"Mr. President, the only people who can give you the exact answer to that question are at this moment either dead or missing. I hope to learn the answer to your question in the near future. However, I can tell you right now why other machine gun dealers and manufacturers with exactly the same credentials have been arrested by our agents and are now spending time in prison."

"Please do."

"What I suspect Wilson Blair may have uncovered," Greenwell went on rapidly, "is evidence to indicate that Millet, Kane, and Bowman were conspiring to violate federal firearms laws. Chief Justice Potter just explained that it is illegal for any citizen to own a machine gun manufactured after May 19, 1986. Manufacturers-and here I mean individuals with manufacturer's licenses, Mr. President, not companies like Colt-often conspire to falsify records. They'll make a gun and claim it was made before the cut-off. Then they sell it at a big profit."

"Why don't they just sell it to a police department and be legal?"

"Well, then it wouldn't be worth as much. Machine guns that are transferable to individuals are worth a lot more, because the, uh, supply is fixed."

"Then how can these manufacturers make more and register them? I thought you said the cut-off was in May of 1986?"

"It was sir, but, uh, some manufacturers registered a bunch of guns on paper before President Reagan signed the bill, but after it had been passed by the legislature. These were guns that they hadn't actually made yet. Again, I'm talking about manufacturers like Kane and Millet, not Colt."

"You're saying that before the law took effect, these small manufacturers typed up registration forms to create a paper inventory to work on in anticipation of us putting them out of business?"

"Exactly, Mr. President." The Commander-In-Chief scowled and nodded to himself.

"And all this registration of then-nonexistent guns happened prior to May 19, 1986?"

"Correct. We call them 'paper receivers', sir," he added helpfully.

"I had been led to believe," the President said slowly, "that ATF performed regular compliance checks on federally licensed dealers. I was also told that in the case of the small number of machine gun dealers and manufacturers in this country, those compliance checks included a complete check of the licensee's entire registered inventory.

"Are you telling me, Dwight, that there are licenseholders in your system that you think have stacks of these 'paper receivers' on their desks, but that your agents have not even checked their inventory since before 1986? And that instead of scheduling the manufacturer's long-overdue inventory assessment, your agents plan a raid? Is that what you are saying?"

"Uh, no, Mr. President, I'm sorry, I didn't explain everything, uh, we don't...we don't think there are very many paper receivers left around, not at all. But, uh, the manufacturers will still falsify their records, and, uh..." Greenwell saw the look on the President's face and quickly blurted out, "I can explain it better with an example, sir."

"All right."

"Okay. A manufacturer like Kane will have a machine gun in his inventory. And it'll be some gun that's worth maybe a thousand, fifteen hundred dollars. He'll get hold of another machine gun out of some veteran's attic, or maybe one somebody smuggled into the country sometime, that would be worth a lot more than the gun he's got except that this second gun is not registered so the manufacturer can't sell it."

"Why doesn't the manufacturer register it and then sell it?" the President asked.

"That's illegal."

"It's illegal for a machine gun manufacturer to register a gun made before 1986?"

"It's illegal for anyone, except government agencies. And not just since 1986. That was part of the Gun Control Act of 1968," Greenwell explained.

"Go on."

"So the manufacturer or dealer will stamp the serial number of the first gun on the second one, and then cut the first gun in half and throw it away. Now he's got something worth maybe ten, fifteen thousand dollars to sell."

"Isn't that an IRS matter?" the President asked. "Not reporting the additional income on the sale?"

"That's not the crime, sir. It doesn't matter if the manufacturer or dealer declares every nickel of profit. Putting a new serial number on a gun and claiming this new gun is the one described on the registration form is a felony."

"Since the registration form describes the gun, isn't it obvious that the gun is not the right one?" "Well, yes, but some guns are the same length and caliber, and have the same model number, like 'Mark II'."

"So the manufacturer or dealer finds a gun someone brought back from the War, and it just happens to be a very rare type that would be worth ten or twenty thousand dollars, except the owner is prohibited from registering it. This gun also just happens to loosely fit the description of a registered weapon the dealer just happens to already own. So the dealer transfers the serial number, destroys the less-valuable gun, and sells the more-valuable one to a collector, declaring the income from the sale and paying the tax on it. Is that what Millet, Kane, and Bowman were suspected of doing?" the President asked pointedly. Dwight Greenwell shrugged with a helpless expression.

