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Praetorium Honoris

Friday, May 10, 2024

Who Can You Trust?

(Source)
Wilt Thompson was sitting in his little office at the Rod and Gun Club sipping a cup of coffee he'd just poured from his Thermos. He looked out towards the garage area when the small entry door next to the bigger garage door opened. It was Willy Batchelor and Leroy Beardsley, his second in command and his company sergeant major.

Batchelor had actually been a captain in the Rangers, Beardsley had retired as a Gunnery Sergeant. Batchelor had left the Army early after a series of terrible assignments and disagreements with those in command. To say that he was something of a loose cannon in those days was an understatement. But, as Beardsley liked to say, "Willy was all growed up now." He took his current duties very seriously.

Thompson nodded when the men came into the office and asked, "So, are the Feebs all set up out there?"

Beardsley chuckled as he nodded his head. "Yup, and we're pretty sure they have no clue that we made them soon as they parked their van."

Batchelor looked around, "So are we gonna wait for Morgan and Johansen?"

Thompson said, "Nope, they weren't invited."

That got a raised eyebrow from Beardsley and a "What the f ..." from Batchelor.

Thompson continued, "Something about those two just doesn't feel right. Particularly Johansen."

"Feds?" Beardsley asked.

"Maybe, I just don't know. I just feel that there are certain aspects of this operation that they shouldn't be privy to."

"Like?" Batchelor prompted.

"We've got a real shipment going into the Green Ridge area this Saturday and ..."

Thompson paused and looked around the building with a questioning look.

"I swept the place this morning, the Feebs haven't left their van, and I know that no one other than us three have been in here since Friday. We're clean."

Thompson resumed what he was saying, "Like I said, a real shipment is coming in Saturday, five crates of 7.62 ammo, some of it is already belted, and a case of G3s.¹"

"I thought we were going to be using M4s.²" Batchelor protested.

Beardsley chuckled, "Oh, we've got those as well, they ain't gonna be in the bait shipment. We're using those." He looked at Thompson, "Right?"

"We've got those, a couple of M60s, I might be able to get a couple of 60mm mortars as well. Guy in the West Virginia National Guard owes me money. A lot of money." Thompson answered.

"What are we gonna do about Johansen and Morgan, what about that Italian guy, Rosie or something?" Batchelor asked.

"You mean Rossi. He's a friend of Morgan, I don't think he likes Johansen." Thompson finished his coffee, then asked, "Who's watching the Feebs?"

"Billy Jones is on the monitors down at the maintenance shed." Beardsley answered.

"Is he armed?"

"Yup, sidearm and there's a scoped rifle up in the loft, with the cameras. Case the Feebs need to be put down."

"Okay. Let's close up shop for now. I'm sleeping here, I got here before the Feebs. Fridge is stocked. You guys head out, make it look like we're done for the weekend."

"What if the Feebs decide to try and get in here?" Batchelor was a little worried.

"If anything, they'll be interested in the big garage, the place where trucks can be loaded and unloaded out of sight. That will be their target. If they visit here, they won't find anything. Except me, tucked in for the night." He held up a bottle of whiskey.

"Before I go to bed, I'll make it look like I tied one on and decided to crash here."


While Ephraim Johansen had an office at the St. Elizabeth's Campus, and everyone at DHS thought he was an employee of DHS, in reality he was a full-time employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.

For months the CIA had been hearing rumors of dirty business going on at the FBI. People were recruited to protest at certain sensitive locations, who were then arrested by the Bureau and then prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Using evidence manufactured by the Bureau. It was almost as if the Bureau no longer cared about actual crime but were under orders to manufacture plots against the U.S. government.

Certain circles within the CIA were beginning to refer to the FBI as the Stasi.³ While there were still many Special Agents who were hard working and loyal to their oaths, many of the higher ups, the political appointees, were as dirty as their masters in the Administration. No one was saying the rot went straight to the Oval Office, but many believed that those around the President were traitors, in the pay of foreign billionaires.

Johansen had been planted at DHS where he'd met Jack Morgan. Morgan wasn't a direct employee of any Federal Agency in DC, he was a contractor, a "hired gun" as Rossi put it. It was hard to tell whose side Morgan was on. But the lack of remorse he'd shown for gunning down the Park Service SWAT team was a clue.

