PROJECT BlueBolt - AMERICAN GULAGS: BOOK I - AMERICAN GULAGS

by Marshall Huffman

  Mark watched them get into a large black SUV and drive off. God, Cheryl was right. They are listening in and watching everything. He needed to warn Cheryl but knew phoning was out of the question. He would just have to hope they dropped it at this point.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Ex-Admiral Lincoln Bix and Ex-General Thomas Waggoner sat at the cabin formulating a plan of action.”

  “One thing for sure, they will come looking for us as well as the others so we need to get to them before they can.”

  “This list,” Bix said pointing to it on the table, “Is it still good? I mean, by going to find them, we could be walking into a trap ourselves.”

  “You’re right but unless we do something we will be caught eventually so we might as well go out fighting,” Thomas said.

  “Do you even know where we should start looking?” Bix asked.

  “Uber is most likely in North Dakota. He hunted there every change he got. I would imagine that is where he took off for,” Thomas told him.

  “That’s kind of vague don’t you think?”

  “I found you on about the same amount of information. We find out where the best hunting is and we start looking in that area. Someone, someplace, will help us locate him. It will take a while but it can be done.”

  “Alright. We can spend the night here and head out in the morning. I think you might want to do something with your appearance. You don’t look any different than when you were in the military. Even you haircut says military. You are going to be too easy to spot.”

  “You’re right. I guess it is time to give up looking like a soldier. Guerrilla warfare is what we are going to be doing. I suppose it’s time to get into the part,” Thomas said.

  “Did you bring any other firearms with you besides the Beretta?”

  “Back of the Jeep. To AK’s, an M14, a couple of shotguns, and a H & K .308. The rest are hidden at my cabin in Montana.”

  “Ammo?”

  “10,000 rounds with me. Another 45,000 back at the cabin.”

  “Good. I’ve got several guns as well. Two fully automatic M15’s and approximately 30,000 rounds all total. That’s a pretty good start between the two of us.”

  “We will need a hell of a lot more if push comes to shove,” Thomas said.

  “And it will. Once people wake up to what is going on there is a good chance anarchy and chaos is going to break out. Like always, there will be those who will just do what they are told and accept it but there will be a big backlash from those who refuse to be pushed around.”

  “The trick,” Thomas said, “Is to locate them without tipping our hand. You know good and well that the ISS has started inserting informers into the system and trying to infiltrate gun clubs, para-military groups, and militias.”

  “That’s why we need to get to the people on our list. We know they are clean. We need to start finding them as quickly as possible,” Thomas told Lincoln.

  “Your Jeep Cherokee is better suited than my old pick-up for traveling and hiding guns and ammo.”

  “Then we will load everything it in and head out first thing tomorrow.”

  “But where?” Lincoln asked.

  “Let’s start with North Dakota, looking for Uber.”

  “Sounds right. You getting hungry?”

  “Geez, I thought you would never ask,” Thomas replied.

  ****

  “Taylor what is the hold up?”

  “Madam President, the whole Inspector General thing just isn’t working. Just about every large city with a PC is refusing to accept their authority. Now the New York Police Commissioner is saying he has changed his position and will not report to them as well.”

  “I will not accept that. That is a Presidential order. They will obey it or I will have them replaced.”

  “The question is how do you replace them? They are willing to fight the National Guard or regular Army rather than turn over local authority. They are not recognizing the order as legal.”

  “Not legal,” she yelled, coming out of her chair, “Not legal? What I say is legal and they had damn sure better recognize that.”

  “Congress is backing them as well. They are basically telling the Governors and Mayors that those orders are not within your authority. You are acting in an illegal capacity,” Taylor told her.

  He knew she would blow her top but at this point the ISS did not have enough manpower to enforce her latest edict. Most National Guardsmen refused to get into a firefight with the city police. Regular Army Officers were being relieved at an alarming rate for refusing to carry out what they considered to be immoral and illegal orders.

  President Clemons sat down in her chair brooding. Taylor could always tell when she was trying to hatch a new plan because she pulled insistently at her lower lip.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked after a while.

  “Leave it alone for now. We won’t press the issue at the moment. We need more time to get everything in place. I want as many guns out of people’s hands as possible. We have all the information we need. Keep it as inconspicuous as possible but get on it right away. Use whatever means it takes. Resistance should be met with the maximum aggression on our part. Haul them off to one of the internment camps. Do whatever it takes. Do not let the police interfere with ISS business under any circumstances. I want ammunition as well as the guns confiscated,” she told him.

  “We can do that for a while but word will get out eventually and the guns will suddenly disappear.”

  “Then make the person disappear as well. Failure to produce the gun will land them in internment camps. By the way, how many do we have that can accept dissidents?”

  “We just opened the fourteenth one.”

