Consent of the Governed Ch. 04

"Good point. Very good point." I replied. "And the answer is that I'm expecting more. A lot more..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2:00pm, Monday, October 26th. I was doing (what else?) paperwork in my office when Teresa came in and expertly used the remote to turn on the television monitor before sitting down.

Bettina had just gone to Pat Stellum, who came on the feed with the University President's office in the background. I couldn't tell if he really was in the area, or if it was a green screen image.

"That's right, Bettina!" Stellum was saying happily. "Channel Two News has obtained documents from anonymous sources that show University President Sidney P. Wellman colluded with the late Henry R. Wargrave to funnel money from illegal arms sales into the University's coffers!"

Stellum: "Although prosecuting University President Wellman is unlikely due to Statute of Limitations laws, it is possible that there could still be referrals to the University Ethics Board. We have with us Dr. Lionel Carmela, head of the University Political Science Department."

As the camera panned out to show Carmela, Stellum said "Dr. Carmela, should University President Wellman be worried about these serious allegations?"

Carmela: "Absolutely, Pat. There is no Statute of Limitations on ethics, and the stench of President Wellman's serious breaches of the Public trust pollutes the air. Wellman is a stain upon the honor and reputation of our University, and he should resign or be terminated immediately."

"Doctor," said Stellum, "after the Ethics Board inexplicably refused to find that Dr. Laura Fredricson committed ethics violations and even crimes, do you think they'll act more responsibly in the case of the University President?------- uh, excuse me, Doctor. Bettina! A group of students is growing in front of the President's Office building!"

"What's happening there, Pat?" asked Bettina as different, well-placed camera angles brought the student agitators to the television screens of the viewers.

Stellum: "There appear to be about 60 to 70 students protesting peacefully. Many of them are wearing green shirts with Climate Change logos on them. The signs they are carrying are demanding in the starkest possible terms for Wellman to resign!..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"This is baaaaad." groaned Chief Moynahan as he, Cindy, Teresa, and I watched in the Chief's Conference Room.

"And all the cameras are set up, getting the good angles from the get-go." I said. "And Stellum just happened to be right there when it started.

"All the national cable networks are carrying it live." Cindy said. "They were right there and ready, too. It almost makes me believe Don's wild-ass conspiracy theories about the Press knowing stuff like this in advance, if not helping it along." A red crowbar was waved in her general direction. A green crowbar was waved back at me(!).

"Are these the same perps that avoided arrest at the earlier protest?" asked the Chief.

"I'm not sure, sir." Teresa said as she checked the texts coming in on her Police iPhone. "There were no green Environmentalist Wacko shirts at the earlier attack. By the way, I'm being texted that the State Patrol is moving in to protect the building. They're keeping the National Guard back because of the high concentration of national Media on the scene."

"You were right, Teresa." Cindy mused. "This morning wasn't their only attempt."

I replied: "And maybe not the main attempt, even though there were more people then." When asked what I meant, I said "The National Media were set up in two places: the north side of Campus, where the Admin buildings are; and the Fairgrounds, not far from City Hall, where the Assembly drama was expected to occur."

Your Iron Crowbar: "The national Press expected this attack on Wellman, and they thought it might be true the USDOJ Civil Rights Division might come in. But they weren't expecting the attack on where Laura was. Amber literally got a 'scoop' there. And that tells me the attack on Laura is not a part of this orchestrated activity."

Cindy said "Maybe it was to keep you distracted from intercepting the Assembly people that were running?"

"My presence wasn't needed for that." I said. "Jack Muscone and the Federal Marshals were all over it, and the Assembly losers were just cold-busted. And they would've been busted if they'd tried to sneak off at any time this weekend."

I leaned back in my chair and said "No, what's going on here is more than a 'strangeness'... that's a 'weirdness!..."

Part 27 - The Battle of the Mountain Nest

The evening broadcasts across the Nation featured the standoff between the Environmentalist Wackos and the State Patrol at the University President's Office building. The protesters yelled a lot but did not get violent, and the State Patrol held their ground and protected that house but did not attack nor need to arrest the Wackos. The Media was disappointed.

