A Time for Patriots

“I’m going to need a little room here, guys,” Brad said. He put both hands under the front bumper of one of the pickup truck and lifted, and the pickup flipped end over end through the air, finally coming to rest about twenty yards away. He reached over and grabbed the rifles out of the hands of two stupefied guards, then punted the second pickup truck away before disarming the other two guards.

Brad then grabbed the two guards he’d just disarmed and held them close to his head. “Would you mind dropping your radios on the ground?” They hesitated, numb with fear. “Drop them, now !” Brad shouted. They did as they were told, and Brad crushed the devices under his armored feet before doing the same to the other two guards’. “Thanks, guys. My squadron mates will be coming through shortly. Don’t get run over by accident in the dark. See ya.” And he trotted away to the next guard post.

* * *

As Andorsen was speaking, a man came up onstage to him and whispered, “All of the guard posts missed a check-in, sir.”

“Damn,” Andorsen said. He turned to Fitzgerald. “We’ll go out the north relief bore — that’ll take us all the way to the north side of the ridge, about a mile walking. I’ve got two Harleys waiting outside the bore. We can ride to my airstrip near Austin and take the Turbo Commander to—”

Just then the entire assemblage heard the large, heavy steel doors at the back of the cavern rattle, as if it were being blown by a powerful gust of wind. Then they heard a metallic knock knock knock — followed by both doors being ripped off their hinges like banana peels, and the Cybernetic Infantry Device entered the chamber. “Is it too late for the door prize?” Brad asked in his electronic voice, holding both steel doors in his armored hands. He held up the doors and rattled them as easily as shaking two pieces of paper. “Get it? ‘Door prize’?”

“Everybody take a good look — this is what the government has sent out against us!” Andorsen shouted over the terrified voices echoing through the cavern. “They sent the most destructive weapon in the Army’s arsenal against unarmed innocent citizens. Don’t be afraid of it! You want a perfect example of what the federal government is willing to do against sovereign citizens — there it is! The federal government will stop at nothing, and use every weapon it possesses, to squash your freedom!”

“This has nothing to do with the federal government, Andorsen,” a voice said… and Patrick McLanahan stepped past Brad into the chamber. “This is about your fellow citizens putting a stop to your killing spree.” Behind him came Rob Spara, David Bellville, John de Carteret, and fifty more members of the Battle Mountain Civil Air Patrol squadron.

“These are the criminals who have been spying on you!” Andorsen shouted. “These are the ones who tried to kill the Knights of the True Republic, then lured them onto the air base and slaughtered them! They are the ones using radioactive bombs. Don’t listen to them!”

“My name is General Patrick McLanahan,” Patrick shouted. “You know who I am. I’m a retired lieutenant-general of the United States Air Force and a member of the Civil Air Patrol — and I’m also your neighbor. We are all your neighbors. I’m here to tell you that Judah Andorsen has been lying to you. He doesn’t want to protect you. He doesn’t want to create a peaceful self-governing society. He’s an anarchist. He wants to create an empire in the heart of Nevada that operates by creating fear in the people, our elected officials, and in law enforcement. He creates fear, then proposes a solution: band together, join him, and he will protect you. It’s a lie.”

“Who is creating fear now, McLanahan?” Andorsen asked. “Who is ripping apart doors and killing our friends outside? You’re the real threat here, McLanahan, not I. You can’t stop us. You can’t terrorize us.” He waved his hands over the audience. “What are you going to do to us now, General?” he asked. “You going to call the police? Call the Army? Call the National Guard? You do that, and you’ve proved that government only takes freedom, not provides it — and you’re an instrument of the government, just as we always thought you were.”

“Why did you kill Leif Delamar, Andorsen?”

“You mean, the man spying on us yesterday morning?” Andorsen asked. “ Your spy? He deserved to die.”

“He was unarmed.”

“He was a spy and a traitor, and spies and traitors are executed — that’s the law of war.”

“Why did you kill all those members of the Knights of the True Republic?” Patrick asked. “More innocents murdered, by you .”

“They were cowardly sheep, betrayed by their leader into agreeing to come onto the air base for their so-called protection and assistance,” Andorsen said. “They are better off dead than surrendering themselves to the government!”

“So who else do you intend on killing with radioactive dirty bombs, Andorsen?” Patrick shouted. “What other innocents will die?”