“You will really do nothing?”
“Don’t worry about me. I have a backup plan.”
“What kind of backup plan?”
“I can’t tell you. And before you start about us being friends for thirty years, it’s for your own good. You do not want to know what I plan to do. Trust me.”
“Christ, that sounds ominous,” Amblin said.
“What about you?”
“I’m in the same boat as you, no pun intended. I’m not about to follow an order that is clearly illegal.”
“So, what are you planning to do?”
“Resign.”
“Resign?”
“Yep”
“Boy that will really hurt them. Yes sir. I quit. Do you really think they give a damn if you quit or not? You won’t be able to get your new car out of the parking lot before they will have someone new in there. How in the hell is that going to change anything?”
“What do you expect? Me to get my men and have a firefight with them? Hell, what other choice do I really have?”
“All I can say is that you resigning will mean nothing. Of course you can keep your retirement and that part is smart, but in the end, will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror the same way?” Greenfield asked.
“Christ, what a mess. You said you had a backup plan. Maybe you should tell me. It seems like I need one too.”
“Are you sure you want to take that risk?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Something is going to have to be done,” General Amblin said.
“I thought you said you were smarter than that?”
“I lied,” Amblin said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Parades in the morning, bar-b-ques in the late afternoon and fireworks at dusk. People all across America were celebrating their nation’s birthday. It was a day of rest and leisure for most of the Americans spread across the 50 states; but not for all were celebrating. Nearly 40,000 gun shops and dealers were moving their inventory to a safe hiding place. Shops were being cleaned out in almost every state. The same thing was taking place in a little over 8,000 pawn shops. Between the NRA and pro-gun groups they had managed to warn a large number of shop owners. No one could determine the number of private citizens who would respond.
***
The police car momentarily flipped on its siren. The eight men looked up and saw the officers getting out of the car with their hands on their holsters. Everyone froze, not daring to move.
“What are you doing here?” the officer that was driving said, eying them suspiciously.
“Uh..we are moving inventory,” one of the men replied.
“Moving inventory. I want you all to stop what you’re doing and line up facing that wall,” he said.
They all looked at each other.
“Now,” he shouted and took his weapon from his holster.
The men scrambled over to the wall and stood facing it.
“Who is in charge?” the other officer asked.
“Mr. Lamb. He is inside,” one man answered.
“And who is Mr. Lamb exactly?”
“The guy that owns the store.”
“Owner huh? Get him out here,” the police man said.
“I need to move. Is that okay? I don’t want to get shot.”
“Yeah you can move but no funny stuff. Got it?”
“Right,” he said and turned and walked to the door of the store.
“Mr. Lamb. Mr. Lamb,” he yelled.
“What the hell do you want? Where is everyone? You guys think I’m paying to sit on your asses?” he yelled back.
“Mr. Lamb, the police are here. They want to talk to you.”
“The police? What the hell do they want? Sure they are here now but where are they when I need them?” he yelled as he started to the back door.
When he stepped out the police officer was pointing the gun at him.
“What the hell?” he said stepping back.
“Freeze,” the cop said.
“I’m frozen. You scared the hell out of me. Why are you pointing that thing at me anyway?”
“Who are you?”
“Abiner Lamb. I am the proprietor of this establishment,” he said.
“Proprietor. Pretty fancy title. I want you to slowly take your billfold out and let me see some ID.”
Lamb reached around and slid his billfold out of his pocket. He took out his driver’s license and handed them to the officer. The policeman glanced at the information and at the picture comparing them.
“It says here you are 5-10 and 180 pounds.”
“Well, maybe that is a little off. I have shrunk since then and put on a little weight,” Abiner said smiling quickly.
“What are these men doing?” the cop said, still not relaxing.
“We are moving the inventory out of the store.”
“Moving it out? Why?”
“I am going to open a new store further south. This area is not so good for business. It was before the younger people started buying up the properties and remodeling the homes. Used to be you could get a home for maybe ninety thousand. Now? Who knows. I heard some were going for two hundred and fifty thousand. People with that kind of money don’t need a business like mine.”
“Alright Mr. Lamb. Just come on out and wait while I call this in.”
“So call. You are costing me money while these lazy bums are standing around doing nothing. Call,” he said.
When he got back to the car he said to his partner, “What do you think?”
“Ah it’s nothing. He is right, this neighborhood don’t need a pawn shop stuck in it. Hell it’s just good business to move to the south side. That’s where people are hurting.”
“Alright. I’ll tell him they can get back to work. We won’t have to do any paperwork if we don’t call it in.”
“Hey, I’m good with that.”
Within a few minutes the men were back at work, emptying the store of a large amount of guns. Nothing else was removed. Mr. Lamb had no intentions of moving out of the neighborhood. His building continued to be worth more everyday he held out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Mr. President, they are waiting for your word.”
