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spoke of it in his presence, nor would they even tell him where
they were stationed at the time.
    They had a hard time at first; Montana was
a land of proud, independent people and it was difficult for two former
government employees to fit in. The fact that they didn’t hide their agency
past did little to help them… in the beginning.
    The McKinnon’s set up as writers and
managed to find a small publisher to carry their work. It was almost two years
before a neighbor read one of their books and learned that the two former
agents were staunchly against big government. Their unique perspective, looking
at government from inside its seedy underbelly, really appealed to many of
their neighbors and they soon found themselves fitting in.
    Callum may have grown up with a mistrust of
the government, but his dislike of cold weather was even stronger, and he left
for California when he was nineteen. He easily found work as a carpenter, which
left his mind free to ruminate on all that was wrong with the world. At the
freehold, he soon found like-minded friends and they spent their evenings
drinking local beer while discussing the latest atrocities passed by the
government in the guise of law.
    From there, it had been an easy step for
Callum to start teaching his new friends the same lessons that he had learned
from his parents. He reveled in their admiration as they learned lessons
usually reserved for field agents. Before long, he was surrounded by a staunch
cadre of friends who could blend into any crowd, spot the alert eyes of an
enemy and take their weapon with an economy of force and movement.
    Now, sitting at his usual table, he was
watching the television above the bar. The story was the only news anyone cared
about at the moment - the passing of a bill to help fund the new UN Fleet.
“It’s bullshit,” Callum growled.
    “You got that right,” Kevin Frey added.
“There was never any Goddamn aliens.” He waved at Chrissie with four fingers
extended. She nodded and continued on her way. “It’s like you said, Cal; just a
scam to help the UN take over.” The other two members of Callum’s inner circle
nodded their agreement. “Maybe it won’t pass?”
    Callum shook his head, biting back a
stronger response. Kevin might not be particularly astute, but he was loyal and
that wasn’t something you took lightly. “They went after Congress first because
that was the Republican majority,” he explained to his friends who nodded
sagely. “The senate is in Democrat hands so he’s leaving it for the end. If he
needs to rework the bill or deal with a poison pill, it saves time not having
to mess around with a sure vote for each round.”
    “Bastards,” Kevin said softly as the final
tally came up on the screen. “And America agrees to pay for her own chains.”
The bill had passed the vote and would now be rubber stamped by the senate. “So
now my tax dollars are heading to the UN?”
    Callum  chuckled at that. “ Your tax dollars?” he asked with a grin. “Doesn’t the government have you listed as
unemployed?”
    Kevin laughed back as their two friends smiled.
“Fine, my fellow Americans’ tax dollars are being sent to the UN. I’m still
pissed about it.”
    “Forget about the tax dollars, Kev.” Callum
waited as Chrissie delivered four pewter mugs of draft. “Did you notice what
Parnell said about our technological contribution?”
    Kevin looked blankly at Callum. “You mean
about the orbital airships?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “The ones that can
lift a thousand tons into space at a time? Sounds a little unrealistic…”
    “I’ve been checking up on that,” Callum
answered as he leaned in, the rest following his example. “There’re a couple of
consortiums that’ve been working on the idea for a few years now. It looks like
most of the science has been sorted out since the start of the century, but
it’s not the technical side that worries me.  An airship that can take a
thousand tons