American Meltdown: Book Two of The Economic Collapse Chronicles (19 page)

Adam called to his team, “Fire!”

The militia men fired. The front man
in the Highway Patrol uniform fired one shot then crumbled to the ground. The man near him fell before he pulled the trigger. The two in the back ran back toward their patrol car. One limped as he had been shot in the leg.

The militia ceased fire except for Adam who yelled, “Keep firing!”

The rest hesitated, but then resumed firing. The man who was limping fell to the ground after several shots hit him in the back. The other made it to the car. As soon as he pulled out from behind the other patrol car, Adam had a good shot at the man’s head through the windshield. He took the shot. The windshield shattered, the driver slumped forward, and the vehicle rolled to a stop.

Adam kept his rifle sight on each downed man as he went to kick away their weapon and put two extra rounds in each of their heads as he passed.

The rest of the militia men watched as he moved with cold indifference. To the other men, it was frightening. To Adam, it was work. He took no pleasure in it, but this is the way he had been trained. Like it or not, this was the best thing for his men.

Adam’s brother, Wesley, was the only one who had the courage to say what many of them were thinking. “What if they were real cops?”

Adam’s reply was sharp and without remorse. “If they were real cops, they violated their duty by pulling over a convoy of trucks for no reason. They then violated their duty by not complying with a military order. Lastly, and most importantly, they violated their duty by trying to arrest us without cause. I’ll bet you a weeks’ worth of cow milking that those badges don’t have matching photo ID’s, but even if they do, they were rogue cops turned highway bandits, and that’s worse that a regular highway bandit. Either way, there is no place for their kind in this world. We are at war, gentlemen.”

Wesley hated milking cows. Not that he detested the chore itself, but he hated getting up so early. He was tempted to take the bet, but he knew Adam was probably right. Besides, he had no desire to go rifling through a fresh corpse’s pockets.

Adam said, “Collect their weapons. Lee, Jeff, check the cars for ammo and anything useful. Wesley, Matt, pop a hole in their gas tanks and let’s get that gas in our trucks.”

Matt and Wes looked for some containers. Matt found a few empty water containers the men had used throughout the day. They saved their empty plastic bottles to refill and reuse. Six months ago everything was disposable. Now, nothing was. Wes slid under the first car and very slowly poked a small hole with his knife in the bottom of the gas tank. He was careful not to create a spark that could blow them all to kingdom come. Once the hole was there, the fuel began to trickle out. Matt bent down to hand Wes an empty bottle and take the full bottle. While Wes caught the fuel running out of the tank, Matt ran the filled bottles to the trucks.

When they finished, they had about eight gallons from the first car. Gary and Lee were already working on the fuel from the second tank when Matt and Wes finished. This process took longer than the other task of clearing the vehicles of useful supplies.

The cars yielded a couple boxes of 12 gauge shot gun ammo, a 50 round box of .40 caliber pistol ammo and two 50 round boxes of 9mm pistol ammo. When the weapons were collected, they had a .40 caliber S&W, a .45 caliber Colt 1911, a 9mm Springfield 1911 and a 9mm Sig Sauer. The shot guns also ran the gamut. There was a Remington 870, 2 Mossberg 500s, and a Winchester Pump. This wide variety of weaponry was certainly not consistent with real police officers. Adam checked for ID and badge wallets on the dead men.

The men loaded up and headed home. Matt felt the familiar calm as the adrenaline wore off. His body became tired and he fought sleep on the ride back. No one talked much. Matt wondered if the men had really been officers. Adam didn’t volunteer the information and Matt didn’t ask. He supposed Adam’s reasoning had been sound. The men laying on the side of the road back there were criminals, regardless of what their job had been prior to the crash.

CHAPTER
41

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

-Patrick Henry

Howe convened his first meeting with his cabinet since his father’s visit from New York.

Howe started by addressing the Attorney General of The United States Corey Erikson. “Corey, the DOJ needs to prosecute these traitors from the House and the Senate. As you know, we can hold them indefinitely and without fili
ng charges under the 2012 NDAA indefinite detention clause, but I want the American people to know what these men are guilty of. They have determined to side with the insurrectionists by moving to have me impeached for simply acting expeditiously in a time of war. We have to do whatever it takes to hold this country together.”

Howe smiled as he paused to think. His smile turned into a suppressed chuckle.

“Is something funny, Mr. President?” Erikson asked.

“It just struck me,” Howe replied. “All of the establishment Republicans that we detained today under the
indefinite detention clause voted against the Smith-Amash Amendment.”

