“And so, we got home last night and found Dr. Hennigan—that’s what she called herself—on our couch,” Blayne said.
“Somehow, she bypassed Blayne’s new state-of-the-art security system. Still pissed about that,” Ethan grumbled.
“But who is she?” Arnold asked.
“Your guess is as good as ours. From what we’ve put together, she’s protected by some people high in the US government.”
“Whoa, you’re telling me that plane explosion in New Orleans last month wasn’t an accident?” Arnold questioned.
“Yeah,” Ethan started, “I guess we glossed over that one. That woman over there blew up a plane to kill me and destroy my cell phone.”
“Why on earth would you have me save her life?”
“She hinted that something bigger was coming, and we couldn’t stop if she died. So, we decided…” Blayne looked at Ethan, who tilted his head sideways, furrowing his brow. “Okay, I decided that saving her life to stop something bad from happening was more important than putting her behind bars, which is where she clearly belongs.”
“Why not let the police handle it?”
“That’s what I said,” Ethan grumbled.
“She said the police wouldn’t get a chance to question her. She’d either be rescued or dead before they could interrogate her. And from everything we’ve seen about her and whoever she works for, I didn’t think she was lying. There’s more at work here than any of us understand. And the only one with those answers is lying unconscious on my couch.”
The three sat in silence for a moment. Arnold let out a low whistle. “What the hell have you gotten me into?”
“I wish I knew,” Blayne admitted. He glanced down at his watch. “Damn, I have to be in class in thirty minutes.” He stood up, took his empty coffee mug to the sink and rinsed it out before setting it inside. He kissed Ethan on the top of the head, said goodbye to Arnold and headed to class.
* * * *
Agent Murphy
Sarah sat in the Emerald City’s sensitive compartmented information facility—SCIF—staring at a group of FBI agents and members of other law enforcement bodies around the country.
“Agent Murphy, what can you tell us about the groups?” Director Steele asked.
Sarah shuffled the papers in front of her. The director had sent her an email earlier that day to put together a dossier on both groups for this meeting.
“The National Democratic Party of Germany, or NPD, was founded in 1964 as a far-right political party but failed to gain significant traction. That changed in the late 1980s following the fall of the Berlin Wall.” She went into detail about the origin of the group and its past and current leadership structure. She explained that the group turned toward a hardline, well-organized and militant force espousing a mix of extreme nationalism, xenophobia and a belief in German racial superiority. “Today, we’re not sure who runs the movement. We have heard rumblings of someone known only asDer Führer, but we cannot know if this person is real or a part of mythology.”
After the quick presentation, there were several questions, and Murphy did her best to answer what was lobbed her way. Thankfully, a young woman from the NSA who specialized in threat analysis and far-right groups filled in a lot of the blanks that Sarah couldn’t.
“And what about this Constitutional Liberation Army?”
“Honestly, sir, we’d heard grumblings of this organization, but no one considered them any threat. This is the first time this group has done anything violent or has associated with more militant groups.”
“Why do you think they escalated?” a woman from the NSA asked.
“I don’t know. Here’s what we do know. The Constitutional Liberation Army—CLA—was founded in the early 2000s and is a group rooted in the belief that the US government has strayed from the Constitution’s original intent, infringing upon citizens’ rights. From our intel about this group, we know they believe that liberal ideology is the primary culprit behind America’s perceived decline. The CLA views themselves as patriotic defenders of traditional American values, advocating for radical measures against the government. However, none of their rhetoric has been overtly violent.”
“Well, yesterday that clearly changed,” a man from one agency quipped. Sarah couldn’t remember which agency this guy was from, but she ignored him.
“The group was founded by a former Marine named John Black, who seems to have been radicalized during his time in the military. He completed three tours in Afghanistan and another four or five as an independent contractor. His previous employer wasn’t what I would call forthcoming with the information about his employment record.”
“Who was his previous employer?”
“GreyGuard. I have a call into their CEO, Nathaniel Greaves, but have been stonewalled by their lawyers.”
“Have someone in the Office of the General Counsel pressure Greaves. If that doesn’t work, we’ll contact the DOJ and see if they can help,” Steele said.
Murphy waited to see if anyone else would jump in. When no one did, she continued. “As for the CLA, the group originally crossed our radar following the 2008 financial crisis. The group held several rallies in New Mexico and Texas where they protested the, and I quote, ‘corrupt and bloated nature of the federal government.’ Then they kind of went off the radar. They rose to prominence again after the 2016 presidential election. They apparently saw former President Trump as a political ally, so they became more active and vocal. This was when rumblings within the group for armed resistance started. Although there were rumblings, nothing ever happened. A threat assessment was conducted in 2022 by the FBI, DHS, ATF and NSA, but they were not deemed homegrown violent extremists—HVEs.”