I'd received a call from President Wellman earlier in the day. "Commander, what am I supposed to do? It's a national story! They're smearing my name all over the place, and all over the country!" he wailed into the phone. I could almost hear him sobbing at the other end, and I did hear him swallow a gulp of liquid, which I assumed to be alcoholic.

"You just have to hold fast, Mr. President." I said, trying to sound as reassuring as I possibly could. "Let the FBI do their job, and find out who leaked the classified information."

"But my reputation... is destroyed!" wailed Wellman. "And it's hurting the University's good name!"

"This too shall pass, sir." I said. After a couple more minutes of the same go-round, we disconnected the call.

"I'm not sure what the FBI can do." said Jack Muscone. He, Clark Webster, and Tracy Stone had come to Headquarters, and they were now talking with the Chief, me, and Cindy. "Tracy, any leads on who might've leaked our documents?"

Tracy Stone said "I have no proof, but it looks like Carmela found a way to funnel that information to the Press. If we start going after them for their sources, they'll raise First Amendment hell... worse that the Iron Crowbar gives me Second Amendment hell." (Author's note: 'Jupiter Rising' for more on that.) A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

Tracy Stone: "And it makes my investigation a moot point. It probably always was, but now that the Press has it, the investigation is of no use as a deterrent to the information getting out."

"You're right on that. All of it." I said. "I'm afraid I may have miscalculated on that one."

"Whaaaaa?!?!" Cindy and the Chief exclaimed together. Cindy then said "Did I just hear that correctly? The Iron Crowbar admitting to a mistake?"

Chief Moynahan said "I'm more stunned to hear that the Iron Crowbar made a mistake."

I said a bit forlornly: "I have no problem admitting when I make a mistake. And I made a big one here. I thought the local Press might nip at President Wellman's heels over this, but I did not expect the national attention."

Clark Webster said "I came by to brief you guys on Tamara, and also to ask again for any help you can give us. We simply have no leads on her. She has literally vanished from the face of the earth. We're watching Carmela and his friends that were Tamara's friends, but it's no go. I'm really beginning to wonder if Carmela was involved in her disappearance, or if it was someone else. Do you have anything we can use?"

I shook my head. "I don't think she's still in this County. And it's literally a 50/50 coin flip if she's alive or not. If it's not Carmela, I really have no clue... wait. You said you've been keeping tabs on Carmela? How so?"

"Not much gets past you, Don." said Tracy Stone. "We're watching him in ways..."

"... that cannot be discussed for the sake of us having plausible deniability." finished Jack Muscone.

"Cindy!" I said with mock happiness, literally wringing my hands towards the Federal Agents. "They're learning! They have learned!" To the Agents I said "And don't tell us a damn thing. We need plausible deniability also."

Tracy Stone said "I was afraid you'd be pissed. After all, what we have is not admissible in Court."

"Oh, forget about that!" I said. "Right now I'm only interested in finding this poor girl! We can worry about the rest of it after we find her."

Just then there was a knock on the door, followed by Our Sheriff ambling in. The twitching of his mustaches in merriment were my first clue.

"Don't tell me, let me guess, sir." I said. "The Assembly passed the Budget, with full Police funding."

"How the hell does he do that?" Griswold said to the others, then continued: "You're right, Crowbar. They just passed it, 17-13, and waived the second reading of the bill. The Council will ratify it tomorrow at their meeting. You, Commander Ross, and I need to be there for that. You too, Chief."

"You're back in the saddle, Red Crowbar." Cindy said, referring to my 'recovery' from being wrong about something. "You're back in the saddle..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

9:30pm, Monday, October 26th. Darkness had enveloped the valley in which my beloved Town sat. There was one light on inside the Mountain Nest visible from the front windows, and another from the backyard.

The two Campus Police Officers at the entrance to the road going south up to the Mountain Nest were looking the wrong way, and did not see the shadowy forms come up behind their vehicle. A second later they realized they were surrounded by persons in all black, with hoodies over their heads and black surgical masks over their faces, as if some sort of pandemic virus was going around.

The shadowy figures began beating on the car. The terrified Campus Police Officers tried to radio it in, but found that there was no response on the radio. "Drive out of here, now!" one of the masked figures yelled as others in front of the vehicle allowed a clear path. The Cadet Officers drove out, abandoning their post.