The Smith-Amash Amendment was legislation introduced years ago by Congressman Adam Smith and Congressman Justin Amash to nullify the indefinite detention of American citizens under the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA was an annual spending bill passed every year to approve military spending for the year. The indefinite detention clause had been stuffed in the back door of the spending bill. Smith and Amash had fought to have the clause banned, but most Democrats and establishment Republicans had shot down the effort.

Anthony Howe continued addressing all of his cabinet. “We’re facing two major challenges right now. Paul Randall has poisoned the minds of our military and we are seeing mass desertions. The second major issue is resource scarcity. We are having trouble procuring the amount of commodities we need to sustain the military and welfare recipients. The best solution seems to be to allocate three-quarters of the resources to the military. If people are starving, they will be more likely to join the military. I have also devised a plan that will pay additional family benefits to those serving in the military so they won’t just run out after their belly get full. This will be a way for families to still receive assistance if one member joins DHS.

“We are going to have to implement this right away, so it is up to you, Jared, to make sure we present this to the press as an opportunity and not a punishment. Scott, would you like to explain what we have come up with to deter desertion?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” the Secretary of Defense said. “DARPA has developed a tracking chip that is completely free from GPS. This ensures the satellite feeds can’t be tampered with or disabled by those wishing to desert. The chip is encapsulated in a mercury envelope. The mercury acts as an antenna to ensure soldiers are still traceable in deep subterranean structures and deters tampering. If the chip is tampered with, the mercury is released into the blood stream. Mercury poisoning is a horrific death.”

“Thank you, Scott.” The President was pleased. “We will be rolling out the new recruitment campaign on Monday. New recruits will be joining the DHS rather than the traditional branches of the armed forces. I feel the recruits will complete training faster through DHS and the agency is not so ingrained with this culture of patriotism. That
’s a big part of the problem we’re having with the other branches. They think it’s unpatriotic to detain or fire on American citizens. A terrorist is a terrorist, regardless of where he was born. The existing armed forces branches will be subordinate to the DHS, at least throughout this civil conflict.

“About the chip, it
’s not entirely negative. It has a lot of positive elements built in to it. We’re able to connect it to the NSA database in Utah. With that amount of computing power, we’ll be able to keep medical records, bank account information, driver’s license information, education documents, and deeds to property and automobiles. It will be able to store all of the data that we have to keep track of these days. This will revolutionize information. We’ll have the ability to have all of our important information with us twenty-four hours a day.  Imagine having your credit card, your college degree, prescriptions, allergies and all of your online authentication codes embedded in your hand. DARPA has already licensed Lockheed Martin to produce keyless entry systems for all DHS and military structures and vehicles that will work with the chip. The public will love it.

“Obviously, we
won’t be promoting the fact that it is enveloped in mercury. It’s completely safe unless it’s tampered with or in the instance that a soldier goes AWOL. If that happens, we can remotely trigger the mercury to be released into the blood stream. As long as you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

“People who receive government benefits will be transitioning to payments that will utilize the chip in the next few months when the new currency units are finalized. This will prevent the misuse of government benefits like we have seen in the past. This chip is going to cut out everything from EBT benefits being traded for drugs to tax evasion.

“We will make the chip available to the rest of the public on a voluntary basis by the end of the year. To instill a sense of trust with the public and to help spread hope in a time of despair, I would like all of you to take the chip at a press conference on Friday. The new technology will give Americans something to focus on besides the internal conflict.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. No one looked particularly thrilled to have a chip with a mercury kill switch embedded into their bodies, but Howe did not tolerate dissent. Many of them sitting in this room had often used the saying “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” Now, the shoe was on the other foot and it was quite a poor fit.

CHAPTER 42

“None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Paul Randall’s head security officer said, “We’re ready when you are, sir.”

No one
called him anything more than “sir.” While Paul had been elected as Commander in Chief of the Coalition military forces, no one called him Mr. President. There was a formal agreement between the militaries of the individual Coalition states to co-labor in this mutual objective of resisting Anthony Howe. Beyond that, there was nothing declaring the Coalition, as a whole, a new government entity. The States saw themselves as individually sovereign and committed to each other as the Constitution prescribed.

“Give me five minutes, First Lieutenant,” Randall replied.

Paul grabbed his shoulder bag and walked into the kitchen where Kimberly sat looking out into the field behind their big Texas home.

“I’ll see you when I see
you.” He kissed her forehead.

She pulled him close and hugged him.

