Foreign Enemies and Traitors (107 page)

                “Lies and propaganda?” asked Carson, loud enough to be heard in the entire conference room.  “Lies and propaganda are your specialty!  You just hate that the American people are finally being shown the truth.  Major Acorzado, take a look at that operation plan on the table.  Operation Buffalo Jump is the invasion of the American Northwest by foreign armies, operating with the blessing of American traitors—and all at the president’s direction!  That’s what this conference is about today.  We’re here to plan how these foreigners are going to carve up the Northwest, after foreign armies have conquered it.  That’s Operation Buffalo Jump.  And if that’s not treason, then what is?”

                Tambor said to Major Acorzado, “Soldier, I’m
ordering
you to turn this broadcast off!  That’s a direct order from your commander-in-chief.  That film is a fake; it’s nothing but special effects!”

                “And is Operation Buffalo Jump all fake too?” Boone asked.  “Are these foreign diplomats and generals here today just actors?”

                Major Acorzado, holding his pistol in one hand, advanced across the conference room to within a few yards of the president, Carson and Boone.  Then he said, “Let it play.  I want to watch it.  Anyway, it’s on every channel, everywhere.  The whole world is watching it.  Turning it off in this room won’t turn it off in the rest of the country.  Why shouldn’t we see what the rest of the world is seeing?”  At that moment, United States Marine Corps Major Rafael Pascal Acorzado became the single most important member of the U.S. military. 

                Until a new face appeared on millions of televisions, including the two giant side-by-side screens in the Laurel Lodge conference room.  A military officer was seen from the waist up, sitting at a desk with a map of the United States behind him.  The map was slightly out of focus, so that the general appeared in sharp relief.  He was a man in his fifties, with short gray-black hair, and hazel eyes.  He was wearing a blue Army uniform jacket, with three stars on each shoulder.  Even Major Acorzado and his troops turned to steal glances at the latest person to appear on television in this hour of nonstop surprises.

                ****

“Good Morning.  I’m Lieutenant General Lucian Armstead,
the commanding general of NORTHCOM.  That’s the Army command responsible for assisting with homeland security.  With the help of some very brave Americans, today we’ve been able to broadcast the truth about what’s been happening in the United States.  Excuse me if my words are not carefully crafted.  I’m not a politician, I have not had time to write them down, and I don’t have a teleprompter.  I can only speak from my heart. 

               
“I’m broadcasting today from a military communications facility just a few miles from Camp David, Maryland.  I was scheduled to be at a conference that is occurring at Camp David at this very time.  The purpose of this conference is to present a plan called Operation Buffalo Jump to a group of foreign diplomats and military officers.”  General Armstead then held up his copy of the red and white Top Secret CONPLAN binder.  “This is the plan for the invasion of the American Northwest, tentatively scheduled for this summer.  It’s supposed to be a joint and combined military operation, meaning that foreign military formations will be partaking.  In fact, foreign military divisions will be spearheading this operation. 

               
“And why would they agree to this?  For trade concessions, and agreements on very favorable terms for the exploitation of the energy, mineral, and agricultural resources of the Northwest.  The president is virtually selling off parts of the United States to the highest bidder to pay our national debts, and I refuse to be a part of it.  I’d rather have our nation default on those debts and start all over from nothing, than see America torn apart and carried off by foreign jackals.  Under this plan, both United States and foreign national armed forces will be under effective United Nations control—on American soil!  My fellow Americans, this Operation Buffalo Jump is the smoking gun of treason.  This plan will be made available to all of the media and on the internet in just a few minutes.”  Armstead held up the binder again, and set it back down in front of him.

               
“My fellow American citizens, I can’t pretend to know all of the answers, or even to have any solutions.  I’m a military man, not a politician.  But I know that treason must be opposed, even treason at the very highest levels.  Every soldier and law enforcement officer has sworn a sacred oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  And I assure you, those are not just hollow words.  Not to me, and not to millions of presently serving and former soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and police officers.  We
will
defend the Constitution! 

