The Krakow Klub (32 page)

Montrose spoke with deadly calm. She
acknowledged that
unknown terrorists had attacked the
nation
. Those responsible would be identified and hunted
down even if she had to send troops to the ends of the earth. She
declared a state of martial law and explained that the military and
National Guard was being assigned to protect the citizenry. Troops
would be out in full force throughout the nation.

For her final words, she looked directly into
the camera and spoke, “As President of the United States, I am
sworn to protect this
nation,
and I will do
so. Have courage. We will overcome this crisis and emerge even
stronger than before. Our nation will not be destroyed by
terrorists. I will
annihilate them
! God bless
our valiant military, and God bless the United States of
America!”

****

All across the country the rumble of tanks,
armored
vehicles,
and trucks filled with
troops became a common sight. In a matter of a few
hours,
a military presence could be found around all
principal federal and state government buildings. America was now
in a state of military control and things could now be done that
would not have been possible before.

Unannounced to the public, all
members of the Congress, the entire Supreme Court, and most cabinet
members were alerted to be ready to relocate to a secure place away
from Washington.
Also included in the alert were
numerous major department heads.
The specific site that
they were to be moved to
was not included
.
However, the fact that they would be
traveling
by train meant it was probably not too far away.

That destination was to be the Greenbrier
Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia.

Lt. Colonel Collins and his Scorpion
Battalion were already in place and preparing for their
arrival.

During the Cold War, a huge bunker had been
built into the hillside beneath the hotel that could accommodate up
to eleven hundred people. The plan was, in the event of a nuclear
war, the government could
be relocated
there,
where it would continue to function. The facility had been designed
to meet all their needs for a prolonged
period,
including medical facilities, meeting rooms,
cafeteria, communication system, and sleeping quarters.

After the Cold War, the facility was
eventually decommissioned and became something of a tourist
attraction. However, just recently, for some unknown reason, the
former president had quietly ordered that the bunker
be prepared
for use in case of a terrorist attack on
Washington.

President Montrose, back in the White House
bunker, smiled to herself while thinking,
Operation Plato has
begun. We have done it! There is no stopping us now!

****

The Krakow Klub had infiltrated the military
command structure with many high-ranking officers loyal to the
organization. ARRCOM was their most prized
achievement,
and it was critical to their ultimate
success.

Several years ago, military
leaders recognized the necessity of an agile military in the world
of advanced technology. ARRCOM was put in place so that the
military could respond immediately to any situation arising in any
location around the world. This new army was flexible, lethal,
could be configured quickly, and would be well prepared for any
warfare, conventional or
otherwise.

The current commander of ARRCOM
was General Lew McGowan, a tough,
no-nonsense
commander who idolized
General George Patton. Over the years, he developed a reputation
for being a strong and fearless leader, but he had an Achilles
tendon: women.

He had a knack for finding the most beautiful
prostitutes of any nationality who were willing to participate in
his rough sex games. He almost got caught a few times but was able
to sidestep disaster at the last minute even after a very bruised
and battered call girl reported him to authorities.

As the years went by, he enjoyed the violence more
and more. That was what turned him on. Not beauty. Not sexiness.
Not charm. It was the violence.

Many years ago, shortly
after having attained the rank of Lt. Colonel, McGowan’s
inclinations and lack of control created a situation that could
have ended his career forever. At the least, it would have likely
placed him in prison for the remainder of his life.
However, the Krakow Klub had covered up his
dark
secret,
and he now was indebted to them.

In response to his enthusiastic
acceptance of duties, Number Five, with high contacts in the
military, ensured that McGowan would be on the fast track up
through the ranks. Now, he was the commander of ARRCOM and a key
person to the
planned
overthrow of the American government.

Number One, ever on the alert for new recruits, had
many other officers and government officials set up for blackmail
after engineering situations that were illegal, immoral, and always
compromising.

The recruiting of senior officers had been a
stroke of genius. Now, with many in place, he could seize power and
make the seizure appear to be necessary and legitimate.
Afterward
, it would be easy to isolate and neutralize any
pockets of resistance that might remain.

Stoellar knew that to take America, one had
to control, not confront, the military. He also knew that he only
had to control a few key positions in the military
to
effectively control all of it.

McGowan had been an important acquisition and
had already earned his keep. Now, he had been entrusted with the
names of many of the Krakow Klub agents in the military. As the
commander of ARRCOM, he could place these agents into key positions
of power when the right time came.

For the past two years, McGowan had been
carefully creating several brigades and battalions specifically for
the grand plan, Operation Plato. These units were specifically
trained to secure and hold homeland targets with the two most
important being Washington DC, and the Greenbrier Resort. Other
special units were built to arrest and detain military commanders
that appeared to oppose the plan.

****

The Greenbrier assignment went to Lt. Col.
Stephen R. Collins. Collins
had been selected
for the mission by Stoellar himself. The man was a cold-blooded
killer. He was a psychopath who was completely devoid of
conscience. After one incident that had been particularly brutal,
his military career had been saved through the direct intervention
of a powerful, politically-connected Krakow Klub agent.

Collins was ordered to create the Scorpion
Battalion several years ago. He was to fill the ranks with men like
himself
—
men without conscience who would
follow any order no matter how heinous. Now, the group was
complete. There was no similar assemblage of cold-blooded killers
anywhere, except possibly in a
high-security
prison.