The masked figures began marching uphill and in a southerly direction up the road to the house that was the object of their hatred. More similarly attire people seemed to pour out of the brush onto the road. When they got to the entrance to the Mountain Nest, they lit torches, and suddenly everything was bathed in yellow light.

"Burn the house down!" one of them yelled. A Molotov Cocktail was lit and hurled at the house. An Atlanta Braves pitcher this guy was not; the bottle landed on the driveway, well short of the house, bursting into a fireball.

"Get closer!" someone yelled. That meant stepping onto the property. And as soon as they did, State Troopers and TCPD Officers poured out from the far side of the house. More of them came up the road behind the thugs, and some out of the 'woodwork' and onto the road. The perps were surrounded.

*POW!*

One idiot had lit a Molotov Cocktail and hurled it at the Officers advancing through the driveway. No one could tell from where the sniper shot that slammed into his chest came, but he dropped the bottle he was holding as he fell to the ground, dead. Other perps scurried to get away from him as the bottle of gasoline exploded.

The State Patrol ultimately had no further problems arresting the 100 or so thugs, who were whining that they were peacefully protesting and had every right to. But their action had been meant to be a diversion...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More black clad, black-surgical-masked people flowed out of the trail at the back end of the Mountain Nest's backyard, the trail that led down the hill towards Campus. They advanced along the backyard. There were twelve of them, and their mission was not to agitate or protest. They intended to invade the Mountain Nest, capture or kill its occupants, and set the house on fire from the inside on their way out.

"Weapons free! Fire at will!" a voice yelled. Men wearing the armor and black uniforms of the TCPD came pouring out around the sides of the house, from the MIL apartment door, and out of the concealed places where they'd been hiding. They were all inductees of the TCPD Orange Order Blood Order, and they were shooting to kill.

The perps did not act like untrained agitators. They dropped to the ground and began firing their M-4s at the Police. The gunfire was returned with lethal exactitude.

The perps did not heed calls to surrender. They all died.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Carole Troy had gone out on the back deck of The Cabin, whose lights were mostly off, to see what the exchange of gunfire was about. "Daddy, there are fires around the Mountain Nest."

"Carole!" Laura cried out. "Get back in here! It's not safe out there!"

"She's right, Fussbudget." I said, stepping out and picking Carole up and redirecting her to the inside of the house. "The bulletproof windows don't work if you're not behind them."

"That makes too much sense, Daddy." Carole replied, making me chuckle. I admired her calmness under these conditions. I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, and Carole was making jokes, if unintentionally.

Carole ran upstairs to the attic room, and joined the boys in watching out the triangle shaped window at the top of The Cabin, just under the roof. The view was spectacular from up there, and they could see what was going on.

"Our guys are winning." Carole reported. I didn't think she knew that from just visual observation...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

11:10pm, Monday, October 26th. The four well armed and armored perps had night-vision goggles as the slowly and silently climbed the steep hill through the woods. Behind and below them was the McGhillie Golf Course. They moved expertly along a narrow trail that was used by various wild animals: deer, coyote, foxes. Despite the freshly dropped leaves on the ground, they were very quiet, almost silent.

Over the top of the hill were the homes of Donald Troy and Todd Burke. As the perps neared the crest, they could see the heat signature from The Cabin above the top of the ridge line. They began converging as they moved towards their target.

*KLICK-KLACK!*

Suddenly, they were bathed in bright lights from above. The lights overpowered their night vision goggles, blinding them. They instinctively reached up to take the goggles off...

"LIGHT 'EM UP! SHOOT TO KILL!" barked a command from just over the top of the hill and well beneath the lights.

*RATTA-TATTA-TATTA!*

It was the last thing they heard. They died in a hail of automatic gunfire...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Four dead." Teresa Croyle reported to me. "No casualties on our side."

'Our side' was me, Teresa, Julia Rodriguez, Todd Burke, and Teddy Franklin, all wearing black, armed and armored, and geared up for combat. We'd had night-vision goggles, too.

