Chapter 9

Thanks to the air conditioning, the back of the van was cooler than outside, although it was far from chilly. The lack of windows in back made it darker, so it took a few moments for Dan’s eyes to adjust after the bright sunlight. As soon as he and Ron were settled in and buckled up, the older Hispanic man driving the van pulled away from the curb and drove promptly out of the small town, heading southwest over the north end of Lake Meredith.

The woman in the passenger seat gestured to a small cooler, which Dan opened to find bottles of water and fruit juice. As much as he might have liked something stronger to help ease his pain, he was grateful for any liquid at that point. The woman also handed back a large tub of unscented baby wipes. Dan initially considered it an odd thing to offer, but he admitted to himself that it did feel good to wipe the dust and sweat off his face, hands, and forearms.

“I’m Angela,” the woman in the passenger seat offered. She then gestured toward the driver. “This is Lorenzo. We will be driving pretty much non-stop from here to Albuquerque. I’m sure you have many questions, but we have been instructed to not share information with you yet. However, please let me know if you need to stop for a restroom, food, or similar comfort needs.”

On the west side of Lake Meredith, Lorenzo headed south to Amarillo where they could pick up Interstate 40 westbound toward the New Mexico border. Making use of the greater anonymity of a larger community, they stopped in Amarillo for refreshments before heading west. The drive was long and quiet, with Angela gently rebuffing the occasional attempt from Dan or Ron to get her to start talking.

Lorenzo remained silent for the drive from Stinnett into New Mexico, and Angela said little to him other than suggesting another break after they crossed the state line. It was evening by the time they started approaching the Albuquerque area, and Lorenzo turned off the interstate before starting the climb to Tijeras Pass.

After leaving the interstate, Dan saw that they were following smaller and smaller roads until they were on a single-lane track of smooth, hard-packed dirt. He had no idea how far they drove on that before they reached a large home on several acres of land. The home had extensive and obviously-irrigated landscaping, and it was surrounded by a high fence of vertical metal bars. The van pulled up to a stop at a gate and Lorenzo lowered his window to key in a code on a small keypad set into a post at the entrance to the driveway. The gate rolled quietly to one side allowing them to pass through onto the property.

“Is this where I will meet Larry?” Dan asked as Lorenzo drove through the opened gate, where the driveway became paved with stone.

Angela looked back at him and flashed a smile. “Yes, Larry is here, and you will be meeting with him. We will provide you with a meal before that, however, as I’m sure you two are as hungry as I am, and you’ll be able to focus better on the information that Larry provides if you don’t have an empty stomach.”

“No argument there,” Ron commented.

Lorenzo drove up to the front of the house and stopped. Angela got out of the van promptly and opened the side door for the two men. She suggested that they leave their gear in their van, but Dan was not comfortable with that idea and she nodded her assent that they could carry their gear with them. Dan wondered if Angela would ask him to surrender his pistol, but so far she had made no mention of it. She led them up some short steps to the front door where a man stood alertly with a Ruger Mini-14 at the ready. He nodded to Angela and opened the door for them without a word.

The interior of the home was cool and brightly lit. The fading daylight coming through the windows was augmented by subdued area lighting. Angela guided them into a side room where she suggested they sit while food was prepared for them. Before their meal arrived, an older woman with a creased and unsmiling face came in with three frosty glasses of beer on a silver tray, which she offered to Angela and the two men. They took the glasses and the woman disappeared through the same doorway.

“To new beginnings,” Angela said, raising her glass in a toast.

Dan glanced at Ron. “Yes,” he said, hoping he didn’t sound too wary, “to new beginnings.” He hoped that her comment was an indication that she would be more open with information, but after the toast she led them over to some comfortable chairs and gently kept their discussion oriented around casual topics. The most she would say was that Larry would have all of the answers to their questions. After about half an hour of small talk, the woman who brought their drinks returned to announce that dinner was ready in the main dining room.

