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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Blood on the Highway

(Source)
Corporal Maria Campos of the Maryland State Police glanced at the small box truck as it drove by, the driver had hit his brakes and she thought that she hadn't seen any brake lights. What the heck, she thought, it's a slow day, maybe I just missed seeing the lights. She pulled out and followed the truck which was a few cars ahead of her.

She decided to radio in, "Dispatch, Campos on National Pike NE, I've got a possible traffic stop. Possible no brake lights on a rental truck."

"You bored, Corporal?"

Campos chuckled, "Yeah, something like that. I just passed Town Hill Bed and Breakfast. I'm going to follow this guy for a bit."

After that she give dispatch the truck's tag number and the name of the rental company. There were no other cars between her and the truck, so she stayed back a ways. No sense making the driver nervous.


"That f**king trooper is still back there, Al. Stay within the speed limit, okay? I don't want to get stopped." Morgan kept looking in the rear view mirror on his side, the trooper was playing it cool, but what were they doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

Neither man realized that the wire to their brake lights had been severed. Rust and poor maintenance had weakened the wire. Rossi had hit a pothole leaving Hancock, Maryland where they'd stopped to eat and fuel the truck. That's all it had taken to snap the wire's tenuous connection to the brake lights.

As they headed deeper into the forest they came up on a rather sharp curve, naturally Rossi tapped his brakes.


Campos saw the truck slow down, no brake lights. She was in a good mood, she'd pull the truck over but just to give the driver a warning. Some of these rental companies weren't too keen on maintenance, after all, that cost money. Not really the renter's fault.

The truck went around the corner, it slowed further, no doubt the driver had seen Campos' light bar flashing. She slowed and pulled up behind the vehicle, her vehicle out in the roadway somewhat to serve as a barrier between her and oncoming traffic. Which was nonexistent at the moment.


"Why are we being stopped?" Their was a small note of panic in Rossi's voice. Though they could probably explain away the ten cases of MREs¹ in the back, Rossi would rather not have to. That and the fact that both men were armed.

"Don't panic, Al. There's nothing to worry about." Morgan's Sig Sauer was in his hand, ready to use.


Campos approached the vehicle carefully, she had one hand on her service pistol and she was focused on the job at hand. She saw the driver's window come down, as she looked into the cab, she saw two men.

"Good morning, Sir. Did you know that you had a burnt out ..."

She saw a terribly bright flash from the inside of the cab, then her hand went to the left side of her face. Part of her cheek and most of her ear were gone, she was bleeding badly as she staggered away from the truck.


"Jesus Jack, what the f**k!" Rossi had his hands clapped to his ears, Morgan's pistol going off had startled him and with it so close to his face, its discharge had deafened him. His face felt hot, the bullet which had hit Corporal Campos in the face had passed less than six inches from his own face.

Morgan was out of the truck, his weapon aimed at the trooper on the ground. He thought, she's a game one, she's trying to draw her weapon. Huh, a female cop, he thought for a split second. Then he shot, and killed, Corporal Campos.

"Al, get your ass out of the truck and help me." Morgan was dragging the dead trooper out of the road.

Rossi shook his head to try and clear it, he looked at Morgan whose mouth was moving. Then he realized what had just happened. That f**king Morgan had just killed a cop. He put the truck in gear, then realized that driving away would solve nothing. That insane bastard would probably use the cop car to run him down. So he took the truck out of gear and got out.

He saw Morgan dragging the body into the woods. Rossi frantically looked around for oncoming traffic, houses nearby, nothing. Then he jogged over to Morgan who was coming up out of the woods.

"Get back in the truck and drive ahead for a ways. I'll follow in the trooper's car, we need to find a place to ditch it. Go on, go now."

Morgan watched as Rossi got in the truck. He found the switch to turn off the car's light bar, then watched Rossi roll forward a bit, stop, then pull out onto the road.

As Morgan followed, he noticed that the truck's brake lights hadn't come on.

"Ah, shit," was all he could think to say. That's why they'd been stopped.

(Source)
Captain Choe watched the soldier from the Old Guard as he paced back in forth in front of the tomb. This place always calmed him and reminded him why he had devoted his life to the service of his country.

