A God in Ruins - Leon Uris [104]
“Six. We’ve got a couple hours to look around.”
Three hundred thousand square feet, filled with fourteen hundred ten-foot tables, burst open before them. The tables sagged under the weight of handguns, rifles, shotguns, night-vision apparatus, knives, laser attachments, ammunition presses, sniper scopes, lock picks, burglary tools, surveillance bugs, T-shirts.
It was the devil’s fairyland.
A double table held three hundred separate and individual fake law enforcement badges where a man could button on the rank of sheriff, sheriff deputy, detective, U.S. Marshal.
There were tables of Kevlar vests and spy craft kits.
And
A tattoo artist.
And
Steroids, faintly disguised, and brass knuckles and lead-filled sap gloves and blackjacks and body vests and pepper and mace spray sets and stun guns and electric cattle prods and police clubs and handcuffs.
The main aisle tables exhibited stealth climbing equipment and barbed-wire cutting tools and pistol magazines and SWAT carrying bags designed to disguise automatic weapons.
The hall was filling up now. Untrusting exhibitors stared suspiciously at untrusting customers. Word had been passed that the Denver police were on “live and let live” orders.
Camouflage uniforms closely following Army and Marine Corps specs took up a five-table area.
Next to it were bayonets, shooting earmuffs, bi-pods, machine-gun tripods, combat boots, and bird shot.
Targets holding outlines of human beings.
And
Confederate flags.
And baseball caps bearing such identification as SWAT, ATF, FBI, SHERIFF, BORDER PATROL, U.S. MARSHAL SERVICE.
There was a table with a rainbow of military medals and ribbons on display, from the Order of Lenin to the Victorian Cross. Step right up and show the folks how courageous you were—in case you misplaced your own citation. All of the armed services military medals from the Spanish-American War to the present were on sale, except for the Congressional Medal of Honor, which had to be special-ordered.
Duncan and Rae retreated for a hot dog and Coke, munching listlessly, saying nothing, talking to one another with their eyes. If this is legal, then what is illegal? All disguised to defend liberty. All bitter, frightened people who had abandoned joy and laughter early on.
They were not exactly sterile, Duncan thought. Here, among fellow gunners, they were empowered by their numbers.
“What time is it?” Rae asked.
“Twenty to six,” Duncan answered.
“Let’s go into the hall.”
“I want to look at those book stalls.”
“I’ll go in and save us a seat, on the aisle near the rear. Is Mom coming?”
“Dad insisted she go up to Troublesome.”
“She’ll be here.”
Stacks of books, six tables long, stacks of pamphlets, three tables more.
The Turner Diaries was the major title, the book that had inspired the most infamous terrorist in American history, Timothy McVeigh. It had been his bible for blowing up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma.
There was a how-to table.
Terrorist Explosive Source Book
“Folks!” called the loudspeakers, “be sure to register whether you are a delegate or just an AMERIGUN member visiting. We’d like to show just what kind of support we’ve got. Registration tables are at…”
How to:
Create Your Own Home Workshop Guns
How to Build Claymore Mines
Grenade Launchers
Blow Guns—The Breath of Death
101 Weapons for Women
Beat the Border
Counterfeit ID Made Easy!
Disguise Techniques
The Outlaw’s Bible—How to Evade the System by Using Constitutional Law
Just Say No to Drug Tests
The Poisoner’s Bible—Deadly Concoctions Through the Ages
How to Avoid a Drunk-Driving Conviction
Got to Get Money $$$$$—New York Street Con Games
Fugitive’s Guide—How to Run, Hide, and Survive
Man-Trapping Techniques
Detonators
Slash, Thrust, Strangle
Booby Traps
Hostage Taking
Forgotten Legions—Obscure Combat Formations of the Immortal German Waffen SS
Protocols of the Elders of Zion—The True Story of How the Anti-Christ Gutter Religion Conspires to Take Over the World
And the winner is!
Body for Sale: An Inside Look at Medical Research, Drug Testing