                “Now, I don’t have the answers or the solutions to America’s many grave problems, but I know that any solutions must be
American
solutions.  The answer to America’s deep problems can’t be found by bringing foreign military forces into the United States, as they have already been brought into Tennessee and Kentucky.              

               
“The answers, if they can be found at all, can only be found through an honest and sincere adherence to the Constitution.  That means the original Constitution, not the false so-called ‘new constitution’ illegally concocted in Philadelphia.  I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I can read plain English, and I know that valid ratifying conventions were not held in all of the states that allegedly approved the so-called new constitution.  And I further do know this: the president and his administration are so clearly and obviously tainted by treason against the Constitution they swore to defend that they cannot serve any longer.  I for one will neither follow them nor obey their orders from this time forward.

               
“We may still fail today in our attempt to restore the true Costitution.  We may not be joined by my brothers- and sisters-in-arms in resisting treason and the forces of tyranny.  But I will rest peacefully now, knowing that I have at least presented the truth to you.  Whether we succeed or fail at this endeavor, we must always do our duty as we understand it.  And I understand that no man, not even the president of the United States, is above obeying the Constitution.  So today, I am asking that the president be placed under arrest and charged with treason, according to Article Two, Section Four and Article Three, Section Three of our Constitution.  Our one, true, original Constitution.”  The general held up a pocket Constitution booklet, opened to the page showing those sections highlighted in yellow. 

               
“I am now ordering the following: All foreign contract soldiers in the United States must return any weapons to their armories, and report to their barracks and remain there, pending repatriation to their home countries after an appropriate investigation.  After today, any foreign mercenaries discovered armed and outside their barracks will be considered hostile and will be dealt with as such.  This mandate is to include soldiers belonging to the so-called North American Legion, which is hereby dissolved, decommissioned and disestablished.  Also: any United States citizens who should attempt to hinder or interfere with these orders shall be arrested and tried for the crime of treason.

               
“Now I am going to show and describe each page of the Operation Buffalo Jump concept of operations plan, so that you will be able to save them for later analysis, in the event that this broadcast is interrupted.  This will take only a few minutes, and then we will begin at the top of the next hour by rebroadcasting the videos and pictures of the massacre in Mannville, Tennessee, the eyewitness deposition, and the videotape of citizen Jamal Tambor.  We will broadcast continuously for as long as we can.”  Then General Armstead looked off-camera to his right.  “What?  Excuse me?  Now I’m being informed that we are receiving a live video feed from inside Camp David, so we’ll go to that next.  You will be seeing this live, at the same time that I’m seeing it for the first time.”

                ****

USMC Major Acorzado
advanced to within a yard of the president and slowly holstered his pistol.  “Major Paxton, would you please remove your knife from this…
person’
s throat, and turn him around for me?”

                Boone met Acorzado’s gaze, slowly moved the black ceramic blade several inches away from Tambor’s jugular vein, and then lowered his right arm to his side. 

                Major Acorzado said, “Gunny Diller, do you have your handcuffs?”

                From behind him, a Marine in full combat gear said, “Aye-aye sir, that’s affirmative.”

                Next he addressed Phil Carson.  “General, will you please remove the detonating cord from
this person’s
neck, and very carefully disarm the firing device?”

                For Boone and Carson, this was the moment of truth.  They glanced at the two enormous television screens and saw that the scene inside the conference room was now somehow being rebroadcast live from Raven Rock.  No matter what happened next, millions of people would be witnesses to it.  Once the knife and the “detonating cord” were removed from the president, he would lose his hostage value, and they would lose their protection.  Within thirty feet of them were dozens of Marine Corps and Secret Service sharpshooters.  Any of them could hit a coin at fifty yards with a rifle, or at twenty yards with a pistol.  Boone and Carson were only twenty feet away.  Carson slowly raised the cell phone and said, “It’s not detcord, or a firing device.  It’s just a computer cable and a regular phone.”  He smiled.  “We were bluffing.”  He lifted the three green coils over Tambor’s head and let them trail down to the floor.  Boone Vikersun, however, kept his left arm across the president’s chest, still clamping him tightly to him.

