MacArthur's Freehold

Chapter 56

Chapter 56 -- HUWSSFIIHGQMIRSEPNBY

General Mark Anthony sighed resignedly as his secretary appeared in the door of his office.

"Thanks, Margaret." he said. "I'll just be a minute."

She had lately had the habit of walking to the door about five minutes before it was time to leave for a meeting, just to see if he looked all right. He had brought her with him when he accepted the post, from his former army command. She had worked for him for three years before, and now worried about him. The past days, since what was now being called 'Black Friday', had aged him. He was conscious of the fact that the long list historical events referred to as 'Black Friday' included the stock market crash and a presidential assassination, and wondered what this one had in store. He got up, put on his coat and picked up his briefcase.

His driver delivered him to the White House, where he was swiftly ushered to the Situation Room. As usual the heads of Homeland Security and Justice were there, along with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI director, and the heads of the NSA and CIA . Only a handful of others who were not Cabinet officers or agency heads were present. They were always the same - the content of these meetings was closely guarded.

He was the last to arrive, and after the perfunctory greetings were over he opened his briefcase and pushed to one side. The Justice Department was in charge of the operation, but Anthony always found himself the object of most of the questions. Especially as nothing of use had yet been uncovered.

The Attorney General went around the room for a report from each head. Anthony noted that there was nothing of substance, in fact no developments at all. A few exchanges between the various attendees yielded nothing else of use, so once again the all eyes turned to him as the AG addressed him.

"General, is there anything you can add?"

He had expected it, and with nothing new from the others he used one of the responses he had prepared.

"As I understand it" he said, looking down at some papers he had placed in front of him purely for effect "the only thing of substance we have at this point is the one participant who was arrested. Is that correct?"

"That's it" admitted the AG.

"Has the FBI been able to learn anything from the bullets and cartridge cases at the scene? From the looks of it there quite a few."

The FBI director looked down at some papers, looking as he didn't want to be there any more than Anthony did.

"What we have, General, is four hundred forty six identical cases, .40 caliber, all from the same manufacturer. Ballistics tests on the bullets are still being compiled, but without a weapon to check against they're not of much use. They appear to be as identical as the cases, full metal jacket with a flat nose, as most .40 caliber does. We know from witness and some video they were being fired from rifles, or carbines in more common usage, in some cases, and from handguns in others. We haven't been able to identify the manufacturer and model or the carbines from the little video we have, and nothing on the handguns. So aside from the ammunition, we not be able to identify them at all."

"And approximately, how many, black-clad gunmen suddenly appeared from nowhere on a Friday afternoon and shot forty-eight people with identical guns and ammunition." Anthony said. "Like an army was assembled, equipped and trained for this. What else does that suggest?" he said to no one in particular, almost as if to himself.

"That's exactly what it looks like" Clarence Gresham, the FBI director, said.

"The black-clad gunmen disappeared in seconds after dispatching their targets" said Anthony. "There were getaway drivers, probably almost as many as shooters. In several cases vehicles were left behind. Nothing on them?"

"Nothing so far" said Gresham. "They were registered to several businesses which turned out to be dead ends - they had only been in business for a couple of years and none of the contact information led anywhere, just rented addresses which were dead ends. Apparently set up for this purpose."

"So this could have been in the works for two, or more, years." Anthony said. "Nothing but dead ends, tracks thoroughly covered. What are we hearing from the usual suspects? Clarence, you've interrogated a few by now, haven't you. And we have chatter to go through. Robert, anything at NSA?"

Robert Meyers was the NSA chief. Neither NSA or FBI had anything.

"Of course we're analyzing the traffic" he said "trying to pick up something useful."

"But surely the guys you watch all the time, the militia, these white, what do you call them..?"

"White supremacists" said Gresham. Anthony hated the term, knowing it was used to scapegoat the massive population of dissident citizens by associating them with a handful of mostly mentally ill malcontents. He spoke as he did as much to needle the director as anything else. "Of course. We have an eye on them at all times The odd thing is, they seem as mystified as anyone else. There's the usual crackpot claiming credit or blaming someone, but so far those have just that, crazy people making noise to hear themselves talk. But we are following every lead, no matter how unlikely."

"So at this point we have" said Anthony "exactly nothing."

He paused, without seeming to move his head scanning the faces. To forestall another useless exchange he asked "Have you been able to get anything from the one that was caught?"

"No" said Gresham. "He's not been cleared by the doctors yet, and when he is I'm fairly sure his lawyer will do everything he can to prevent it. I'd expect him to clam up, but you never know."

"I would suggest" said Anthony "that you find a way to separate him from his lawyer long enough to apply some of the appropriate drugs. It's a long shot but it's the only one you've got. Although you might start by getting a bug in his cell to see if he says anything while he's asleep. For that matter, you can listen in while he's with his lawyer, if you can bug wherever they meet to talk.   I know it's illegal but this is somewhat urgent, and in any case it's never stopped us before."

"We'll do that, of course." Gresham said. "But General, what are the prospects of this being a foreign actor. The amount of resources that must have gone into this would be considerable."

"The intelligence people are, I hope, on top of that." Anthony replied. He wasn't about to get in on that. The secretary could handle it if defense was involved. He couldn't see it happening though - of the two main suspects Russia was too busy with other problems and China was nearly to the point of having bought the country.

The AG looked over at the CIA chief.

"Nothing except some chatter after it happened. From the intercepts related to it, they seem to be as surprised as we are. The Russians are monitoring the situation. The seem more than anything else to be worried about instability. The Chinese more so, they, uh they seem to be worried about a threat to their business interests here."

Of course they to, Anthony thought. They're buying the country and don't want anything upsetting the schedule.

"All right then" said AG Simmons. "Unless there are further developments today, we'll.." He paused, looked down at his phone. "Just a moment, please." He went over to the door that was always locked with guards posted outside during their meetings. He stood in the open door for a few minutes conversing with someone who was standing outside, then came back to the table.

"I've just been handed a communication from the president" he said. "Give me just a minute." He sat down and read the paper, then sat looking at it for much longer that it could have taken to read it. At last he looked up.

"We're going to be here a while longer." he said.