“Yes, yes. I know. Damn it all. Am I doing the right thing?”
“Sir, you have already made your case clear. This is the best action. Just think how many lives will be saved by getting guns off the streets.”
“Oh hell, you know that’s not really going to happen. Do you think we are going to get them out of the hands of the most likely offenders? Those that kill and rob? No. They don’t register their guns.”
“We have been over that a hundred times. It will take longer to get those but we will in time. Those types of people are not very smart to begin with.”
“Yes, you're right. It could all just go so wrong.”
“I don’t mean to be flippant Mr. President, but that’s why you get paid the big bucks. You are the one to make the hard decisions. This is one of them.”
“Sarah I know you are right but...oh hell, everything is in place. Now is the time if we are ever going to do it. Tell them to go ahead and start Operation Clean Sweep.”
“Yes sir. I’ll take care of it immediately,” she said and left the room.
The President sat down in the big chair behind his desk. He just hoped that this could be carried off with little or no bloodshed. He knew it was almost impossible but he could hope couldn’t he?
***
“Police,” a voice shouted and the front door was suddenly broken open. Three men with assault weapons rushed through the house until they came to the bedroom door. One man came in followed by the others immediately.
The woman screamed
The man shouted “What the hell?”
“Keep your hands where we can see them,” he yelled over the screaming woman.
“This is the police no one is going hurt you,” the man said trying to calm down the woman.
Someplace
in the next room a baby started crying.
“Oh God. They have Bennie,” she screamed in near hysterics.
“What do you want?” the man asked, pulling his wife close to him and trying to calm her down.
“You have firearms. By order of the President we are to confiscate them immediately.”
“Firearms? What firearms?”
“You are John Allen Silvers is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“You have three handguns. A Glock 22, Walther P22 and a Colt 1911.”
“Had. I got rid of them when the baby was born. It was too big a risk to have them in our home.”
“You sold them?”
“No. I turned them in when they had the gun collection here a few months ago. Anyone that wanted to get rid of guns turned them in to the police. You should know that.”
“Sir, we are going to have to search the premises. Our instructions are to make sure no weapons remain with private citizens.”
“Well look all you want, I don’t have any. Now if you don’t mind my wife would like to go get the baby,” the man said.
In areas all across the nation similar actions were being carried out. Some were successful but hundreds of thousands came up empty. Gun owners had removed and hidden their handguns and rifles. A few resisted and ended in a firefight.
***
“Okay, this guy has ten rifles and seven hand guns registered to him. I want you all to be really careful when we approach the house,” the leader said.
“Let’s just get this done. We are running behind,” one of the others said.
“Better to take our time than get shot. Everyone stay alert,” the leader said and gave the signal to head up the driveway.
The leader had taken no more than two steps when he was thrown back, his gun flying through the air.
“Shooter,” someone yelled and they all flattened and pointed their weapons toward the house.
Another shot reverberated in the night air and one of the others grunted and dropped his rifle.
“Anyone have an eye on him?”
A chorus of ‘no' came back.
A third shot found its mark and another officer dropped his weapon. They were getting picked off one at a time but no one knew where the shooter was.
“We need backup” one of the men yelled.
“Get to the car and call for help.”
The officer ran toward the car and had just put his hand on the door when he was thrown against the side of the car and slumped to the ground.
“Fall back. Find something to get behind and fall back. He must have a night scope.”
The officers slithered back toward the cars but one more went down before they all made it.
“Jesus. That guy can shoot.”
“I hope you don’t admire that son of a bitch,” the new leader said.
“I never once saw where the shots came from. Did any of you?” the man said, ignoring the new leader's comment.
No one had seen a thing.
“He must have a flash hinderer on the thing as well. Can’t tell which direction it was coming from.”
“Give me the bullhorn. I’m tired of this crap,” the new leader said.
The bullhorn was passed to him and he quickly tested to make sure it worked.
He stuck his head up over the fender and said, “This is the police. We are hereby order of the President of the United States. You are here by ordered to put down your weapon and surrender. The house is surrounded by agents. You need to end this now.”
He ducked back down and waited. Nothing. Just the wind blowing through the trees.
“Damn it. We are going to have to smoke him out. Get ready to fire a tear gas canister through one of the windows.”
“Yes sir.”
The leader picked up the bullhorn and raised up.
“This is your last chance. You need to come out with your hands up or we will be forced to come and bring you out.”
The bullhorn flew up in the air and the leader's head snapped back. The bullhorn bounced off the hood of the car and the leader's head bounced off the hard pavement.
“Shit. This is crazy. This guy could take us all out. I’m out of here,” he said and slowly climbed in one of the cars. Two more agents jumped in with him and they roared off into the night.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“We have wasted enough time here. We are falling behind schedule.”
