A loud click and clatter as the phone was slammed down on Ables’s end. Quiet for a moment, then “Sons of bitches!” heard, then booted footsteps walking away.
Banish switched off his microphone and turned around in his chair. He looked drawn and tired but, to Blood’s surprise, not disappointed. In fact, he looked pleased.
Perkins said, “The Ritual?”
Banish nodded. “He’s started to fold.”
Blood interrupted. “What is “The Ritual’?”
Perkins turned toward him like a man finding a dollar bill on the floor. “Surrender Ritual,” he said. “The suspect preparing to leave. Emptying his pockets, giving things away. Winding down.” He looked quickly at Banish, who was looking at the van floor, and then back again at Blood. “A mixed-up process they go through before giving up.”
“Like making out a will before a long trip,” Banish said, standing suddenly and moving away. “We’ve got him.”
Tuesday, August 10
Marshal’s Tent
The principals convened inside the marshals tent for a midmorning strategy meeting over breakfast. Perkins had organized the conference and figured to be instrumental in the post resolution breakdown of the staging area. He was seated, spooning out the loose white of a salted soft-boiled egg, between his ASAC, Hardy, and a tieless representative of the American Red Cross. Also seated there were SAs Banish and Coyle, two HRT agents, Fagin and another deputy marshal, two U.S. Attorneys from Helena with whom Perkins was acquainted, a GS-5 stenographer, and the local sheriff. The mood around the table was one of optimism, of anticipating the end of a tough, drawn-out siege and the satisfaction of a job well done, except of course for Fagin, for whom no form of resolution short of a blitzkrieg would have been entirely satisfactory, and Banish, who appeared distracted. Perkins assumed it was because Ables had been silent overnight.
The surrender protocol was SOP and familiar to all involved. They were assembled to iron out the particulars so that the event would proceed smoothly, and to ensure that the arrest would be performed strictly by the book. All agreed that they had come too far to risk being shot in the foot by a technicality.
Following Ables’s arrest, the task of removing him safely off-site fell to HRT. They had already secured the services of a UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter, to be captained by a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment “Night Stalkers” unit, currently en route from its home base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Ables would be transferred under HRT guard to the U.S. District Court in Helena and held there pending arraignment.
A special medical helicopter would airlift Mrs. Ables to a hospital in Great Falls, where she would be treated and later interviewed along with Mrs. Mellis. The Ables children would be turned over to their maternal grandparents following a nutritious meal, routine physical and psychological examinations, and subsequent individual questioning. Banish spoke up for the first time at that juncture, reminding everyone once again that their primary concern was the safe rescue of the children.
Alert status would remain in effect until Ables was confirmed airborne. Following that, marshals and agents would move immediately up the mountain to secure the cabin and cordon off the surrounding area. An FBI forensics team would enter and complete a point-by-point situational analysis of the cabin and grounds, including on-site ballistics work and color photography for possible future trial exhibition. Weapons would be itemized and tagged, then removed to an outdoor table for press viewing. Perkins would deliver a brief media statement in front of the cabin detailing the harsh conditions inside, and end with a protocol of the various participating agencies. All inquiries would be referred to the Department of Justice.
Fagin, sitting next to the younger marshal taking notes, objected then. “We need a contingency plan,” he said. “We need a net in case things go sour up there.”
Perkins said, “Our current blanket operation is more than sufficient. We have total containment.”
“If the exchange goes bad,” Fagin argued, “there’s gonna be beaucoup confusion, and Ables could provoke events beyond our control. What do you think he’s doing up there now? He’s been quiet almost twelve hours. You think they’re playing cards?”
Perkins said to him across the table, “We own this mountain. The moment he indicates he’s coming out, we go to full alert and collapse in on the cabin.”
The debate went back and forth a few more times, then passed quietly, with the majority expressing confidence in the present game plan and no objections from Banish, if he was even listening. The only other point to which he spoke during the briefing was in reference to the post resolution deployment of the Marshals Service Special Operations Group for bridge barricade containment. “At no time are any shots to be fired at civilians,” he ordered. “Tear gas and baton battery if necessary, but absolutely no shooting. Make it perfectly clear to all personnel.”
No one anticipated any problems on that end. The Marshals Service SOG was well versed in riot control and crowd containment.
Perkins then directed the men and Coyle to the prospectus before them, which outlined his schedule for the dismantling of the staging area. He estimated twenty-four hours from the time of Ables’s removal until complete federal evacuation, including: transport of all hardware such as vehicles and generators; inventory and removal of reusable materials such as tents and all unused supplies; plans for the kitchens and latrines to be razed for scrap; and transportation of federal personnel to the airport, with special attention to Banish and Perkins himself, who would be flying directly to Washington, D.C., for post situation summary consults.
The protesters were expected to disperse once Ables was delivered from the cabin. By prior arrangement, the Red Cross would oversee the return of the mountain residents to their homes following the federal evacuation. No recompense was deemed necessary or was being offered to the residents by the federal government regarding either term of displacement or property damages resulting from misadventure, as per the determination of counsel for the Department of Justice.
Toward the end of Perkins’s presentation, which he had spent the better part of the night working on, Banish stood and walked out of the tent without explanation. Everyone watched him go. The county sheriff excused himself and followed shortly after.
Office
Banish entered his office fast. He had had enough of this. He was viewing the situation much too desperately. They were his wife and daughter and he was going to call them on the telephone like anyone else. He went around to his desk and sat down and picked up the phone. He pushed a button to call the switchboard for an outside line.
Blood walked in. Banish pulled the phone away from his ear and said “What?” roughly.
Blood came forward to the desk. “The protesters are back,” he said.
Banish nodded curtly. “No miracle?”
Blood shook his head. “The problem now is, we seem to have inherited a good number of people from it. I think disappointment may have carried them over here. They’re stretched out both ways down the county road now, easily up over a thousand. They want a show, I guess. They want something.”
Banish heard a small voice talking at him through the earpiece. Kearney. He hung up the phone impatiently, his foot tapping under the desk.
Blood said, “The hardware store I told you about was broken into last night. Ransacked. Guns, knives, crossbows, over sixty pieces in all. Ammunition cleared out too.”
Banish rubbed his face hard. “Suspects?”