Remember The Alamo (18 page)

Stark's eyebrows rose. "Made some enemies, did you? This
have anything to do with that Alamo business?"

"It has everything to do with it," Phil said. He leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the desk. "Once you
hear about it, you may want to turn around and go right back
to Del Rio."

"Maybe you'd better let me be the judge of that," Stark suggested. "Go ahead and tell me about it."

For the next half hour, that was what Phil and Dave did.
Dave started with his cousin Silvio and the discoveries he had
made about Silvio's true line of work. He was disappointed
in Silvio, and that came through in his voice.

"If you believed in him, there must have been a reason you
felt that way," Stark put in. "Some fellas never have the chance
to stand up for what's right. By the time they realize what's
going on, it's too late."

"Yeah, I guess that's what happened with Silvio," Dave said. "Still, I couldn't believe it when I learned he worked for that
drug cartel."

He went on with the story, detailing Silvio's murder and
Rita's kidnapping by the three cartel killers, then explained
about the jump drive Silvio had handed over as he was dying,
and the incredible file that was on it.

Stark frowned. "He had to suspect they would come after
him when he started running up here. He wouldn't have had
any reason to lie when he wrote that file."

"That's the way we see it, too," Phil said. "The cops don't
seem able to grasp that, though"

"Cops generally grasp what they want to grasp," Stark said
with a grunt of disdain. "Especially once they've been promoted a few times and are more interested in coverin' their
own ass than they are in getting to the truth"

Dave said, "That's the impression I got of Detective
Obrador, all right. He just wants a simple answer that will let
him close the case and move on."

"What about the ruckus where you two got banged up?"
Stark asked.

Phil took over the story, and Dave thought he heard a new
strain of tension in his old friend's voice. Phil wasn't handling
all this too well, he thought. There was a brittleness about him,
as if he might break if enough pressure were applied. Not that
Phil wanted to turn his back on everything; Dave didn't sense
any less determination in him to do the right thing. But something about it was getting to him.

"Obrador practically accused us of being mixed up with
that cartel," Phil concluded. "I think he thinks it was all some
sort of gang war and Dave and I are bad guys, too"

Stark shook his head. "He ought to know better than that.
He would if he'd just look in your backgrounds a little."

Phil laughed. "I suppose that's what you did, since I visited you down at your ranch"

"I talked to my boy Pete and a few other folks," Stark
admitted. "Everybody vouches for you. Both of you"

"Let's hope the FBI comes to the same conclusion," Phil
said.

Stark looked surprised again. "The FBI?"

"That's right. Last night we had a meeting with Edward
Mahone, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"I know who he is," Stark said with a curt nod. "He's supposed to be a good man. He wasn't the director when I had my
run-in with the government a couple of years ago. I believe he
was appointed a short time after that. There was quite a bit of
house-cleaning going on in Washington right about then."

"Not enough," Phil said. "The people at the highest level are
still in charge."

"Yeah, and we can't get rid of them until Election Day
comes around again next year," Dave said.

Phil gave a disgusted snort. "Good luck with that. The media
loves the president. They'll back anything and everything she
does, even if she's leading the country straight to hell, and they'll
demonize anybody who dares to run against her."

Stark clasped his big hands together between his knees and
said, "The media may like to think they run this country, but
they don't. The people still do. They can be fooled for a while,
but not forever. Sooner or later they rise up at the ballot box
and throw the rascals out, and then the TV reporters all look
confounded that the people didn't vote the way they told 'em
to" A grin creased the big man's face. "I surely do enjoy those
moments"

"Anyway," Dave said, "we talked to Mahone, and even
though I don't know if he believed us or not, he promised to
look into this whole mess. I don't think he likes the idea of
handing the Alamo over, either."