Johansen turned his chair and looked out his window, where he could see the side of the building next door and not much else. There was a group at the FBI who thought he worked for them, they were the ones behind this current mess. They wanted a big splash, cause an uproar to cause a groundswell of outrage against gun owners and the Second Amendment. As his contact had said, "Shed enough blood and we can convince the sheep that no one should have a gun unless they're military or police."

Johansen felt a chill run up his spine when he remembered that. His boss at the Agency, the man who knew his real identity and his real mission, had pointed out that this sort of nonsense needed to be exposed. A disarmed populace was fodder for the would-be dictators of what they called "The New World Order." Johansen's boss, and Johansen himself, wanted to see those people at the end of a rope. Time was running out.

Could he trust Morgan? He really didn't think so.

He was walking a knife edge, one false move and neither side would trust him. Johansen knew that his death would solve problems for quite a few people. What was his next, best move?

His phone rang, he picked it up, "Johansen, DHS."

"My name is Alex, ask Beth about me. Don't speak, meet me at the Tomb of the Unknowns, tomorrow morning, 0730."

The phone went dead, he got up and went down the hall to Chapman's office. She was in, he tapped on the door.


She knew they were taking a huge risk, but time was running out. She could sense it, so could Captain Choe. He'd made some discrete inquiries around town. A man he knew from the Navy at CIA said two words to him, "Trust Ephraim."

Thinking that to be some sort of Biblical reference, he found nothing relevant in the Bible. So he mentioned it to Chapman.

"Really?" her eyebrows went up so far Choe thought they'd disappear under her hairline.

"You get the reference?" he seemed more puzzled than before.

"Yes Sir, it's a guy. Let's go for a walk."

When Choe returned to his office at the Pentagon, really just a desk in an small alcove shared with six other captains, he thought long and hard about what to do. Eventually he decided, he'd been a destroyer captain in his youth, many weren't known for their daring and dash, Choe was an exception. Which is why most of his contemporaries were retired or otherwise beached.

"Going home early Bob, my stomach is wrecked. Damn Thai food got me again."

Captain Bob Cromwell looked up, "Geez, Alex, what kind of Korean can't handle spicy food?"

"The third generation kind I guess. I'll be in late tomorrow, I've got a meeting. Probably be in around ten or eleven." Choe headed for the door.

Cromwell waved him out then went back to work on the Power Point presentation his boss wanted by close of business. He had decided that if the Navy couldn't find him a billet at sea, then he would put his papers in. He was heartily sick of the puzzle palace.


Choe made a phone call on his way off the lot. He had decided to roll the dice. He'd talk to this Johansen. Maybe he was on the same team as Choe. One way or the other, he needed to know.




¹ The Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle, used by the Bundeswehr.
² A 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed carbine developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle.
³ Stasi = Staatsicherheit, State Security, the secret police of the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik, the DDR, communist East Germany.

32 comments:

  1. I love how the plot thickens and twists!
    irontomflint

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  2. Who do you trust, the deepest question. We're not talking about loss of employment-promotions here. We are talking about loss of freedom and life to you, your family, and those unluckily enough to be in your cell phone records. Yes, throw away phones and broken chips, whatever.

    Once you "Been Taken" your "Real Life" is exposed. The "Real Cellphones" (Cellphone records are forever AND SEARCHABLE) are known and the "Root out the REST" occurs. DOXXing on steriods.

    Who do you trust. And do you trust the opinions of the trustworthiness of that fellow?

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    1. There is no going back, even if you win. Things are changed, often forever.

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  3. Am eager to read this plot Sarge although too much of it disgusts me.........talk about conflicts. Guess that means you're doing good as an author......... :)

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    1. I'm having that same inner struggle as I write it.

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  4. “My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed—where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
    Fortunately, the Framers were wise enough to entrench the right of the people to keep and bear arms within our constitutional structure. The purpose and importance of that right was still fresh in their minds, and they spelled it out clearly so it would not be forgotten. Despite the panel’s mighty struggle to erase these words, they remain, and the people themselves can read what they say plainly enough:
    A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
    The sheer ponderousness of the panel’s opinion—the mountain of verbiage it must deploy to explain away these fourteen short words of constitutional text—refutes its thesis far more convincingly than anything I might say. The panel’s labored SILVEIRA v. LOCKYER 5983 effort to smother the Second Amendment by sheer body weight has all the grace of a sumo wrestler trying to kill a rattlesnake by sitting on it—and is just as likely to succeed.” KOZINSKI, JUDGE ALEX, Silviera v. Lockyer, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, 2003 Dissenting Opinion.

