Liberty's Hammer

by Reed Hill

  "Why him? Don't we have anyone in DPS to handle it?" Chase scowled as he turned to White.

  "Well, I think we want a very experienced guy on this. Our Special Investigations Group at the state level deals more with organized crime, drug smuggling, and human trafficking." White said. The Special Investigations Section of the State's Department of Public Safety (SIS) did criminal investigations primarily in the areas of vehicle theft, cargo theft, large-scale identity theft, document fraud, and other property and financial crimes, particularly those crimes involving organized criminal enterprises. SIS wasn't staffed to handle homicide and major violent crimes. "I think we want someone who's been around the block, who will be able to deal effectively with Austin PD as well as the feds."

  "Thank you Ted," Chase rubbed his chin. "Please keep me posted on that front."

  "Yes, sir," White said adjusting his Stetson slightly. "I would imagine that we would be hearing from the FBI soon. I have a couple of troopers at the scene should FBI arrive without letting us know they are coming."

  Lopez broke in, "They may show up and attempt to take over the investigation."

  "Unfortunately, that's a real possibility," White replied.

  "Well, what's our stance should it come to that?" the Governor turned to AG Cantelli, who was standing with his deputies and Callie across the entrance to the war room. "What's your opinion, Bob?"

  Cantelli walked the short distance to the war room and stopped next to the Governor, "Well, it would need to be a joint Texas-U.S. investigation at a minimum, given that the incident happened in Austin. They would make the case for a combined investigation based on the victim's prominence as the head of the U.S. Justice Department alone. I think Ed's right that we need someone with some credentials to keep from being bulldozed, especially given the nature of why she was here."

  "Yes, and I would expect some major players from Washington to be involved, not just the local FBI office in San Antonio," said Lopez.

  "I feel for the AG and her family, but realistically, what's the next move we need to be prepared for?" Chase said.

  "I think we should expect the U.S. Attorneys for the region to try to enforce the subpoena now, sir," Doyle said. "I would imagine that they will be forceful in their desire to serve it to you at this point."

  "Indeed," Chase gripped his jaw in thought.

  "I think you should make a statement, sir," Doyle said. "We need to condemn the attack and announce we're launching an investigation with the top investigator in Texas."

  "Yes, and we need inform the citizens of the attacks, control the information," said Lopez. "Make sure the folks have the impression we're doing everything we can."

  "Let the press know that we'll be making a statement at...," Chase looked at his gold watch, "…at ten-thirty." He turned and pointed to Lopez, "You and Doyle work on the statement. I want it confident and concise – not too much information. Run it by Cantelli and let me see it in an hour."

  "We're on it," Lopez began gathering up some summaries.

  "Sir," Doyle raised a hand in the Governor's direction. "We already have the press primed for the speech. Would you prefer to do it there?"

  Chase pondered the question with pursed lips and a small tucking of his chin, "Yes, let's do it there. It will give you all a little more time to polish it."

  "The final election results should be available a little over an hour," Doyle intoned, squashing a yawn. With all the commotion of the past twenty-four hours, the new elections had completely slipped Doyle's mind..

  "Good God, I had forgotten all about it." Chase said. "I'm still on Monday night."

  "I think we all had, sir," Lopez grabbed his files and started to head to the hearth room.

  "Oh and Joe," Chase drew Lopez's attention to him. "This speech is a big one. Make it good. It's got to be a homerun."

  No pressure, Doyle thought. Lopez couldn't reply. He just gave a slight nod, raising his eyebrows. Lopez looked at Doyle with a scowl that morphed into a wide grin.

  No pressure.

  *****

  Woodbridge, Virginia - July 5th, 2017 - 9:35 am

  Margolis shifted in his chair while Ganetto dialed the number and put his desk phone on speaker. They had moved to Ganetto's wood-paneled office in order to place the call. It reminded Margolis of the library of some large British manor house in a Masterpiece Theater movie, with its sixteen foot high oak book shelves and life-sized oil portrait of a Revolutionary War-era British officer in uniform. "NSA Headquarters, Communications Operations Office. This is Agent Hicks, how may I help you?"

  "Morning Hicks, this is Director Ganetto. I need a secure line please."

  "Your authorization code please, sir."

  "Code is alpha…tango…one…six...three…bravo," Ganetto intoned slowly. "Thank you, Agent Hicks."

  "No problem, sir. One moment, please." After a few seconds, Hicks came back, "Thank you sir, I have your line." She paused.

  "Confirmation: sierra…charlie…four…nine…eight…six…victor…three…one. For Ganetto, Joseph on four July, 2017, at 1036 hours."

  A moment after the agent made the log entry, there was a click, and then a dial tone, and Ganetto began dialing.

  "Madam President, it's Joe Ganetto calling on a secure line." Ganetto's voice had softened and slowed a bit compared to the fast-wheeling New York tone he had taken during the briefing. "Yes….yes…indeed….I'll do that." Ganetto pressed on the speaker phone, and Margolis instinctively leaned in a bit.

  "Madam President, I have you on speaker now," Ganetto said. "With me in the room are Arthur Burke and one of his agents in Intelligence."

