This roundabout confession caused a bit of a stir among her fellow guardsmen, one which she didn’t seem to notice as she continued. “You’ve heard him. Every time he gets on the subject of family values he always manages to find a way to blame everything from global warming to continental drift on the fact that children don’t have a mother who is willing to stay home and carry out what he calls ‘their God given duties.’ Or he lectures us on how young girls who seek abortions are misguided souls who should have been given more training in living a moral, Christian life instead of sex education. I mean, excuse me, but as far as I’m concerned GO Thomas is nothing more than another egotistical male who’s full of himself. Maybe if he had a wife and a few teenagers of his own to deal with he’d be singing a far different tune.”

For a moment, there was a stunned silence as Meranno finished, folded her arms, and looked about, almost daring anyone to challenge her statements. When she was satisfied that there was no one present who was willing to do so, Nancy turned to Sergeant Lightfoot. “You came back to Idaho after having served here and there in the Marine Corps for eight years. What you think of all this?”

The full-blooded Nez Perce, who still sported his close cropped Marine style haircut even after being out of the Corps for almost two years, didn’t answer at first. Instead, he stared at Nancy Kozak, giving her the impression that he wasn’t going to say anything. Then, suddenly, he spoke, as he always did, in a deep well-measured voice that put Nancy in mind of a menacing rumble one might expect from an volcano on the verge of erupting.

“It is all, Colonel, much ado about nothing,” he stated flatly.

West, who always made fun of the way his well-read sergeant spoke, hooted. “Will you listen to that. Much ado. Gee, I love it when you talk dirty, Sergeant Lightfoot.”

Ignoring West, Lightfoot went on. “It seems to me the government’s efforts to pin the bombing and the raid on the six militiamen they have is little more than an effort to create the illusion that they are doing something meaningful. While every rational person in this country hopes the FBI does find those responsible for the murder of innocent people and bring them to justice, I doubt if they will find any of them hiding here in Idaho under Thomas’s bed as some in Washington would have us believe.”

“Oh, I agree,” Nancy found herself stating before she even realized that she had committed herself to a point of view. “But what about GO Thomas himself? What do you think of him, as a person?”