The Land of the Free Read Free

was going to
force them to take action.
    As he cleared the crest of the
canyon, Burrows saw the dust tail of the receding trucks in the distance.  In
front of his vehicle, he could see their tire tracks very clearly.  They were
using heavy duty off-road tires that left deep impressions in the dirt.  It
would be no problem tracking them.  But this was not a flat desert floor.  He
had to move slowly, almost at a crawl.  His own tires compromised between road
comfort and some off-road prowess, but today that prowess was too little.  He
occasionally crossed a primitive road, but the tracks he was following did not
use roads, so he stayed on course.  His progress was slow, and he had to make a
strategic decision.  The day was late, and he could not risk traveling at
night, lest he fall into a deep gully and never get out.  On any other day,
common sense would have prevailed and he would have turned around to go home. 
But this wasn’t any other day.  Whether it was his visit to Gilbert or other
factors, today he was determined to see things through.
    As the sun sank low in the sky,
Burrows was sure he saw large airplanes coming in from the southwest, landing
somewhere not too far to the south of his location.  There’s no air base
around here, so far as I know .  He watched the activity into twilight and
there was no mistake about it.  Not only were they coming in from the
southwest, they were also taking off into the southwest.  Now that’s really
weird .  No airport he had ever seen would let flights take off back in the
same direction they came from.  The direction was always dictated by the wind,
so planes could both take off and land facing the wind for greater air speed.
    Burrows found a gully that was deep
enough to hide his vehicle, but not so steep that getting in and out would be a
problem.  He parked for the night, and climbed onto the roof of the Tahoe.  It
was still summer and the evening was hot, but the drier air here deep in the
desert made it relatively comfortable.  He sat on the Tahoe’s roof for an
additional hour, watching the endless stream of airplanes coming and going.  He
took out his binoculars to get a closer look.  They were large cargo planes,
but he could not identify the models, and there were no markings that he could
make out.  Finally well after dark, Burrows flopped down the back seats of his
Tahoe and made a makeshift cot to sleep on.  He would pursue this again
tomorrow.

Chapter 4:  President Jackson Torres
    President Jackson Torres sat at his
desk sipping his third cup of coffee, irrationally hoping that more coffee
would calm his nerves, and preparing for his upcoming meeting with a special
envoy from the Chinese government.  The meeting was at the specific request of
the Chinese Premier.  The envoy was known even in Washington as a rising star
in Chinese politics, and a power broker in international circles.
    The door opened without as much as
a knock.  Through it walked Hanna Morgensen, the Secretary of State.  She was
barely over 5 feet tall, but heavyset.  Her eyebrows naturally dipped in the
middle of her forehead to shape a permanent frown.  For the benefit of anybody
who thought her appearance accidental and not indicative of her demeanor, there
was a second warning.  She always wore a brooch in the shape of a coiled cobra,
with garnets in its eyes.  Torres assumed she must have a drawer full of
identical brooches, because she never failed to show up wearing one. 
    Torres instinctively tensed as the
Cobra entered.  He knew that before she left, she would intimidate him into
agreeing to something inimical to his values.  She was not his choice for
Secretary of State.  Most of his cabinet picks were names he chose, which were
then vetted by his anonymous donors.  But they had insisted specifically on the
Cobra for State.
    Torres counted among his ancestors
the Mayflower Americans and the governing class of Puerto Ricans.  He even had
a