“I will count to three,” said Jackson. “One, two . . .”
“No! Oh God, no, please don’t, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you everything!” screamed Zucchino in hideous fear. “Yes, yes, it’s true, the FATPO is coming up from California and they’re going to land in force and secure that big bridge! The government is scared the NVA will take it over or blow it up, choke off the Columbia River! Rolly Rollins himself will be in command!”
“How do you know this?” demanded Jackson.
“I was supposed to go with the press party to cover the story! It took my editor a month of schmoozing Rollins to get me in.”
“They had a press briefing and told you all of their plans?” said Jackson skeptically.
“No, I just picked it all up. Those guys in FATPO have room temperature IQs on a good day, and I doubt some of them can even comprehend the meaning of the word secret! A bunch of us were supposed to leave for California real late tonight, secret military transport plane, all hush-hush!” gasped Zucchino.
“When are they coming?” shouted Jackson.
“They’re supposed to land on the morning of the thirtieth, around dawn!” moaned Zucchino in a broken voice. “Please don’t cut off my finger! Oh God, my ear hurts! Yaaaaaahhh . . . .”
“That’s two days from now!” exclaimed Eric.
Jackson slapped Zucchino, hard. “Stop blubbering, turd! How are they coming? Airplane? Helicopter? Truck convoy up 101? By ship? What?”
“By ship,” groaned Zucchino. “They got some old ferries and cruise ships they’ve rigged up as troop transports, and they’re going to have a Navy escort. They’ll also have chopper cover, flying down from Fort Lewis.”
“I don’t believe you!” growled Jackson. “You must not know much about Oregon geography or history, asshole! Ever hear of the Graveyard of the Pacific? There’s no way they could land an invasion fleet in Astoria like that, because they’d have to cross the Columbia River Bar to do it, which means they’d have to get a skilled Bar pilot on every ship, and it would take days to get them all in, plus they’d have to sail single file under the bridge within easy small arms range of shore. Even a nigger isn’t stupid enough to do that!” He lifted the blade of the guillotine over the hapless Zucchino’s finger.
“Not Astoria!” shrieked Zucchino. “Down the shore! They’re landing down the shore, miles away! Past Warrenton! Big open place called Sunset Beach! Trucks and armored cars and all! They’re going to do it like the Marines landing on Okinawa, guys in full gear splashing through the surf, Rollins stepping on shore like MacArthur, all for the rolling TV cameras! You know, like they did in Somalia in ’92! I swear I’m telling you the truth! Please, not my finger!”
Later on, Jackson and Eric and Annette stood outside in the dark while the Things pulled away in the van with Zucchino trussed up like a chicken in the back. “They’ll keep him on ice until after this checks out,” said Jackson. “Trouble is, two days . . . that’s time enough for somebody to miss him, and they might figure out we took him and cracked him and we know about Sunset Beach. ZOG may well change their plans. This still may turn out to have been all for nothing.”
“Sir, I apologize for my losing it in there . . .” began Eric.
“Nyeh, all’s well that ends well. Me or the Things would have had to open him up by giving him a good pop anyway,” said Jackson. “You were provoked.”
“Nice gesture, Sir Lancelot,” said Annette with a giggle. “I appreciate it.”
“That Blackwater mercenary looking you over at close quarters bothers me,” Jackson told her. “I wonder if we shouldn’t get you two out of the way for a bit.”
“Maybe detached duty down in Clatsop with Third Battalion, sir?” asked Eric eagerly.
“Maybe, but I hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Jackson. “I’d like to keep you out of the frying pan, but not drop you into the fire. After tonight you’re even more valuable to A Company than you have been in your intelligence function. I’m actually getting a bit worried that when Oscar gets back from, well, where he is now, he might try to head-hunt you for Third Section.”
“Uh, would you be too pissed off if I said I’d love to try that, sir?” asked Annette meekly.
“I’ll hang onto you as long as I can, but the big picture has to come first,” said Jackson. “If you end up going with Oscar, that’s the way it goes. As to Clatsop, don’t worry, guys. Before this is over there will be more than enough war to go around. You’ll see your share.”
