A State of Treason Read online

  A State of Treason

  By David Thomas Roberts

  A State of Treason

  Copyright © 2014 by David Thomas Roberts

  This is a fictional narrative. The storyline of this novel and the characters are for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to imply any real person actually made statements, nor acted in any manner consistent with the storyline of this novel.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical or by any information or storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author.

  Published in Texas by www.defiancepress.com

  Printed in the USA

  The Patriot Series© by David Thomas Roberts

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases or this author’s availability for speaking engagements, contact [email protected] or 888-315-9446.

  Hardback ISBN#978-09905439-0-9

  Paperback ISBN#978-0-9905439-1-6

  eBook ePub ISBN#978-0-9905439-3-0

  eBook Mobi ISBN#978-0-9905439-2-3

  Also available in audio book format

  Edited by Janet Musick

  Cover Art by Radoslaw Krawczyk

  Interior by Debbi Stocco

  Distributed by Hillcrest Media Group

  Also by David Thomas Roberts

  “…so close to reality it’s scary.”

  ~ Ken Mercer, Amazon® Reviews

  “…Wonderful read, could not put it down.”

  ~ J. Prejean, Amazon® Reviews

  “You will NOT be able to put this one down!”

  ~ Mary Huls, Amazon® Reviews

  “If you are a fan of Tom Clancy or Dale Brown, you’ll love this book.”

  ~ Shadow T, Amazon® Reviews

  “…masterful, fast-paced adventure that is hard to put down.”

  ~ P. Anthony, Amazon® Reviews

  “…had me on an edge the whole time I was reading his novel and could not put it down for one moment.”

  ~ R.A. “Pascual” Marquez, Amazon® Reviews

  “Fiction, but not!”

  ~ Randy Councill, Amazon® Reviews

  “…better than excellent, I caution the reader to make sure you start this book when you have plenty of time.”

  ~ Marsha Randolph, Amazon® Reviews

  “Wow, what a ride!”

  ~ Avexpert, Amazon® Reviews

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to James King III, Private William H. Fuller and Sergeant Thomas Nicholson.

  James King III was a true American patriot and hero. In 1775, at the ripe old age of twenty, James picked up his musket and participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord against the mighty British.

  William H. Fuller, a private in Morgan’s 51st Alabama Cavalry, Partisan Rangers, enlisted in the Confederate army with his own horse and fought under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, participating in battles at Fort Donelson, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Chickamauga, Maryville, Knoxville, Decatur and Jonesboro. He was one of the very few original survivors of this historic cavalry.

  Thomas Nicholson landed at Utah Beach during World War II, advancing through France as a member of the 242nd Rainbow Infantry, participating in the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately freeing the horrific death camp at Dachau. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroically repairing vital communication lines under enemy fire throughout the worst night of fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

  James King III was my great, great, great, great grandfather. William Fuller was my great, great, great grandfather. Thomas Nicholson was my grandfather.

  Defiance to tyranny is my most prized inheritance.

  Foreword

  President Tyrell Johnson’s administration was seemingly made of titanium coated with Teflon. There was no scandal too big, no corruption so sinister that it couldn’t be spun to make Johnson appear brilliant. His attacks on the U.S. Constitution were couched in language that was designed to soothe or shame his political opponents, who could not muster enough support with the American people to have any effect.

  The administration launched a surprise attack on Iran shortly before Johnson’s re-election. It was the quintessential “October Surprise.” It didn’t matter that the president gave the order to attack a country without congressional approval; he didn’t even consult congressional leaders, including those of his own party. Like the raid that killed a famous terrorist who was the most wanted man on the planet, Johnson’s bold decisions just happened to work in his favor.

  There were those who believed that, even had those events been miserable failures, they would have been spun through the most effective propaganda machine since 1930s Germany and come up smelling like roses. It happened with scandal after scandal in the Johnson White House.

  On election night, when the president was celebrating his re-election victory at Lincoln Park in downtown Chicago, an assassin attempted to kill him. The assassination attempt threw the country into temporary chaos. Riots and looting broke out all over the country, especially in urban areas like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark, St. Louis and others.

  As the president recovered from his gunshot wound, a full-scale conspiracy investigation was launched to determine the motives of the would-be assassin, who was killed by Secret Service agents during the attempt. When investigators found that Rashid Safly-Allah (also called Rash Sally), had ties, albeit not in the traditional sense, to local Tea Party groups in Texas, the administration and the Left saw their opportunity to discredit and destroy the Tea Party.

  As the investigation deepened, the FBI learned the assassin had been motivated to act by Operation Python, the code name for the strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The intense bombing killed Rash Sally’s only living relative, his sister, who died in her own home at a site near a targeted facility.

  A student at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Sally had been working on a master’s thesis that centered on Tea Party attitudes toward Muslims. This fact, and the fact that Sally himself was a Muslim, was kept from the American people by the administration.

