MacArthur's Freehold

Chapter 53

Chapter 53 -- SDYHKIUGDVTOP

Carter and Jessica were up early, watching the news over a quick breakfast of toaster pastries and coffee. It had been a late night at her father's house, but there was no way to sleep late now. The one news channel that still had something close to reality was on, and the events of the previous night were the only thing being covered. He suspected it would be for days to come.

The final body count appeared to be forty-eight, which was close to what had been expected. Two missions were scrubbed because the targets disappeared as they were being followed, and their destination was unknown. Both had been caused by traffic accidents that had prevented the teams from staying with them in the traffic. Several people would never know how lucky they had been.

They watched as another official came on to be interviewed. He was a DC police spokesman and fielded about a half dozen questions before being replaced by yet another guest. The morning would likely be, as probably the entire day, a non- stop parade of guests dispensing their particular bits of commentary for a few minutes before moving on. Clearly many of them were enjoying it, there was more than enough attention to keep them happy for days.

They had been up until almost three, and the strong black coffee would probably be imbibed regularly throughout the morning. After watching a tearful staffer who had seen her boss shot from just a feet away, they decided to head over to Donald's house.

Tommy and James had not yet arrived, and they sat with Donald in his office. With Gordon having relocated to a safe place, along with Mary and Dalton, they were alone in the big house. Donald updated them on his conversations with others in the League.

"We're still a little numb just now" he said. "After what went on last night, it's hard to believe it happened. Three years of planning - more actually - but three since the decision was made to move if we had to, made that happen."

"How are the teams?" asked Jessica.

"On the way back to their bases" Donald said. "We won't have a full accounting until late tonight, maybe tomorrow. I'm going over to the office shortly, there should be quite a few messages to work through."

The office was the small law office in Chillicothe, which was always closed. A computer in the office was a secure endpoint to a complex network that allowed secure messages to be exchanged at a point unconnected with the freehold. If it was compromised it could be abandoned with little chance of being traced to the freehold.

They watched the ongoing commentary, occasionally on one of the other channels where the government line was always followed. The government needed to 'get the army out and round up those people' was a frequent opinion. As to who 'those people' were, the general consensus was that they were militias, religious cults, white supremacists, and 'anti-government' types for the most part. Occasionally a guest suggested sweeping the country from one end to the other, interrogating every single citizen.

Tommy and James arrived, and they continued watching the news and the program streaming on their favorite patriot channel. They had news as up-to-date as the regular media, usually better. The underground resistance channels were congested with traffic. For the most part they contained only speculation and questions, a sign that the true nature of the operation remained, for the time, unknown to any outsiders.

Donald left for the office in town, a twenty minute trip each way, and he would probably be spending some time sending and receiving new messages. The others watched the news and discussed the events.

"They got your man" Tommy said. Carter knew he was referring to Erskine McCormick, the man who had put him in prison.

"I suspect he was in the wrong place at the wrong time" Carter said. "A first-term senator from Missouri shouldn't have been high on the list. Apparently he was with the Majority Leader, who was at the top. He was extra points."