THE WARNING A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 2)

by John Price

  “Scott, I follow all that, but how do Russia and Iran nuke the US at the same time that all of these events are occurring in Israel?”

  “Again, Max, that’s not clear, but what is clear is that the betrayal of Israel by America leads directly, and apparently immediately, to Russia and Iran using nuclear weapons to destroy America. When we see the Arab Street full of radical Jihadists screaming ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’, what they mean is ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’. I could imagine a scenario of Russia and Iran putting nukes in place in the US in advance, only to be used, of course, when God allows it, as He controls what happens in the world and in the wars of this world. They could be detonated at the same time, the same moment, same hour, same day that Marty’s verses talked about.”

  Marty asked, “I get it….I do get the timing clues….I get that Russia and Iran and the Jihadists want to take us out. What I don’t get is where would those nuclear devices come from? I don’t think Iran has developed their nukes, yet. Have they?”

  Beau, who had until recently been in the U S Army Reserves, answered, “There are almost ninety missing suitcase nukes that used to be in the USSR, but are now not under the control or possession of Russia. Plus, Pakistan and North Korea have nuclear weapons. Many think these can be purchased for the right price. It’s a dangerous world, folks. We are hated by Jihadists who want to conquer the world for Allah and that includes doing what they say – taking out what they call ‘the great Satan’, that’s us, and also destroying ‘the little Satan’, that’s Israel. Most Christians are blissfully unaware of the dangers we face.”

  Scott recognized that they had gone past their normal time for the study. “Folks, we’re late tonight, sorry, my fault, but this topic needed to be talked through. Next week we’ll look at what God tells His people to do in the face of a future destruction of their country. It’s a message for both Christian and Jews. I wouldn’t miss it. Let’s hustle into our prayer groups. Hannah and Gary, bless you for hosting us again.”

  53

  Jeronimo Road Episcopal Church

  Mission Viejo, California

  “On the streets of Babylon is found

  the blood of God’s people…”

  (Revelation 18:24-CEV)

  CCC Director Mortman decided that it was time to make an example of the churches that opposed the administration. There were still thousands of churches across the country whose pastors he believed were flaunting their hate-filled sermons in clear violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same sex marriage. It galled him that these bigoted religious leaders thought they could get away with misleading their flocks. It was time to send a message. Director Mortman had just the man to lead the Conservators in sending that message. A former convict, a practicing homosexual and a brutal Conservator – CCC Conservator Major Billie Schwartz was the man for the job.

  Director Mortman cleared his plans with Director Janis at DHS, who in turn received approval from White House Domestic Affairs Advisor Vivian Higgins. Everything was approved and ready for Sunday morning. The Jeronimo Road Evangelical Church was the chosen church. Mortman learned that ‘Jeronimo’ was a uniquely local spelling of the famed Apache chief’s name. The pastor of the chosen church was outspoken in his community in opposition to the administration in DC and had publically announced that he would never sign the religious leaders loyalty oath. His church board of elders went on record by voting to instruct their pastor to give a series of sermons supporting the Biblical view of traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Thus, the Jeromimo Road Evangelical Church was a level one target church in Director Mortman’s offices.

  The Director was unaware of a vastly different Mission Viejo church, a church with a similar name, as it was located three blocks away from the target church. The Jeronimo Road Episcopal Church strongly supported the administration. Not only had its pastor signed the religious leaders loyalty oath he had also called for his members to vote for the President both times he was a candidate on the ballot. The church organized parades of protest against Prop 8 when it was on the ballot in California. After Prop 8 passed, a majority of California voters having expressed support for traditional marriage, the pastor organized a 24 hour candlelight vigil mourning its passage.

  As the leader of the SWAT team, Major Billie Schwartz practiced what he would say when his civilian troops entered the church and how he would treat the rebels he encountered. He didn’t like religious people. He knew those church folks disapproved of his lifestyle. He decided that he would show them. It had taken a while, but finally he had the power to prove who was boss and who was right.

  Major Schwartz had requested and had been granted the authority to hand select the most brutal Conservators, most of whom had prison records and all of whom were known for being willing to do whatever they were ordered to do. Major Schwartz decided after his private conversation with CCC Director Mortman to take a full complement of eighty Conservators with him to the errant church, each armed fully and wearing battle armor. The Director assured Schwartz that any body count would be acceptable as the Director would stand behind him as he did his duty to enforce the law, whatever it might take. The Director gave the Major his private cell number in the instance that he might need operational approval during the enforcement procedure at the church. Director Mortman informed Major Schwartz that he planned to be at home watching WWII footage and consuming mass quantities of Bavarian Lager, his favorite drink.

  The members of the DHS/CCC SWAT team met at their razor wire fenced base south of Los Angeles two hours before the 10 AM start of church services. The tactical plan was to arrive at the church as the service started and congregants were gathered inside of the church building. Major Schwartz was in the lead armored vehicle, one of five that traveled along the curves of Jeronimo Road, pulling up in formation in front of the church. The wrong church.