"Well, then, if the FBI moves fast enough, maybe they can
put a stop to this thing before it happens"

"That's our hope," Phil said, "but just in case things don't
work out that way, we need to figure out exactly what we're
going to do. I think we can get several hundred people to
Alamo Plaza to protest-"

The office door opened and Phil's secretary stuck her head
in. "Phil, there's someone here to see you from the"

Special Agent Graham Powell pushed into the office past
the woman. "They know where I'm from," he said.

Phil's face tightened with anger. He waved the secretary
out, and when she had closed the door, he said, "I don't like
people bullying my employees, Agent Powell."

"I apologize for that," Powell said, although he didn't sound
particularly sorry. "But this is important enough that I needed
to speak to you right away." He glanced at Stark. "Who's this?"

Stark rose to his full height and extended his hand. "John
Howard Stark, son"

Powell shook hands with Stark, but didn't look comfortable
doing so. "Yeah, I've, uh, heard of you," he said. "I didn't
know you were friends with Cody and Rodriguez here"

"Well, now you do," Stark said.

Powell recovered his composure and confidence. "Then
you'll probably be interested in this, too" He looked at Phil and
Dave again. "I have a message for you from the director."

"I thought this must be about that investigation Mahone
promised us," Dave said.

"This message is from Director Hamilton," Powell said.

"What the hell!" Phil said.

"Former Director Mahone tendered his resignation to the
attorney general early this morning," Powell continued. "He's
been replaced by Louise Hamilton, who is serving as acting
director of the FBI pending confirmation by the Senate"

Dave had never heard of Louise Hamilton before, but he
had a sneaking suspicion she would turn out to be a crony of
the president's.

"Director Hamilton has instructed me to inform you that
under federal law, your conversation with former Director
Mahone is to be kept in strict confidence, and if necessary, a
gag order will be imposed by a judge to enforce that
confidence."

"You don't want us telling anybody that Mahone sort of believed us about the Mexicans planning to hang on to the
Alamo, is that it?" Phil shot back.

Powell ignored him and said, "Also, any lines of investigation regarding this matter must now be approved by Director Hamilton, and she and the attorney general share the
belief that it does not fall under federal jurisdiction, especially given the lack of an official request for aid from the
local authorities."

Dave said, "So what you're telling us is that now the federal
government is going to turn a blind eye to this, just like the
San Antonio police."

"And Mahone wouldn't go along with that, so he got axed
and replaced by one of the president's puppets," Phil added.

"That's all I have to tell you, gentlemen," Powell said, stubbornly sticking to the script he had undoubtedly been given.
"Let me add a word of caution, though.... Fences are going
to be mended between the United States and Mexico, and if
that means symbolically granting possession of the Alamo to
Mexico for a short period of time, that's what will be done.
Anyone who tries to interfere with that will face the full wrath
of the federal government"

"Is that an official warning?" Dave asked.

A thin smile curved Powell's mouth. "Just a word of advice."
He jerked his head in a nod. "Good morning, gentlemen."

Stark waited until the FBI agent was gone, and then said,
"Not hardly."

"Yeah," Phil agreed. "Not good at all."

Dave sighed. "Now what do we do?"

"That's up to you," Stark said. "I know from experience,
when you get the Feds mad at you, they can make your life a
living hell."

"But you fought," Dave pointed out. "You tried to do what
you thought was right, no matter what"

"It brought me a lot of pain, too," Stark said, his voice dropping to a half whisper.

"But if you had to do it all over again, you would, wouldn't
you?" Phil said. "Because you knew you were right."

For a long moment, Stark didn't answer. Then he said,
"Lord help me, I reckon I would."

"We know we're right. We know that if they go ahead with
that ceremony they're planning, innocent people will die. The
Reconquistadores will occupy the Alamo, and they'll fight to
keep it."

"But nobody else will believe it," Dave said.

Stark's level, intense gave moved back and forth between
them. "That means you fellas and those other friends of yours
are just about the only ones who can stop that from happening. That's the way it seems to me, anyway."

"You're right," Phil said.

"It's up to us," Dave agreed.

