“Seems to me you’ve picked up some of that spark,” Connor suggested.
Dan grinned. “Don’t feel like I’m running on all cylinders this morning.”
“That’s understandable. Let’s get to the heart of the matter. California’s in flames and has been for the past seventy-two hours. It’s coming back under control, but there are those who keep adding fuel and fanning the fires, and I’m not talking about the politicians, although they certainly do their part-in their own self-interest, of course.”
Dan looked at Nicole and then smiled directly at Connor. Pug took the cue.
“Present company excepted, of course,” he said, apparently remembering Dan’s newly acquired legislative role. Nicole and Dan starting laughing.
“Oops,” Pug replied, easing the sub-surface tension present since his arrival. “Dan, in all seriousness, we need to be candid with each other this morning. I want to talk to you about recent events, California’s future, your future-in short, I’ve come to ask for your help.”
“Colonel, we’re rapidly moving down opposite tracks.”
“I know-that’s the problem. We should be on the same track, don’t you think?”
“I did, Colonel, but look what happened on Friday-the insertion of that level of federal troops and the needless bloodshed. Was that necessary?”
“Most of the blood came from the 82nd Airborne.”
“Colonel, it doesn’t matter who was killed, they were all Americans,” Dan said, quickly realizing the unintended corollary of his reference.
“Exactly,” Connor said softly. “They were all Americans. Isn’t that the best explanation for why we need to work together? I’m here to ask you to help us all remain Americans.”
“Colonel Connor, perhaps you should tell me exactly what it is you’re suggesting.”
Pug glanced at Nicole, took a sip of his coffee, and settled back into his chair. “Several months ago, the president formed a small investigative task force to look into the origins of the California secession movement. A diverse group of intelligence and law enforcement professionals were assigned to that task force, including a couple of special agents from the FBI.”
Connor hesitated briefly as Dan looked at Nicole, shaking his head slowly, side to side.
“Nicole,” Dan asked, “when will you stop amazing me?”
“Never, I hope,” she replied. “Truly, Dan, I’ve had a real hard time with this, and I’ve explained it all to Colonel Connor on several occasions, but, well, I just was required to keep quiet. Dan,” she said, apprehensively, “it doesn’t mean that-”
Dan reached for her hand and kissed the back of it before looking to Connor.
“You were saying, Pug.”
“Nicole’s right, Dan. I thought at one point I’d lose her, because she felt she was betraying the confidence the two of you were developing, but we’ve got to move beyond that. I’m asking you to be a part of our team, unofficially.”
“And how does one become part of a president’s task force ‘unofficially,’ Colonel? Isn’t that a bit like being sort of pregnant?”
“Yeah, I guess it is,” Connor replied, nodding his head in agreement. “You’re in or you’re out, right?”
Dan stood and moved to the window of his apartment, standing quietly for a moment, staring out over the campus of the University of California at Davis. He turned back toward Pug and Nicole. “Colonel, like it or not, California is on the path to separation. You’re appealing to my loyalty to America, which, if events continue, will make me a traitor to California. That’s not much of a choice-condemned if I do and condemned if I don’t.”
“You’re right, except for one issue about which you, and most others, are unaware.”
Dan raised his eyebrows and stared at Nicole.
She raised her hands in mock surrender. “Not guilty. Well, maybe a little guilty,” she said sheepishly. “It’s really serious business, Dan, and I don’t mean to make light of it.” Nicole looked toward Connor, who nodded.
“Nicole, I think it’s time for you to bare your soul,” Connor said.
“Since early on, my FBI assignment has been to investigate the California militia units. That was part of the reason I was assigned to Colonel Connor’s task force. Last year, I was called in on an apparent drug overdose by the Director of Elections for the state of California. You may remember the news story-it was the Phelps case. In the course of the investigation, it became apparent that it was a murder, but the Sacramento police accepted it as a straight overdose. Then a few months ago, I was called by the acting director-a woman I had questioned back in the Phelps case. She wanted to talk to me, but I was out of the office for a few days, and she was told to call back on Monday. She was murdered less than forty-eight hours after calling my office, but before she had a chance to talk to me. Another lower-level employee of the elections office was found dead in the trunk of her car. The point is, Dan, that we have sufficient reason to believe that the California elections have been tampered with, and if so, well, you can jump to the obvious conclusion yourself. We think that what the public sees as overwhelming support for secession is nothing but the result of an engineered election.”
Dan faced back toward the window and continued to look out at the campus grounds, now beginning to fill with students enroute to their early morning classes.
“Let’s assume for a moment that what you say is true.” He swiveled around, smiling at Nicole, not wanting to damage their relationship by refuting her analysis. “Then we have to recognize that even if the origins were fallacious, public support has been garnered, and the momentum is growing. In fact, if the legislative pollsters are right, it’s downright strong. Friday’s bloodbath did nothing to stem the growth of that support.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Connor interjected, “and if we don’t do something to curtail that growth, it will just grow stronger. Dan, more than one political movement had its origins in deception and its end result in success for the originators. How do you think the Tories felt when the radicals-Sam Adams, Revere, and the others-began their diatribe against the Crown? That’s what they were then, radicals and traitors to their country. They became heroes later, didn’t they?”
“And you’re asking me to assume the same role?”
“Even though it might seem farfetched to you, I believe devious people are at work right now, and we need to step in.”
“What people are we talking about, Colonel?”
“Tell him the rest, Nicole,” Connor said.
Nicole held out her hand. Dan came and resumed his seat next to her on the couch.
“Dan, we had an agent in the Shasta Brigade for almost a year-that’s how I knew you weren’t part of the group. He was killed in the ATF ambush, although no one knows that outside of the task force. We succeeded in getting someone else inside two months ago, and he has advised that representatives of the brigade will be coming to see you shortly.”
“Me?” Dan asked.
“Dan,” Connor said, “look at it from their point of view. You’re going to write the constitution for this rebel nation. Not only are you akin to Adams and Revere, but they see you as a James Madison figure, much as Senator Turner portrayed you in his diatribe last week in Modesto. These boys want to assure themselves that when you write this document, you’ll protect and, in line with their desires, strengthen their second amendment right to bear arms. They want to ensure you’ll write it up to their liking. You’re gonna be their main man.”
“And if I don’t listen to them, or refuse to go along with their demands?”
“It’s show-time for them. No one will be allowed to stand in their way, and as they see it, ten years from now they’ll all be heroes in the same sense as the colonial Minutemen at Concord and Lexington. How they achieved their objectives will be lost in translation.”