  On specific instructions from the administration, especially the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began a systematic assault on the Tea Party under the guise of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Although the NDAA was approved by Congress, many civil rights and constitutional scholars decried its passage because it allowed the federal government to arrest anyone, including American citizens the administration could “link” to any terrorist group, without a bench warrant, Miranda rights, habeas corpus or due process. It even allowed for indefinite detention and “rendition” (the practice of shipping terror suspects outside U.S. boundaries to allow for torture).

  Despite Sally’s tenuous ties to Tea Party groups, the administration “justified” including the Tea Party with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Taliban as “threats” to the United States. Under the direction of U.S. Attorney General Jamail Tibbs, the ATF raided Tea Party offices in several states, including local Tea Party organizers’ offices and even their homes.

  Chuck Dixon, a local businessman and Tea Party organizer in Houston, was arrested and detained at an unknown location after his wife and son were terrorized at their home by ATF and FBI operatives. The ATF destroyed the Dixons’ home after a “Waco”-style raid, during which an armored vehicle punched holes in the structure to drag out a large gun safe. Dixon’s best friend and fellow Tea Party patriot, Stan Mumford, was shot and killed by the ATF in front of his wife and kids on the street where they lived. Local news stations ran raw video footage o
f FBI agents striking elderly Tea Party volunteers in a raid on a Tea Party office in the Dallas area.

  Much of the country, especially those on the Left, felt the heavy-handed actions used by the feds were warranted. However, public opinion in Texas and several southern and mountain-west states, traditionally conservative and opposed to many of the administration’s actions, became increasingly alarmed. Many elected Democrats in those states were under extreme pressure from their constituents to voice their outrage in Congress.

  Governor Brent Cooper finally had enough. A vocal opponent of the president and his administration, especially Atty. Gen. Tibbs, Cooper acted dramatically. Learning through local law enforcement that the ATF had secretly detained Dixon at Ellington Field Air Force Base near Houston, Cooper dispatched legendary Texas Ranger Pops Younger to rescue Dixon.

  Younger, at seventy-some years of age, commanded the Texas Rangers. He was a law enforcement icon. His impressive six-foot-three frame came complete with handlebar mustache, Wrangler cowboy-cut denim jeans, snakeskin cowboy boots and a Stetson hat. He led a small group of Rangers to confront the ATF at Ellington Field. One ATF agent was wounded in the exchange, but there were no deaths, and Dixon was rescued. The daring raid made sensational news across the country.

  Embarrassed at being outmaneuvered by “cowboys,” the administration issued federal arrest warrants for Younger, Cooper, and other Texas officials.

  Not to be outdone, Cooper and the Rangers successfully obtained arrest warrants from several Texas judges for the ATF unit at Ellington and for all FBI and ATF agents who conducted Tea Party raids throughout Texas. Younger and his Rangers led simultaneous flash raids on ATF and FBI offices in Houston and Dallas, arresting dozens of federal agents.

  President Johnson was enraged. The entire country was riveted on the high-stakes drama that had Texas and the feds hurtling toward a dangerous confrontation.

  Working on the attempted assassination investigation, DOJ attorney Tim Spilner became increasingly suspicious of the federal government’s reporting of Rash Sally’s motives. Spilner had been given top secret clearance to the files and data relating to the investigation, and it quickly became clear to him that a diabolical conspiracy and cover-up were occurring in the DOJ and the entire executive branch. He decided to take matters into his own hands. At great personal risk, he smuggled secret investigative documents to Texas Attorney General Jeff Weaver. On the same day that he sent a FedEx package to Weaver with the secret documents, Spilner and his wife were killed in a bizarre one-car accident on their way to dinner.

  Meanwhile, the FedEx package sat on Weaver’s desk for several days as more dramatic events began to unfold on the capitol grounds in Austin. Under direct orders from the administration, FBI, ATF, and units of the U.S. Army Rangers converged on the capitol building to arrest the Texas governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest Younger.

  As the volatile confrontation grew, Gov. Cooper called out the Texas Militia and the Texas Guard, both under his direct control. As federal agents approached the capitol building to arrest the state officials, Texas Rangers stood their ground on the capitol steps. Texas Militia volunteers responded to an emergency message and flocked to the capitol grounds.

  Tensions ran high as crowds at the capitol grew from a few hundred to several thousand. Return shots were fired across the street at the Texas Law Library. When the bullets stopped flying, eighteen Army Rangers, ATF and FBI agents lay dead in the street, with eleven more wounded. Details hit news agencies all over the world, causing them to break into regular programming to broadcast the drama evolving in Austin.

  Explosions rocked downtown Austin as two Blackhawk helicopters the feds were to use to escort the Texas state officials to an undisclosed location were fired upon and destroyed by Texas Air National Guard Apache helicopters. Meanwhile, at Texas Rangers headquarters inside the DPS campus, a similar explosion destroyed a government Blackhawk. Pops Younger outsmarted the ATF and flanked the federal agents with volunteer Texas Militia, forcing the feds to surrender.