"It's possible, Mr. President, but as I say, I don't know what charges he was bringing against the three men. The warrant disappeared with him and his men."

"One last question then, Dwight, before I move on. I understand that all three men were out of town at the time their homes were raided, and that your people knew this. Is it standard practice for ATF to execute warrants on charges such as you have described when the premises in question are known to be unoccupied? Isn't the purpose of an arrest warrant to make an arrest?"

"That's up to the supervisor in charge, sir," Greenwell said. The President nodded once, coming to a decision, and spoke quickly.

"We'll maintain the 'No Comment' reply to questions about Blair, at least for now." He turned to the Director of the CIA. "George?"

"There is no indication that any of this originated outside the United States," George Cowan said. Everyone in the room knew the CIA's charter prohibited domestic operations. "God knows we learned our lesson with Oklahoma City on that score. I think we can learn a lot from what's gone on overseas, however, so I've called Hap Edwards in to help with this. Hap was the head of the CIA Center for Counter-Terrorism up until last year, and he's coming in with one of his top guys from northern Ireland to talk about tactics."

"Very good," the President said with a nod. He switched his attention to the FBI Director. "Roland, tell me what your people have on the Internet messages and on the killings themselves." Lemp, already sitting ramrod-straight, spoke without notes and in a voice devoid of inflection.

"The first message was distributed on the Internet over land lines which originated at a pay phone in the Tulsa area. The caller used a fictitious name and a temporary, free-trial-period ID number to enter the system. In addition to the Internet, Blair also sent the same message to eight electronic bulletin boards popular with the shooting community." Dwight Greenwell glared at the FBI Director's use of Wilson Blair's name. Greenwell knew the FBI viewed ATF as incompetent. Roland Lemp paid no attention to him, and continued.

"This is significant because it shows us that Blair fully expects us to shut down the Internet. The system operator of one of the bulletin boards told us that he was contacted on the phone at about the same time as Blair's electronic message arrived. The caller told the man he was ATF, and that the bulletin board was backup for when the Internet was closed. That tells us he's going to be sending more messages. We assume the caller contacted the other seven system operators as well, but they are refusing to answer our questions. We have telephone traps on all the incoming lines at all eight bulletin board sites, and are investigating every incoming transmission." Roland Lemp did not say what a Herculean task that was. "Concerning the killings, of which there were two more yesterday afternoon, three suspects have been taken into custody so far, and of these, one has been released. None of the three have any ties to each other. Neither do they have any conceivable connection to the Internet messages, other than having read them. The suspect who was released had been apprehended with a list of local ATF agents in his possession, the top name crossed off. The agent in question had been killed the day before, but-"

"I know what I read in the newspapers, Roland," the President interrupted. "Tell me what isn't there."

"What isn't there, sir," Lemp said smoothly, "is that the killings can be loosely divided into two categories: Amateurish efforts, sometimes centered around ATF offices in federal buildings and almost always involving shootings; and professional-quality executions in which the killers have employed a variety of techniques, almost all of them silent and untraceable.

"Some of these murders almost exactly coincided with the transmission of the first Internet message. This is strong evidence that these killings were the work of those who were responsible for that message, the 'core group' as we have been calling it. We also believe this core group is responsible for the disappearance or deaths of the agents in Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. The group may include Blair and possibly some other missing agents. We are still looking for evidence to support or refute this theory.

"We believe that any of the missing agents not in the core group are now dead. The first Internet message listed the names and addresses of all current ATF agents but did not include the twelve missing ones or the six killed in the helicopter crashes. The names of the agents in the helicopters were published in the media, but the missing ones from Ohio and Indiana were not." The President nodded. He saw the logic of the FBI's conclusion.

"You said some of the so-called 'professional executions' appeared to be the work of this core group. Not all of them? What of the others?"

"Two of the pro-quality killings have occurred too far away from each other in too short a time period to be the work of one group, unless that group is larger than our current best estimates suggest. We believe some of these deaths to be the work of ex-military and/or police, who got the message and acted independently. At the moment, eyewitness testimony is sketchy and varied. Forensic evidence is nonexistent." A thick silence hung over the room as the members of the task force contemplated the enormity of veterans and policemen taking up arms against agents of the United States government.