  “And the prisoners in the Supermax prisons?”

  “Terminated.”

  “How?”

  “Madam President, it would be better for you not to know the details.”

  “Yes, I suppose you are right. Very well Taylor, start gathering up private citizen’s guns and ammunition. Either they give them up or we get rid of them.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  ****

  Taylor’s men had found that emptying the Supermax prison the way it was done the first few times was far too slow and time consuming. It wasn’t long before they had found a much faster way.

  They would have busses line up and they would literally pack them with prisoners so that they didn’t have any room to move. They kept leg chains, waist chains, and wrist chains on them. Each man was linked to the one in front and behind him. It made it impossible for them to plan any big escape.

  They were driven to a nearby air field and loaded onto military C-131 cargo planes. The pilots were directed to fly out over the ocean at least five miles from shore. Once they had reached that point, the back door to the cargo plane was opened.

  The pilot would put the plane into a steep climb while the prisoners were still chained to each other. Once the first few tumbled out the wind pressure would slowly pull the others out. By the time the last prisoner fell from the plane it had reached an altitude of 15,000 feet.

  The convicts plummeted into the water below. Even if by some miracle they had survived the impact, the weight of the chains and others would drag them down. There was no way for anyone to survive under those conditions. They became so proficient with this method that they could empty an entire Supermax prison in less than a day.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The ISS and different Battalions started the gun confiscation in some of the smaller cities and towns across America. They would sweep in and either raid the home or if necessary arrest the owner of the guns and he was immediately charged with crimes against the Nation and was listed as a domestic terrorist. He and his entire family would simply be transported to an internment facility.

  Of course it created hundreds of questions, but the White House simply stonewalled and continued to gather guns and citizens. Before long gun owners realized that they were the targe
t of the government and started to raise a public fuss but the media seemed not to grasp the severity of the situation. Instead they made it out to be ‘gun nuts’ complaining and creating controversy. Anti-gun groups immediately hailed the actions as something that was long overdue.

  As with most programs like this, in a country the size of America, soon the initial results began to dwindle. The owners were beginning to vanish. Some turned in their weapons and ammunition to the police and obtained proof that they had disposed of the weapon.

  Those who had gotten rid of their weapons by selling them were arrested and hauled off if they could not provide proof they sold it and to whom. Gun shows became non-events after the first few were raided by the ISS and everything confiscated.

  Within a month 60,400 people had been taken to internment camps and over 700,000 guns and several million rounds of ammunition were under the control of the ISS.

  ****

  Mark Walker had changed transportation so many times even he was forgetting where he was going. Finally he slipped down the dark ally and through the garage door that had been left open for him.

  “That’s far enough,” a voice said in the pitch blackness.

  “Geez. You scared the crap out of me,” Walker said.

  “Do you have any weapons?”

  “No.”

  “A tape recorder?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it on?”

  “No.”

  “Are you bugged?”

  “What? No.”

  “Mr. Walker, I have on night vision glasses. I want you to take off your coat and hold it out in front of you.”

  “You’re not going to shoot me are you?”

  “Not unless I have to,” came the chilling reply.

  Walker took off his coat and held it out. He felt it snatched out of his hands. He could hear the man going through all the pockets.

  “Open the front of your shirt.”

  “Look, I came because you asked me to. Why all the hassle?”

  “Open your shirt,” the reply came back.

  Walker sighed and unbuttoned his shirt and held it open.

  “Alright. You can button it and take your coat back.”

  “How nice,” Walker replied.

  “Mr. Walker, you have to understand, I could simply disappear by just talking to you. Three of my friends already have. By disappear I mean they just up and vanished.”

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean vanished?”

  “One day they were here and the next day they were gone. Their cars were still in the garage, doors unlocked and clothes and belongings still in the house.”

  “Maybe an emergency happened,” Walker said.

  “To three different people? How many women leave without their purse or make-up?”

  “You mean everything, including their personal items were still there?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And they have been gone how long?”

  “Almost a week now. Ted, my best friend, just got fired for not coming in to work or calling in sick. That is not Ted. He is the most dependable guy I know. Something happened to him and his family.”

  “Have you called the police?”

  “Yeah, they came out and poked around. They basically agreed that something was strange but there was no evidence of foul play. The place was spotless, actually too spotless from my standpoint. I know Terry and she is a terrific person but she is not the cleanest person I know. They have a baby just a year old. All the kid’s stuff is there too.”

  “So what do you think happened?”

  “Ted was a gun collector. Ralph, another friend that disappeared was a shooter. Loved to go shooting at the range and take part in all kinds of contests. He had a bunch of guns as well. Martin was a big hunting fan. Had some really expensive guns and went hunting all over the southwest. Now I don’t know about Ralph or Martin but I do know that Ted had twenty or so collector guns. He had a few modern ones but most were WWII guns. M1s, Enfields, a 1903 Springfield, that type of thing. When I checked their house, not one gun was there and not one box of ammo.”