  "Good morning, gentlemen." The president's voice was genial, if a bit hoarse. Margolis wondered if she was outdoors or on a wireless or perhaps both.

  "Good morning Madam President," Arthur Burke said, with a little extra volume, "Sorry to be disturbing your vacation. How are the Hamptons?"

  "Wonderful, we just had some crépes while I took the morning briefing. Seems as if we've had a busy night on our hands," the President said. "I saw the note in the daily brief on several items that the Bureau is tracking, including the problems in Syria as well as Iraq. We also had a notation about problems with rioting in the southwest, in Texas and Arizona?"

  "Yes, ma'am," Burke said, "It looks a bit troubling, frankly, based on the intel we have right now."

  "Joe, you think it has National Security implications?" President Denton asked.

  "We're not sure right now, but we wanted to make you aware that DHS has sent HSI special investigators, since it is a border security problem primarily."

  "Don't beat around the bush, Joe," the President said. "After what's happened to Rosa, I don't want us screwing something up. Give me your bottom-line assessment."

  "Well, we just got confirmation from Austin that Rosa is dead, ma'am," Ganetto said.

  "Goddamn it…"

  "Now, we don't know that it's related to the rioting, but she was going there to haul Governor Chase downtown and basically tear him apart over this border act nonsense and Texas sub-division lunacy. He won't back down. Says it's what Texans want. The riots have gotten bad enough that we think the Joint Task Force center in El Paso and basically all of Fort Bliss is lost to insurgent rioters. We have incidents in Arizona, New Mexico and California as well that we are still developing information on."

  "Get to the bottom of it," the President said. "And gentlemen…"

  "Yes, Madam President?" Ganetto said.

  "I want that Texas bull made a steer."

  *****

  Homeland Special Investigations - Special Response Team - Bravo Team

  Near Laredo, Texas - July 5th, 2017 - 9:45 am

  Darren Schmidt looked over the orders once more before he briefed the team. He glanced at his crew doing last minute weapons checks and adjustments to their body armor and helmets. They were ready, but given the nature of the orders he sorely wished he wasn't short-handed by two operators. Nothing could be done about
it at that point, so Schmidt resolved to focus on adapting and overcoming.

  The orders were clear:

  Get downtown. Take and hold City Hall.

  Mission Status: Active Date of Tasking: 07-05-2017

  Time of Orders: 0820 hours

  Primary Target: City Hall building

  Primary Objective(s):

  1. Infiltrate downtown Laredo eliminating targets of opportunity

  2. Secure Primary Target Location

  3. Hold Primary Target Location until Reinforcements Arrive

  Secondary Objective(s):

  1. Eliminate enemy targets of opportunity both personnel and equipment

  2. Relocate civilian victim(s) to safe areas

  Enemy Resistance: Moderate to Heavy, increasing proportionally from outskirts to downtown location.

  Heavy, active resistance anticipated at primary location.

  Direct Support: None

  Local Support: Little to none, decreasing proportionally from outskirts to downtown location.

  They had been rolling down I-35 for nearly an hour and half, pushing the limits of the eighteen-ton DAP vehicle. The Defensive Ambush Protector vehicles, or DAPs, made specifically for the SRT units as urban warfare transports, although at the time of their announced purchase, they were marketed to the public as "defensive" vehicles. Anyone could see that they were urban assault armored trucks, outfitted with a variety of containers and compartments that held all manner of weaponry, ordinance and communications equipment.

  When introduced in 2013, they had prompted a variety of responses including concern over how the vehicles would be used for an agency with a purely domestic mission like Homeland Security. There was uproar over the $400,000 price tag when we had a $22 trillion debt, but that was to be expected. Ninety-nine percent of the time they were rolled out, the vehicles were for intimidation or public relations, but Schmidt was glad they had them for missions like this. This is a 'one-percent' mission, no doubt about it.

  They had passed quite a few overturned and burned-out cars and trucks. As they got closer, every other sign and billboard had been defaced with anti-white or anti-American slogans and warnings. Coming close to the city now they had begun seeing scattered fires in homes and businesses. This is bad.

  Schmidt glanced at the on-board navigation and noted that they were nine miles from downtown, so he wheeled from the passenger front seat and faced the eight men on the rear benches, orders in hand. "Okay, guys listen up," Schmidt said, glancing down at the tasking orders, "This op is a DA, so like any Direct Action – Hostage Rescue – we will be coming into a hot zone. For this tasking we have no direct support, land or air. Enemy resistance is moderate to heavy, so keep your heads down and watch each other's six. Primary is downtown, specific location is city hall."

  There were a few sidelong glances from his crew before they settled back on Schmidt. He raised the orders a bit higher in his hand, "Yeah, city hall is the main objective…Watch commander indicated that the facility was taken between 0400 and 0430 hours, so they have had five or so hours to reinforce their position." He pulled a second page from the file on the console and held it up. It was a schematic of the building layout and surrounding block or two, with several highlighted pathways and features marked.

  "We'll follow this route along Houston Street heading east. We will assess the viability of entering when on scene. The plan is to come in here from the south side of the building," Schmidt said pointing to the area highlighted, "which is the rear with a direct infil through the parking garage. Alternate entry will be from the west, here.