  Major Schwartz had misread the CCC orders. He was in the right city and on the correct road, but the target church was three blocks further west, around two curves in Jeronimo Road. Thus, the assault force assembled in front of the Jeronimo Road Episcopal Church. Once the Conservators were in position at the church’s three entry doors, Major Schwartz gave the go signal and they burst through the doors, guns drawn, yelling “Everyone down. On the floor. Down on the floor. Hands behind your heads.” The one hundred thirty five Episcopalians in the church’s sanctuary looked up in shock. Some immediately fell to the floor, squirming into the space between the pews. Others sat immobile, unable seemingly to process what they were seeing and hearing. The church’s pastor, in a salmon colored robe, with a fuchsia sash around his shoulders, reacted in horror at what he saw happening in his sanctuary.

  “What?....What?....What do you think….you….are doing here?”

  Major Schwartz swaggered his way up the steps of the church platform, a smirk on his face, with his AR-15 assault rifle leveled at the pastor. “Shut up, pastor, or whatever you call yourself….minister….padre….just shut up. I’m in charge here.”

  “Sir. You….you….don’t understand. We support you….We endorsed the Pres….”

  “Don’t you hear what I am saying? I said to shut up….now. I am required to read you your rights. You, sir, are being arrested because you refused to sign the loyalty oath, and because your board of deacons foolishly, and illegally, approved your giving sermons attacking the Supreme Court order authorizing same sex marria….”

  “What? I signed the oath. I support same sex marr….We even refused to marry anyone until the Supreme Court overruled Prop 8. You’ve got the wrong church! We’re with you guys!”

  Major Schwartz stopped his verbal assault. He was confused. Before leaving for the church this morning the Major shot up an extra dose of illegal drugs. He was fully buzzed. But he briefly wondered if he might possibly be in the wrong church. The address and name are right, he felt confident of that. Before he did what he came to do – to impose punishment from the barrel of their guns, he wa
nted to be sure that he wasn’t making a mistake. He told the pastor not to move, then stepped to the side, pulling out his cell phone.

  The Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, now past his tenth Bavarian Lager, picked up on the first ring, “Yeah, Major, whatsh up? How’sitgoin’?”

  The Major, under the influence, responded to his administrative superior who was under a different influence, “I may have a problem, Director. The pastor here at the Jeronimo Road Evangelical Church swears that he signed the oath and that the church supports same sex marriage. What do ya think?”

  “Major. Are you sure you’re at the Jeronishmo Road Evan….gelical….Is it the right place?”

  “Yup. Sure ‘nuf. Town is right. Address is right. Name is right…..I think, anyway.”

  “OK. Jush a dirty trick to throw ush off. Pretty schmart, really. I’ll schend out an alert to the troopsh. Pretending to be with ush…Ha! Don’t schtop anything. Take ‘em out. Do the job, Major.”

  Major Schwartz turned back to the pastor, who was visibly distraught, holding both sides of his pulpit to keep his flock from seeing his shaking hands. The CCC officer raised his rifle and shouted, “It’s illegal to lie to a federal agent, you poor excuse of a pastor. I thought you taught folks to tell the truth. Your lies are your death sentence, as I have the right under law to execute….”

  “You still don’t underst….”, were the pastor’s last words he spoke on earth. Major Schwartz fired a DHS hollow point between the pastor’s eyes, blood spurting across the pulpit. Shouts and cries of anguish filled the sanctuary. Major Schwartz gave a pre-arranged hand signal to his troops, who responded by shooting every adult in the room. Methodically. The massacre was devised by Director Mortman and his friends in the White House to send a strong signal to the rebellious religious Americans who refused to bow to the powers that be. There had to be a way to convince the religious and conservative rebels to shut up and line up behind the administration. Nothing like a little blood, they concluded, to get people thinking right.

  Major Schwartz punched the call button on his cell phone. “Director?....It’s done. This will send a signal. You can count on that.”

  “Did you get everyone? Don’t fuget the teensh. If you leave the teensh alive they’ll be a big problem since you took out their parentsh.”

  “Let me look, Director. Hold on.”

  While the Director waited he continued to watch on his television the black and white footage of hundreds of bodies being bulldozed into burial ditches in Germany and Poland. He decided that it was time to celebrate with another lager.

  “Director. Got ‘em all. We’re done, we’re out of here.”

  “Great, Major. Thish’ll do the job. Crazy religious nutjobsh.”