Recently, a relatively new member of the
battalion had refused to shoot a stray dog when ordered to do so.
The poor animal had innocently wandered into the campground in
search of food. A sentry had tried to shoo the dog
away,
but his watch commander had ordered him to shoot
it. He had refused
saying,
“The poor thing is
simply looking for food.” Collins was furious at the incident; he
would not tolerate any form of failure to follow a direct order, no
matter how trivial the order might have been.

He had the recruit arrested immediately and
convened a military tribunal that same day. The trial
was held
in front of the entire battalion. Collins, of
course, acted as prosecutor and judge. There was no lawyer for the
defendant. Without calling any witnesses or hearing testimony, he
convicted the soldier on the spot.

Immediately after the verdict, Collins pulled
a large knife from a scabbard on his waist and in a flash
disemboweled the young soldier on
the
spot
.

Every member of the battalion looked straight
forward and didn’t blink an eye. Collins addressed the group over
the crumpled body beneath him. Blood gushed from the huge wound and
pooled under the toe of Collin’s boot.

“This man is no soldier. He is a coward.
Cowards fail to obey orders. Cowards will receive swift and final
punishment for their disobedience. This man displayed a lack of
guts. Now he has no guts at all!”

As loud as he could yell, he continued,
“We are
the Scorpion Battalion! We are
different! We are special! We do the job assigned to us without
hesitation! Without questions! Without remorse! Do you understand
me?”

There was a loud chorus of, “Yes, sir!”

With
that,
he turned to
the aide on his right and told him to get rid of the body in such a
manner that it would never
be found
. Next, he
instructed another aide
to report officially
that the dead soldier had gone AWOL.

Disobeying orders would not be a problem in
the Scorpion Brigade in the future.

****

The task of securing Washington DC,
was assigned
to a light-armored, or Stryker,
brigade
under the command of Colonel William
A. Smith. Smith was the son of a prominent Southern political
family who had grown up in the DC area and attended a prestigious
prep school and military academy. Unfortunately, he had inherited
his father’s vice of gambling.

For years, his military career flourished and
life was good, but over time, he began to fall into the habit of
gambling every week. Sometimes it was the races, sometimes a poker
game, sometimes just a bet on who would win a ball game. For a
while, he won more than he
lost,
and he
became convinced
that his gambling skills were
superior.

His tremendous ego led to overconfidence and
a feeling of infallibility. Gambling was like a narcotic and the
surge of adrenalin he experienced was orgasmic.

Eventually, he had a very bad run of bad
bets
and amassed a very large debt. Most
unfortunately for him, the debt was owed to a notorious underworld
family. One day, he was visited by a very impressive giant of a man
who gently explained the consequences of not making full, and
immediate, payment of his debts. He was in a panic. There was no
way that he could come up with the original amount much less the
exorbitant interest that had already mounted up.

Again, an agent of the Krakow Klub
intervened. The debt
would be paid
in
full. The price for that service
would be his
loyalty to the organization. Further, he would never gamble again.
Such behavior would make him, and the organization, vulnerable.
That could never, ever happen. The agent had looked him straight in
the eye and explained the consequences in vivid detail. His every
action would
henceforth be carefully
monitored
.
Smith, being a relatively
intelligent person, saw the light and never gambled
again.

The Krakow Klub had been able to recruit two
general officers and get them placed in positions of power within
the command structure of the National Guard. These National Guard
officers would
be responsible for
the eastern
and western halves of the country respectively. Their commands
posts would
handle the
flow
of information to units of the Guard all over the
country. McGowan had insisted that these positions were essential
to preempting the beginning or spread of organized resistance.

****

The final key position
was
already filled
as well. Colonel Antonio Morales would be in
charge of a special military police brigade. Morales was a
sociopath who would be called upon to execute any order without
feeling or compassion. For this operation, he would be charged with
arresting any military commanders who raised opposition to the
takeover. Morales looked forward to his duties and sincerely hoped
that he would be allowed to execute any who resisted arrest. For
him, it would be a fine sport.

Morales caught the attention of
a Krakow Klub agent, a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, who had been
his therapist for several months, recognized his patient as a man
who could appear to be a charming and affable person one moment and
then become a brutal and remorseless killer in a mere
heartbeat.
He hated virtually everyone and seethed with
anger at other officers, the
military,
public
personalities, the media, and just about everyone else on the
planet.

His psychological profile should have
resulted in his being ejected from the officer corps, but the
Krakow Klub saw him as an ideal candidate for a key position in
their plan.

Morales controlled two hundred fifty squads
made up of ten troopers each plus an officer as the squad leader.
Thanks to McGowan’s position, these squads
were
already stationed
in strategic positions around the country
with arrest warrants in hand. The arrests would
cite
the current crisis and imply that those being
arrested
were possibly involved
with the
perpetrators of the
terrorist activities
.

It was in 1934 that Hitler’s
blood purge of political opponents and critics took place in
Germany. They called it, “The Night of the Long Knives
(
Nacht der Langen
Messer
).
Eighty-six people
were reportedly killed
immediately,
an
d over a thousand were taken prisoner, most
never to be seen alive
again.