Molon Labe! (42 page)

The SAC says in his most soothing voice, "George, calm down. Foster could have
told
you that he was attending his daughter's play at Duke and that he took half the cast out for dinner afterwards, but he's never liked the Bureau. I guess he hoped we'd act on bad info and embarrass ourselves."

The SAC then turns arctic. "And that's exactly what
happened.
Did you know that Foster was in Jacksonville —
Florida
, by the way — with his brother's family from December 17th until January 2nd?"

Swingle and Malmberg just stand there, blinking.

"Yeah, I know what's going through your minds: no airline travel during that time on his credit cards. Well, there wouldn't be. He
drove
."

Malmberg coughs.
Oh shit!

"Sir, we couldn't have known about his Christmas vacation or his daughter's play. Foster clammed up on us from the start!"

The SAC turns red. "And just when did we rely solely on
subjects'
testimony to make our cases? Hell, if they always
talked
, half of us would be looking for other careers! This was damn sloppy work! Actually, it was even worse than sloppy. You've exposed the Bureau!"

"
S-sir?
" Swingle manages to blurt.

"Oh, yeah, here's the best part," says the SAC, taking a deep breath to force his heart rate down. "The US Attorney just heard from Rothstein. Seems our favorite shyster had a little chat with your feed store witness Jenny Collins. She told him that you and Malmberg convinced her to finger Foster when she repeatedly told you that she was nowhere near certain about him. Now, tell me there's absolutely
no
truth whatsoever to
that
."

Swingle glances at Malmberg and swallows, hard.

Malmberg returns the glance with a stare.
Don't fade on me now, Lyle!

Durants Neck, North Carolina

March 2011

A tea kettle whistle rises in tone, peaking at a high D#. It's hard to tear himself away from his living room view of the Albemarle Sound cypress trees, but he pads to the kitchen, removes the kettle, and makes his Chinese herbal tea. He hears a low rumbling
boom
from across the Perquimans River to the west. Harvey Point is the CIA's secretive 1,600 acre paramilitary training base. Locals are accustomed to helicopters and blacked-out transports coming and going at all hours. Plus the random, incessant explosions.

He returns to his reading chair by the window, settles in, and spreads out the morning newspaper. He's been looking forward to reading the top story for nearly an hour, but forced himself to leisurely get around to it.

It's an article about the FBI, featuring the fruitless search of an innocent man's home. Unnamed sources described the quest for owners of 2006 Lexus automobiles, and how one Raymond Foster evidently fit the vague description of Senator Hengel's killer. The main thread of the story was how the FBI case agents failed to clear Foster as a possible suspect and then apparently manipulated a young female witness into making an inaccurate statement. The botched Swan and Bradford raids out West were also mentioned.

The man puts down the paper and takes a sip of hot tea. He smiles faintly as he remembers that night in D.C. It was very bad fortune to have been seen by
two
witnesses, and one of them a cop. That bad fortune was compounded by the fact that the Metro cop had recalled the year, make, and color of the car. Nevertheless, the trail had ended there.

The Lexus wasn't his. Never was. He "borrowed" it from a Falls Church, Virginia woman he knew of through a mutual friend. She would be in Spain the entire month of February, and was storing her car at their friend's house. When the man learned that this friend would be in Seattle on business, he simply drove to Fairfax, parked a quarter mile away, and walked with his electronics briefcase to his friend's home. He had the house keys and alarm combo. The Lexus was parked in the garage, with the keys. He swapped out its plates and drove across the Potomac into D.C. wearing a movie-quality blonde wig. He returned by 7:45PM, reinstalled the original plates, wiped off his prints, walked back to his car, and drove home.

If the Lexus owner or their mutual friend were ever questioned, they enjoyed the unassailable alibi of having been out of town. They had zero risk. That was paramount, for the man would not jeopardize innocent third parties.

And, there was nearly zero risk for him. The mutual friend would never know that he'd used the Lexus for a few hours.

It was just about perfect.

The man smiles at the FBI's resources wasted on tracking down and questioning all those blonde-haired male Lexus owners.

Only a dumbshit would ever use his own car!

2011 USA economic news

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be as violent and bloody a measure as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

— Henry David Thoreau,
Civil Disobedience

The first Baby Boomers (
i.e.,
those born in 1946) begin to turn 65 years old in the spring and permanently leave the workforce. The retirement has two macro effects. The first is that they no longer buy new stocks with their paychecks. The market infusion from their IRAs, 401(k)s and Keoghs is over.

Economists call the 79 million Baby Boomers "the rat in the snake" for their post-WW2 demographic swell. As a percentage of the population, nothing like it in history had ever happened.

By December the Dow has tumbled 18% from 3,409 to 3,024. Gold is $3,067/ounce. A 1:1 ratio of gold and the Dow has not been seen since January 1980 when both were at 800. Annual inflation is 24%.

The second effect is the great (and final) drain on the "Social Security" system, which comes under unpreventable actuarial attack. It quickly becomes obvious that the so-called "trust fund" was never actually there —just like all those anti-government whackos had been claiming since the mid-1970s. President McBlane signs an SS tax hike which nearly doubles FICA withholding from wages.

Colleges erupt.
"Why pay it — we'll never see it!"
students chant. The fabric of America, already badly frayed at its edges, begins to unravel.