* * *
“Ah, hello there,” said Julia, startled and nonplussed. Now that she had found Zack she was at a loss what to say to him. “How did you get in here?”
“Your mom let me in, of course,” Hatfield told her. “She’s cool, and she always liked me, remember. I had to promise to let you two get caught up on all the mushy mother-daughter stuff before I made my appearance, though, and I am under stern maternal admonition to behave myself and not upset you. I got word you were coming.”
“From that guy Wally?” asked Julia.
“Yes, but we knew you were coming up from California before that,” Hatfield told her. “I got a call telling me to be expecting you.”
“Should I ask how you found that out?”
“No,” said Hatfield, shaking his head. “You’re looking real good, Julie. I’d tell you that you haven’t changed a bit, but you have. For the better.”
“You look . . . just awful,” she replied helplessly. “Nothing definite, nothing physical. Older of course, but that’s not it. I couldn’t tell you what it is, but you look like you’re a thousand years old, Zack.”
“Yeah, well, four of those thousand years were in Iraq. That’ll do it,” replied Hatfield grimly. “Plus the past few years with the Northwest Volunteers. I’m not surprised I’m showing some mileage.”
“I won’t ask you what you’ve been doing with yourself, because I’m afraid I already know,” said Julia.
“And I won’t ask you how you’ve been, because I know that as well. I heard about your visit from the FBI. As ludicrously inadequate as this sounds, I’m sorry, Jules. If it’s any consolation to you, we’ll most likely get the bastards one day.”
“My God, you must have quite a spy system down there!” said Julia. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
“Yes, we have quite a spy system down there, but actually I learned about your feeb encounter from the internet. HollywoodGossip.com to be exact.”
“Beautiful,” said Julia with a laugh, sitting down on her bed in bemusement. “Then I suppose you know why I’ve come?” she asked.
“In a general way, yes, although I admit I’m very keen on hearing the details from you personally,” Hatfield told her.
“I told those characters down there in Hollywood who sent me up here that I wasn’t sure whether or not you’d shoot me when you saw me, knowing who I’d come from,” said Julia. “I suppose I should be worried right now, but I find I can’t seem to gin it up. It’s you, after all.”
“Yeah, it’s me,” said Zack with a quiet smile. “And no, you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to shoot you.”
“Well, now that we’ve got that out of the way, do you want me to make my pitch now?” she inquired. “Or will I be conducted blindfolded to a secret meeting in a warehouse or a cave, and make my presentation to a long table full of masked men sitting beneath a big Nazi flag? I’m not just being sarcastic, really. I genuinely have no idea how you—you people operate, or what to expect.”
“Well, like I said, I’m interested in hearing what you have to say, just out of curiosity, but in fact I don’t have the authority to agree to anything along the lines of what I think you want to propose to us,” Hatfield explained. “I’m just a field commander with a specific area of responsibility, and I don’t have anything to do with Task Force Director’s Cut or Operation We Are Not Amused.”
“With what?” she asked.
“We call this particular campaign Operation We Are Not Amuse
d, and the team we assigned to carry it out is code named Task Force Director’s Cut, because we’re cutting down a lot of directors. A little Nazi humor for you there.”
“Very little,” said Julia archly.
“Anyway, whenever you’re ready, I will introduce you to a comrade from the Army Council, and you and he can bat the breeze, with me present or without as you best feel comfortable doing. Then we give Wally Post a ring and back you go up the river, and we’ll see what develops from there.”
“Uh, I’m sure I shouldn’t ask this, but that guy Wally seems to be very knowledgeable about you and what’s going on up here. Is he one of you or is he one of them?”
“Wally’s a type of character who historically flourishes in situations like this, a guy who plays both ends against the middle and sees how much cash he can pick up from both sides,” Zack told her. “After the war we’ll weigh him in the balance, and if he sums up more on our side we’ll give him a medal. If he weighs up more on their side, we’ll shoot him.”
“My God, you really think you’re going to win!” she said softly, shaking her head in wonderment.
