Sipping her coffee, Jan looked into Ann’s eyes, suspecting that she was building up to something. “Okay, go on.”

“Several years ago, before our man GO stormed onto the political stage a third echelon staffer at the FBI made a startling discovery. While compiling a list of known or suspected members of militia units in the west and northwest, he began to notice that a disproportionate number of them worked for companies or businesses that were either wholly, or partially owned by our Mr. Thomas.”

“Circumstantial,” Jan countered, “at best.”

Ann didn’t waver. “It gets better. This staffer did more than match names. He compared the organizational charts of those militia units with the hierarchy of Thomas’s various enterprises.”

Excited now, Jan couldn’t hold back. “Don’t tell me, they matched.”

For the first time Ann permitted herself to smile. “While not true for every business interest GO Thomas owns, it was determined by the Justice Department that this connection was more than coincidental, especially since the one franchise in which this was most pervasive was a chain of gun shops.”

Though excited, Jan managed to throttle back her enthusiasm. “If this is all true,” Jan stated as she leafed through the material Ann was handing her, “the FBI, and the powers that be inside the Beltway, would have leaked this during Thomas’s race for governor.” Pausing, she looked up at Ann. “You know how much the establishment hates seeing a political outsider win a race, even if it is in faraway Idaho.”

“Though my source didn’t say so,” Ann explained, “she alluded to the fact that they tried, but failed to make a connection. Not long after the matter was dropped, every file concerning the investigation disappeared. Even more interesting is the fact that everyone who had been working on the case at the Department of Justice and FBI was transferred to such wonderfully diverse places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Barstow, California.”

“While this is disturbing,” Jan responded, “what’s so unusual about this case? After all, we’ve seen this sort of thing in Washington for the past eight years. Besides, if neither the Department of Justice nor the FBI found anything before and were willing to let the matter drop, what’s changed?”

“April 25th and the aborted FBI siege in Wyoming. Embarrassed, the FBI has resurrected every investigation they’ve run in the past few years involving domestic terrorism and the militia movement. That includes the one they had conducted on Governor Thomas. Though the FBI is being far more circumspect than they were before, in an effort to avoid being tagged as political storm troopers for the Administration, they are, nonetheless, going forth.”

“And how,” Jan asked as he looked her research assistant in the eye, “did you hear of this investigation if it is suppose to be so circumspect?”

“I came across the first hint of it on the Internet,” Ann explained. “I followed up by making some calls to people I know in the Justice Department.”

“The usual sources, I suppose?” Jan asked smiling.