A black-and-chrome motorcycle idled slowly down State Road 32 in front of Freedom Arms, stopped for moment, then bumped onto the dirt side road and rolled up toward them, its engine rumbling out the staccato signature of the Harley Davidson. The rider looked for a hard spot to put down his kick stand, then climbed off and walked straight to Ranya who began crying again as they embraced. He was an old man to be riding a big Harley, wearing a sleeveless denim jacket over a black sweat shirt, with a small visorless black helmet and gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses. The man pulled off the helmet, revealing short-cropped gray hair. Brad stood by feeling awkward, and turned away from them as they held each other. The man was between Brad’s height and Ranya’s, maybe about five ten, and seemed to be in good shape for his age.
Ranya and the old biker separated, and she made the introductions. “Brad, meet Phil Carson. He’s an old family friend, kind of like an uncle. Phil, this is Brad Fallon. I just met Brad today. He’s been helping me. He buried my dobie Armalite for me.”
“They killed your dog too?”
“Yes.”
“Those goddamn bastards…”
The two men shook hands cautiously and checked each other out, the weathered fifty-something biker and the young man in jeans and an ocean blue polo shirt which matched his eyes.
“I’ve seen you around; you’re fixing up a sailboat on Sodermilk’s old farm, right?”
“That’s me. You know the place?”
“I sure do, I almost bought part of it once.”
Ranya asked, “Phil, didn’t you used to do some ocean sailing?”
“Where’d you hear that? Your father? Yeah, I did some sailing, a long, long time ago, but I got it out of my system. So Brad, you’re the guy from Alaska who shook ‘em up at Mineral Springs last month? I heard you came within one point of knocking off the best open-sight rifle shot in Virginia and the Carolinas.”
Brad looked directly at the man. “It seems like my life’s an open book around here.”
“Don’t get your feathers ruffled son. Suffolk’s a big county, but the serious shooters are a small group, just like any place. And let’s face it, your story’s more interesting than most, coming from Alaska to buy a boat and all that. These days, people pay a lot of attention when somebody new shows up with a big interest in shooting. Folks are paranoid, and they should be. Just look at what happened here last night.”
Ranya said, “So you already heard about it?”
“Well, I wasn’t just riding by. Sure, I got a call. So now tell me, what are you youngsters doing standing way over here outside the fence? I know there’s got to be a reason, so tell me what’s really going on. Come on Ranya, don’t hold out on Uncle Phil if you found something.”
The old biker had a warm smile, and for a moment it allowed Brad to see him as he must have looked as a younger man.
She handed him an empty ten-millimeter shell case, its head stamp facing up. Carson had to squint hard to make it out, holding it at arm’s length. “Ten mill. I knew it; I knew it, the feds! So your father was shot over there by the little flags?”
Ranya nodded yes.
“So that’s forty or fifty yards from here, at midnight, and almost pitch black. The moon didn’t rise until after one AM, I checked. Somebody shot him at that range, in the dark, and nobody around here heard the shots. What’s that tell you? You already know what it means, don’t you Ranya?”
“Yeah. Ten millimeter with these marks on the brass and the dent on the lip means the ‘FBI Special Edition’ MP-5. A night scope on top, and a sound suppressor. I’m guessing subsonic loads, for no sonic crack. It was the feds all the way,” said Ranya.
“That’s about how I already figured it, and as far as I’m concerned the brass you found proves it. They’re pretty slick: they used the home boys to do the dirty work with the gasoline out by the road, and take the rap if it goes sour. Meanwhile they’re waiting in the tree line for Joe—for your father to come out. They knew he’d be coming out, and they were waiting in ambush.”
Brad asked him, “How did you know it was the ‘home boys’?”
“I’ve got my friends on the force. When I heard the news I made some calls. Who else makes gasoline bombs out of 32-ounce malt liquor bottles? You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out. But now you know something the cops don’t know: that’s the ten-millimeter secret Ranya’s got in her pocket.” He paused, suddenly uncomfortable. “And I know something nobody knows, nobody at all. I know who killed him.”
