I saw the reflection of a red light behind me and nearly jumped out of my skin. Then it hit me; keep your foot off the brake pedal stupid.
The guys loaded the mix into the engine compartment and set the fuse. The fuse was simply a long rag soaked in oil. It would burn up to the glass bottle filled with gasoline. When this went off it should set the other containers on fire. They used two fuses just to be sure. Testing had indicated they had less than 30 seconds to get back to the car.
Hector opened the door and said, “Man I set a new record sprinting back to the car.” They were both on board, and I eased out toward the street, then turned on the lights. There was no sign of pursuit.
With us in the clear, the other teams left their positions. When everyone was away, Rico climbed down off the roof last. “Smitty give me a hand with the ladder.” The two men secured it on the work truck.
Craig and Laura pulled out behind them but headed in a different direction. As we drove away, we could see the blaze from the APC. It would look great on the morning news.
Chapter 4 – A Life of Crime
“Now we’re all criminals,” began Rico. “The FBI will be after us, so there is only one thing left to do.” With that, he popped the cork on a bottle of Champagne. Slime and Hector followed suit, and everyone had a glass or two. Some had more. We had made no announcements or claims of responsibility, but we did enjoy the news the next morning.
“Early this morning someone destroyed the Homeland Security’s armored vehicle located at the airport with a homemade gasoline bomb. We have been informed that the FBI is working on the case. It is not yet clear who would have done such a thing, but it is almost certainly one of the right-wing, tea party affiliated hate groups. The tea party in this city is denying any involvement in this criminal act. We will now go to our correspondent, Nora Hernandez, who has spoken to one of the local tea party leaders.”
“Nora, how are you this morning?”
“A bit nervous as you would expect; I’m standing here with Georgina Williams, of the North Texas Tea Party. Ms. Williams what can you tell us about the attack on federal government property last night?”
“Like I’ve already told you; I know nothing about it.” Georgina was forty plus and carrying quite a few extra pounds. She did not look like a violent revolutionary, more like a soccer mom, which is exactly what she was.
Nora, desperate to make a name for herself as a hard-hitting investigative journalist, continued to pound away. “Do you know of any affiliated groups who might have had anything to do with it?”
“No, I don’t know anybody who goes around burning things, and that’s not what the tea party is about.”
“But various tea party groups have advocated violence.”
“No, they haven’t.”
“Tell me Ms. Williams, are you and your husband associated with any other hate groups.”
“We’re not associated with any hate group; the tea party is not about hate. It’s about love of country, of our constitutional republic. It’s about the government following its own laws instead of behaving in a lawless manner.”
Now she was getting somewhere. If she could get a rant out of this fat broad, Nora might be able to move into the studio on the six o’clock news or even go national. “Your group is claiming that the government is breaking its own laws?”
“Have you not been paying attention?”
“What laws are you talking about?”
“How about sending weapons to drug cartels in Mexico or giving weapons to al Qaeda affiliated groups in Syria? Don’t forget bombing Libya without Congressional approval? Have you forgotten Benghazi as well?”
The anchor cut in. “Nora, we think you had better get out before the situation becomes violent.”
“Ok, as you can see, the local tea party group is sticking to its story. This is Nora Hernandez reporting live from tea party headquarters.”
The report switched back to the studio. “I hope she gets out of there all right. As you can see these hate groups keep bringing up phony scandals from a previous administration.”
“Good grief,” I said. “Who was it who said that phony scandals don’t come home in body bags?”
“This is crap. Try the national news, see if we made that,” Hector interrupted.
“Sure,” said Smitty and changed the channel.
I was disappointed, as I had hoped to hear the rest. “They never miss a chance to pound their story line,” I said.
“If we could only see what is going on with the investigation, that’s what we need,” interjected Hector. I looked over at Rico. His face was a stone mask.
His phone rang, and he quickly got up to leave. “I have to meet someone; I’ll be back soon. Oh, one more thing, I don’t want any attempts at recruiting new people because the government will be trying to infiltrate every group they can.”
“We can’t stay small forever,” responded Smitty.
“I know; when we do recruit, it will have to be people we know personally or have at least checked out thoroughly.”
The national news had not picked up our little attack. In the news from the Middle East, the war was spreading. “The Russians and the Iranians were pouring troops into Syria,” began the news anchor.
“It looks like Jordan will be the next to go unstable. There are already reports of violent protests outside U.S. military instillations in Jordan. Frank?”
“Thank you Lois. Israel continues to get pounded by missiles from Iran in retaliation for the attack on their nuclear facilities. There are also rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon.
“In other news, this morning North Korea has taken this opportunity to shell the South.”
There was no word on what the Chinese were doing, but I doubt if they were sitting on their hands. I had seen an online report that suggested they were amassing troops on their western border.
I only did this work on the computer at the public library. I never did anything political on mine. As the commentator went on I saw this message slide across the bottom of the screen. It said, “The sixth fleet has launched airstrikes against missile sites in Iran.”
