Thy Kingdom Come: Book One in the Sam Thorpe series Read Online Free

a basketball-court-sized room with double bunks along both sides of the walls and lockers between the bunks. It looked as though the room could accommodate about forty men. A latrine stood at the far end.
    Oliver continued, “During this same time period, the Weavers became more and more concerned about what their children were learning in school. Apparently, their daughter attended a Halloween party they thought Satanic.
    “Vicki kept having a vision about a cabin in the mountains that called out to her. They finally sold their house in Iowa, packed up, and moved west.”
    “Weren’t they white supremacists?” Sam asked.
    Oliver’s face grew rigid. He gritted his teeth again. “Hell, no. They were white separatists. There’s a big damn difference, Thorpe, and you have to understand it. All they wanted to do was to live with their own kind and be left alone by the fucking government. Is that too much to ask?”
    Sam shook his head while he memorized the nametags on the bunks.
    “Randy and Vicki settled in northern Idaho, a place called Ruby Ridge, named for the Ruby River. Hell of a beautiful place. Have you ever been there?”
    Sam shook his head again. During his briefing on Ruby Ridge by the FBI, he had studied the terrain features on a map. Looked like a place he’d enjoy fly-fishing.
    “But you know what?” Oliver’s voice rose. “The government bureaucrats wouldn’t leave them alone. An undercover agent set Randy up. The bastard got him to sell a couple of sawed-off shotguns for a few bucks. Not that big a deal during that time period but sawed-off shotguns are illegal. He was charged with a felony. The court later called it entrapment.”
    Oliver turned. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs. I’ll show you the garage.”
    Sam followed Oliver down the stairs. “But what he did was against the law.”
    “You and I both know all kinds of assholes who were doing a lot worse. The government wanted to make an example of Randy. They were going to do whatever it took. The court issued a warrant for his arrest. What he did wasn’t even a felony.”
    Sam followed Oliver through a kitchen past a refrigerator, freezer, and large gas stove. A room off to the right contained a table large enough to seat about twenty. Oliver opened the door to a garage. There were three pickup trucks and two Jeeps parked inside.
    Sam surveyed the tools and supplies in the garage. “The garage doesn’t look this large from the outside.”
    “It’s my motor pool.” Oliver beamed; then his smile disappeared. “The agents went after Randy. They surrounded his home. Three agents sneaked onto his land. Randy’s boy was outside checking the perimeter and must have heard them moving through the brush. He probably thought they were deer. He shot and wounded one of the agents. Fuckers shot back. They killed the boy. Kid was only sixteen years old.”
    Sam winced, his sixteen-year-old daughter’s face entering his mind.
    “Sixteen. The next day a sniper blows Vickie’s head off. Know her big sin? She had the nerve to stand in the doorway of her house holding her baby. Blew her head off. And they did it right in front of her kids.”
    Sam studied a workbench that covered the length of the garage. He picked up a metric wrench and blew out his breath in exasperation.
    Oliver grabbed a timing light. “We do most of our own maintenance. I recruited an old motor sergeant of mine to keep things running. Guy’s a hell of a mechanic. He’ll be here later this evening.”
    Sam walked to the end of the garage, then back. A former battalion and brigade commander, he had spent a lot of time in motor pools. “This place is well equipped.”
    Oliver put down the timing light and nodded.
    A large metal lock hung on the door to an adjoining bay. “What’s in there?” Sam asked.
    Oliver grimaced. “Ah, nothing of importance.”
    Sam would need to convince the motor sergeant to let him look inside that area.
    “Anyway, the siege goes on for