    Cromwell, eh? Interesting choice of name for a character. Foreshadowing?

    You, sir, have a knack for seeming to make things clearer while muddying the waters more.

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    Replies
    1. All too often those making the mistakes don't know their history at all.

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    2. Whereas Kozinski was born in 1950 to parents who survived concentration camps. The "Early Life" section is interesting:
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Kozinski

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    3. He didn't just study history, he lived it!

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  5. The CIA guy is spying on the FBI who are working for the foreign billionaires and want the people disarmed... ?

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    Replies
    1. There is a certain cabal in the Administration who are working for the foreign billionaires. They, in their turn, are using certain fellow travelers within the Bureau to push their agenda. Sound familiar?

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  6. Ahh. Twisting and turning, your muse builds an enticing trap. Who do you trust? Who should you trust?

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  7. Sarge, wherever the Muse went on vacation, she is back with a vengeance.

    Who can you trust indeed? As Elrond noted at the White Council, our list of allies grows thin.

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  8. Wow, Sarge! Nice twists!
    I find it supremely ironic that the CIA might turn into a savior, but I suppose it COULD happen; there may still be some Patriots, there, though they're probably sad people. The twists are well done; I was suspicious of Ephraim, and the Tidewater goobers, are showing an acumen I'd hoped they'd have.
    Trust is a very fungible thing in these times; it only takes one betrayal, and one should always be prepared for such from *nearly* any corner. Speaking of irony; you must still trust *some* people, but as the memorable poster from DIA read " In order to betray, you must first be trusted"
    Boat Guy

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    Replies
    1. That last sentence is heartbreaking, sounds like something Lenin or Stalin would believe.

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  9. Well, we know for certain that the FEEBs manufacture evidence as shown in the evidence planting in Mar a Lago. And while there many Agents who are hard working and loyal, they don't speak out or refuse the clearly illegal orders. The stuff they're doing to J6 folks and that catholic family is criminal. https://cmsedit.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2023/february/my-children-were-screaming-houck-family-recalls-fbi-act-of-terror-in-new-doc-about-home-raid

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    1. And the manufactured evidence against several Amish farmers over... milk.

      Crazy times.

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    2. Tuna - Who says I don't pay attention to what passes for "news" these days.

      And make no mistake, there is a war against Christianity going on. As was foreseen.

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    3. Beans - Milk, a strategic commodity I guess. Effing Federal overreach.

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  10. I'm enjoying this story. What is disturbing is a question of how much is fiction?

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    Replies
    1. A lot of it is based upon what's happening around the country.

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  11. Just when we get our minds set, OAFS throws us a curve ball.

    Only problem is, these days, the CIA is as bad as the FBI is as bad as the NSA is as bad as...

    Makes me wonder if there are any true patriots left in government. Between Obama and the Deep State and Covid, a lot of good people have been let go, forced out,

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    1. We don't know much about the CIA, but the FBI is skating close to actually being the Stasi. The Deep State has much to answer for.

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    2. Skating close? They engaged in a full-fledged coup against a freely elected president, and then worked tirelessly in framing him after he stepped down and then cooked the evidence. How much more Stasi can you get, short of shooting undesirables, oops, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Malheur, Jan6...?

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  12. Excellent fiction writing. Interesting character development.
    JB

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  13. Question:
    Can a listening device, such as a parabolic dish, or the any wireless electronic gadget, hear through walls from a distance?
    Say, an unmarked van a hundred meters across an open field from a shed sheathed of wood clapboard.

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    1. Through wood, I'm not sure. But through glass, absolutely. The glass vibrates with the sounds which bounce off of it. Many secure offices which have windows will have a device which sends a small vibration through the glass, effectively masking any sound from inside the room. I suppose it depends on how the walls are constructed, but I don't think we have anything which can listen through them. Which is why the guys in the van might attempt to gain entry to plant listening devices, even small cameras.

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