  54

  American Hawk Sporting Goods

  Seven Corners Mall - Falls Church, Virginia

  United States Senator Charles M. Quarter was an avid hunter. His favorite sport was quail hunting when he was back in Nebraska, the state he represented in the Senate. His interest in hunting was well known. Thus his almost monthly visits, usually on Saturday afternoon, to a large sporting goods store a few miles from his suburban home near Washington, D.C. were of no particular interest to anyone who may have seen him in the mall. American Hawk Sporting Goods was owned by a close friend, who volunteered to allow the Senator to use the store’s large, well-ventilated storage room for secure meetings, if needed. The room’s six inch thick iron and concrete walls prevented eavesdropping, it was swept frequently for audio bugs and was one of the few places in the nation’s capital that the Senator knew was safe for confidential conversations.

  As the Senator waited at American Hawk for his guest, he checked out the latest full camo Team Real suits, looking up frequently at the store’s entry to the mall. On this Saturday afternoon the Senator was nervous. He wasn’t a man given to worry, but he knew that today’s meeting was quite possibly the most important session of his time in the Senate, most likely the most critical of his life.

  Then he saw his guest. They made eye contact as he entered the store. The Senator and his guest entered the storage room and closed the secure door. This was their second meeting in this room. They seated themselves in the leather chairs centered in the room. Both men were quite well aware of the gravity of the moment.

  The Senator’s guest was Douglas Toussaint, a retired three star general of the United States Army, having served as the Army’s representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Senator Quarter worked with General Toussaint in prior years as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Within two weeks after the Senator confirmed from his now deceased CIA employed brother that the bombings were false flags orchestrated by the feds, he asked the General to meet him for their first meeting at American Hawk.

  The Senator knew the General to be a man of character. His term on the Joint Chiefs had been interrupted when the President relieved him of his command and involuntarily retired General Toussaint. The General had offended the President, leading to the end of his career with the Army, when he refused to agree to order troops under his command to fire on Americans, if instructed to do so by the Commander in Chief. General Toussaint was one of several officers in the U.S. military who were similarly relieved of their duties for their refusal to agree in advance to such an order. Only the nation’s fringe media, conservative talk shows and internet blogs reported the dismissals of General Toussaint and the others terminated by the President.

  The Senator then outlined his deep concerns for what would happen to religious and conservative Americans in the President’s second term. Once the Senator shared his concerns with the General in their first meeting, the General responded that he was convinced that what would soon happen would be much worse than the Senator had outlined, including a collapse of the dollar and widespread national food shortages. Based on the General’s response at that first meeting, the Senator plunged ahead and asked the General if he would be willing to prepare a plan to remove the President from office and to lead the effort to do so, since the US Senate had voted against each Article of the Articles of Impeachment passed by the House. The General asked for time to think about it. What the Senator didn’t know was whether the General was willing to sacrifice all he had, his reputation, his freedom, maybe his life, to save his country.

  The Senator walked out of their first meeting at American Hawk into the mall and bought his favorite, a hazelnut/coconut gelato. As he walked to his car Senator Quarter licked the gelato and arrived at a conclusion. He decided that either the General would get back to him with a plan….or alternatively….that the Senator would be visited by federal agents, waving a search warrant for his office and home, preparatory to his arrest and charges of treason.

  The Senator was, therefore, greatly relieved several days later when his Administrative Assistant told him that a high school friend from Nebraska, named Doogie Sanchez, had called to ask for an appointment. The name was provided to the Senator by the General, both knowing that all communications with all Congressional offices were monitored 24/7, 365. The Senator took the message slip telling his AA he would arrange to meet his old friend. The Senator left a similarly vague, message for the General. As a consequence, the Senator and the Three Star both showed up at American Hawk, for the second time, on this dreary, overcast Saturday afternoon to discuss the removal of the President of the United States of America.

  “General Toussaint, may I assume that you’ve arrived at a decision on what we discussed about three weeks ago here?”

  “Senator, let’s make it Doug and Chuck, Okay? Titles won’t mean much, anyway, if we get caught trying to pull this plan off.”

  “Sure, Doug. Did I just hear the “p” word. Have you devised a plan….one that will work….hopefully?”

  “Yes, Chuck, I have a plan. I have continuing contacts, of course, with flag officers and others with whom I worked when I was still serving my country. The plan that we’ve discussed was developed under the highest l
evel of security, by the smallest number of persons with any need to know and, by the way, has a better than even chance of success.”

  Senator Quarter chuckled, “That’s a relief. I hate those no chance of success plans. What have you developed?”

  “We’ve first of all eliminated any plan involving grabbing POTUS while he’s on the road. Way too many uncontrollable elements. They always staff up heavy for trips on the road. Plus the state and local police departments assign large numbers of their own for additional security. I could go on, but you get the idea, there is no good scenario we could develop under which it would work on the road.”

  The Senator rubbed his chin, always a sign that he was giving an idea deep thought. After a few moments, he said, “Doug, I just assumed that doing it on the road, or maybe during one of his frequent foreign trips, would be best because the White House complex is so heavily protected. Humh….but….I hear what you say about the problems poised on the road. But, do you really want to lead an assault on the White House?”