all kinds of classified briefings about all kinds of things. He’s probably full of crap.”
“Well, if you ask me they shouldn’t be so concerned about rolling heads and getting to the bottom of things. They should be crafting a plan to evacuate sixty million people from the danger zone.”
A little girl’s ball got away from her and rolled over to Tony’s feet. He picked it up and held it out for her.
She approached him very slowly, timid and obviously afraid.
“It’s okay,” Tony said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
But she wouldn’t come any further. Not with his two black eyes and the big bandage covering a sizeable portion of his head. And his left cheek which was now colored a deep purple.
The girl’s mom got up from several seats away and came and got the ball for her.
“Car accident,” Bud feebly said to explain away Tony’s appearance.
The woman meekly smiled in sympathy and said, “I hope you feel better soon, sir.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Once she was out of earshot Tony complained, “I must look like a hideous monster.”
Bud looked him over, then decided, “Hideous, yes. But no monster. Monsters have fangs and electrodes in their necks and they’re green. Not black and blue and purple.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome a lot.”
“You know, Bud, I understand why I had to sign those documents. But it still drives me nuts knowing that I can’t sue them. After everything they’ve done, there should be a way to hold them accountable.”
“Even if you hadn’t signed those documents, and if they decided to release you anyway, you’d still lose any efforts to sue them.”
“But why? I mean, look at me, for crying out loud!”
“I’ve been looking at you, son. My eyes hurt from looking at you. Now most of that is because you’re just a butt-ugly son-of-a-gun. But your injuries make me wince.
“The sad fact of the matter is, though, that you wouldn’t have a chance in hell of winning such a lawsuit. The odds are stacked so heavily in the government’s favor they win almost every single time.”
“How? Or should I ask why?”
“Well, first of all, in order to bring such a case you have to prove to a court you have standing. Standing means the case has merit, the court is in the right jurisdiction, and there are no legal restrictions to bringing the case.
“If you filed in your home state of Arkansas, the government would claim it had no standing there because the alleged offenses all took place in D.C.
“If you tried to file in D.C. it would be very expensive for you. But say you decided to file anyway, the government would likely try a new tactic. They’d say the case has no standing because the case involves national security. They’d cite the Patriot Act and say all the information they’d have to turn over during the discovery phase is classified. And therefore they can’t turn it over; hence the case has no legal standing.
“Chances are they’d win the argument. But let’s say you found a liberal judge who decided to let the case go through.
“You’d present your case and make your claims. And the government would have a hundred witnesses who’d put their hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth under oath. And then every single one of them would contradict your testimony. They’d lie out their… ears, because they’re the government and they can do anything they want.
“Even lie under oath.
“Then when it came time for them to present their case they’d simply rest, cite national security and say their whole case is classified and can’t be discussed without… and this part is important… without jeopardizing your rights and the rights of your co-conspirators.
“They’d word their final arguments in such a way as to make you look guilty of crimes against the United States, without actually coming out and saying what crimes.
“In the end, the jury would not only find in their favor. The jury would also look upon you as a terrorist, and wish they could hang you from the highest tree for even having the nerve to sue the government for your transgressions.
“In the end, it’s better just not to go there.”
Chapter 55
The men boarded their plane and took their seats.
They engaged in idle chatter until Tony dozed off.
Bud didn’t wake him. The younger man had been through a hell of a lot in recent days. It wasn’t just the incarceration or the beatings. It was the emotional turmoil and stress of not knowing whether his wife and child were alive or dead and were being beaten as he was.
He’d gotten word from his captors that Hannah and baby were well and on their way back to Little Rock. And that they’d be there around the same time he was.
With such a load suddenly taken off his back, it didn’t surprise Bud at all that Tony would be making up for some of the sleep he lost during his long ordeal.
Tony awoke during a hard landing when the airplane hit the runway and bounced a couple of times.
Walking through the gateway, he asked Bud if they’d ever see each other again.
“Oh, yeah,” Bud replied. “You see, I’m going to send you my final bill, which will be in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. You’ll agree to make payments of fifty thousand dollars a month, but then of course you’ll miss the first payment.
“I’ll have to come all the way to God-forsaken Arkansas to
collect. Then we’ll see each other. In court.”
Tony fixed a worried gaze upon his friend and said, “Please tell me you’re joking.”
Bud laughed.
“Of course I’m joking. The payments will only be forty five thousand a month…”
The men walked on, Tony moving slower than Bud because his body was so banged up.
“Actually,” Bud went on, I was thinking of taking a week off in the summer and coming to see you and Hannah. I heard a rumor she’s quite a looker.”
“She is. She’s a doll. And I’d love for you to meet her. And little Samson.
“God! I still can’t believe I have a son. How awesome is that?”
“It’s only awesome if he looks like Hannah and not like you.”
“Ha ha. Very funny.”
It came time for the men to part ways and go to different gates for the next legs of their respective journeys.
Bud held out his hand.
Tony hugged him instead.
Bud didn’t mind.
Four hours later Tony’s plane touched down in Little Rock.
Again, he’d dozed off.
This time the landing was smoother, though, and he didn’t wake up until a flight attendant tapped him on the shoulder.
“I hope that didn’t hurt you,” she apologized. “I was looking for a place that wasn’t bruised.”
He got the sense she was curious about the nature of his injuries.
He smiled and took a cue from Bud.
“Car accident,” he explained.
They’d only given him a hundred dollars to live on until he got back home. Five twenties was all he had in the world, besides the ill-fitting clothes they’d given him to replace the ones they’d spattered his blood all over.
Five twenty dollar bills.
His wallet and credit cards, like his telephone, mysteriously disappeared during his stay at the D.C. dungeon, and he suddenly panicked. What if the cab ride from the airport to his home cost more than the forty six dollars he had left?
He kept an eye on the meter.
Had the meter hit forty bucks, he’d have told the cabbie to pull over at the safest place and to let him out. He’d walk the rest of the way.
The Yellowstone Event (Book 2): A National Disgrace Page 18