David Ellis - The Wrong Man

Randall Manning rubbed his eyes and shuddered at the memory. That was the day his country, and an old friend, betrayed him. That was the day he recognized his country for the cowardly multicultural abyss it had become.

Tomorrow would be the first step in taking his country back. The Pearl Harbor Day procession. He wished like hell that U. S. Attorney General Langdon Trotter would be in attendance, part of the anniversary march, like he used to be when he was governor of this state.

He’d have to settle for the state’s new governor: Lang’s son, Governor Edgar Trotter, who was scheduled to lead the march tomorrow along with Mayor Champion.

After tomorrow, Lang would know how it feels to lose a son to terrorism.

The men recited the words from memory, by rote, as they continued their preparations.

“I understand that the cause is greater than the individual. I understand that sacrificing this life for the cause will open up a new and richer life in the hereafter. I understand that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. I understand that revolution is not only a right but an obligation. I understand that bigotry and hate cannot be answered with tolerance but with intolerance. I understand that those who take up arms against us cannot be answered with peace but with like arms.”

The men were inside a storage unit, all of fifteen feet high, twelve feet wide, and thirty feet long. No windows, no furnishing, not even a traditional door-just an automated garage door at the front of the unit. The You-Ride truck had been stored here since they cleared it out of the silo at Summerset Farms-a bit earlier than they’d expected, because of that lawyer who Manning always complained about.

But they’d always planned that tonight-the night before the attack-they would stay here, given the proximity to the city. It was cramped and dingy, but it didn’t really matter any longer. It was a sacrifice that paled in comparison to the one they’d be making very soon.

“I understand that the cause is greater than the individual. I understand…”

One man-Olsen-was performing a mechanical inspection of the You-Ride, checking tire pressure, the battery and engine, looking for anything that could go wrong tomorrow morning. The second man-Briggs-had the job of inspecting the equipment. He insured that the fuses were in proper and working order in the driver’s cabin. He confirmed that the protective plastic tubing, covering the fuses as they traveled underneath the driver’s cabin and up into the rear cargo area, were still intact. He checked the connection between the fuses and the blasting caps in the cargo area. He made sure that the slack in the plastic tubing was fastened securely against the wall of the cabin, preventing the accidental detachment of the fuses from the blasting caps in transit.

The third member of the three-man team, Roscoe, slept. They had to take turns, only one man at a time. Everyone was hyped up, wired at the prospect of tomorrow, but Manning had been clear about it-everyone had to get at least four hours’ sleep at some point before the big event. Focus and discipline, a proper execution, were impossible without some amount of sleep beforehand.

It was almost midnight. It was almost December 7.

In thirteen hours, this country would change forever.

I stood on the Lerner Street Bridge, part of the Pearl Harbor Day procession route that would lead three blocks north to the federal building. It was a clear day but not sunny. The sky was the color of ash, which I hoped was not foreboding.

It was eleven in the morning. Traffic was light over the bridge, and it would soon be non existent. The city would rope off the bridge for the marchers, who would begin at noon and probably hit the bridge about twenty, twenty-five minutes later.

I had my cell phone with me, and Lee and I had promised to stay in touch, but I wasn’t really needed anymore. The federal government didn’t need me to tell them how to stop truck bombs.

Lee, in fact, had told me to leave the downtown, but it felt odd to me to do so. Nobody else was evacuating. Why should I?

I wasn’t really sure what to do. I crossed the bridge that split the commercial district and walked north toward the federal building again. The barricades surrounding the building had been fortified, and the Army had been called in as well to defend the building. Lee had mentioned air protection, too-fighter jets, presumably. The good news, as Lee had noted, was that all this military presence would fit right in with a memorial honoring the fallen at Pearl Harbor.

Overhead, well beyond human sight, American satellites were shooting down, searching for suspicious vehicles, for three seventeen-foot You-Ride trucks.

I ambled north and then west and passed the state building, an ugly structure composed in large part of glass. It would be a great target for a truck bomb.

Then I completed my lap of the targets. I headed south. I wanted to be down by the Hartz Building at noon.

The Pearl Harbor Day marchers were gathered on South Walter Drive near the Hartz Building. Over seventy-five people had assembled, some veterans of World War II, some children or grandchildren of the fallen at Pearl Harbor. At the front and rear of the procession were Army tanks, which, again, seemed perfectly normal and symbolic in this context. Members of the military-Army, I thought, maybe Army Rangers like Tom Stoller-stood at attention in their combat fatigues, weapons aimed upward.

The politicians were absent. They’d been briefed and presumably thought better of serving as terrorist bait on this particular day. I knew this because I was part of the inner circle now. But nobody else did. The feds didn’t want this telegraphed in advance, because it might get back to the bombers and affect how they operated, and we didn’t want them to know that we knew. So as far as the general public knew, the mayor and governor and Senator Donsbrook were supposed to be here but for some reason weren’t. So the procession would now be led solely by a retired brigadier general who had been stationed in Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack.

It felt wrong that these other marchers weren’t told of what might be happening. I had to assume that the immediate area had been thoroughly searched, and there was sufficient fortification to stop a You-Ride truck long before it reached this group.

Still. The downtown was filled with people, people working in offices, people strolling the streets. It felt wrong. And I felt complicit.

I caught Lee Tucker’s eye, who gave me a nasty look, unhappy to see me here.

It was ten minutes until noon. There was no sign of a truck approaching, or Lee wouldn’t be standing still.

My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I didn’t recognize the caller. I looked at Lee and it wasn’t him, so it didn’t matter.

Five minutes to noon. Someone was herding the marchers into some semblance of order on Walter Drive. Lee Tucker was in full concentration, his index finger placed against his earpiece, but he wasn’t registering grave concern. Nothing yet.

And then it was noon.

Nothing exploded. No truck came barreling toward us. I looked at Lee, who returned a blank stare back.

The march began.

Olsen checked his watch. It was twelve thirty-seven. About right. A little behind schedule, but he wasn’t going to panic. Traffic was worse than expected. They’d accounted for a slowdown, given that certain streets would be barricaded in light of the procession, but this was worse than he’d figured. Still, he had plenty of time before one. And even if it were a few minutes past one, he wouldn’t be too late. The memorial was expected to last until at least a quarter past the hour.