He was worried about meeting this CIA man here. It made him feel somewhat dirty. But it was in the open and he felt safe here. He sat up straighter, a man was coming towards him, wearing sunglasses. He rather looked like a Fed with those sunglasses, khaki pants, and polo shirt. At least what he thought a Fed would look like.

But the man passed him and met up with a woman with two small children waiting for him in the seating area. Choe allowed himself a slight grin, maybe the guy was a Fed, but not "his" Fed.

He checked his watch, he'd told the guy 0730, it was 0735. He didn't think the guy would be late. Then a voice behind him spoke.

"I'm not late, I've been here for a while now, watching you. I'm satisfied that you're alone. I am too."

The man stepped down from behind Choe and sat down next to the Navy man. "I'm guessing Chapman vouched for me?"

"She did, said you worked down the hallway from her over at Homeland."

"Yes, and no. I'm on temporary assignment from the Central Intelligence Agency."

Choe looked at the man, "It's against the law for the CIA to operate inside the U.S."

"Which is why I'm seconded to Homeland. Gives me a patina of legality."

The man continued, "I've heard that you're a pretty sharp fellow, Admiral."

"Still a Captain, I'm just a Rear Admiral (Select) at the moment."

"I see that you're precise as well. You do know what's going on in the country right now, don't you?"

"I do, SWAT teams being ambushed, rumors of the FBI doing the bidding of their political masters and not the job they were formed to do."

"I was at that ambush."

Choe turned and looked sharply at the man. "What did you say?" Choe's words were clipped and harsh.

"I'm on the inside of the cabal which is plotting a massive bloodbath to be inflicted on agents of the Federal government and local law enforcement. There are elements in the government, you may have noticed, that ignore the Constitution. Particularly the Second Amendment. They figure if they can generate a big enough public outcry ..."

Choe finished for him, "Then your average Joe Citizen won't care if the government cracks down on gunowners and their supporters."

"Yes Sir, buckle up and prepare for the police state. It's what they want."

Choe lowered his head and looked sad, "There's flag officers in the Pentagon who want the same thing. They really believe that only the military should be armed. It's what would be dictators dream of."

"Are you in?"

"In? In to what?"

"Stopping them."

"How?"

"Not today, Sir. We'll talk again, soon."

With those words, Ephraim Johansen got up and headed back down the hill to catch the Metro back to DC.

Leaving Alex Choe wondering what he had gotten himself in to.



38 comments:

  1. After reading this post I'm reminded of Russian nesting dolls............ :)

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    1. And it has confused me somewhat. The story bounces around a bit and I may need to ask for some closed captioning for the plot impaired.

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    2. I like to bounce around, keeps the reader on his/her toes.

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  2. And the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. The TB infested youth and the Archduke whose driver took the wrong turn.

    The more complex the more things go astray.

    Some Rude Beast lurches into the fray.

    The Second Coming by Yeats springs to mind.

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  3. Oh my. For want of a nail ... brake light wire ... it is upon them. Most well twisted.

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    1. It's the little things that get ya!

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    2. That and being STUPID. If I was Rossi, I'd put that idiot Morgan down at first opportunity.
      Boat Guy

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    3. Rossi is starting to regret his involvement in all this.

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    4. If one sets out to do evil deeds in a vehicle, check every detail. Current plates, registration, insurance, and driver's license, headlights, turn and brake lights, tire pressures. Sober as a judge. And drive like you are doing a road test with the tester looking over your shoulder.

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    5. That's the one thing about most criminals, and for all his past record, Jack Morgan is a criminal at this point, they are not real careful. People who don't commit crimes would think of that, those who do, typically don't. Which is why most criminals get caught,

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    6. I am one of law-abiding innocent ones. A friend pointed out that I had been driving with expired plates for seven months. Was at the MN DMV when they opened the next morning. And there was a County deputy that lives three houses up the street that drove past my car with plates on full display at least twice a day all that time and never noticed.

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    7. God watches over the innocent.

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  4. You sure have my attention! I'm glad you made reference to the noise of a hand gun fired in a vehicle...

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    1. When I wrote that I remembered an episode of The Sopranos where that happened.