"Who are these people?" the President said softly.

"I'm going to let Alex take over on that one, sir," The FBI Director answered. Agent Neumann took his cue.

"Mr. President, the first Internet message contained inside information, specifically the agent list. It is therefore certainly possible that the core group includes one or more of the missing agents, including Wilson Blair. On the other hand, the message is also an obvious propaganda attempt to garner support for killing ATF agents. We have thoroughly examined the past history of Calron Jones, the door gunner who supposedly died shooting down the two helicopters. There is absolutely nothing we have found that points to such an action."

"So what brought those choppers down?"

"Jones* own helicopter was riddled with .30 caliber bullet holes and a few slugs were recovered from the wreckage of that aircraft. His machine gun was empty, and the barrel was severely eroded. This is consistent with the theory that the gun fired an entire belt of ammo nonstop, swiveling on the mount and shooting up the helicopter. Examination of the second wreck, though, indicates that Jones did not fire at the other helicopter. Some kind of explosion occurred. Our forensic experts are still doing tests, "

"What explains this machine-gun fire?"

"The weapon in the helicopter was a model that is known to 'run away', as it is called. To continue firing after the trigger is released. We believe Jones was blown out of the aircraft in the explosion. Either he jerked the trigger first, or the blast jarred the mechanism into firing."

"So what kind of people are we up against, Alex?" the President asked. "One of these militia groups?" Alex Neumann shook his head and swallowed.

"No, Mr. President, it's not the militias. The FBI has undercover agents in every militia organization in the United States. That's been the case since well before the building in Oklahoma blew up in '95. If there were even a hint of something like this, we would have heard about it long before it ever happened. Nothing," he said emphatically.

"Since the attacks on ATF agents started one week ago today, our undercover people have overheard several militia members talking about working down the agent list. We have put surveillance on each of these men, and so far we've been wasting our time. At this time I would say that the most logical use of our database of militia members would be to eliminate potential suspects from pointless scrutiny."

"Yes, Dick, what is it?" the President asked, seeing the Congressman's agitation. Richard Gaines looked very uncomfortable.

"I didn't mean to interrupt, Mr. President, but I thought these militias were almost certainly behind what's been happening. And now Mr. Neumann is telling us they're not a factor at all? And the FBI was inside them even before the Oklahoma bombing? How can that be?"

"I'd like to hear the FBI explain that myself," Carl Schaumberg echoed. "These gun-crazy militia lunatics are the greatest danger this country has ever seen."

"Wasn't that the whole reason we expanded the FBI's authority?" asked Andrew Ward, the Congressman from Indiana.

"Alex?" the President prompted. Neumann glanced at Director Lemp, who nodded. The President, seeing the FBI man's reluctance, added, "Go ahead. Nothing said here will leave this room." Neumann shrugged and cleared his throat.

"It's no big secret. You can find what I'm about to say in any number of sources. Just not the newspapers or Time and Newsweek, is all." He looked around the room at each of the task force members in turn.

"The militias are almost entirely comprised of men who want to play soldier, feel good about it, and stop at 4:30 so they can go grab a few beers. They put on camo and do calisthenics and 'drill' out in the woods, but you will go a long time before you find a militia member who has served in the infantry." Neumann let that sink in for a few seconds.

"The next time we have a flood, hurricane, or other natural disaster, I would not be surprised to see militia groups in the affected area muster their troops to give aid,"

Neumann admitted. "Aside from things like that, however, these men have no more effect on serious matters than the kids who put on goggles and play with paintball guns."

"But they're all gun nuts!" Carl Schaumberg exclaimed. "Worse than street criminals. They're banding together to shoot people like us in twisted defense of their beloved Second Amendment." Neumann shook his head.

"The majority of them are shooting enthusiasts, yes," the FBI man said evenly. "And it's true that they are mostly one-issue voters on the subject of gun rights. It's also true that they have a great distrust of the federal government. It's even true that some of them talk about armed rebellion. But that's all it is-talk. Tim McVeigh went to one militia meeting in Michigan, one, and as soon as he talked about 'striking back', the members threw him out. After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, every militia group publicly disavowed the bombers, just as you're seeing them distance themselves from the people responsible for these current killings. I am absolutely convinced that the militias are not involved."