  Shortly thereafter, an impromptu news conference was held inside the Texas capitol’s famous rotunda while opposing troops were still in a stand-off. After the press was allowed to enter, the governor disclosed the newly discovered evidence provided by Spilner before his death. The country was rocked by the scandal. The lead FBI agent, Peter Hixson, seeing the evidence from Spilner, ordered the agents under his command to immediately stand down. The governor ordered them to surrender their weapons, which were placed in a pile on the capitol lawn, not far from a statue honoring Confederate cavalry heroes, Terry’s Texas Rangers. News feeds broadcast the U.S. Army Rangers, and FBI and ATF agents surrendering their weapons, shocking the rest of the country.

  With hundreds in custody, the governor agreed to allow any agents who signed a non-aggression agreement with Texas, including an agreement never to step foot in Texas again, to be transported by school buses to Austin’s airport, where a C-130 transport landed to pick them up. The outrage of the Tea Party raids and armed incursion onto the Texas capitol grounds galvanized Texans. By the time the school buses were loaded early the next morning, thousands lined the route from downtown Austin to the airport, waving Lone Star flags, the infamous Gonzales Battle Flag with its famous single cannon and “Come and Take It” moniker, and the flag adopted by most of the Tea Party—the popular yellow Gadsden flag. Many shouted at the buses and some even threw rocks.

  The governor called a special session of the legislature and demanded that impeachment proceedings be started in Congress over the conspiracy facts revealed from the Sally investigation documents. Unless Congress voted to start impeachment proceedings against Johnson, a non-binding resolution would be placed in the legislative session calling for a vote by Texans for Texas independence.

  The administration, now adept at winning the propaganda wars and who also had the mainstream media doing its bidding, went into full demonization of Texas, its governor, the Tea Party, and the leak of top-secret information. Using practically all the political capital at their disposal, the administration and the Democrats completely defeated any chance of an impeachment vote, despite many southern Democrats voicing their support. The vote never made it out of committee.

  Ironically, the Texas “story” had pushed the Sally investigation conspiracy and cover-up back into page two news, just like so many other Johnson administration scandals. None of the mainstream media types were keeping the story front and center. The ongoing news feeds now were about what to do with the Texas “problem.” Many in the country were outraged at the eighteen deaths, the surrender of the feds, the ability of the Texas Guard to lock down U.S. military bases in Texas, and the humiliation of the school bus rides to the airport of federal agents and U.S. Army Rangers while onlookers jeered them.

  The Texas Legislature convened and, as promised, put a resolution for Texas independence to a vote. The measure passed on the same day evidence was presented to news organizations that showed that Tim Spilner and his wife were killed in a car in which the accelerator and brakes had been tampered with.

  Johnson was livid when the vote to secede from the Union passed with sixty-eight percent of Texans voting for secession. With cabinet approval, he decided that the insolence of the Texas Militia in taking over military bases throughout the state, and the incidents in Austin, deserved tough punishment.

  He ordered federal troops to all major highway intersections, and restricted air travel to and from Texas. He also placed U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Mexico, with orders not to let any ships in or out.

  Johnson issued orders to stop any federal payments to Texans, including Social Security, veteran’s benefits and Medicaid, with the hope that Texas citizens would put pressure on the governor to surrender to federal authorities. The president stopped all banking transactions going into or coming out of Texas, isolating Texas banks particularly from access to the nation’s banking
system.

  Not content with these drastic measures, Johnson ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to initiate actions against anyone in Texas with ties to Tea Party activism or organizations, including any who had donated to a Tea Party candidate.

  The National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began intense investigations of phone records and emails to assist the IRS in identifying its targets.

  President Johnson called a press conference hours after the independence vote. He was visibly indignant and agitated, even worse than when his assault weapons ban failed. The stakes, already high with mutual arrest warrants issued, reached fever pitch.

  Accompanied by his entire cabinet, the president strode to the podium in the blue-carpeted East Room of the White House. He stared for several seconds into the cameras. He was a master at manipulating speaking opportunities, and this was high drama. Finally, he spoke, reading from teleprompters at each side of the podium.

  “This vote is unconstitutional and it is illegal,” the president proclaimed. “The state leadership of Texas continues to thumb its nose at the rule of law and the federal government. As I have stated previously, this is treasonous. The entire state of Texas, led by its state government, is in A STATE OF TREASON!”

  Chapter 1

  “The pursuit of Liberty is never convenient and often demands blood as the price to achieve it — and to keep it. Liberty is never permanent, for to believe in its permanence is most assuredly its ultimate destruction.”

  ~ David Thomas Roberts, Author

  Chuck Dixon crammed into the small rental sedan, barely able to get his knees under the steering wheel. After the events in Austin over the last ten days, he was fortunate to get a rental car at all. He couldn’t remember when he’d last driven a subcompact.

  The line leaving the parking lot was long; only one attendant booth was open. When Chuck finally reached the attendant, he rolled down his window and gave his driver’s license and rental contract to the young man. The attendant looked at the contract, then compared it to Chuck’s driver’s license. His face lit up.