Angela motioned for the two men to follow her into the other room. They found a long table surrounded by a dozen chairs, although only the end of the table farthest from the door had place settings. At the head of the table sat the only occupant, a middle-aged man who stood to greet them. Dan saw that the man was taller than average and more muscular than many men in their middle years. His hair was a mix of gray and black, and the natural tan of the man’s skin implied a mixed heritage although Dan could not guess at his background.

“Welcome, Dan, and Ron,” the man said, giving a slight nod in their direction but making no move to approach them to shake hands. “I am Larry. Please join me,” he continued, gesturing to two seats on his right. “My schedule changed, so rather than meet with you after dinner, I thought it would be suitable to talk over our meal.” As they moved to the indicated chairs, with Dan sitting closest to Larry with Ron on his left, Angela moved around the far end of the table to a seat across from Dan. Once they were all seated, Larry picked up a small, ornate handbell from beside his plate and gave it a little ring.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Dan said, “and even more so for helping us escape the trap we ended up in at the airfield.”

Larry gave a slight smile as servers began to bring in food. “We have some shared interests and it was only sensible to help you out. We hope, in turn, that you will decide to help our cause.”

“I am most interested in hearing about your cause,” Dan said with a nod before taking a sip of the soup that was placed before him.

“Interested and eager, I would say,” Angela said lightly. Dan thought that the brief smile that flickered over Larry’s expression implied more irritation or impatience than humor.

Larry leisurely nibbled at a piece of bread, letting the silence drag out a bit before speaking. “You would agree, I believe, that the United States of today would be upsetting, in many ways, to the great men who founded the nation?”

“Certainly,” Dan answered.

“And I think you would agree that there are many factors that have brought the nation to its current condition,” Larry said, “including a lazy and apathetic populace, outsized corporate influence in all levels of government, wanton and reactive lawmaking designed to secure re-election rather than preserving any semblance of rationality in the laws of the land, a breakdown in the checks and balances that were intended to prevent too much consolidation of power, and more.”

Dan nodded again. “A fair assessment.”

Larry nodded minimally. “So, if I understand the gist of your idea for fixing things, you wanted to silence the sitting government and present yourself to the public as their new leader and the benevolent restorer of their liberty.”

Dan tried to keep his expression neutral. “An oversimplification,” he said tersely, “but the details hardly matter anymore.”

“Yes and no,” Larry said. “The details may not be relevant for implementation, but they may be relevant in determining how naïve you are and whether we can work together effectively or not.”

“Naïve?” Dan asked sharply, no longer caring about maintaining a poker face.

“Naïve enough to think that you would gain any popular support from a citizenry that believes all is right with the world as long as their favorite TV show has not been canceled, there’s reasonably easy access to food, and the government tells them they are safe from the many bad guys the government and media talk about constantly?” Larry asked with a hint of accusation.

“Naïve enough to think people would set aside their comforts of the moment to do something they find uncomfortable, with their only reward being some notion, esoteric to them, of freedom, to be obtained at some indistinct point in the future? Maybe it’s too polite to call that sort of thinking naïve. Maybe I should just call it stupid.

“And I want to know if you’re really that stupid, or if you have a more nuanced view of the world around you. One that allows you to have a more solid grasp on what you can expect of the sheep. One that allows you to build a following of people who are more politically capable than sycophantic idealists like Ron here.”

Dan’s jaw dropped. “Wow,” was all he managed before Ron reacted.

“Idealists are the people who make things happen,” Ron snapped. “Of course most people are sheep. Of course most people want to be comfortable right now, and don’t want anything to threaten that comfort. In the beginning of the American Revolution, less than half of the colonists were in favor of a war for their own liberty. But ‘most people’ don’t get important things done, they’re just the work force for goals set by extraordinary people, the fuel for fires set by others.”

“Cute,” Angela commented with a smirk.

Dan glanced briefly at her before returning his attention to Larry. “What are we here for? You went to significant effort to prevent my capture and to bring us here. Why?”

