Kingston was a true believer and faithful follower of Sanborn’s. He had been one of the first to be recruited by Sanborn while he was still Vice President. It was Kingston who had suggested the fake terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, including shooting down two passenger airliners. “We need America to be in a state of fear,” he had told Sanborn one night at a secret meeting shortly before President Hampton was assassinated. “A fearful country can be controlled more effectively. A person who is afraid will do anything to feel safe again, and that’ll give us the justification we need to put this country right without opposition.”
Kingston had also developed the idea of disguising HSF officers as gang members and thugs to break into houses as a way to search the homes of suspected traitors. In his mind, the ends justified the means, and he had no issues with the rapes, thefts, and acts of assault and brutality that his officers used in their work. Anything that roots out traitors is an acceptable practice.
The impeachment of Sanborn and the intervention of the military was something that Kingston hadn’t foreseen. Sanborn’s overthrow had come too fast to be detected or planned for. Kingston had barely gotten away from his office when the Army stormed the building to arrest everyone.
Now he and the followers who had managed to escape arrest were in hiding, but as he looked around his headquarters, he was pleased that this was no refugee camp. His men were cautious, but they were not “hiding out.” They were preparing. Kingston had a plan, and he was just about ready to put that plan into action. The hunted is about to become the hunter. We’re going on the offensive, and we will prevail.
Kingston’s headquarters was only one of the hiding places that the former HSF officers were using around the country. Arms, equipment, money, and supplies were spread out in several locations. Former HSF officers, who had been arrested and released due to a lack of evidence against them, were helping those who were still in hiding. Kingston had a network of hundreds of officers loyal to Sanborn’s ideals and committed to dealing with the traitors once and for all.
Kingston walked to the conference area where several other former HSF officers were waiting for him. “Report,” he demanded as he sat down at the head of the table.
“We’ve secured the floor plans of the primary target location and a list of those attending the functions so far. Several operatives have succeeded in infiltrating the staff at the primary target location. They’ll continue to feed us on-site intelligence information and will make sure that we can get in while making sure no one else can get out. We’ll control the target location by the time the main force arrives. Also, it looks like all of the targets we expected will be there, as well as a few more. We’re already moving our people into the area, and everything should be ready by the target date.”
“What about contingency plans?”
“We’re assuming that some of our operatives might be picked up before the target date. We have full redundancies for all key positions, and we’re also making sure that no one outside this building has the full picture of what’ll be happening. That way, even if a key operative is picked up, he can’t reveal enough to put the overall plan in jeopardy.”
“What if some of the key targets aren’t present when and where expected?”
“We’ll have them under surveillance, and we’ll move on them no matter where they are.”
“Do you know what equipment will be present when we strike?”
“More than we could ever need, sir.”
“Excellent,” Kingston replied. “Keep me posted. We must make absolutely certain that nothing goes wrong. Everything depends on our success.”
“We won’t fail, sir,” the men at the table shouted in unison as Kingston stood up and left the conference area.
Kingston felt comfortable with how the plans were progressing, but he couldn’t afford to get complacent or sloppy. There was too much riding on this plan. He thought about his men who had been executed by the military, either when his internment camps had been invaded or after the military tribunals had convicted his loyal officers of murder. I’ll avenge each of you. You’ll be remembered as patriots, and school children will sing songs to your memory when I’m through.
He stepped outside to get some fresh air. It had snowed the night before, and the air was bitterly cold. He watched his breath turn to steam as he looked around the woods that surrounded the warehouse. He watched the sentry patrols making their rounds. After a few minutes, he went back inside to get warm. The time for action has come. In the spring, our cause shall be reborn in fire and blood.
7
“Stop,” Ralph said, pointing to the corner of the video monitor. “Back that up and zoom in there.”
The intervention team was reviewing the traffic camera footage taken on the day that Billingsly spotted the two wanted HSF officers in town. Emily backed up the image and adjusted the zoom to focus in on an old green sedan.
“Is that the car you saw one of them getting into?” Ralph asked Billingsly.
“Yes, that’s the car, and that’s the right license plate.”
“OK. Emily, let’s see where that car went.”
Emily started the tedious process of determining which traffic cameras the green sedan would have passed based on the direction it was traveling. The car was spotted several times from a number of different camera angles. It had come into town on one road, made one stop, and left town on the same road it came in on. She searched for the car used by the other HSF officer that Billingsly had spotted and discovered that it had followed essentially the same route as the green sedan.
Once Emily had identified the traffic cameras with the best views of the two cars entering and leaving town, she sped through the footage taken each day afterwards to see if the cars had traveled that road more than once. After several hours, the team had seen the cars entering and leaving town by that same road two to three times a week – always at approximately the same time.
“The green sedan comes into town just before 10:30 and turns north here,” Emily said, pointing to an intersection on her map. “The other car comes into town just after 11:15, goes straight through that intersection, and turns south one block later. Both cars leave approximately 90 minutes after they arrive.”
“Where do we lose them?” Ralph asked.
Emily pointed to her map. “When they reach this point, they’re past the point where any traffic cameras are set up. I think we have two options. One, we plant more cameras along this road at every intersection so we can see where they get on and off. Two, we have teams along this road to follow them. I think the cameras are safer in case they’re watching for a tail, but we need to be careful in case they’re also watching the road for anyone planting surveillance equipment.”
“I agree. How would you handle that?”
Emily thought about it for a moment. “What if we got some of those yard signs that advertised a car or a trailer for sale? I could mount cameras on those. It would look perfectly normal for someone to be stopping on the side of the road and sticking signs in the ground.” She pointed to the screen. “There are already dozens of signs like that along the road already. No one would think twice about a few more.”
“When can you have the cameras