“What?” Brad and Ranya exclaimed at the same time. “Who? How can you know that?” asked Ranya.
“Because I think I talked to him right inside your store Thursday afternoon. The BATF came by for a compliance check, four of them in a black Chevy Suburban. One of them did all the talking at the counter, a BATF agent, a real asshole, a big crew-cut gorilla with a Yankee accent like maybe Boston or New York. He wanted all the 4473’s from the last week. He was having a fit about your father selling semi-auto rifles last week after they passed the law. Turns out it’s not illegal to sell them, not until next Tuesday, but the BATF guy got all bent out of shape. He took the 4473’s right out the door, no pretense at all about just copying down information for an investigation. We had some words… I blew up like a big asshole and gave him a major ration of shit…
“I feel like crap Ranya, you don’t know how bad I feel, I feel like I set your father up, like I set the feds onto him. If I hadn’t of pissed that BATF guy off so bad, your dad might be alive. They might have just burned the store and left it at that.” Phil Carson was speaking quietly now, staring down at his boots with his hands at his sides. “I had to tell you, I had to tell you that it’s my fault.”
“Shit… Shit… Well, geez…” Ranya was crying again. “God, this is so messed up. Phil, you can’t blame yourself…and you don’t know if they shot him on purpose, if they planned it. They might have had the same kind of security at all the arsons, and my father just walked into their line of fire, they just saw him coming with a shotgun and... Oh shit.” She sat down heavily on the ground, staring blankly.
“Well anyway, I’m sorry if I had anything to do with it. I know I feel like I did.” Carson stood next to the cedar tree, looking over the limb the assassin had most likely used to steady his weapon while he shot Joe Bardiwell. Brad was the outsider again, his back to them, leaning against the wooden fence post. All of them were staring out across the field to the little square of yellow flags which marked the burnt spot where Joe Bardiwell had been murdered.
Carson took a deep breath and sighed. “Aw hell… You know, a war’s coming. I can feel it. Thirty years and I haven’t killed anybody, and as God is my witness I had some good reasons to! But now it feels like it’s all coming around again, like a big wheel… Only this time I’m just an old guy with bad knees and weak eyes. Man oh man, I sure wish I was your age and had eyes like you youngsters again. Now that I finally know what’s going on, I’m just about too damn old and busted up to do anything about it. I guess this is going to have to be your generation’s fight.”
Brad turned around and faced this stranger, wondering where he was coming from with his war talk. “I can’t speak for ‘my generation’, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not my fight. I’m sorry, but I just want to get on my boat and go travel for a while, and see the rest of the world.”
“You’re just going to take off? Now? Damn. You seemed like maybe you’d be a fighter to me, being a crack shot and all, but I guess you never can tell. And if somebody like you isn’t going to fight back, I guess there’s not much hope that the purple-haired nipple-ring crowd is either.”
“Look, Phil, I’m sorry, but America…it went off the tracks a long time ago. I can’t fix it, and I’m getting out while I can.”
Phil Carson paused, looking between Brad and Ranya. She was still sitting on the ground, staring across her property. “If America goes down the tubes, where are you going to run to? Where will you find the kind of freedom we had here? Argentina? Brazil? That’s a laugh. Or will you just keep running? Because if America goes down, then the whole world goes down. And then there’s not going to be anywhere safe to hide, not anywhere. Not for years, maybe not in our lifetimes.”
Brad said nothing. He knew the old biker was grieving and bitter, and there was already enough bitterness and sorrow to go around today without adding any of his own. He certainly didn’t want to argue with an old friend of Ranya’s in front of her, when she had already suffered so much.
“Ah, what the hell,” Carson said. “Maybe you’re right Brad, get out while you can. You’re young, you want to explore the world. We all did at your age… I guess I’m just an angry old man, and my clock’s ticking down. I’ve only got time for one more battle, maybe one more war. It’s just a damn shame we won’t have a young man that can shoot like you on our side.”