“Well, to be sure, it was not just a form of entertainment,” Larry said. “We saw that there was, or is, a chance that we can work together to meet goals that may not be perfectly aligned but may at least be mutually agreeable.”

“But that requires understanding your true goals,” Angela interjected.

“Yes,” Larry agreed, although once again Dan detected an element of annoyance. “We need to understand your true goals, your true motivations, which of course may be different from what you’ve told your… followers. If it will allow you to speak more freely, we can take Ron out of this discussion, or postpone it until after we are done eating.”

Ron sat back, giving his plate a nudge toward the center of the table. “Well I’ve lost my appetite anyway,” he remarked sourly.

“Anything I have to say can be said in front of Ron,” Dan stated evenly.

Larry grimaced openly, and Dan noticed Angela smirking again. “Expected yet also disappointing,” Larry said with a sigh. “Perhaps this was a waste after all.”

“Well, I had more faith that this would be worthwhile,” Angela commented, seemingly to herself. She then looked pointedly at Ron. “Had.”

After an uncomfortable silence, Dan said, “I don’t understand.”

“Obviously,” Angela muttered, looking away and seemingly restraining herself from laughing out loud.

“You have some political assets, shall we say,” Larry said as he leisurely returned his attention to his food, “which could be valuable to our organization. Those become worthless, however, if you, yourself, are too much of a liability. If you really are as naïve and idealistic as the children like Ron who follow you, then it is, as they say, the blind leading the blind, and you are more likely to discard those valuable assets out of silly idealism than to co-operate. But if you can see past all that and adopt a more pragmatic view of the world around you, and your relationship with it, then this need not have been a wasted venture after all.”

Dan shook his head. “You have an interesting way of presenting things if you want to work together,” he said after taking a short sip of his drink. “Respect doesn’t seem to factor in to your approach.”

Larry shrugged dismissively. “Maybe I’m just an ass,” he replied, “or maybe there’s more to it than that. We’re certainly not going to lay out all of our cards for you. At this point the burden is on you to prove that you’re worth working with at all.”

“Oh, clearly, I’m not worth working with,” Ron snorted.

Larry glanced over at Ron before returning his attention to his food. “I know that. I wasn’t talking to you.”

“If you’re trying to make your point that you have us at a disadvantage,” Dan said, trying to rein in his anger, “you’ve more than accomplished that. But insulting us and being rude is not going to accomplish much.”

Larry shrugged, not bothering to look at Dan. “Maybe there’s nothing to accomplish. When we were bringing you here, I did not get my hopes up, but I was open to the possibility that things might work out. And, to be plain, it was not my decision to bring you in, I’m merely doing what I’m told. You could consider this to be a job interview of sorts. Once we started talking, though, I could see that, well, you’re probably not a good candidate for the job.”

“And that job is?”

“Actually, none of your business if you aren’t selected for it,” Larry answered.

“None of our business after you drag us all the way out here?” Ron said with a snort.

Larry gave him another dismissive glance. “Perhaps you’d rather be back with the authorities who were going to pick you up at that air strip.”

“I’m sure we both appreciate your assistance getting out of that situation,” Dan replied. “There is naturally a limit to such appreciation, and the more you treat us poorly, the faster that appreciation evaporates. Let’s not waste more time. You brought us here for something, so either move forward with that or we will be on our way.”

Larry’s mouth tightened and he was silent for a moment. “Okay. What is the nature of people, Dan? For example, are they generally good? Or generally evil? And how does that nature affect how they should best be governed?”

Dan’s mouth tightened at what seemed like another time-wasting tangent. Trying to keep his voice even, he asked, “What if I said it doesn’t matter? If people are generally good, they naturally don’t need much government. If people are generally bad, any government created by them will be bad and should be given the least amount of power possible. Either way, government should be small, either because it is unnecessary or because it can’t be trusted.”

“Small?” Larry asked. “Why make it small if you can avoid having it at all? Why not anarchy? That offers the greatest amount of liberty, does it not?”

