Nathan waited for her to explain. But she never did. Instead, she gave him her final orders. “Stay low, keep out of harm’s way, and be on time for the next rendezvous.”

Snapping to attention, Nathan saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that Nancy returned his salute, climbed into her Humvee, and drove off. Only after they were back on the road and headed into Boise did she allow herself to relax.

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 20

BOISE, IDAHO • AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 7

In the beginning, no one took note of them. They didn’t come storming onto the stage in a dramatic manner as the 17th Airborne had the previous week. Nor was their mobilization trumpeted by their leaders in the same way that the Adjutant General of the Idaho National Guard had boasted when his units were called up. Instead the unorganized militiamen simply started showing up.

When the Idaho National Guard left their armories and marshalling areas for the state’s borders, the bulk of the journalists followed. Jan Fields, however, was not among them. “The crucial decisions will be made here,” she told World News Network in Washington, D.C. “While some lucky camera crew may get some great shots it’s the politicians and key players in Boise and Washington that will give meaning to the military operations out there, not vice versa. And since you pretty much have your end of the story covered, I’ll stand fast here and handle this end.” Unable to assail her logic, the executives at WNN assigned other crews to cover the Federal buildup along the border and Idaho’s response.

Jan’s decision to stay in Boise was not totally motivated by her desire to remain close to Idaho’s political movers and shakers. Much had to do with a growing revulsion she began feeling over the manner in which her fellow journalists were reporting the crisis. In the aftermath of one of the Adjutant General’s evening briefings, Jan stood off to one side watching and listening to a gaggle of her peers as they stood before their cameras and filmed their post-briefing comments. Amazed and appalled by what she was hearing, Jan began to shout at them. “Don’t you people know what’s about to happen here? Don’t you understand that the Army is going to roll across the plains and crush everything and everyone in its way? This isn’t a Super Bowl game where everyone goes home alive and the loser gets to try again next season. And those people out there,” she screamed as wide-eyed journalists looked on in silence, “aren’t Third World fanatics. They’re Americans, fighting for the very soul of this nation.”