“I can’t believe this,” Emily said after a few minutes. “I finally think of the perfect thing to do for our anniversary, and you come up with the exact same thing!”
“I guess it’s true that great minds think alike,” Tom replied. “I just can’t believe that we’re both presenting at Tower, although it looks like you’re going to be a lot busier than I’ll be.”
“Well,” Emily said, raising her glass of champagne, “at least I won’t have to work too hard to convince you that this is a great idea for a vacation.”
Tom raised his glass and touched it to hers. “Congratulations, sweetheart, and happy anniversary,” he said.
“Congratulations, honey, and happy anniversary,” she replied.
6
Former HSF Deputy Director Robert Hugo Kingston sat in the corner of the abandoned warehouse that had been transformed into his headquarters. It had been a long year, and he wondered at the apparent reversal of fortune that had overcome him and his loyal officers.
A year earlier, he had been one of the most powerful men in Washington, D.C. He had a townhouse in Georgetown, a membership at an exclusive country club for politicians and bureaucrats, and he could get a table at any restaurant immediately no matter how busy or how many people were in line ahead of him. People respected and feared him.
Now he lived in a warehouse in the woods, and the press compared him to Hitler. There was a price on his head too high for any bounty hunter in the world to resist. His picture was posted at every postal facility in the country, and he had been declared Public Enemy Number One. He was a hunted man – a man without a country or a home.
As Deputy Director of HSF, he was personally responsible for the internment facilities and the detaining and transportation of traitors to the island prison camps. When the orders had come down that the traitors were to be executed, Kingston developed the lists of who was to be executed first and the formula for determining who would be executed next. The executions didn’t bother him. He felt that all traitors needed to be killed for the greater good. He thought of it like removing a cancer that was eating away at the country. Now the traitors are running the country again.
Kingston was a true believer and faithful follower of Sanborn’s. He had been one of the first to be recruited by Sanborn while he was still Vice President. It was Kingston who had suggested the fake terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, including shooting down two passenger airliners. “We need America to be in a state of fear,” he had told Sanborn one night at a secret meeting shortly before President Hampton was assassinated. “A fearful country can be controlled more effectively. A person who is afraid will do anything to feel safe again, and that’ll give us the justification we need to put this country right without opposition.”
Kingston had also developed the idea of disguising HSF officers as gang members and thugs to break into houses as a way to search the homes of suspected traitors. In his mind, the ends justified the means, and he had no issues with the rapes, thefts, and acts of assault and brutality that his officers used in their work. Anything that roots out traitors is an acceptable practice.
The impeachment of Sanborn and the intervention of the military was something that Kingston hadn’t foreseen. Sanborn’s overthrow had come too fast to be detected or planned for. Kingston had barely gotten away from his office when the Army stormed the building to arrest everyone.
Now he and the followers who had managed to escape arrest were in hiding, but as he looked around his headquarters, he was pleased that this was no refugee camp. His men were cautious, but they were not “hiding out.” They were preparing. Kingston had a plan, and he was just about ready to put that plan into action. The hunted is about to become the hunter. We’re going on the offensive, and we will prevail.
Kingston’s headquarters was only one of the hiding places that the former HSF officers were using around the country. Arms, equipment, money, and supplies were spread out in several locations. Former HSF officers, who had been arrested and released due to a lack of evidence against them, were helping those who were still in hiding. Kingston had a network of hundreds of officers loyal to Sanborn’s ideals and committed to dealing with the traitors once and for all.
Kingston walked to the conference area where several other former HSF officers were waiting for him. “Report,” he demanded as he sat down at the head of the table.
“We’ve secured the floor plans of the primary target location and a list of those attending the functions so far. Several operatives have succeeded in infiltrating the staff at the primary target location. They’ll continue to feed us on-site intelligence information and will make sure that we can get in while making sure no one else can get out. We’ll control the target location by the time the main force arrives. Also, it looks like all of the targets we expected will be there, as well as a few more. We’re already moving our people into the area, and everything should be ready by the target date.”
“What about contingency plans?”
“We’re assuming that some of our operatives might be picked up before the target date. We have full redundancies for all key positions, and we’re also making sure that no one outside this building has the full picture of what’ll be happening. That way, even if a key operative is picked up, he can’t reveal enough to put the overall plan in jeopardy.”
“What if some of the key targets aren’t present when and where expected?”
“We’ll have them under surveillance, and we’ll move on them no matter where they are.”
“Do you know what equipment will be present when we strike?”
“More than we could ever need, sir.”
“Excellent,” Kingston replied. “Keep me posted. We must make absolutely certain that nothing goes wrong. Everything depends on our success.”
“We won’t fail, sir,” the men at the table shouted in unison as Kingston stood up and left the conference area.
Kingston felt comfortable with how the plans were progressing, but he couldn’t afford to get complacent or sloppy. There was too much riding on this plan. He thought about his men who had been executed by the military, either when his internment camps had been invaded or after the military tribunals had convicted his loyal officers of murder. I’ll avenge each of you. You’ll be remembered as patriots, and school children will sing songs to your memory when I’m through.
He stepped outside to get some fresh air. It had snowed the night before, and the air was bitterly cold. He watched his breath turn to steam as he looked around the woods that surrounded the warehouse. He watched the sentry patrols making their rounds. After a few minutes, he went back inside to get warm. The time for action has come. In the spring, our cause shall be reborn in fire and blood.
7
“Stop,” Ralph said, pointing to the corner of the video monitor. “Back that up and zoom in there.”
The intervention team was reviewing the traffic camera footage taken on the day that Billingsly spotted the two wanted HSF officers in town. Emily backed up the image and adjusted the zoom to focus in on an old green sedan.
“Is that the car you saw one of them getting into?” Ralph asked Billingsly.
“Yes, that’s the car, and that’s the right license plate.”
“OK. Emily, let’s see where that car went.”
Emily started the tedious process of determining which traffic cameras the green sedan would have passed based on the direction it was traveling. The car was spotted several times from a number of different camera angles. It had come into town on one road, made one stop, and left town on the same road it came in on. She searched for the car