Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [63]
But she didn’t have to help him, and so she shook her head. “I won’t try to stop you,” she said, “but I’ll be damned if I’m going to help you.”
“Then just stay out of our way,” Grady snapped. “I won’t be needing you anymore.”
“You mean—”
“I mean you’re free to leave, Chief. Have a good day.”
Yeah, Alex thought bitterly. Like that was going to happen.
She had a feeling that the good days in Home were over.
CHAPTER 27
When she left the command post RV, Delgado was waiting for her, guarded by a couple of the black-clad soldiers.
“Is it true?” Delgado asked tensely. “They’re here to take everybody’s guns?”
“How do you know about it?”
“Jimmy called me. Enough people in town saw that news broadcast that the word is spreading fast. Jimmy says the station is being flooded with calls from people wanting to know if its true.”
Alex sighed and nodded. “It’s true. These people"— she glared scathingly at the so-called “officers"— “have been sent here to disarm all the civilians.”
“But not us.”
“Not yet. But I’m sure if we give them any trouble, that’ll be the next step. The commanding officer made that clear.” Alex started toward her car and jerked her head for Delgado to follow.
The other members of the force were waiting for them. Alex called them together and explained the situation.
“What are we gonna do?” Jerry Houston asked when she was finished.
“I don’t know.” Alex hated to appear indecisive, but the sheer enormity of the situation had all but overwhelmed her. “There are too many of them. I told the colonel we wouldn’t help them, but we won’t try to interfere with them, either.”
“The hell with that,” Clint said with a snort. “I quit.”
Alex shook her head. “Clint, don’t. Please. I’m going to need all the good people I can get to maintain order.”
“No, you won’t,” he argued. “This bunch of goose-steppers will maintain order, at gunpoint, I expect. You just wait and see.”
Alex didn’t have to wait. She was sure Clint was right.
Unbelievably in this, the Twenty-first Century, the day of the jackboot and the iron fist had dawned in America. The forces of the left, so arrogant and self-righteous in their belief that their way was the only way for the country, had bided their time, waiting for the right moment to step in and force their agenda on everyone, and the anger over the tragic injustice that had happened to Pete McNamara had served as their excuse.
This was just the first step down a long, nightmarish road that would ultimately find the formerly free United States transformed into a socialist dictatorship.
That was a harsh judgment, Alex knew, but she didn’t doubt the truth of it for an instant. That was exactly what the man in the Oval Office intended.
As if to confirm her fears, several of the sinister-looking SUVs pulled out of the parking lot and headed downtown. Alex couldn’t see through the blacked-out windows in the vehicles, but she was sure they were full of FPS “officers” setting out on their mission to disarm the town.
At that moment, static crackled from the radio on her shoulder, and then Jimmy said, “Chief, I got a call that Wendell Post is … barricadin’ himself inside his store. He says he’s gonna fight if anbody … tries to take away his guns.”
“Damn it,” Alex muttered. Still, Jimmy’s news came as no surprise. A lot of people would probably react the same way as the hardware store owner. Wendell Post was just the first one to do so.
She leaned her head toward the radio and keyed the mike. “On my way, Jimmy,” she told the dispatcher. “If any more calls like that come in, send an officer to each location.” She broke the connection and turned toward them. “Do not let those goons shoot any of the townspeople. Clint, are you with us or not?”
Clint sighed. “All right, all right. I’ll stay on … for now. I don’t want them shootin’ up the town any more than you do, and that’s what it’s liable to come to.”
Alex got into her car and headed downtown. Post Hardware