Status Updates From Indian Country (Kelly Turnb...

"The big idea is that citizens armed with individual weapons can provide a powerful opposition to even a conventional military that is in the service of an oppressive government. The Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing when they enshrined the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights. Let's hope we never have to put their wisdom to the test" (434).

"Dale showed him the maps, old AAA paper jobs with yellow Post-Its representing insurgent units & red ones representing People's Republic Army...Several townsfolk were talking into radios & taking notes, then stepping forward to tell Dale's battle captain...the information. Then she would have her ops sergeant, a high school friend of Carl Hyatt's, move the Post-Its. No one touched the maps but the ops sergeant.

"'Tell me the truth. We saw what you people do to civilians.' The PSF officer looked panicked. 'I didn't do any of it. I haven't hurt anyone.' 'So what's your mission?' 'We're supposed to follow the soldiers & deal with terrorists,' the PSF prisoner said, & then realized that perhaps his choice of words was suboptimal. 'With the locals.' 'Deal with?' 'Look, they shot some, but not me!...The PBI guy made us'" (398).

"'They're farmers & racist insurance salespersons!' 'No sir, they're guerrillas fighting on their own ground, to protect their families...Just like the...men who wrote the old Constitution envisioned when they wrote the 2nd Amendment. And we're...in Indian Country only because some woman in the capital told us to...' 'Watch yourself, Col...' 'Loyalty means telling the truth.' 'No...Loyalty means obedience'" (392).

"'So you're just going to sweep in behind us & kill everyone you find?' 'Not everyone. There may be some children who can be reeducated...These people are reactionaries, terrorists. They insist on living on their own terms...like they did under the old government. They voted for Trump in 2016...Their attitudes and foolish religious beliefs were themselves an act of violence to progressive peoples everywhere'" (374).

"At 2345, the truck was replaced by an orange fireball that engulfed the truck, the adjacent section of razor wire fence & the curious sentry. Banks & his troops were far enough away that it took a moment for the sound & blast wave to roar through their position. It was about the loudest thing he had ever heard. When Banks looked back up, the whole other side of the facility was a combination of dust & fire" (361).

"'I should've known it was you from the beginning. You've pretty much gone right by the numbers. You did it just like I trained you, just like I'd have done it in your boots. You've mobilized the masses, and you've provoked overreach by the counterinsurgents.' 'Provoked them?' said Turnbull. 'I don't know about that. They didn't seem to need a lot of provocation to go all stormtrooper on the locals'" (347).

"'Do we have enough ammo?' 'Yeah, plenty. These gun nuts laid in enough for World War III and IV, and they've dug it all up. Everyone who wants a gun has one, and usually two.' 'We need to make sure they understand how this is going to work,' Turnbull said. 'They're going to want to fight the first enemy they see, and that's going to get them killed. They have to be smart.' 'They'll listen to you, Kelly'" (338).

"The force moved out in individual vehicles with four guerrillas each and a map. Each took a different route north, all heading to converge at the rally point near a small hamlet named Hendriksville a few miles west of Bloomington. The rendezvous time was 2000 hours, with the sun falling in the sky" (326).

"The sun was down, and Ted Cannon was on top of the water tower north of town with a pair of binoculars. He had a map and a red light - for light discipline. And he had the best view in the area. His teams were out there to the north. He had already divided the map up into grids and assigned teams to defend each one. There would not be a lot of coordination, but then communications were always iffy" (310).

"'That's nine different overturned trucks blocking the freeways...We're not using those freeways.' 'You can bet every one of them is under direct observation & fire'...That was basic Combat Engineer 101. An obstacle that you don't cover is no obstacle at all...He remembered...what Admiral Yamamoto had said: 'You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass'" (306).

"I'm just wondering if this was meant to get them off our backs, or if you've got bigger plans...are you doing this for us, or for the US? Because I don't quite see the end game here. Oh, don't get me wrong-I like to fight. I got nothing to lose. Those blue sons of bitches already killed all my family. I'll shoot them until they shoot me. But how does this end for all these nice people like Dale & Lee here?" (294).