__________

1
   LD
₅₀
is standard toxicity measure of median lethal dosage,
i.e.
mortality for 50% of subjects.

2012

Casper, Wyoming
Preston Ranch

Summer 2012

James, Jr. and Hanna were away at church camp, and have turned into quite the little letter writers. Father and son are enjoying the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and advice. Juliette teased her husband for "stalking the mailbox," waiting for his son's next missive. The latest one contained a question: "Hey Dad, which is worse in a friend, weakness or selfishness?"

Dear #1 Son,

Your mom and I were very happy to read that you'd won the .22 rifle competition last week! And with a camp's "ratty old Marlin", too! I'm sure it wasn't much of a contest because you've been a great shot since you were eight. If they'd let you use your own .22 Ruger, nobody would have had a chance!

You raise an interesting question. I would have to say that weakness is worse in a friend than selfishness.

Selfishness is more reliable; it can be plugged into your equation and planned for. Weakness, however, springs up erratically and is usually more difficult to envision than selfishness.

I'll tell you
exactly
what weakness in a friend is like. It's like buying a mediocre quality rifle scope, such as a Tasco. Remember that BLR .308 we bought last year with the Tasco? Remember how quickly it broke at the range after just 47 rounds?

Oh, it'll look nice and give OK service — as long as it doesn't get used
too
much or knocked around or have to endure huge environmental swings.
However,
on the day when you
really
need it to perform, when all is riding on that moment, after you've come to rely on it because it's never let you down before, it will daisy on you.

And when that happens, you're presented with the balloon payment. See, you hadn't truly
paid
for your Tasco when you bought it, like a Leupold. Oh, no — the final bill for mediocre quality always comes later, and far enough into the future that you got suckered into believing that you'd bought great quality for much less.

You don't buy mediocre quality, you only lease it. There's always a final payment due at the end. (We've talked about leasing, right?)

Ironically, you'd have been better off having bought
low
quality. It would have failed on you almost instantly, and you'd have learned right then to invest in only the best. But when you buy mediocre quality and it eventually fails on you, you're tempted to think that you merely got a lemon and then you go out and replace it with another Tasco. When the second one fails on you again, you're faced with owning up to a pair of very unpleasant facts: one, you mistakenly bought cheap, and two, you repeated the error. Many people cannot admit this to themselves, so what do they do? Yep, they buy their
third
Tasco. Pride locked them into circular behavior. After the money spent on three Tascos they could have bought a Leupold in the first place.

So, friends are like scopes. Invest in the best, and any failures you suffer in them you will know are rare. Avoid weak people and you avoid the sneaking suspicion that they will someday let you down. Because they will. They won't be able to help it, no matter their devotion to you.

How I wished I learned this at your age! Aren't you blessed to have such a wise dad? Heh! (Actually, I am the blessed one, with a son keen enough to have asked the question.) Anyway, I hope this was helpful to you. (Are there any "Leupold" quality kids there?) Till next time,

Your loving father

P.S. Hanna writes your mother that "her big brother" has been sticking up for her. Good boy! That's what big brothers do.

2012 USA economic and social news

The stock market continues to slide, despite Fed intervention with cheap money. The housing market, long stagnant, begins to contract. Suburban homes are dumped for 30¢ on the dollar. Gold is over $3,200/ounce.

The Gray Outrage begins. "Golden Years" have turned to pewter.
"We didn't work for 45 years to live in a mobile home and eat cat-food!"
Their outrage is countered by a youth revolt over the SS tax hike. Blaming the
"old farts"
for their high taxes, the youth increasingly assault the elderly. Nursing homes install metal detectors, and retirement villages bristle with barbed wire and rifle-toting guards.

Casper FBI Field Office

November 2012

Special Agent Bleth picks up the phone, disconnecting the speaker. Director Klein's familiar voice says, "Doug, how are you this morning?"

"Fine, sir, thank you. And you?"

He hears Klein's tinny laugh in reply. "D.C. was and always will be a swamp. Only the alligators have changed. So, bring me up to speed on the Wyoming election yesterday."

Bleth gathers his notes and says, "Just about what we expected, sir. They've won SDs 26, 28, and 30. Meaning, they're targeting Fremont and Natrona counties. HD victories were 3, 5, 22, 29, 31, 32, 34, 38, and 52. Affected counties were also Platte, Campbell, and Sheridan."

"So, in the 2014 general election you're expecting, what, five new counties?"

"That's correct, sir. For a total of 17 of 23 counties. Libertarians now control 40% of the Senate and 43% of the House. If they are successful in 2014, their block in the legislature will be about 55%. Then they will be able to table and pass all majority vote bills."

Director Klein observes, "But they won't have a two-thirds majority to override vetoes, right?"

Bleth sighs. "True, but if they elect their candidate for governor, there won't be anything
to
veto. The governor and 50.1% of the legislature will be all they need to pass any bill they desire."

"Oh, right, I forgot about their executive branch. Any leads on their likely gubernatorial candidate?"

"Not yet, sir, but he should surface next year to begin his campaign." Klein harumphs. "Well, he's sure taking his time, isn't he?"

2012 USA political news

But we are in the age of the mediocre man. He is dull, colorless, boring — but inevitably victorious. The amoeba outlives the tiger because it divides and continues in its immortal monotony. The masses are the final tyrants....

The roar of the plodders is inarticulate, but deafening. They have no brain, but they have a thousand arms to grasp and clutch at you, drag you down.

— Trevanian,
Shibumi
, p.106