“What!” I exclaimed.
The others in the room had been talking and had not seen it. “What did they say?”
“The sixth fleet has attacked Iran.”
In a few minutes it ran across again. Hector said, “Potentater is trying to give stupid a bad name.”
“He’s going to get a lot of people killed,” I said.
Laura had just showed up. “I hope you guys are hungry; I brought breakfast.”
“Thank you Laura,” chimed Smitty.
“Yeah, I spent all morning slaving over a hot drive through.”
We all helped ourselves to the sausage biscuits. I went to put on a new pot of coffee.
“What you guys got?” she asked, between bites.
“The Navy is bombing Iran,” answered Smitty.
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish I were.”
As I sat back down the scene switched to a new journalist reporting from Saudi Arabia. “Our sources have just informed us that Iranian speed boats with cruise missiles have attacked the sixth fleet and there has been sub activity.”
We just looked at one another in stunned disbelief. Some politicians in Tel Aviv and Washington thought that Israel could take out Iran’s nuclear power plants without starting a regional war. Others doubted it.
“This is going to go completely out of control,” said Smitty. “The government seemed to think this was going to be like Iraq. They do not understand that Iraq was a figment of British imagination after the First World War.
“However, there has been a Persia for over two thousand five hundred years. These people have been a ‘people’ for a very long time with a rich history of art, music, science, and scholarship. In fact, there’s an old saying: ‘If there is such a thing as a tree of knowledge, there is a Persian sitting under it’.”
About that t
ime the power went out. “Uh oh,” I said.
“It’s probably just a circuit breaker,” said Smitty. “Let’s not get jumpy.”
“Yeah,” I said, but I was unconvinced.
Hector found his way to the breaker panel. “Breakers look good.”
I stepped outside and saw that the traffic light down the street was out. The nearby diner had gone dark. When I went back inside, Laura asked, “What about the lights?”
“It’s dark everywhere.”
Smitty dug out the windup emergency radio. “Let’s see if there is anything to worry about, or it’s just the usual.
“Please stay tuned for further developments,” said the commentator.
Smitty said, “Maybe it is uh oh time.” Everyone exchanged glances.
The radio sounded its usual emergency blast and began again. “This morning there were attacks around the Metroplex on power stations and substations. Two water plants have been targeted, as well as a sewage treatment plant.”
“Why hit that?” asked Laura.
“To spread disease,” said Slime who had just walked in.
“Yuck, that’s disgusting,” she added.
The radio continued. “Residents are advised to stay inside. Shelter in place and await instructions.”
“Shelter in place till the cops show up to confiscate your weapons,” added Hector.
“You really think they’ll do that?” I asked.
“Pacho, these statists will use anything and everything to disarm us. Look what they did in New Orleans. They went into the more upscale neighborhoods and disarmed the people who were high and dry.”
“What about these attacks? We don’t want to be seen fighting on the side of whoever did this. By the way, who do you think did it?” asked Smitty.
“Probably the sleeper cells.” It was Rico. “Give me a hand with the ice and a few other things I picked up.”
We did. Things in the fridge would not last long so we dumped everything into the sink and iced it. “We probably should finish all this up today. I’m afraid it’s going to start getting a little chilly in here too.”
“You want to move someplace else?” asked Slime.
“No, at least not yet; this is the only place everyone knows.”
“Yeah, I’ve got another place we might be able to use.”
“Where?” asked Rico.
“It’s on the south side, basement under a club,” answered Slime.
“Great, let’s check it out.”
“What do we do now?” asked Hector.
“We’ll be okay for now,” said Rico.
“Hey guys, you want to hear this,” called Laura.
We crowded back into what would have been a small living room on a second floor alley access apartment. It was a second floor walkup in a rundown part of town. Then again it was rundown almost everywhere nowadays.
It was the radio again. Laura had found a news station. “We have confirmed that there have been numerous attacks throughout the area as well as in other parts of the country. There was a shootout on the north side when there was an attack on a police substation. The attackers were driven off but not before they set fire to the substation, several police cars, and it has been confirmed that two police officers are dead at the scene. There are reports of several more wounded. Three of the attackers are known to be dead.
“The Dallas Crier received a call claiming responsibility for the attacks from special units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who had previously infiltrated into the U.S. The attacks are in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian missile sites.
“The White House has issued a statement requesting all local and state law enforcement agencies to keep an eye out for right-wing hate groups who might try to take advantage of the situation.”
“I’ll lay you odds they’ll use this as an excuse to disarm the whole country,” said Hector.
“That would be stupid,” I said. “It looks like they are going to need all the help they can get.”
“No, I think Hector is right,” said Laura. “They are not capable of admitting they need the people’s help. They see us as the enemy.”
“Any takers?” asked Hector.
There were none.
There was a knock at the door. “Yes?” asked Laura.
“Hey open up.” It was Ricki.