Dan snorted. “Anarchy is not liberty; anarchy is tyranny at the personal level. So-called anarcho-libertarians delude and contradict themselves. Warlords and pirates in Somalia. Terrorist groups splintering and splintering again. Punks smashing businesses in the streets of Seattle. Those are the real-life faces of anarchy, quite disconnected from the misty-eyed utopia of ultimate liberty.” Dan sensed that he was switching into lecture mode and cut himself off abruptly, knowing this was not the time or place for it.

Larry’s expression reflected something that Dan considered to be confirmation. “So, what if I said the nature of people does matter,” he replied, “but that it’s not a matter of good or evil?”

Dan heard Ron mutter something but he ignored it. “Okay?” he responded. “Feel free to elaborate.”

“Are people smart, Dan?” Larry asked before taking a sip of his drink.

“Well,” Dan answered slowly, “I would not be in a hurry to vouch for the general public being especially intelligent or particularly interested in being so.”

Larry nodded. “How about innovative? Or creative? Or even independent thinkers who critically analyze available information and apply basic logic before reaching conclusions?”

Dan shook his head. “I think there are people who fit those descriptions, but I think the majority just use what is built by those few.”

“Standing on the shoulders of giants, as it were?” Larry prompted.

“Sure,” Dan agreed, “I think that’s a fair assessment.”

Larry sat quietly for a few moments. “What if I said that the nature of people is that they’re generally stupid, too stupid to manage themselves and that they need a powerful government to protect them from themselves?”

Dan shook his head. “People may be stupid,” he acknowledged, “but I believe in freedom, including the freedom to let people hurt themselves with their own stupidity.”

Larry smiled. “Naturally,” he said. “You’re a great fit for leading a movement that orients itself around that lovely American mythos of individual freedom. I’m pretty sure that’s why you were selected for this meeting. You even have a dim view of anarchy, which so many people find scary, and by acknowledging a supposed need for government you don’t scare off those who actually think that the forces of government are there for their benefit.”

“And?” Dan asked after a prolonged silence made him wonder if Larry was going to speak again.

“And you believe it all,” Larry replied, his eyes casually on his food rather than his table companions, “which moves you from being a good candidate for the job to a possibly worthless one.”

“And you’re old,” Angela piped up. “Maybe not ancient, but old enough to be ‘set in your ways,’ as my own mother would put it.”

Larry nodded in agreement. “If you were a young leader, you’d be more… useful. Malleable. But instead you’ve had years to stew in your ideals and convince yourself of their worth.”

“Wow,” Dan said again, struggling once again to get his bearing in the awkward conversation.

Ron stood up. “I think we’re done here.”

“Sit down,” Larry said coldly.

“If you value your life, that is,” Angela added.

When Ron did not comply, Dan looked up at him. “Sit, Ron. As doubtful as it may seem right now, there might be something of value here.” He then turned back to Larry as Ron took his seat again. “But if there is I want to quit beating around the bush and get to it. I have a hard time believing you would go through all the trouble to bring me out here just to promptly decide I’m not the right person for you. To be able to pull off what you did to get me here, you must have deep and wide information assets. Those would allow you to analyze me in depth. Why waste resources for a fruitless in-person meeting?”

“Research only goes so far,” Larry said with a shrug, “and while we have certainly had our eye on you for awhile, there’s no substitute for a personal meeting. We were going to arrange one before your excursion into prison, but Mitch threw a wrench into our plans.”

“Mitch?” Dan asked.

“You knew him as Trevor,” Angela spoke up.

“Or Steve,” Dan commented. “I have no idea what his real name is. Mitch is a new one to me.”

Larry took a slow sip from his drink. “Mitchell Klein is his real name, we collected plenty of information on him after your house was raided.”

“So he’s not working with you?” Dan asked.

“Oh, hell no,” Larry scoffed. “He’s ostensibly a Fed, but really more of a rogue indie. Loose cannon. He has his own ‘organization’ although it’s really more along the lines of a disorganized stable of blackmail victims. I suspect he may have eventually wanted to add you to his guild of misguided misfits. Anyway, he does not seem to have any kind of overall mission objective other than making life nicer for himself by padding his various off-shore and Bitcoin accounts and maintaining his… hobbies.”