  Expect heavy resistance at the points of entry. Watch Commander expects the local support to be zero or near zero, with insurgents controlling the downtown area. Police and emergency support are incapacitated, so we could expect violence from any place. Reports indicate multiple civilian hostages. Be extra sharp on target selection. Got it?"

  Hearing nothing but affirmative responses, Schmidt made a fist and pounded his thigh, "Nav says we're fifteen minutes out, so everybody get locked and loaded."

  Part II

  Into the Fire

  Chapter 7

  Texas State Guard – Domestic Operations - Command, Intelligence and Control Center

  Austin, Texas - July 5th, 2017 – 9:56 a.m.

  General Dinger looked at the growing files on his desk and marveled at how they had grown in the past six hours. Intelligence was pouring in about sightings of the Mexican militia and gangs of insurgents who appeared to be at least loosely affiliated and supported of them. By now, any second year ROTC cadet would have been able see that this was a coordinated assault on south Texas as well as New Mexico and Arizona. They had taken quite a few calls from New Mexico in the past few hours as the situation there seemed to be getting worse as well.

  He looked at the map and timeline Theroux had put together for him and laid it out in his mind as he read.

  About 0200 hours, main ground forces attack and destroy the primary border stations on the western front in El Paso and in the south at McAllen with armored ground vehicles and ordinance.

  Limited light air assets (civilian helicopter) provide combat support in El Paso and McAllen

  Light ground (using civilian vehicles) forces follow, flooding the areas with insurgents.

  About 0230 hours, ground forces attack central border in Del Rio and Laredo using armored ground vehicles and light (civilian) vehicles forces

  About 0415 Group 21st Air Cavalry puts AH-64 Apaches and OH- 58 Kiowas on standby

  About 0430 the El Paso Intelligence Center goes offline

  About 0500 the Police Department HQ is lost in McAllen

  About 0600 enemy combatants capture Laughlin AFB and 32 USAF air assets

  About 0610 MIM-104 Patriot Missile Battery at Ft. Bliss shoots down GNAT-750 drone indicating rebels control the missile batteries and have made them functional

  About 0615 the Governor activates three regiments of the Texas Guard and orders their assembly

  About 0700 drone imagery confirms large numbers of insurgents are local and have joined the main assault force from the U.S. side

  About 0730 drone imagery confirms downtown areas of four major engagement zones are controlled by insurgents

  About 0830 Department of Homeland Security launches Special Response Teams in reaction to hostilities in downtown location - no team is available for El Paso

  It was a truly stunning course of events, Dinger had to admit. If he had been reading it as a case study from War College, he would have concluded the invading force had majorly kicked ass. It read like a summary of the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 or something like that. Dinger truly hoped that the SRT teams would be able to turn things around, because the momentum seemed all on the sides of the enemy. The lack of response from Ft. Hood had gotten under Dinger's skin. He had made it clear that he thought they were facing something severe – this wasn't some grab-ass joint exercise. He hoped Stein could make some progress on that front, being a ground-pounder himself. It takes a meathead grunt to sway a meathead grunt.

  Now, Dinger needed an update on the Texas Guard mustering, since the Governor would be expecting some news, and he needed it to be good news. He leaned back in his desk chair and replaced his snuff, shaking the old pinch into the garbage can and replacing with a fresh one. He felt the minty burn against his cheek and the feeling helped perk him up a bit.

  An airman knocked and poked his head in the office, "General Stein is on line two for you." Dinger just stared at the blinking red light for a moment, and secretly prayed for good news, "This is Dinger."

  "Hum, I've been in touch with Reavis' executive officer over at Hood, Colonel Brooks," Stein said.

  "And…"

  "Bottom line is that they can't do a damn thing until Homeland Security gives them say-so. Domestic procedures that went into effect in 2014 with the clarification of the National Defense Authorization Act."

  "Oh yes, our friend the NDAA," Dinger mutt
ered sarcastically.

  "They need Command Authorization from the Pentagon, DoD, by way of a Presidential order, or they need the Governor to submit a formal request through the National Guard Bureau, which of course is joint-run with the DoD, so we're back to the Pentagon."

  "Seems like all freaking roads lead to the Pentagon," Dinger said.

  "Yes, but there's a gray area as to whether the President can order it without the Governor's request or approval," Stein said.

  "FEMA federalized the Louisiana National Guard troops during hurricane Katrina and aided first responders in providing security assistance to law enforcement," Dinger said.

  "Well, that was later rescinded as we all know. Louisiana Governor Blanco later said she never authorized it or requested it. And so, the federals said, after the fact that they never did it."

  "And everyone denies that martial law was ever declared too, despite the fact that Guard Humvees were rolling through the streets blaring it during the worst few days of looting and violence," Dinger chuckled.

  "The President would be able to command active duty and reserve troops, but not the National Guard without state approval," Dinger said, chuckling. His head was spinning with all the contingencies, systems and structure of the military. "Honestly though, I think the past few Presidents have just chucked the Constitution and regs out the window and done what they pleased."

  "Only to come in later with the army of lawyers to justify whatever they did," Stein said.