Rich continued, “And another guy living in Pierce Point was a military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan with Blackwater or whatever they’re called now. He had about a dozen of his contractor buddies come live with him like this guy,” Rich said pointing to Pow, who was scanning the area with his AR from behind the cover of the pickup bed. Bennington remembered seeing a six-foot Korean guy with full kit and some other contractor-looking guys when he came to the gate. So that explained who they were, Bennington thought.
“I guess we’re lucky to have them,” Rich said with a shrug. “All nice young guys. ‘Sir’ and ‘ma’am’ to everyone. They follow orders and, when they’re not guarding or patrolling, they are working hard on gardens and things like that. Real nice to have them,” Rich said matter of factly as he was loading the last box into Bennington’s trunk.
Bennington asked, “So do all these guys have ARs?” It was pretty obvious that Bennington was gathering intelligence, so Rich thought he’d fully load him up with false information to take back to Commissioner Winters and the FC.
Rich hadn’t thought of the answer to the AR question because he was making up the fifty Marines and dozen contractors story.
“Oh, yeah,” Rich said, “they all have personal weapons. ARs, mostly, of varying kinds. Dunno where they got them. Never really asked.” Rich remembered seeing photos of contractors with AKs so he said, “Some of the contractors run AKs. I guess they learned to like them over there.”
Rich added, “You know, John, I never knew how many vets we had out at Pierce Point until they all started volunteering. You saw some of them at the gate. Every branch is represented. And those good ole’ boys and girls out at Pierce Point have guns galore. ARs, AKs, M1As, mini-14s, you name it. We have stacks, literally stacks,” Rich motioned with his hand to show a waist-high stack “of hunting rifles and shotguns. And pistols. It seems like everyone has a pistol. Those guns came out of the woodwork. You know how gun sales have been the past couple of years. Well, people in Pierce Point were the ones buying them off the shelves and now they’re being put to good use. Yep, lots of good ol’ boys and girls out at Pierce Point. We’re much better off than city people. Most everyone is self-reliant, to one degree or another, out here.”
This wasn’t entirely true, but Rich wanted to create the impression with the authorities that Pierce Point was on its own. Not a threat and not needing anything. Just there, but not to be messed with.
Bennington had already determined that if Rich was telling the truth then Pierce Point would take a much larger force than the police had. Taking down Pierce Point would be impossible. But, anticipating his boss Commissioner Witners’ next question, Bennington wanted to find out if there was enough loot in Pierce Point to justify asking for some military help to go get it. So Bennington pointed to an AR in a box and asked Rich, “How many more of these do you got?”
“This is it,” Rich said, knowing that he didn’t want to say there was a treasure chest out at Pierce Point to be taken. Besides, for all Rich knew, these were all the extra ARs Grant had out there. “These were a couple extras one of the hunter guys had. He bought them for an investment in the run up to the Crisis,” Rich was using the politically correct term with Bennington. “So this is it as far as extra ARs go out there.”
Rich realized that he could oversell the (false) capabilities of the Pierce Point “troops.” He didn’t want to create the impression with the authorities that Pierce Point was a powerful and rogue force that would threaten them. He wanted the rumor to be that Pierce Point would be a good trading partner, but not a threat.
So Rich added, “John, I’m really proud of how the troops out at Pierce Point are conducting themselves. They listen to me. For example, I told them that we need to trade some guns for medical supplies with you guys in town and they were all for it.” Rich winked at Bennington said, “It’s kinda cool to be in command of all these guys.”
Rich decided to emphasize this next point so he looked Bennington right in the eye and said, “We’ll just do our own thing out there until this calms down. You won’t have any trouble from us.”
Bennington nodded. That’s what he wanted to know. He wasn’t sure he believed Rich, but at least he could report this back to Commissioner Winters.
Rich could tell Bennington was mentally preparing bullet points for his intel report to Commissioner Winters. Fifty fully equipped Marines, a dozen contractors, and lots of well-armed vets and hunters, but no treasure trove of extra ARs. Controllable troops under the leadership of someone they knew, like Rich. Pierce Point was pretty much self-sufficient, wanted to be left alone, and had plenty of force to repel a raid. That was the perfect impression to leave with Bennington.
Now that Rich had delivered his end of the bargain, it was time for Bennington to deliver on his end. Rich said to Bennington, “So, just to be clear, I have safe passage into and around town now, right?”
Bennington nodded. He really hated acknowledging the bribe, but it was how things were. “Yes. I’ve briefed my people that you and the people with you have safe passage when you come to town. That’s what one of the ARs was for. You’re Rich, the ex-cop, so people know you and recognize you. I’ll be with you this morning and make introductions. They will give you a safe-passage ID.”
“I won’t always be making the runs,” Rich said. “I’m running Pierce Point. Can my ID be transferrable to others?”
“Sure,” Bennington said. “The IDs are a piece of cloth in a particular pattern that can’t be duplicated. So the holder of the cloth has safe passage.”
“Can I start getting my people into town and registering for FCards?” Rich asked.
“Sure,” Bennington said. “Commissioner Winters encourages it.”
Rich was still amazed that there was at least some food in the stores. After the first two weeks with bare shelves, he assumed there would never be any again. It was a logical assumption.
But, somehow the government managed to get a trickle of food out to the stores. Forcibly taking over the trucking system and all the diesel fuel was what it took. And, as inept as they were, once the United States government decided to do one thing, they had enormous resources to pull it off.
The government learned some lessons from the Mexican refugee crisis. It no longer worried about environmental approvals; it just took food and shipped it. The trickle of food to the rural areas started to pick up. It would never be like before the Collapse, but it picked up. It was a “pretty much enough” level.
Rich knew that the FCards were just a supplement—a pretty big supplement—to the food that they were getting on their own out at Pierce Point via stored food, hunting and fishing, and gardening. So, Pierce Point wouldn’t be dependent on the FCards like the people in the cities, but the FCards would help.
Rich was a Patriot and despised the FCard system, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t use it to feed his people. As long as they weren’t dependent on the FCards, they were fine. That’s what it was all about: dependence. If you’re not dependent, you don’t have to do the other things the government wanted in return.
Rich realized that he couldn’t have all his residents come into town to register for FCards. They would be asked about the fifty Marines and say, “What Marines?” He needed to have only a small group of trusted people who knew the story to go into town.
“Hey, John,” Rich said to Bennington, “I can’t be hauling hundreds of people into town to register for FCards. I don’t have the gas to bring all of them in. And they’re doing work like gardening and hunting. The logistics of getting everyone organized and into town is too much for us. Could we…”