“Say you’ll be home by tonight,” She pleaded.

Paul stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises. We have a lot of details to get ironed out on this thing. A lot of men will be risking if not sacrificing their lives on this engagement. I owe it to them to not rush through the planning. You understand don’t you?”

Kimberly sighed. “Yes, I understand.”

It pained Paul to leave her alone. He knew she was used to him being gone a lot. During the last months of the presidential campaign, they hardly saw each other. The twins had always been there when Paul was running for office. Now Ryan was in the military and Robert was dead. The security team would be at the house with her, but there would be no family around.

Paul knew she was still grieving the loss of their son. This wasn’t a good time to be alone. “You know I would take you with me but security says it is too risky,” He said.

Kimberly smiled to let him know it was
okay, but didn’t say anything.

Paul’s transport team drove two black SUVs with tinted, bullet resistant glass. The doors were reinforced with ballistic plates to make them more impervious to an attack. Sonny was ready to go and waiting in one of the vehicles when Paul arrived.

The two vehicles looked identical and switched back and forth from the lead position on the road to Governor Jacobs’s ranch. Sonny sat silently and looked out at the landscape as it raced by. Paul thumbed through his Bible on the way. He needed all the divine wisdom he could get. Over the next several hours, he, Jacobs and Jefferson would be planning the raid to take over Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

When they arrived, Larry came out on the porch to greet them.

“Paul, Sonny, come on in.” The salutation was more subdued than Larry’s typical welcome. These men were here to discuss a heavy subject and Larry’s somber greeting reflected the weight of the topic.

On the way to his study, Larry said
, “General Jefferson already has the maps and photos hung on the walls.”

Arriving at the study, the men sat down and got right to business.

General Allen Jefferson began, “I have a few thoughts on the general direction of the planning. If you men have no objections, I’ll lay that out first and then open up to your recommendations. Sonny, you are included in that invitation. Your counsel is respected by all of us.”

“Thank you, General,” Sonny said.

Jacobs and Randall gave affirmative nods.

Jefferson pointed to the map. “The topography of the area surrounding Minot supports a preliminary air strike to soften up the target before we go in with troops. Because there are no mountains between Minot and the border, we can fly F-22s in at about 300 feet. That will put them overtop of most any water tower or grain silos in the area. We can map out a path around any wind turbines taller than 150 feet. The F-22 Raptor is already a stealth fighter; this altitude reduces the odds of getting picked up by Minot’s radar even more.  There are a few little foot hills just past Tioga and these hills right before Minot.
” Jefferson pointed to the rings on the topography map as he spoke.

He switched to an aerial view of Minot Air Force Base that showed several massive B-52 bombers sitting on the tarmac as he continued to lay out his plan. “I recommend we go in and eliminate the B-52s and light up all of the hangars on the base. We’ll avoid the nuclear missile silos. Howe won’t launch the ICBM’s. Even he respects mutually assured destruction. We
’ll fly multiple sorties and take out the runways next. This will keep them busy until we can get ground troops in there. We’ll send the personnel transports across the border prior to the air assault.”

Jacobs pointed at the first map “Can we preposition some troops in Williston, North Dakota? Maybe we could camouflage them as oil field workers. It would keep us from having a massive buildup on the border.”

Jefferson shook his head. “No, Howe has troops in Williston. We’re going to have to deal with them sooner or later, so I suggest we hit them on the way to Minot. By the time Howe can respond to the call from Williston, we’ll already have ground troops in Minot.”

Sonny asked, “Are there a lot of troops in Williston?”

“No,” Jefferson answered. “It’s a bit larger than a normal border patrol. Howe is protecting his interest in the Bakken oil fields. Williston has a lot of infrastructure for drilling and moving oil.”

Paul said, “An ounce of prevention could have avoided all of this if the Dakotas would have jumped on board at the beginning.”

“Yes,” Larry agreed, “but better late than never. Minot is a big deal. Strategically, it’s a game changer.”

Paul thought for a moment then said, “You’re right, Larry. I’m glad they came around.”

Larry asked, “How are we going to position jets up there? We don’t have much to work with in the Northwest.”

Jefferson said, “We’ll send the Raptors we have sitting in Corpus Christi to Malmstrom. We can launch the attack from there.”

Paul asked, “Are those the jets the Oath Keepers from Holman Air Force Base brought with them when they decided to join the Coalition?”

“That would be them.” Jefferson smiled.

The men continued their planning well into the early morning hours. Paul knew he was not going to be home and felt bad about leaving Kimberly alone overnight.