Dan noticed Angela’s smirk. “Hobbies?” he asked, looking at her.

“Did you ever wonder why he made Paul Johnson take the fall for you?” she asked in return.

“Constantly,” Dan acknowledged. “I’ve never come up with an answer, though.”

“Paul was gay, yes?” Angela prompted.

Dan shrugged. “I could assume so, based on his art.”

Angela’s smirk returned. “Well, so is Mitch.”

Dan knew he looked puzzled. “So?”

“Ponder it some other time,” Larry spoke up. “We will deal with Mitch in our own way. His wild-card actions have already been disruptive to us. His ongoing efforts against you, which we can safely assume are out of fear for how you might upset his house of cards, could be even more problematic for us in the future, regardless of what future you do or do not have with us.”

“Just to be clear,” Ron spoke up, his voice tense, “are you saying that you had nothing to do with the attack against Dan when he was being transferred, against Karena, against Brianna, or against that building in Chicago?”

Larry looked over at Ron. “Actually, we’re not saying anything to you, Ron. But if we were looking at potentially working with your idol here, it is logical to assume that we would not try to kill him, hurt those close to him, or increase the intent of law enforcement to capture him and potentially execute him. Now be quiet on your own, before I resort to a more direct solution to the irritation of your presence.”

Ron stood again, knocking his chair back with a bang. “I’m done. Mr. Starney, you can continue talking with these… these… words fail me. But I’m done.”

Larry raised his eyebrows as he watched Ron storm away from the table and head back toward the door through which they entered the room. “That’s really not a good idea,” he said quietly, although neither he nor Angela made any move away from the table.

Dan stood abruptly. “It’s not clear now, nor may it ever be clear to me, what is really going on here, but I value Ron’s loyalty far more than I value your insults. If you’re going to stop us from leaving, you’d better get off your asses.” With that, he turned away sharply and hurried to catch up with Ron. He heard Larry say something quietly to Angela but could not make out the words.

When he caught up with Ron in the large marble-floored foyer, the younger man turned briefly, apparently hearing his approach. Ron’s face darkened into a fresh scowl. He turned away and put his hand on the doorknob to leave, but Dan reached out and grabbed his forearm, stopping Ron before he could move the knob.

“Guard,” Dan said softly.

“Suggestions?” Ron asked. Despite keeping his voice down, the anger in his voice was unmistakable.

Dan looked around, wondering how long their luck would hold out in not encountering anybody in the palatial house. “Let’s see if we can find a side or back door, maybe leading to a garage of some sort. I don’t think they’re of a mind to just let us stroll out of here.”

Dan didn’t want to wait for a response, but he knew he had already strained Ron’s loyalty by not defending him more against Larry’s verbal abuse. When Ron gave a short nod of agreement, Dan unholstered his pistol and gestured for Ron to draw his also. He then turned away from the front door, quickly scanned his options, and set off in a direction that looked like it might lead toward an area used more by servants than the more important residents.

After a couple dead ends, Dan found a door leading into a large kitchen. For the first time since they left the table, they found a member of the house staff. A cook wearing professional chef attire looked up in surprise when they burst in. Dan and Ron both raised their pistols, but the cook immediately raised his hands. Dan put one finger to his lips to make it clear the cook should remain silent as He and Ron made their way toward a door that appeared to lead outside.

“Too easy so far,” Ron commented once they stood on the small loading dock onto which the door opened. There were no trucks in the delivery area, and they saw nobody in the area.

“Let’s just keep moving,” Dan answered. “We’re in no position to second-guess the path we’re now on.” He gestured to the other side of Ron where he saw steps that would take them down to the pavement below.