"At 7:15, Kelly Turnbull opened the door of the bathroom and stepped out with his black Remington 870 pump action. One of the PSF men was about ten feet away. Turnbull lifted it by its pistol grip, planted the stock in his shoulder and fired a shell full of double aught buckshot straight at the blue's face. His face was erased, with most of it splattering one of his buddies..." (275).

"The van whipped around the Fusion on the driver's side looking like it would pass them...but it skidded to an immediate stop right beside them. 'What the hell?' sputtered the driver. The side door of the van slid open. Two men & two women were inside, aiming semi-auto rifles. They opened fire, shattering all of the windows on the driver's side. The driver himself took the first round through his forehead..." (273).

"Carl wanted in. 'You're too young,' Dale Chalmers had told him. Carl had shown up at the office after school and demanded to talk to him alone. Dale had no idea how the kid had figured out that he was part of the resistance, but the fact Carl did was impressive. Still at seventeen, the kid was too young to be running and gunning, as Turnbull had put it. But there were other things teens could do..." (249).

"'I'm a CPA,' Turnbull replied. 'And why are you here in Jasper?' 'I'm CPAing,' Turnbull replied innocently...' 'He's doing accounting for my insurance agency,' Dale said. 'The new reparations taxes, you know.' 'He's 1/16th Chippewa,' Turnbull said. 'So, we have to factor that in and it's complicated.' 'You're telling me you're an Indigenous Person?' the detective said to Dale. 'Well, yes,' said Dale...'" (244).

"Outside, in the nearly empty squad room, the few remaining PSF officers who were not cleaning up the bloodbath out on 231 were scared - there was no other word for it. A week before, the station's reinforcements had swaggered around town, unchallenged, unconstrained. But now? The locals were fighting back, and they hadn't signed up for that" (223).

"Turnbull's first burst caught a short PV who had been looking up at the tree line while the others were shouting at the trucker. One of Turnbull's guiding principles was to always try to kill the smart ones first. Whether or not the guy had actually figured out that this was a trap was a moot point; three rounds sunk hard into his chest & sluiced out his back, splattering blood & chunks across the concrete" (216).

"The detectives were all over the vehicles; they had retrieved some of the slugs, which were deformed but they were obviously large caliber hunting rounds. Cannon went inside, where Kessler was fuming in her office, sipping a Starbuks coffee. Her subordinates were not looking to her for solutions. They were exploring their own. 'I ain't going back out there on those backwoods Deliverance country-ass roads...'" (205).

"It had been 8 days since the attack on the administrative building & the checkpoint, 8 days of organizing & training. True to his word, Dale Chalmers the insurance salesman had identified the likely rebellion's early adopters & set up the cells. Reliable contacts turned them on to other reliable contacts. Each night, Dale & Turnbull met to assess the new prospects & to analyze the information...coming in" (190).

"'You still have more access than anyone else. You still see the bigger picture. The question is what are you going to do to help us?' 'What, help you kill them?' 'It'll probably come to that.' 'Who the hell do you think you are? You're an insurance agent, Dale, not a guerrilla.' 'The guys who won World War II weren't soldiers either, until they were.'" (183-4).

"'I'm gonna tell you all...one time only,' Langer said. 'If I see any of you around here again, I'll shot you. You understand?' The dozen PR bureaucrats stared in horror, silent. 'We're not playing & negotiating...You ain't welcome here anymore, & I'm giving you fair warning so you can leave & go back wherever the hell you came from. If you come here again...I'm going to put a bullet in you. You all feel me?''

"Do-Rag was a couple feet behind his boss, smiling broadly, when he saw Will Collins move his hand behind his back. Where Do-Rag came from, that's where you kept your gun, and he reacted instinctively. Do-Rag swiveled and leveled the AK, firing a burst that caught Will Collins in the chest and sliced into his wife Sarah, blowing out her eye" (161).

"'My name is Kelly,' Turnbull said. 'I'm Larry Langer. Pleased to meet you.' 'Langer,' said Turnbull. 'You're the one that got away.' 'Yes, sir, I got away. But I ain't going way, if you get my meaning. I'm just biding my time. I got accounts to settle, if you know what I mean.' 'I think I do. And I can't say I blame you'" (154-5).