Smitty let her in, or rather them. Tim was with her. Neither looked like they had gotten much sleep. He looked as if Ricki had dressed him. Gone were the straight-laced slacks and long sleeved shirt.
He now had jeans with the required holes, a vest, and a bandana. We almost didn’t recognize him. He seemed physically drained. No one asked.
“What’s going on?” asked Ricki.
“Power’s out; we’ve gotten out the wind-up to see what’s going on,” answered Smitty.
“Yeah, power’s off everywhere. We had a heck of a time with the traffic,” said Ricki.
“Let’s see, everyone’s here except Raymond and Craig, began Rico.
“I don’t think Raymond is going to make it. I think he had to work this morning,” said Tim.
“Anyone heard form Craig?” asked Rico.
No one had. “I’ll look him up later. I would like to debrief about yesterday’s bit of work. Does anyone have any issues they wish to bring up, or are we all too strung out over the news?”
“We didn’t have any trouble on our end, just monitored the cops,” said Laura. “We didn’t even have to jam them.”
“That’s good; we’ll save it for later. After we start using it, they’ll try to come up with countermeasures. What about Team 2?”
“Other than we need to learn more about explosives and triggers, it went smoothly enough.”
“How about Team 1?”
“I thought the fire might not catch too well because everything was wet, but the stuff we had did a great job,” said Ricki.
“Did you have fun?” asked Hector.
“Oh yes, it was delicious.” She sneaked a quick glance at Tim who blushed. “I would like some way to set it off after we get away. If the cops had showed up at just the wrong moment, we could have been caught.”
“That’s something we’ll have to work on,” admitted Rico. “I was with Team 3. I didn’t notice anything.”
Smitty spoke up. “I think if we are going to be doing this sort of thing at night in bad weather, we should practice under those conditions.”
“Yeah, I think you have a point.”
“Next time, maybe we should practice the whole thing under realistic conditions,” added Laura. “I don’t know about you guys, but I need to get in better shape.”
“Maybe. Anybody else got anything?” asked Rico.
“The big question is, what are we going to do now?” asked Slime.
“What do you mean?”
“Now that the statists have upped the ante, I mean bombing Iran and getting the full treatment from the Iranian sleeper cells, what do we do? Do we continue or do we back off?”
“An excellent question, we certainly don’t want to be seen as aiding the cells,” said Rico.
He looked away for a long moment. “We certainly don’t want to quit, at least I don’t.”
“I don’t want to quit either,” I added, “but this puts a new spin on the situation.”
“Maybe we should continue to monitor the situation for now.” This may have been the first time Tim had spoken up like this.
“For now, it might be best,” added Laura.
“You mean just do nothing,” added Hector incredulously.
“No, not do nothing; monitor and prepare for whatever might come our way,” she said.
“I had a meeting with my contacts, and they told me the FBI is sending in a team to look into our little exploit. However, now all that might change,” said Rico.
“Might be a good time to study better ways of setting off fires and explosions,” added Ricki.
“You have a point,” commented Rico. “One of the bigg
est problems now is trying to figure out who has conducted which attack. When we started this, we had assumed that all attacks would be by patriot groups. Now we have competition, so our people will not know the source of many of the attacks.”
“And you can expect the media to lie about it as much as they can,” said Laura.
“I wonder if the local sheriff’s office will consider forming a posse to keep an eye on potential targets,” added Slime.
“I’ve got some serious doubts about that,” said Hector.
“Maybe so, it couldn’t hurt if they wanted to, but I just don’t know. At least that might get us on the inside,” I added.
“I really doubt that they will form a posse, but if it happens, maybe we should volunteer,” added Rico.
“We can go round and round with this for days and not get anywhere. If the sheriff’s department calls for a posse, we can join and keep our eyes and ears open. Maybe the governor will call out the militia, but can you hear a certain segment of our population scream,” laughed Rico.
“Depending on how bad it gets, the governor might act, but is seems more likely to me that the feds will use this as an excuse to open up their camps and fill them with anyone who disagrees with them,” said Slime.
“If they do form a posse or call out the militia, do we try to stay together or spread out to see how much information we can acquire?” asked Laura.
“I doubt if the system is humble enough to do something like that, but spreading out would give us greater access to information,” said Rico.
“However, I suspect Slime is right,” he added. In that case we need to learn as much as we can about the camps.
“I think my contact’s team is already working on that. I’ll check and get back to you,” I said.
I was talking about Angel. She had turned me on to Rico and his team. We weren’t using the word “cell” for obvious reasons. Initially, I had wanted to work with her, but she felt our association, as she put it, might get in the way. Besides, we needed communication between the teams.
None of us really knew how many teams there were operating in our region of the state, or how they were connected to other teams. We were keeping them small and mobile on purpose, using only people who knew each other.
World War III - Home Front: A Novel of the Next American Revolution - Book One – As Day turns to Night Page 5