Ron turned and jogged down the stairs with Dan following as quickly as his injuries allowed. The paved service drive ran along the back of the house to their left, while in front of them stood a three-bay steel kit garage with all of the bay doors closed. Glancing warily back at the house, Dan took the lead over to the small side door of the garage. He was relieved to find the door was unlocked, and he ducked in to the building quickly, shutting the door again once Ron was inside.

A small window on each end of the garage let in enough natural light that Dan was able to see that there were vehicles in at least the two nearest bays. He stood silently for a moment, finger to his lips to keep Ron quiet as well, until he was satisfied that there was nobody else in the garage. Dan turned on the overhead lights and stepped toward the Subaru Baja that was parked closest to them.

“Keys are in it!” Dan said, grinning as he moved around to the driver door. Ron made a grunting sound as he approached the passenger side while Dan climbed in. As the younger man was opening the front passenger door, Dan got back out. “Dead battery.”

“Great,” Ron said quietly, closing the door again.

Dan turned to the Chevy Silverado pickup truck parked in the middle bay. He tried to peer through the window to see if it had keys, but the combination of the tinted glass and poorly-lit garage prevented him from seeing anything. When he attempted to open the front passenger door, he found it was locked. The rear passenger door was also locked. Dan then moved to the driver door and opened it. He regretted it immediately as the vehicle alarm blared out its warning.

“Great!” Ron repeated, this time yelling. “Any other great ideas?”

Dan looked about hastily. “Get over here!” he snapped, motioning toward the third bay, where three Honda Sportrax 400EX ATVs were parked. “Ever ride one of these?” he asked loudly when Ron came around the pickup.

“Plenty,” Ron acknowledged. “No keys,” he continued as he checked the ATVs, “but find me a screwdriver, I can get these started.”

“How long?” Dan asked as he strode over to a nearby workbench.

“Not long, just get me something metal, fast,” Ron answered.

It took Dan only a moment to find a screwdriver on the workbench and he tossed it to Ron. The younger man bent over one of the ATVs. A moment later, after a sharp electrical sound and a flash of sparks, it roared to life. Dan was surprised at how fast and easy it seemed, but he knew this was not the time to ask questions. He moved to press a dimly-glowing button by the bay door, which he hoped would open it, while Ron started a second ATV and climbed onto it. The bay door started to rise, and Dan turned back to get on the other running ATV.

The grumble of the ATV engines in the garage, squeaking groan of the bay door, and blaring alarm on the truck did not entirely mask the sound of a gunshot. A little burst of dust on the ground at the entrance to the bay let them know where the bullet hit. Dan heard the ricochet whine past him into the back of the garage. Knowing he would not be able to fire his pistol effectively while riding anyway, Dan rolled his ATV toward the front of the garage, firing wildly at the house until his ammunition ran out. He hoped it would make the other shooter seek cover long enough for them to get out. As soon as his gun was empty, he roared forward out of the garage.

Dan heard Ron coming out of the garage behind him. He turned left as sharply as he felt he could manage without overturning his ATV. With the younger man right behind him, Dan raced around the back of the garage to put the building between them and the house. He heard two more shots before reaching the relative cover the garage provided, but he could not tell where the shots went. He gave a thumbs-up sign to Ron to communicate that he was still unhurt, and Ron returned the gesture.

The ground behind the garage looked mostly level with scattered scrub brush, and in the distance they could see the ridge that lay in the direction of Albuquerque. Dan took a moment to swap his empty magazine with a full one before returning his pistol to its holster. When he saw Ron put his handgun away also, Dan pointed to the far ridge.

“Don’t worry about staying together,” he said loudly to be heard over the engines. “It might be better if we don’t. When we get over that ridge we should be just outside of Albuquerque. Go to the airport on the south side, we’ll meet up there somehow.”

Ron gave another thumbs-up gesture and promptly roared off on his ATV, weaving through the scrub brush. Dan heard several more shots ring out from the house but did not wait any longer before racing away from the garage. He felt unsteady, for it had been many years since he rode an ATV. He did not cover as much ground as Ron at first, but he pushed himself and the machine as much as he could. Before long he was well away from Larry and his people.