I'd long since put sensors and cameras that deer hunters use in the woods just over the hill, but rarely used them. Animals would trip the sensors. For this night I'd prepared tripwires like we'd done in ROTC exercises years before, but instead of setting off flares or noisemakers (and grenades in real war), they'd set off alarms in my office in The Cabin.

Soooo, we were set up just over the top of the hill, and I had a 'clacker' like the ones the Airborne soldiers had when they jumped into France on D-Day 1944. When I clacked it, my people took off their night-vision goggles, then began shooting at the immobilized perps that had no business on my property with weapons made for combat.

I called in the incident, but because of the action at the Mountain Nest, it was a while before a vehicle came to load up the bodies, and that vehicle was an ambulance. I'd photographed the perp's faces, but it was dark, so I didn't pay too much attention immediately. I should have...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1:00am, Tuesday, October 27th. Lionel Carmela was sitting in his office when the door opened. He looked up to see the man he'd just called to come to the office.

"This is a risk." the man said. "They're watching you. If they see me, they'll know who I am and that I'm connected to you now."

"It can't be helped." said Carmela. "That fucking cunt Fredricson's asshole husband Troy anticipated our attack on her home and had people ready to blow away our people that were going to go in and fuck them up. Things have gone too far for us to fail now, so I have to take desperate measures. And that's where you come in..."

Part 28 - Crossing The Line

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Tuesday, October 27th, from across the street from the Psychology Building, with said Psychology Building in the background. "Val Jared's State Stormtroopers assault peaceful protesters!"

After the hard-charging music intro, Bettina began: "In two separate incidents, peaceful protesters were assaulted by heavily armed State Patrol Special Incident Troopers. The first incident occurred at the Psychology Building yesterday morning, as tear gas and rubber bullets were fired as unarmed peaceful protesters gathered to voice their frustrations with Dr. Laura Fredricson being cleared of ethics charges in a blatantly rigged process."

Bettina: "The second incident occurred after dark, when a smaller group of peaceful protesters marched towards Dr. Fredricson's home, which is on Campus grounds. They were also dispersed with brutal and excessive Police tactics.. Neither Dr. Fredricson nor her husband, Police Commander Donald Troy, have responded to repeated requests by KXTC for comment."

Bettina: "And in other news, student groups as well as University and State officials are outraged at University President Sidney P. Wellman's alleged collusion with arms dealer Henry R. Wargrave that allegedly enriched Dr. Wellman as well as the University. Many Faculty members are demanding that President Wellman resign, as well as face the Ethics Board himself."

Bettina: "Additionally, Democrat candidate for Lieutenant Governor Corey Coons demanded Wellman resign, and also for the SBI to investigate him for the alleged crimes he committed. Candidate for Governor Hoyt Stenson's Campaign issued a statement calling upon Wellman to resign..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We were all bleary-eyed and tired at the coffee klatch in the Chief's Conference Room, which consisted of the Sheriff, Police Chief, me, Cindy, and Teresa. Tanya was busy doing paperwork. I'd stayed up all night doing mine. Ergo, Tanya is smarter than I am.

"She didn't say a word about the attack on The Cabin." Teresa said.

"Thank God for small favors." I replied. "I'd like for that one to just stay under the radar."

"Any idea who those perps were, Crowbar?" asked Sheriff Griswold.


"No sir." I replied. "Martha the M.E. is expediting their autopsies, putting them ahead of the 12 bodies that littered the backyard of the Mountain Nest last night. But when she saw all the bodies being brought in, she just put them on ice and said she was going to go home and get some sleep. I don't blame her for that."

Teresa said "Am I alone in being sick and tired of these Press assholes constantly lying, characterizing these agitators as 'peaceful' when they're throwing Molotov Cocktails and covering for worse thugs that intended to invade both of Commander Troy's homes and kill people?"

"Get used to it." I said. "There truly is no honest, unbiased, fact-reporting journalism out there, anymore. And apparently that is the way people want it to be."

Cindy said "Yes, but I'm not on the same political side as most of you, and I think KXTC is way over the top in their dishonesty. They're getting people hurt, and even killed, by their ginning up the agitators on top of the biased, dishonest reporting."