Liberty's Last Stand by Stephen Coonts Page B

like to know it before I manage to piss off every federal employee from the postman to Soetoro.”
    â€œI’m all for it,” Steiner declared, “but it’s a big step. Soetoro is arresting everybody in Texas he can get his hands on—whoever intimated, hinted, or told his wife that he didn’t like Soetoro. FEMA has a camp for them up in Hall County. They got a list and are rounding ’em up.”
    â€œHow come you aren’t on it?”
    â€œOh, I am, but my wife told them I was in Argentina fishing for a couple of weeks.”
    â€œBen, it would be silly to introduce such a resolution, or bill, unless we knew it was going to pass.”
    â€œBy how much?”
    â€œSimple majority.”
    â€œThat isn’t much.”
    â€œWe’ll be lucky to get that,” Jack Hays said. “We must have something to paper our ass with. Unlike Soetoro, I want to hear the people’s representatives speak. One way or the other. Yea or nay.”
    â€œIt’s that ‘lives, fortunes, and sacred honor’ thing that has them worried.”
    The governor took his time answering. “I think everyone would like to wake up and find this is just a nightmare. But it’s real. None of us are going to be able to bury our head in the sand and hope the wolves don’t bite our asses. The revolution has started. Soetoro has suspended the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Lincoln did it under his war powers. Unfortunately for Soetoro, we aren’t in a war. A rebellion, or revolution, will change the life of everyone in America. Indeed, perhaps everyone on the planet. We can’t start it—and the Texas legislature can’t—because Barry Soetoro already did.”
    â€œThat wasn’t what you told me yesterday.”
    â€œI’ve changed my mind.”
    Ben Steiner took a deep drag on his cigar and let the smoke out slowly. “Our people need a little time,” he said. “They gotta work up to being brave. They gotta examine all the options before they can screw up their courage for this one.”
    â€œHow much time? The Soetoro administration has been planning martial law for years.”
    â€œTomorrow or the next day.”
    â€œWe better not have the vote if we aren’t going to win. Barry Soetoro is too much of an egotist to ignore an independence vote, win or lose.”
    â€œWe’ll win,” Steiner said grandly. In his fifties, with a booming voice, he knew how to sway people, persuade them. Jack Hays was a more difficult sell than the average juror, however.
    â€œWhen you’re sure you know how the vote will go, after you’ve talked to every member, come back and see me.”
    Ben Steiner leaned forward. “Jack, as we sit here Luwanda Harris and some of her friends are burning up the wires to Washington. If you don’t want the capitol surrounded by tanks and army troopers from all over, you had better start talking to people, tell them what’s at stake. We must get this done, and soon. If you don’t, my best guess is the government of Texas is going to get arrested en masse and accused of treason. In the interim, let’s cut off access to Washington.”
    â€œCan we take down the telephone system and the internet?”
    â€œOf course. The only question is how fast.”
    â€œLet’s do it,” Jack Hays said. “Who do we call?”
    â€œThe state director of disaster response, Billy Rob Smith.”
    The governor picked up the phone and made the call.

    Billy Rob Smith heard the governor out, then asked, “Are you nuts? Every business in America bigger than a lemonade stand relies on telephones, landline and cell, and the internet. Millions of people use the system to send or get business information and to buy and sell securities. Medical records are transmitted via fax or over the internet. The feds have been working like beavers to digitize every medical