Revolt: the book

In 1996-1997, while working as a veteran detective on an anti-crime task force in my police department I wrote articles for the American Enterprise Institute magazine in Washington.  During the same time I wrote a draft manuscript in which the plot consisted of a single question.  “What if?”  What if the President of the United States was a sleeper agent for the Soviet Union?   What if the Soviet Union, no longer communist, was unaware or worse didn’t want him to activate?  What if the President decided this was the time to take the country over and remold it into his vision of what America should be?  And what if the citizens of the United States had become conditioned not to care?

The plot of the book centers on a small isolated town in Idaho.  Farmers and ranchers, all honest hardworking men and women begin to make a stand against a government gone out of control.  But unknown to them, they are playing into a trap long planned by a small group of men in Washington D.C. and Moscow.   Assisted by two veteran police officers, the townspeople begin to resist the increasingly violent assaults against their town.  The book is packed with action with events taking place across the world; from the secret archives of the KGB, to behind closed doors of the White House, to battles in the remote mountains of Idaho. The hero of the book is a veteran detective from Florida, who years earlier encountered another government operation gone wrong.  That case cost him his wife, and changed him forever.

Twelve years later, in 2008, the financial bubble finally burst causing trillions of dollars to be lost; people panicked, savings were destroyed and companies teetered on extinction.   The government quickly stepped in and for the first time in history began to control large segments of the economy directly, with plans to take over more.  Like many of the fifty nine million people who voted for less government in the last election, I found myself unsure of our future.   I began to wonder if the question was no longer “What if?” but now simply, “when.”  Many, many citizens have an unconscious fear haunting them; they feel something has gone horribly wrong with their nation.  The book addresses those fears.  I believe that millions of Americans will find the book exciting and full of hope as it reminds us that we are, after all, different than the rest of the world, we are Americans.

Before Crawford and James reached Rockledge with their prisoner, Childs and Roberts had already had a big day.  Early in the morning in a clearing just outside town, they assembled about one hundred and fifty men of all ages.  The men were dressed in various types of hunting gear and old military fatigues collected from old trunks and backroom closets; soldiers may finish their tour, but they never leave their past.  Roberts watched them as they stood either silent or holding quiet conversations between them.  They were armed with all types of weapons: shotguns, semi auto rifles, and bolt action rifles with scopes.  Even Tom Barns outfitted himself in his favorite deer hunting camouflage bib overalls. Barns held his old double barrel loosely in his arms as he quietly talked to the man next to him.

At the head of the group, Roberts climbed up on a crate somebody had dragged out and began to speak.  “Gentlemen, you have chosen to be here today for a number of reasons.  Some of you are here because you are pissed.  Some because you feel the government must be reined in.  Some here because this is your land and be damned if anyone is going to take it from you.”  There were quite a number of affirmative nods from the crowd.  “And some of you are here because your friend or your family is here, and you feel obligated to follow.”  Roberts paused.  “Whatever your reason, I feel that I must tell you what you are up against.”  He turned and waved his hand towards Childs standing behind him.  “This is John Childs.  Some of you might know him, others might not.  John has seen more combat than most of us ever dreamed of.  He has scouted the area around our town and has something to share with you.  Before he gets into the details, let me tell you in short what is happening.  I…we believe that the situation here was not an accident gotten out of hand.  It is part of a plan bigger than we may even suspect.  The problem is that no one but us seems to believe it.  I fear that we are going to be made an example of and that means that those people wanting to make that example are coming here.  They aren’t going to be friendly, and I don’t think they will be looking for prisoners.  You see, the trouble with prisoners is that sooner or later they get to tell their side of the story.

“Like Waco.”  A man shouted from the crowd.  Roberts recognized the man as being from an isolated ranch north of town.  Roberts remembered him as pulling no punches as to how he felt about the intruding government.

Roberts held up his hand.  “I am not sure if the two can be compared.  But the end result may be the same.  The fact we can’t communicate with the outside world is no accident.  I believe somebody only wants one side of the story told… and that is their side.”  Roberts looked at the crowd of men.  He had their total attention now.  “Gentlemen, most of you have known me for better than fifteen years.  Some of you have known me since I was a kid.  I’m not afraid to say I’m a little scared.  This is very serious.  The only way I can see us getting out of this in one piece is to hold together.  We have to outlast them and keep them off of us until the truth gets out.  We are working on that right now.   John here will be in charge of the tactical commands.  He has already gotten with a few of you that are helping with the roadblocks.  One of them reported back that there is some more activity on the north road.”  Roberts looked at the men, his jaw set in grim resolve.  “Whatever is going to happen may happen soon.  Nobody is going to be upset if any of you decided to sit this out.  But if you stay, mean it.  We can’t afford to have anyone bugging out at the last minute.”

Roberts waited for someone to speak.  Finally, a voice came from an old rancher standing in the back.  “Hank, you mind getting down?  We need to get started, and time’s a wasting.”  The crowd laughed at the comment.  Roberts smiled.  He had to say what he did, but he knew in his heart there would be no quitters in this crowd. It is their land after all.  Isn’t that the point?

When I wrote the book I asked myself how could you create enough fear to make people willing to let the government control their lives in exchange for “security.”  First the government would have to create an enemy.  Then it would have to create an incident proving the threat the enemy poses.

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It was the Friday morning rush hour in the downtown New York subway.   People crowded together as they pushed and prodded their way along the subway platform.  The people were too concerned about their own problems to have noticed two dark haired men put down identical paper bags at each end of the platform near the exits.  The two men then slowly worked their way out to the stairs leading to the surface.  As they met at the top one man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small radio transmitter.  He flipped a switch and noted the red light went on as expected.  He lifted a safety cover over another switch and flipped it up.  Immediately, two low level explosions could be heard coming from the subway followed by screams.  The two men walked quickly away from the location before the gas could make its way to the surface.  A lethal cloud of nerve gas quickly filled the platform killing hundreds of men, women and children.   Within minutes a recorded voice would call the local NBC affiliate and claim responsibility for the attack.  It would say that the battle for freedom had started.  The militias had declared war.