“Am I missing something?” asked Brad. “What are you talking about? Another civil war?”
“Hell yes another civil war, or maybe a dirty war like they have in South America. What do you think that bullshit act in the stadium was about? What do you think these gun store attacks are about? You think they just happened? Somebody, the feds, maybe the BATF, I don’t know who, but somebody’s trying real hard to pick a fight. It’s like they’re standing between two armies shooting both ways. They’re trying to start a war, and I don’t know why. Maybe so they can crack down and bring in martial law, I haven’t figured that part out. But somebody sure as hell’s trying to start a war in this country. Liberal against conservative, city against country, pro-gun against gun control, pro-government against pro-freedom, black against white against brown, Christian against Muslim… There’s no other explanation that makes sense.”
Brad replied, “But every poll says most people believe Shifflett had militia help. They see the militias behind all of this, that’s what the news people are all saying.” Brad didn’t believe the polls or the media; he just wanted to hear the old biker’s reaction.
Carson snorted. “Let’s face it Brad, most people in this country are stupid and getting stupider by the year. The public schools are practically designed to crank out stupid people! Stupid people will believe any stupid story; stupid people are easy to control. You already know that. I mean, we all know the militia story is horseshit. It’s just nice easy-to-understand baby food to feed the morons, to get them to support the gun ban and all the rest that’s coming. And we’re outnumbered; we’re way outnumbered by the morons.”
Ranya stood up again and turned to join their discussion. “That’s true, sure we’re outnumbered, but don’t forget one thing: we have all the guns. The nanny-state sheeple-types hate guns. They’ve been brain washed for years, so even though they out number us, they can’t hurt us because they’ve basically got no weapons. It’s the government itself that’s going to be the other side in this war. They have guns too, all the guns they need. It’s the government that’s going to come after us, and the sheeple are going to cheer them on every step of the way.”
“How in the hell did we wind up on the other side from our own government?” asked Brad. “That’s just about the worst part of it. That’s why I’m getting out while I can.”
“Brad, you were in the military, weren’t you?” asked Carson.
“Four years in the Navy.”
“You remember the oath we took when they swore us in? ‘Raise your right hand’ and all that? Well we sure didn’t swear to defend the federal government, or any damn government. No, we swore to defend the Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic. So now is when it gets sticky: what if ‘domestic enemies’ of the Constitution are running the government? Do real patriots roll over and play dead, or fight back? That’s the big question, because for sure anybody who resists isn’t going to win any popularity contests with the sheeple.
“And you can bet the government’s going to call anybody who resists either a traitor or a terrorist. They can just make up any damn laws they want now, because we’ve got a Supreme Court that’ll say two plus two equals five hundred, as long as it’s politically correct. And then they expect us to just salute smartly and go along with the program, while they tear up the Constitution! They think they can just say ‘war on terror’ and ‘national security’ and everybody will just shut up and obey orders…well I’m just about finished obeying orders. There’s some lines that won’t be crossed, and one might be coming next Tuesday at twelve noon.
“Listen you two, I’m sorry I got all worked up, but it just breaks my heart to see what’s happening to this country. It breaks my heart to see good men like your father killed by our own government. Now I guess everybody has to decide for themselves what to do about it… Ranya, if there’s anything you need, just give me a call, and let me know about the services for your father, I want to be there.” Carson handed her an old business card with several numbers penciled in on the back, and she put it into a small compartment on the outside of her black daypack. “One of these numbers will get me. If you need anything at all, just give me a shout, all right?” He gave her another hug, then held her by her shoulders at arm’s-length and looked at her.
“I will. I’ll call you.”
Carson returned to his bike, mounted it and tugged on his helmet. “And Brad, Ranya’s just about the only ‘family’ I’ve got in these parts. I’m sure you’ll be a gentleman, won’t you?” He smiled when he said this, but his concern for her welfare was evident.
