A Time for Patriots

“Whatever happened to the sheriff’s department?” Leo’s partner, a relatively new member of the Nevada Highway Patrol named Bobby Johnson, asked. He was outfitted the same as Leo but with a small digital video recorder affixed to his helmet; Leo was his training officer in his first six-month probationary period. “They’re a no-show?”

“They said they couldn’t spare the manpower,” Leo said. “Technically this road is a state highway, so we have jurisdiction, but they should be out here with us. They never showed when the Civil Air Patrol was searching for that downed plane either.”

“I heard one of your guys thinks he was shot at by someone in this crowd,” Bobby said. “These bastards were shooting at aircraft over the base? Are they nuts? I think we should search each and every one of them for that rifle.”

“Bobby, think about it — there’s thirty of them, and just twelve of us,” Leo said. “If there’s a gun in that crowd, we don’t want it let loose on us. If they start heading off and going home without another shot being fired, that’s a good thing. Next time there’s a protest, we’ll be ready with more guys.” As his eyes scanned the departing protesters, he caught a glimpse of two men, apart from each other but definitely together, walking along with the crowd toward their vehicles but looking as if they were scanning the crowd themselves. “Get a shot of those two tall guys at twelve o’clock,” Leo said.

Bobby turned in that direction but couldn’t really see whom Leo was referring to. “What’s up?”

Leo shook his head. “Just a hunch,” he said. “Remember what you were taught at the Academy about the personalities that create a disturbance?”

“Agitator, instigator, aggressor, and… and…”

“The lemmings — the followers,” Leo said. “Who are the agitators here?”

“The guy who organized this march.”

“True,” Leo said, “but couldn’t you also say it was the Air Force when they rolled out those armored vehicles over there? Maybe the crowd wouldn’t be so agitated if they hadn’t brought those out.”

“Well, then couldn’t you say that we are agitators for bring our armored car?”

“Good point,” Leo conceded, “although then you have to think about officer safety, and that’s a command decision. Now, the instigator is the one who does the first noncivil action — in this case, maybe the ones hitting the armored car with their signs. But he doesn’t usually cause the riot. It’s the aggressors that you have to watch out for — the ones who wait for something to happen, then push everyone around them over the top. Then the lemmings do whatever the aggressors and the rest of the crowd does, and the thing turns into a riot.”

“So if you can find the aggressors, you might have a chance of stopping the riot.”

“Exactly,” Leo said. “The agitators are the hotheads, but they’re usually just lashing out, not attacking — they get the crowd’s attention with an overt act, but the crowd hasn’t turned into lemmings yet. The aggressors do the extreme actions that turn the crowd.”

Bobby continued searching the crowd, but still couldn’t see whom Leo was referring to. “Gotcha.”

Leo made eye contact with one of the tall guys he was watching, broke eye contact and scanned the crowd for a few seconds, then came back to the guy — and they made eye contact again. “And the first rule of surveillance?”

“Countersurveillance,” Bobby said. “Make sure you’re not being watched yourself.”

“Either we’re being watched, which I doubt,” Leo said, “or these guys were on their way to do something else and have now noticed that they’ve

been spotted. They’re spooked, but they’re not running — they know it’s the running man that attracts attention.” He looked behind him at some of the protesters widely circling his car, but couldn’t see anyone else who stood out — there could easily be another pair behind him, but he couldn’t make them out. “Weird vibes around here, that’s for sure.”

When he looked back at the pair, they had both vanished, and no one was running or shoving — they had quite literally disappeared.

Later that day

“I don’t know what to say, Brad,” Patrick said as they examined the Civil Air Patrol Cessna. They had pans and buckets underneath the hole in the left wing, collecting leaking avgas. Maintenance crews already had the shattered window off, and they were getting ready to start removing inspection panels and rivets to replace the damaged left-wing sections. “You have about thirty hours total time flying the C-172 and P210, and I don’t recall you ever getting airsick. I know you flew in the back of the Aerostar a few times when Gia was with us, but you were a lot younger and you weren’t looking out the window — you were usually asleep. Did you ever get airsick flying cadet-orientation rides?”

“I don’t think I ever flew in the back,” Brad said. “There was never anyone else riding along.”