The Cold Six Thousand - James Ellroy [175]
MLK plans speeches. MLK plans dissent. “Poor People’s Unions.” “Poor People’s Marches.” Poor people hooked on dissent.
MLK on inclusion:
“We can only topple the apple cart of the American power structure and commandeer and equitably redistribute its resources through the creation of a new consensus, a new coalition of the disenfranchised, which will not tolerate men living in luxury while other men live in wretchedness and filth.”
MLK plans speeches. MLK plans workshops. MLK plans dissent.
Summits. Workshops. Brain pools. Coalitions. War protesters. Pacifists. Leftist pamphleteers. Vote drives. Reapportionment. Resultant mainstream clout.
WHITE RABBIT cited concepts. WHITE RABBIT ran timetables. WHITE RABBIT quoted dates.
MLK prophesied. MLK decried Vietnam:
“It will escalate into the most murderous misadventure of the American 20th century. It will divide, rip asunder and produce skeptics and people of conscience in epic numbers. They will form the nucleus of the consensus that will burn America as we know it to the ground.”
Timetables. Fund drives. Operating costs assessed. Vote potentials. District boundaries. Registration stats. Tallies. Figures. Prognostications.
It’s huge. It’s grand. It’s magnificent. It’s insane. It’s megalomaniacal.
Littell rubbed his eyes. Littell fought double-vision. Littell dribbled sweat.
Sweet and blessed Christ—
Mr. Hoover would cringe. Mr. Hoover would gasp. Mr. Hoover would FIGHT.
Littell cranked a window. Littell looked out. Littell saw freeway ramps. The cars looked new. The taillights streamed. The signposts blurred bright.
He lit a match. He burned the file. He flushed the ashes down the sink. He prayed for Martin Luther King.
His words stuck.
He savored them. He replayed them. He said them in Dr. King’s voice.
He surveilled Lyle’s house. He parked adjacent. No Merc extant/no collectors/no movement. Say Lyle dozed late—give him time—time the collectors’ approach.
North Ivar was dead. Windows glowed black & white. The glass bounced TV shadows. He shut his eyes. He dipped his seat. He waited. He yawned. He stretched.
Headlights—
They passed his car. They swiveled. They strafed Lyle’s house. There—the blue Merc.
Lyle parked in his driveway. Lyle got out and walked up. Lyle saw the door crashed and trashed.
He ran inside. He hit lights. He screeched.
Littell shut his eyes.
He heard crash sounds. He heard toss sounds. He heard oh no yells. He opened his eyes. He checked his watch. He timed Lyle seeing things.
More toss sounds. More crash sounds—no yells or screams.
Lyle ran out. Littell clocked it: 3.6 minutes.
Lyle stumbled. Lyle looked woozy. Lyle looked unkempt. Lyle got in his car. Lyle pulled out. Lyle hit reverse and floored it.
He gunned it. He smoked tread. He smashed the barrier fence. The car flew. The car upended and flipped.
Littell heard the crash. Littell heard the tank blow. Littell saw the flames.
DOCUMENT INSERT: 8/11/65. Internal telephone call transcript. (OPERATION BLACK RABBIT addendum.) Marked: “Recorded at the Director’s Request”/“Classified Confidential 1-A”/“Director’s Eyes Only.” Speaking: Director, BLUE RABBIT.
DIR: Good morning.
BR: Good morning, Sir.
DIR: I was saddened by the news on your brother. You have my condolences.
BR: Thank you, Sir.
DIR: He was a valued colleague. That makes the circumstances surrounding his death all the more troubling.
BR: I won’t apologize for him, Sir. He indulged occasional binges and behaved accordingly.
DIR: The suicide aspect troubles me. A neighbor saw him back his car off that hillside, which confirmed the LAPD’s findings and the coroner’s verdict.
BR: He was impetuous, Sir. He’d been married four times.
DIR: Yes, in the manner of one Mickey Rooney.
BR: Sir, did you—
DIR: I’ve reviewed the LAPD’s paperwork and I’ve spoken to the Las Vegas SAC. WHITE RABBIT’s house had been thoroughly ransacked. A neighbor told officers that WHITE RABBIT’s souvenir gun collection had