"Aren't the militias full of white supremacists like Randy Weaver? Isn't he their poster boy, along with the Waco cult?" Neumann winced at Jonathan Bane's mention of Weaver and Waco. He was mightily ashamed of the FBI's conduct during both events.

"Militias that are racist in nature do not exist," Alex Neumann said flatly. "There are a few 'Aryan Nations'type groups around, but their focus is on white supremacy. Making race-mixing illegal, things like that.

"The militias, as Congressman Schaumberg pointed out, are largely comprised of people who think that gun laws should be abolished. Walk into any gun store in any state in the union, buy any gun you want with no wait and no paperwork. That's the last thing white supremacists want black people to be able to do." He stared at the Congressman. "I should also point out, though it gives me no pleasure to do so, that Mr. Weaver was not a white supremacist, but a white separatist. God knows I have very little respect for the man, but to give him his due, he didn't want to live around black people, so he moved someplace where there weren't any. If that's a crime, an awful lot of rich people should be in jail. Including some of those in this room," he added.

"Let's get back on track here," the President said firmly. "Alex, you're saying the militias are a nonstarter on this thing, and you don't want to waste any manpower on them. Roland, is that your opinion as well?"

"Agent Neumann and I differ on this issue," Director Lemp said as he furrowed his brow. "Although we cannot rule out his viewpoint. I thought from the very outset that a militia group might have been responsible, and that we should use that as a focus point for our investigation. That, in fact, is exactly what we have done. And I must admit that thus far it has led us nowhere. So I think we should all listen to what Alex has to say. His theory may well prove to be the correct one."

"Mr. President," Neumann jumped in, emboldened by his superior's vote of confidence, "Militias are open to anyone. Our agents walk up to their recruiting tables at gun shows and sign on, and the person there smiles and welcomes them. Some of our agents have even admitted working for the FBI. Not one has been asked to leave. These people talk openly about what they believe in. Any plans for violence, we would learn about long before anything was carried out." He took a deep breath and went on.

"Any organization that intends to successfully conduct illegal activities on an ongoing basis must have a method of ensuring both the loyalty and the silence of its members. The more heinous the crimes, the more drastic these internal measures must be."

"You're referring to the Mafia?" the President asked.

"The organized crime families are an example of what I am talking about, but much of what they do is, in fact, socially acceptable to most of the population. Bookmaking, vending machines, and the like don't raise many eyebrows. Even drugs. The violence committed by drug distributors is almost entirely confined to competitors and informants. Also, the Mafia and the drug cartels are themselves very large and control a huge amount of money. That in itself commands obedience and makes it possible to monetarily encourage law enforcement to look the other way and get the courts to render appropriate verdicts." The President looked closely at the FBI man. He had not expected him to so readily admit that the police and judges were regularly bought off.

"A much more drastic system of internal security is necessary in a small group with limited resources which intends to carry out activities guaranteed to elicit a massive police response. An organization that's done what we've seen this last week would have to have some very severe safeguards in place to prevent infiltration."

"Can you give us an example, Alex?" the President asked.

"The most hardcore of the various outlaw motorcycle gangs around the country are the first groups that come to mind."

"The Hell's Angels?" Dick Gaines asked. Alex Neumann shook his head.

"The Angels' initiation generally involves wearing clothing that the existing members have urinated and defecated upon, which the initiate may not remove for a period of weeks. Some chapters add other forms of discomfort, and most gangs' initiation procedures are along these lines. Others use sexual pain and humiliation-being whipped on the genitals with belts, or performing oral sex on a woman with venereal disease. One gang requires recruits to have both passive and active anal sex with a Great Dane, in front of the assembled membership.

"While humiliating, these acts are endurable, and the FBI has undercover agents in all of the organizations that have similar initiation requirements. There are a few gangs, however, which we have been unable to penetrate. To join them, you must commit a murder in front of witnesses." The task force was silent as they considered what Neumann had said.

"These outlaw motorcycle gangs aren't suspects in this case," the FBI man assured the group. "My point is that whatever group is behind this has a system of internal discipline that is better than anything we have ever seen before. It has been one entire week since the Internet message went out, two entire weeks since twelve ATF agents and a government helicopter vanished into thin air, and we have no hard evidence whatsoever. We'll get a break in this case-we always do-but we're probably going to have to create it, not stumble across it."

"How?" the President asked.