"In that case," John Howard Stark said, "there's only one
thing you can do.... Get ready to fight."

In the local post that he belonged to, Dave looked around
the VFW hall at Phil Cody, John Howard Stark, Dieter
Schmidt, and Mike Belkowicz. They had to all be insane, he
thought. They couldn't be talking about arming themselves
and fighting the bastards who wanted to bring death and
shame to the Alamo. In the past, they had all taken up arms
and fought for their country, sure, but not right here on American soil.

Only Stark had done that.

So it was to Stark that Dave looked as he asked, "Are we
sure we want to do this? Absolutely sure?"

"You tell me," Stark said. "Are you?"

"We can't let them get away with it," Phil said.

Dieter cleared his throat and said, "From what your cousin
wrote, Dave, it seems clear that innocent people will die if this
thing goes as planned." His voice threatened to break, but he
managed to keep it steady as he went on. "Enough innocents
have died already. If there is anything we can do to stop more
from dying, we have to act"

Dave knew that Dieter was thinking about his wife, who had been brutally cut down during the Reconquistar raid on
the picnic.

"Look," Belko said, "do we really trust the cops or the government to stop those terrorists? You know damn well what'll
happen if they get their hands on the Alamo. We'll try to negotiate with 'em and get 'em to come out on their own, and
they'll just laugh at us and threaten to kill another hostage.
Because that's one thing none of you guys has mentioned
yet ... they will take hostages"

Dave nodded. "You're right. They think we're weak and impotent and will always back down. Who could blame them for
feeling that way? For the past fifty years this country hasn't
done anything except give up and run away when the going
gets tough"

"Might as well be French," Phil muttered.

Stark said, "Individually, most Americans are as brave as
ever and want to do what's right as much as they ever did.
What we've lost is the will to pull together and get something
done. The heart of this nation is as strong as ever. It's the soul
that's sick." He looked at the other four men. "What I'm hearing is that you're willing to do whatever it takes."

One by one, they nodded.

"And we can come up with more guys who feel the same
way," Belko said. "I've already talked to everybody from our
local post that I feel like I can trust, and most of them are
ready to join in. Some supported the idea, but they didn't want
to run the risk because of their families, or because of medical
problems." Belko shrugged. "I can't disrespect 'em for that"

"Of course not," Stark agreed. "They have to follow their
own conscience."

"How many men will we need?" Dave asked.

"We can't hope to do more than hold the chapel," Phil said.
"Fifty ought to do it."

"There were more than a hundred and eighty defenders in the
Alamo when Santa Anna laid siege to it," Dieter pointed out.

"The compound was a lot larger back then," Stark said.
"Those men were defending ground where Joske's and the
Menger Hotel stand now. Like Phil said, if we can keep them
out of the chapel, that'll be enough"

"We're talking about armed insurrection here," Dave said.
"To the general public, we're going to come across as dangerous nutjobs, like those people in Waco or the Republic of
Texas group out in West Texas"

Phil said, "I don't care what the public thinks."

Belko said, "The guys who dressed up like Indians and
dumped that British tea in Boston Harbor were armed insurrectionists, too"

Stark smiled. "Like Davy Crockett said, be sure you're
right, then go ahead"

"Crockett died at the Alamo," Dieter said.

"So did all the others who fought beside him," Belko said.
"And don't give me any of that crap about Davy surrendering,
either. A bunch o' damn professors and historical revisionists
with an agenda can jump to all the conclusions they want
based on some diary written by a Mexican, but that don't
make it true. They just believe what they want to believe, and
then try to manufacture the evidence to back it up. I'm not
havin' any of it."

Dieter laughed and said, "Nobody's asking you to, Belko."

"Okay, okay," Dave said, "we're getting off the track here.
Somebody needs to put in words exactly what we're talking
about here. We're going to be there in Alamo Plaza during the
ceremony, and we're going to be armed so that when the Reconquistadores try to take over the Alamo, we can stop them.
There's going to be shooting-"