  “So someone cleaned them out or he moved them.”

  “I don’t see how or why. He was excited that he was getting his hands on some WWII French gun. A Mas something or other. I don’t know much about guns but he seemed excited.”

  “So it’s not likely he just hid them.”

  “No likely. Besides, that doesn’t explain where Ted, Terry, and the baby have disappeared to, does it?”

  “You still haven’t answered my question. What do you think happened to them?”

  “I think the government took them away. I think if you start looking, you will find this is happening all over the country. Gun owners are being whisked off by the government.”

  “Oh come on now,” Walker said, “That seems just a tad farfetched doesn’t it? The government doesn’t just come in the middle of the night and take people off.”

  “They where did they go? How many others are just like this?” the voice asked.

  “There is some logical explanation for this. The government is not in the relocation and gun confiscation business.”

  There was nothing but total stillness. Walker waited for a comment but none came.

  “Are you there? Hello?”

  Nothing.

  He put his coat on and cautiously made his way back to the door. It wasn’t until he got home and was hanging up his jacket that he found a paper tucked in his inside pocket. It gave the names of the man’s friends, their addresses, and where they worked. All it said was ‘Check it out’.

  ****

  BlueBolt was an ambitious plan that called for the eventual implementation of a one party system that was essentially controlled from the White House. It basically an Authoritarian based government with elements of Totalitarianism included.

  President Clemons firmly believed that people did not have the necessary intelligence or discipline to run their lives efficiently. Having the government control all aspects of their lives, would eliminate crime, and improve productivity, and the focus of the country.

  Accomplishing this would require an authoritarian police force with the power to invoke policy without interference from outside distractors. The police would no longer need warrants, have the burden of restricted holding times, or have to worry about the criminal’s ‘rights’.

  The ISS was designed with just that in mind. It would be a para-military branch that had sweeping powers. The regular military would be used to bolster the strength of the ISS when necessary.

  With the UN removed from the United States, we would now only support nations that treated the US as actual allies. Foreign countries looking for handouts and then turning against us would no longer receive any aid. Isolationism would become the overriding doctrine.

  One of the biggest changes was a new effort to eliminate foreign oil. The restrictions on the ability to build platforms would be eliminated. Oil pipelines would be given priority over land rights. Along with the increase in oil exploration, gas rationing would become mandatory. The maximum amount of gas anyone could receive in a week was set at fifteen gallons. It would be reduced to twelve gallons within six months. Anyone needing more would have to submit documentation for approval for additional gasoline.

  Any illegal alien would be deported back to the country of origin. A border wall would be erected and anyone caught trying to enter the country illegally would be subject to the harshest penalty. While they weren’t going to spell out what that meant, basically the illegal would be give one chance, on the second offense they would simply disappear like so many others.

  Political dissidents would be dealt with by internment. This was intended not only for the private sector such as Universities and Colleges but all areas of business and even the government. The media would have no choice but to comply.

  The biggest change would be the suspension of the legislative and judicial branches of government. Both Congress
and the Supreme Court would be dismissed.

  Those were the essential elements of BlueBolt. What wasn’t known at this time was how the general population would react. If they just accepted it, Martial Law would not be necessary, but if it was met with resistance, the President was certainly ready to implement it at the first signs of confrontation.

  CHAPTER TWENTY- SEVEN

  CVTV – NEWS

  “In just a few moments the President will address the nation about several important agenda items. While the entire scope of the speech is not known, we do know that she intends to address gun control issues and several important statistics. Okay, here she comes now,” the announcer said.

  President Clemons dressed in slacks and a silk blouse with a small American Flag pin walked to the podium.

  “Good evening my fellow Americans. Tonight I have come before you to set the record straight. I know a lot of negative publicity has been generated by the Pro-Gun movement but they have been telling out and out prevarications that can no longer go unanswered.

  During the past weeks they have repeatedly stated that the government is harassing and even going so far as to confiscate guns illegally across the nation. This is a blatant untruth. At no time has the government confiscated legally registered weapons that are within the provisions of acceptable weapons. While we have seized several illegal weapons in the course of routine investigations, this is a far cry from what they are stating.

  I am issuing a challenge to the NRA and any other gun groups. Prove that the ISS or any of its divisions are involved in any illegal gun seizures. If they can show actual proof that such an activity is taking place I will personally have it investigated.

  What I can report is that crime across America has dropped dramatically since the forming of the ISS. Violent crime is down a staggering twenty-one percent. That is an amazing amount considering they have only been functioning for four months.

  No domestic or international terrorists have attacked any part of America since the implementation of Battalion 101 which was opposed by Congress. Not one single incident.