“I’m going to be gone soon. You won’t have to worry about me.”
Carson answered him by firing up the engine, and then he snapped his bike into gear and turned back toward the state road. He stopped on the edge of the pavement behind Lieutenant Mosby’s patrol car, and Mosby walked over and briefly spoke to him. Brad and Ranya watched as the two men shook hands, and then Carson took off riding his black Harley toward the south.
****
“Man, he’s a trip” said Brad. “Is he serious about all that civil war talk? I mean, I expect a lot of problems, the country’s going to crap, but a civil war?”
“Sure he’s serious. He’s the real deal, that’s what I always heard. I used to hear some other customers at the shop talking about him. They said he was into some pretty crazy stuff in Vietnam. Special Forces, that deal. Phil never talks about it, but some other guys, they told my father some pretty amazing stories about him. So yeah, if he’s talking about a civil war coming, I’d say he knows what he’s talking about.”
“I don’t see how a civil war can happen in this day and age, but I definitely feel the hate—it’s right under the surface. I can see all the dividing lines. America really is two countries today. One half still loves freedom, and the other half’s already socialist, even if they don’t call it that—yet. The free half is keeping them from going all the way to having the kind of socialist government they want, but they can’t quite shove us out of the way while we’ve got so many guns. I think that’s really what all this is about: once they’ve got our guns, they’ll just pass all their damn socialist laws. They’ll just increase our taxes until we’re like Sweden, and if we don’t like it, tough shit. Anybody that fights back will get a free ride to a special camp for problem children. That’s where it’s all heading, and that’s why I’m leaving now, before I need to get permission to go.”
“Brad, I think your plan’s pretty smart. Get out of Dodge while you can. But as far as what he said about a new civil war goes, well, it’s already started for me. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but somebody sure as hell declared war on me when they killed my father.”
“Listen Ranya, I didn’t mention this when your friend was here, because I didn’t want to bring up the FBI coming out to my boat, or the thing at Lester’s. The only credential I saw when the FBI came to my boat was from an older agent named James Gibson, but the main guy who dealt with me said his name was George, just George, and he didn’t give his last name. He didn’t show me any ID, so I assumed he was FBI too like Gibson, but now I don’t think so. He was definitely a crew-cut gorilla, and he had a Boston kind of accent, just like the ATF agent Phil saw in your store. It’s got to be the same guy.”
“So the FBI and the BATF are working together down here. Probably because of the Stadium Massacre,” she replied. Her tears were gone for now, pushed back, replaced by a new steely-eyed interest. “So Gibson is an older FBI agent who was at your boat, and George is the guy who was at your boat, and at Freedom Arms.”
“Right. I think so,” said Brad.
“Well, that’s good to know, that’s something anyway.”
“What are you going to do next?” he asked her.
“What do you mean, next? Today?”
“No, I mean are you going to stay in Suffolk, or go back to Charlottesville?”
“I’ll stay a few days, maybe a week, I don’t know. I don’t even know all the things I have to do. I’ve got some high school friends around here. I can stay at somebody’s house.”
“Okay, well, if you need anything, let me give you my cell phone number, and if you need my truck to move your other motorcycles, any thing like that, just call me, and I’ll be glad to help. Do you know where my boat is?”
“I think so. I can find it.”
“Well, if there’s anything you need, just call me. And Ranya, I’m really glad I met you, I’m just so sorry about what happened to your father, about everything.” They walked down the dirt road and along the fence by State Road 32 until they were back at the gutted store. Brad climbed into his truck, jotted his number on an old receipt, and handed it to her. Then he said once again, “If there’s anything I can do…”
“I’ll call you. Thanks Brad, thanks for all your help today.”
There was nothing left to say, so he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to Guajira. Ranya was still standing on the parking lot; he could see the American flag waving in his rear view mirror.