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    2. Even a small (.380) handgun is REALLY loud if you're trying to save the brass (or so I've heard)...

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    3. It happened for real when Noor, a diversity hire at Minneapolis PD, got spooked enough that without warning he shot Justine Diamond. Seated in the squad, across the face of his partner.

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    4. A close second for loudest noise possibly went to a friend who was going to chuck a cherry bomb out of car at another friend. All went according to plan, except he forgot to roll down the window.

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    5. Rick - Damn, that's pretty bad for someone who has allegedly been "trained."

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  5. Why traffic stops are never "routine." And not from domestic/government terrorists, just ordinary street thugs.

    The mural Muse is working on fits with some of my "conspiracy theories" I've developed over the past decade or so, too many convenient mass murders, riots, etc. with certain parties in control. Лаврентий Павлович и Иосиф Виссарионович were pikers compared to what we are seeing now. See also my quote from Judge Kozinski yestereday.

    We had a judge in NY about a week ago (or within the last month, anyway) tell an attorney to not bring up the Second Amendment because, ""Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.." Her Honor needs to be removed from the bench and be disbarred. Much like in 2016 in California, "In testimony before the committee on March 15, GOC’s Executive Director Sam Paredes brought up the constitutionality of AB 1695** (Bonta-D) and Jones Sawyer arrogantly dismissed the issue as if it were an annoying little fly. Jones-Sawyer proclaimed “the Legislature sometimes ignores whether or not it’s constitutional or not – we go ahead and make laws because we’re California and we do it anyways….” You can go to Youtube and find the video of him saying that.

    "The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections."

    : Robert H. Jackson, US Supreme Court Justice West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

    "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them." Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436, 491.

    "The claim and exercise of a constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime." Miller v. US, 230 F 486, at 489.

    “There can be no sanction or penalty imposed upon one because of this exercise of constitutional rights." Sherer v. Cullen, 481 F 946


    No state shall convert a liberty into a license, and charge a fee therefore." (Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105)

    If a state converts a right into a privilege, the citizen can ignore the license and fee and engage in the right with impunity." (Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, Alabama, 373 U.S. 262

    Constitutional rights may not be infringed simply because the majority of the people choose that they be. (Westbrook v. Mihaly 2 C3d 756)

    I wish Madison had put this in the Constitution: ""If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."
    ~James Madison

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    1. They keep doing it because big money wants it that way. And we let them. Vote ALL OF THEM out.

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    2. The PARTY of Orville's 1984 is here. Even has it's 2 minutes of hate for Emmanual Goldstein aka Trump.

      Vote them out, how'd that work for the Colonials?

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    3. They had no vote. But I see your point.

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    4. To misquote Vin, "They voted withlead, friend."

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    5. Not the same, and you know it.

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    6. Beg to differ, Sarge. The cartridge box may be the last one in the series, but the Founders wisely provided for it's employment.
      Boat Guy

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    7. But it's awfully messy, which was my point. Very much a last resort.

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    8. War should always be the last resort.

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    9. "Not the same, and you know it."

      See Kozinski's dissenting opinion posted yesterday. A "doomsday provision."

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    10. Yes, but it's easy to talk about it, it's another thing altogether to actually do it. The current crop of politicians think we won't. I'm not so sure we will, if we have to.

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  6. The temptation to over-react when one's nerves are on edge is always there, let alone an accident.

    To Htom's comment above, often major events find their beginnings in the most minor of things.

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    1. Like Harry Heth's division looking for shoes ...

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  7. Setting a scene at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington brought back memories of an excellent book by Senator Tom Cotton. "Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery."

    Cotton is a veteran and served a tour with the 3rd Infantry (Old Guard) in between tours in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, and Afghanistan on a Provincial Reconstruction team. He earned a Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman Badge and Ranger Tab, so he "seen the elephant." His book is very enlightening about the rigors of duty at Arlington, and the training, preparation and dedication of the troops (and officers) there, including the honors rendered upon arrival of remains at Dover (no need to check your watch, buttholes). The fact that some people still have such respect and reverence for history and our troops who have served is a very bright spot in an otherwise pretty dreary world.

    I highly recommend it- less than $5 including shipping on Abebooks.com
    John Blackshoe

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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