“Look Richard, the guy is scared. Hell it’s 2:30 a.m. and we are yelling at him to come out with his hands up. He has no idea what this is about.”
“I told him it was an order from the President,” he shot back.
“Yeah but how would you react? He has his family in there and he doesn’t have a clue what this is about.”
“Then all he has to do is come on out. We can’t keep slowing down like this. We still have fifty more houses we are responsible for.”
“Let me go up and talk to him through the door. The bullhorn is just freaking the guy out.”
Richard thought for a few seconds. Okay, you can try but you have only three minutes and then we are going to breach the house. Understand?”
“Got it,” he said and laid his gun down across the hood of the car.
“You’re not taking it?” Richard said, nodding toward the gun.
“It will be better this way. He will know I’m unarmed.”
“That’s just dumb,” Richard muttered.
The officer walked up to the porch and rang the bell. No one stirred.
“Mr. Winters. This is officer Billings. Look, I know you don’t know what’s going on but we are here on orders from the President of the United States. Agencies all across America have been ordered to confiscate all firearms. Mr. Winters the others are getting impatient. You need to open the door and let us get on with it. No harm will come to you or your family.”
“This is America isn’t it?” Winters voice came through the door.
“Yes Mr. Winters but this is a direct order from the President.”
“You’re not the Nazis are you?”
“Come on. You know we are just doing our job.”
“Ha, I think that line has already been used by the SS in Germany.”
“Look. Our boss is getting pissed. Why don’t we do this peacefully? Just open the door and let’s get this all over with.”
“Sure,” Winters said and opened the door.
Billings was looking into the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun.
“Come on in,” he said gesturing with the gun.
“This is not good. Mr. Winters, think about this. So far nothing bad has happened but if you shoot me all hell is going to break loose.”
“Just keep your hands up and drop to your knees,” Winters directed.
“Don’t do this. It will end badly.”
“This is America you shit. Police don’t threaten honest citizens. My guns are totally legal. You have no right to try to take them from me. The 2nd Amendment gives me that right and no stinking President is going to take that away from me.”
“Are you willing to die for that right?”
“You’re damn right. I am a free man and you and your kind will not put the yoke of tyranny on me.”
A grenade broke the glass in the front room and the flash-bang exploded. Winters tried to stay on his feet but the percussion caused him to fall back. The door burst open and four men rushed in the room.
“Gun,” one of them shouted and they started firing.
Bullets tore into the flesh of Winters but not before he pulled the trigger. The slug from the 12 gauge ripped into the arm of one of the men slicing it nearly off his body.
It was only 02:33 and the first civilian was already dead. Many more on both sides would lose their lives before the night was over.
***
“How bad is it?” the President asked.
“Reports are still coming in but the initial count is two hundred and fifty-seven civilians killed, one hundred and sixty
-two wounded. Four hundred and ninety-one were arrested for one reason or the other,” Adam Little replied.
“And on our side?”
“One hundred and seven killed, eighty-six wounded.”
“Christ,” was all the President could think of to say.
He sat at his desk brooding and looking out the window. He couldn’t really see anything; his mind was so clouded.
“Sir. The press is going crazy. We need to issue a statement.”
“Later.”
“But Sir..”
“Later damn it,” he yelled and thumped his fist on the desk.
“Yes sir,” Kendra replied softly.
The President sat there looking out the window for a few more minutes before he turned back.
“Sorry Kendra. I know you are just trying to do your job but right now is just not the time. I need to have all the details before we give any kind of a statement.”
“Yes sir. I understand,” Kendra replied.
“Would you have Adam and Roland come in?” the President said to Kendra.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Roland Clarke, Secretary of Defense, stood in front of the President’s desk. It was obvious that he did not like what he was hearing.
“Sir, we don’t understand it either. Seven of our weapons bases were raided and another twenty-seven National Guard units. I have no explanation for how the gun shops and pawnshops knew what was about to happen. They were there on Saturday when the advanced teams checked and then just gone.”
“Gone? Gone?” the President said raising his voice. “Gone. That’s a hell of an answer Roland. Gone where? Damn it I want to know how this could have happened.”
“Sir we have teams out trying to put it all together.”
“And the private gun owners. Over two million of them suddenly lost, or gave their guns to one of the ‘Take Back’ programs.”
Clarke didn’t say anything. Nothing he could say would explain what had happened.
“You add that to the estimated ninty million that we failed to collect from the militias across the country and we left a hell of a lot in the wrong hands.”
He stopped and looked at all of them in the room. Almost everyone had his or her eyes averted.
A NATION DIVIDED - THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (The Second Civil War - BOOK I 1) Page 11