                With the blade’s edge away from his throat and the threat of his head exploding removed, President Tambor said, “Well done, soldier.  Well done!  Now arrest these terrorists.  Arrest them!”

                Major Rafael Acorzado stared at Tambor from beneath his helmet, slowly shook his head, and said, “First, I’m not a soldier, I’m a Marine.  How long have you been coming here anyway?  And second—no.  No, I’m not arresting them.  I’m arresting you.”  More Marines in battle dress streamed into the conference room with rifles at port arms, at least a full platoon.  They formed a line along the wall in front of the two televisions.           The president was incredulous.  “What?  Has the entire world gone
insane
?  This is mutiny!  This is treason!  You
have
to obey my orders—I’m the president of the United States!  I’m your commander-in-chief!”

                “Not anymore,” said Major Acorzado.  “Not after today.”

                The president looked to his two personal bodyguards.  “Jack, Phil, who’s in charge of the Secret Service here at Camp David?  Make these soldiers put down their guns.  They’re disobeying my orders, and I’m the president!”

                But no Secret Service agents came forward to attempt to carry out President Jamal Tambor’s last orders.  Not in the face of more than thirty combat-tested and SWAT-trained United States Marines.  The president’s own pair of personal bodyguards looked down sheepishly and holstered their pistols beneath their suit jackets.

                The president wasn’t finished.  “Think
very carefully
about what you all are doing.  This is mutiny!  You will all be held to account!  You
have
to obey me!  I’m giving you a direct order, and you
have
to obey me!”

                “Not anymore,” repeated Major Acorzado.  “We’re not obeying you anymore.  Jamal Tambor, you’re under arrest.”

                “This is ridiculous!  This is
absurd
!  On what charge?”

                “On the charge of high treason.  Now turn around and place your hands together.  Gunny Diller: handcuff the prisoner.”

                He wouldn’t turn on his own, so Boone Vikersun spun Jamal Tambor around, gripped him by both shoulders, and stared down into his face while the cuffs were being applied.  From the side, Phil Carson said, “I hope you get justice.  That’s all I hope—that you get justice.”

                Then Tambor was snapped back around by several Marines.  While he was being pulled out of the conference room, Tambor had one more try in him.  “Why are you doing this?  I’m your president; I’m your commander-in-chief.  Why are you doing this?”

                Gunnery Sergeant Diller, who was hauling him along by the lapel of his suit jacket, said, “Well Mr. Ex-President, we’re kind of ignorant, so you can’t expect too much from us.  We don’t even know what’s for our own good.  We just follow orders, ’cause we’re just, you know, robots—like you said.  Thinkin’ too much hurts our heads.”  Then he laughed, and the Marines around him joined in. 

                The cordon of Marines pulled Jamal Tambor through the anteroom, across the main hall, and outside to the covered portico, where four green humvees were parked.  Phil Carson and Boone Vikersun exited the conference center with the Marines and the other American military, wanting to witness the historical drama play out to the very end.  The foreign diplomats and military officers were kept segregated in the conference room by a squad of Marines who stayed behind to guard them while the president was removed.

                Jamal Tambor said to Gunnery Sergeant Diller, “That was a mistake what I said, and I’m sorry.  I didn’t really mean it that way.  That was from before I became president, from before I began to work with the military.  You know that I have the greatest respect for you soldiers, er, uh, I mean,
Marines
.”

                Major Rafael Acorzado, pulling him along by his other arm, said, “Yeah, sure you do.  But I will say that you did get one thing right, Mr. Former President.  We do worship that piece of paper called the United States Constitution.  We’ll fight and we’ll die for that piece of paper.  But that was the only part you got right.”