“As it happens I do, yes,” said Zack. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am.”
“You weren’t sure at first?” she exclaimed. “Then why, Zack? I suppose in one sense that’s what I’ve come all this way to ask you. Why?”
“Because it is right,” Hatfield told her quietly. “At first it was because a situation developed with a friend of mine, someone you used to know as well, where it was the only thing I could do and still live with myself. But I would have ended up with the Army anyway, Julie, because it is right. I won’t go into it any further than that, because I’m not sure you’d understand. I’m not being patronizing, I really don’t think you would. No offense, but you don’t have the right background for it. Until a few months ago everything in your life was going right, or as right as it ever does for anyone in this mess. You had a good and somewhat glamorous job, you had a place in ZOG’s scheme of things and all the little perks and luxuries that came with that. You were an insider. You conformed, and the system rewarded you for that conformity, so I really don’t think you could understand what it’s like to be on the outside looking in, and knowing that because of your skin color and your gender you would never, ever be allowed in. Always shut out of a land and a world that your own ancestors created. We’re taking it back, Julie. Some of it, anyway.”
“Leaving aside my life, which believe me isn’t quite as wonderful and fulfilling as you seem to think, then that’s what this is all about? The have-nots are revolting against the haves?”
“Mmmm . . . that’s a very over-simplified way of putting it, but yes. I suppose that’s what most revolutions are about in the final analysis. The kicker is that in this case the haves happen to be truly evil, and the have-nots have been for-real robbed of everything that is rightfully theirs. Look, Julie, this is the first time I’ve seen you in over ten years, and I don’t want to spoil things by standing up and delivering a political polemic,” he told her earnestly. “Astoria High, me playing football and you cheerleading, then cruising Marine Boulevard afterward trying to get Ted to buy beer for us and the gang, all that’s long gone. You’re the woman you became, and I am the man that Iraq and Amurrica made me, so let’s just leave it at that, okay? How have you been, Julie, I mean really? Are you happy? The bright city lights still bright? Is everything down there turning out for you like you thought it would?”
“God, you sound like my mother!” laughed Julia. “I just went through that whole recital with her downstairs over supper! Next I suppose you’ll be inquiring delicately whether there’s a young man in my life?”
“Is there?” blurted Zack. “Sorry, sorry, Jules, that was out of line. I mean, I heard about that actor . . .”
Julia shook her head. “I’d rather not talk about him, if you don’t mind. Not being rude or putting you in your place or anything, Zack, don’t get me wrong. In a sense I know you have the right to be interested, even if it was 14 years ago with us. It’s just that was a pretty near miss, and I still can’t believe I was stupid enough to almost get dragged into the cheapest and most trite Hollywood drug drama you can imagine. God, I was almost a complete idiot!”
“Yeah, but you spotted the ambush and you E&E’d in time,” laughed Zack.
“Huh?” she said. “I don’t get it.”
“NVA inside joke.”
“Oh. Well, basically, yeah, other than the fact that there don’t seem to be any worthwhile men for mating purposes in the business, you’re right. Up until you guys rained on my parade and got me involved with the FBI because of our few nights of adolescent passion all those years ago, it’s been pretty good,” she told him. “You mind my asking something? How in God’s name did you get a bankable like Erica Collingwood to join your group and throw away everything she’s got? I admit it, that really threw me for a loop.”
“How the hell would I know?” asked Zack, laughing and shrugging. “I’m just a grunt, basically. That sounds like Third Section stuff.”
“Third Section?” asked Julia.
“The NVA’s cloak-and-dagger boys and girls. All I can tell you, Julia, is that each individual’s motivation for joining the Volunteers is different, but the same. Infinite variations on the same theme. You get to a point where you have just plain had enough. You’re not going to take all this American bullshit anymore. Look, we’d best get back to business. When do you want to get together with this guy from the Army Council?”
“As soon as possible,” said Julia. “No offense, Zack, but I’d kind of like to get this done and get out of here. I’m bordering on a major-league freakout as it is.”
