Patriot Play. Don Pendleton

having lost support, the public demanding his resignation, he’ll be on his own. If he tries to bring in the military, we stall him. Let his own statutes create delays to prevent him getting his assistance. We use your communications setup to blanket the country with the news he’s ready to quit. Force him to resign. Then I get the military to move. We take control. Have the streets full of armed troops. Planes overhead and we also send in cleanup companies to blast hell out of the Brethren’s compounds. Every damned one of them. No quarter. We put them down like the rabid dogs they are. When it’s over we produce the evidence that links them to the bombings. Once they’re dead and gone, who is there to point the finger?”

      “I can think of one.”

      “Not that one-man band running around poking sticks into wasp nests? Eric, he’s doing us favors. Think about it. Who is he going after? The Brethren. Every strike he makes it’s more likely to draw attention to them. Not us, because we’re not even in the picture at the moment.”

      “Assume he makes a connection. Starts to move on us?”

      “Then we employ our usual tactics and call in our people. Let them deal with him. Pulls the heat off us so we can move ahead. Trust me, this is what I do for a living. Jesus, Eric, nigh on thirty years. I think I have it worked out by now.”

      Stahl didn’t doubt that for a second. The career of General William “Bull” Carson was second to none. The man had joined the Army a year under the enlistment age and had seen combat before a year passed. Even at that young age he had proved his worth. His career went from strength to strength. His reputation for taking orders, coupled with a no-compromise attitude when in combat earned him quick promotion. He rose through the ranks as easily as some men breathed and thrived on challenges. Men under his command would walk through fire and brimstone for their commander. His tough stance in battle earned him the unofficial title Bull Carson. He accepted the name with pride, and it served him well as he pushed and fought his way to the top. Carson treated his men fairly, but expected the best from them, and to see him bawling out an offender for some misdemeanor was never forgotten. Once the reprimand was done with, it was over. Bull Carson never held a grudge. He would hand out his verbal punishment in the morning, and he would be seen sharing a drink with the man the very same night.

      Eric Stahl had known Carson for more than ten years. He respected the man’s military judgment, and found that Carson had similar feelings about the state of the nation. Carson was secretly incensed the way America was going. He despised the slide into too many wars. Too many interventions abroad while the U.S.A. was struggling at home. He viewed the current administration as weak, opting for the quick fix instead of tackling problems over the long term and settling them once and for all. He sensed the U.S. Military machine as being betrayed. Given too much to handle with not enough resources. Sending young Americans to die in dusty streets thousands of miles from home, often never quite sure just what they were fighting for. And when the despots of those countries were caught and put on trial he had to watch them playing their sick games in the courtroom. Demanding this and that, refusing to acknowledge the courts and throwing tantrums. Vast sums of money and hours of wasted time were expended on these people. The courts backed down and let the ranting prisoners claim their human rights had been violated. Their human rights. These complaints coming from men who had no problems with human rights when they slaughtered men, women and children of their own countries. There would have been no human rights concerns if Carson had his way. The tyrants would get swift justice if he had his way; a merciful 9 mm bullet in the back of the skull and the matter would be settled.

      Carson had not earned his high rank by bucking the system. He knew the right time to stay silent and when to raise his voice. He also knew that his beloved America needed help within its borders. The hell with the rest. Let them squabble and fight, kill each other over some damned religious incident. His concern was the U.S.A. It needed a leader with a hard line, who would not bow to the namby-pamby decrees of the PC brigade, a President who would toughen the line and say enough. Clamp down on excesses and channel money and time into the ills of the nation. The trouble was the mass of Americans only had the two main political parties to choose from and at the end of the day they were interchangeable. Politics had become a brightly colored, yelling, screaming circus at election time. It was big-time entertainment, with millions of dollars cast to the wind. Candidates toed the party line, made promises that were little more than verbal placebos and once the raucous din settled down everything returned to what it had been before.

      Carson watched and quietly fumed, and in his own mind understood the way to change things was by direct action. His association with the then Senator Eric Stahl made him aware he wasn’t the only man with a vision for the country. Drastic, yes. Needful, yes. Carson had seen Stahl’s attempt, and failure, over the Zero affair. It had been a wild, and in Carson’s eyes, brave attempt to set things right. Stahl had lost his senatorial status, while Carson had watched from the wings. He knew one thing. Eric Stahl would not let his desires drift away. Carson and Stahl had worked together over the years, the general dealing with many of the weapons contracts that went Stahl’s way. He saw no reason why that should end.

      Stahl Industries produced fine ordnance for the military complex. The two men had shared many weekends together at their country retreats and the practice continued. During long evenings, over dinner and drinks later, they had discussed their feelings concerning the fate of America. Piece by piece, like a jigsaw of the mind, the overall picture revealed itself to the pair. With quiet determination they drew their plans, each coming up with a new angle, a different slant, until the battle plan was complete. Complex and requiring deep planning, the scheme was bold, had parts that needed strong nerves and stomachs, but would, if successful, present them with their one and only opportunity to succeed.

      Carson sat on his own on a number of occasions, long after Stahl had retired, going over the plan. He asked himself questions that veered toward his personal loyalties to country and President, first accusing himself of a traitorous act, then countering with the justification. The suggestion he might be turning away from America and becoming nothing less than a terrorist himself gave him long, sleepless nights. In the end his conscience cleared itself of that accusation. He was not turning away from America, he was making a sacrifice so that America could be strong again in body and mind. He understood that to achieve that, there would be a need for sacrificial action. Drastic as it was, it had to be seen as a wake-up call, incidents that would make the American public suffer; incidents that would frighten and put them in a panic because the government would not be able to stop them.

      The President would be seen in a weak position, the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth having to stand by while the nation cowered beneath the shadow of some unknown threat laying waste to sections of the country. As the incidents increased, the less in control the Washington administration would appear. It would go on until Stahl and Carson decided the right moment had come. Their moment. Then, Stahl would use his substantial radio and television links to put to the people that enough was enough. The President was failing and it was time for a new leader, one who would not flinch from the harsh realities. At the same time military forces acting under orders from General Carson would make their planned strikes at the Brethren. It would be an overwhelming surgical strike against the militia group, destroying their compounds and routing their forces. In the aftermath conclusive evidence that the Brethren had been responsible for the attacks on the nation, painting them as heartless radicals intent on uncalled-for death and destruction, and the current administration had allowed it to happen through ineptitude and a reluctance to make a strong defense.

      In his reflective moments Carson had admitted, only to himself, that it was a reckless and dangerous action he and Stahl were contemplating. So much could go wrong. But he reminded himself that through his military career he had witnessed, and had been involved in, similar wild actions. Some thought up by others, many of his own. But war required decisive and off-the-wall decisions. The very nature of war begged for operations that had to come from moments of sheer audacity, simply because the moment required just that. In combat situations, with the tide flowing in opposite directions to what had been planned, instant decisions had to be made. And many of those instant solutions worked, changing the status quo. Veritable losses had been changed to resounding victories by quick thinking.

      In the end Carson made his decision.