“No time like the present,” said Zack. He flipped open his cell phone and hit a speed dial. “Yeah, Mr. Baron, you want to come and take a look at those plans now? Or wait until tomorrow?” He listened briefly. “Okay, see you in a bit.” He hung up. “He’ll come over. He has some other stuff to do in the area anyway.”
“Uh, Zack, this is my mom’s house,” said Julia uneasily. “Don’t you even try to tell me that my own mother is in on this terrorist thing with you guys!”
“No, she’s not, she just remembers me from the old days and she always thought . . . well, anyway, she just . . .”
“She always thought I should have waited for you,” sighed Julia. “Yes, Zack, I know. She’s mentioned that. On more than one occasion, actually.”
“I’ve tried to explain to her that it wasn’t your fault, that when we first arrived in Iraq we were promised rotation every fifteen months and I ended up staying there for four years,” said Hatfield. “And the only way I got out even after four years was when my leg was shredded. No one in his right mind would expect you to wait that long for something that might never have happened. I didn’t. Julia, I don’t know if you’ve ever worried about it, but I want you to know, we’re cool. On that, anyway, whatever you may think of me now.”
“Yes, Zack, I have worried about it, and I’m glad to hear you say that,” she replied.
“Julie,” her mother called up the stairs. “Ted’s here!”
“Oh, Jesus!” cried Julia in sudden panic. “I forgot she said she was going to call Ted! Let me go down and then when we’re in the living room you can sneak down the back stairs and out the rear door!”
“No need,” laughed Zack, picking up his Winchester and his hat with the feather. “Ted and I see each other on a regular basis. We have to.”
“The hell you say!” gasped Julia. “Oh, come on, now! I will not believe that my brother is one of your—your gang!”
“No, he isn’t,” Zack assured her. “He’s a brave and decent man who has found himself in an impossible situation, and who does his best to do his duty in spite of it. I give him all the help I can, although I have to admit there have been some strained moments. But for the past three years not one local law enforcement officer in Clatsop County has been killed by the NVA, and in view of
what’s been going on in the rest of the Northwest since 10/22 that’s a hell of an accomplishment, and one he and you should be proud of.”
Julia descended the stairs and found her brother waiting for her in the living room, apparently just come from work since he was wearing his sheriff’s uniform. He looked tired. He had aged in a way somewhat different from Zack, and Julia was suddenly very glad to see him indeed, for it struck her what his position in all this must be like and how dangerous life for him had become. They hugged fiercely. Ted looked up and saw Hatfield standing in the doorway behind her, and he nodded briefly. “Zack,” he said.
“Hey, Ted,” replied Hatfield.
Lear looked at his sister. “Julie, you know I am more glad to see you again than I can say, but I have to admit, I’m kind of disturbed by some things Zack has been telling me. I’ve been thankful these past years that you’ve been safely out of all this, down there living your own life in California. Now it seems you’ve managed to get involved in all this crap up here anyway, and on a dangerous level. Jesus, kid, you’re playing with fire here. Are you nuts?”
“Are you? You seem to have been involved as well,” pointed out Julia. “Look, Ted, I’m not criticizing, but you’re supposed to be the sheriff up here, and I gather you’ve been turning a blind eye toward . . .” She gestured toward Hatfield. “What the hell’s going on, Ted?”
Lear sighed. “It’s kind of confusing, Julie. I’m not sure I understand it myself sometimes, but a while ago I had to sit down and do some serious thinking. I had to make a decision as to whether my loyalty was to this community, these people here we grew up with, this place, our home . . . or to a government three thousand miles away that doesn’t care about us, to an empire that never did anything for us except to take our young people for their army and flood our land with foreigners because it put money in the pockets of men in suits. Men so filthy rich already that they didn’t need what little they took from us, but they took it anyway, because they could. I decided to do what I originally gave my oath to do, to protect and serve the people of Clatsop County, Oregon. Not fight a war against some of them in the name of a bad and failed government. This hasn’t been easy, but I was lucky in that Zack and I go back a ways, and I could deal with him and talk to him and work out ways to cushion the people in this county from all this horror. Sometimes, anyway.”
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