By Necessity: From Chapter Fourteen

Back home in Virginia after his mother’s death in a North Carolina sheriff’s custody, Paul Roark has the security footage of her arrest and a decision to make. First, he sends a message to the small group he trains with.

From By Necessity: A Private Rebellion, a grounded thriller by Jackson Parker, available now from Firewatch Press.

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Opening the Signal app on his phone, he typed out a message to his group.

Tony said he wants to meet for tacos tonight at 19:00. Usual spot. Who’s up for it? Clean up before you come.

He had no trust in Signal messages being truly secure. While it was true the app used E2EE, vulnerabilities in the mobile operating system meant the decrypted messages were only as secure as the device and operating system displaying them.

The Signal message seemed innocuous enough. There was no Tony in the group. They knew from their group training this message from Tony wasn’t about wanting tacos; it was a “call-up.” It wasn’t an emergency; if it had been, he would have said, “Tony needs help. His wife’s water just broke.” This was an urgent call-up but wouldn’t be happening until the stated time, 19:00.

“Usual spot” indicated that they were to meet at the Gum Spring Overlook, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, where it passes over US 220 heading south out of Roanoke. This location was chosen because it was outside of town and was close to being a central location for the six members. The location was not tied to any one of them, and their cover for action would be applicable there. They were practicing a call-up and deployment for search and rescue.

“Who’s up for it?” required a response, a roll call, so to speak. Finally, the instruction to “Clean up before you come” instructed members to make sure they weren’t followed and to leave all electronics, especially phones, behind.

With the message sent, the truck checked out, and camping equipment loaded, Paul busied himself with his food, electronics, and weapons loadout. His years of regular weekend training with the group paid off here. Most of these items were stored in durable plastic bins stacked on shelves. It was mostly just carrying the indicated bins out to the truck. He did go through his electronics bin, adding the extra batteries. The chargers were already in there.

He wanted to be ready to go after dinner with his family. The plan was to eat and head to Andie’s, the family traveling in two cars: Paul in the Suburban, making a stop at the “taco meeting,” and Becky with the kids in the family car.

Everyone was there before 19:00. Paul thanked them for coming. He spent the first ten minutes catching them up on the events of the previous weekend in North Carolina. They expressed their heartfelt condolences, at which point Randall “Buzz” McTeer asked, “What do you need us to do?” Trying to bring some levity to the meet-up, he pulled the unlit cigar stump from his mouth, pointed it at Paul with one eye squinted, and, in his best New York gangster accent, said, “You want that we should go disappear a lousy sheriff?”

After the laughter died down, Paul resumed speaking. “In all honesty, no. It’s not there yet. I have a lot to figure out back home. My gut tells me there are a lot of hands caught in this cookie jar. I need you to keep an eye on my house and be available for some comms check-in windows. You know we have a family trip to Florida planned for next week. Becky is taking the kids and my phone to Florida. I’m going back home to North Carolina. I plan to go in gray. I’m going to leave the Suburban in North Carolina when we come back to Virginia after the funeral. Then I’ll have them drop me at my sister Andrea’s house in North Carolina on their way down to Florida.

“I have contacts in Florida who could come to Becky and the kids’ assistance if needed, but they aren’t part of my inner circle, so they won’t be read in on what I’m doing. They will be Becky’s ‘E’ on her PACE plan, because if she goes to them, however sympathetic they are to our situation, the facts of my whereabouts may break containment. Her primary contact for assistance would be local law enforcement in Florida. Alternate would be my sister, Andie, and I’ll need one or two of you to be her contingency go-to for assistance.

“I have several prepaid cellular phones, not smartphones, that I purchased with cash when I was out of the area on a drive without my cell phone. I powered them on and confirmed service at the time of purchase. I then powered them down, removed the batteries, and placed the phones in Faraday bags. I put the Faraday bags in gallon plastic bags with the battery and charger, so I can charge the batteries without sending or receiving any RF signals. One of these will go with me to North Carolina and another to Florida with Becky. You have the phone numbers on the sheet I have provided you. Don’t save them into your phones. Just be able to recognize them if you get a call or text from them. If all goes well, you won’t get anything from those numbers.

“These phones are the only reason Becky agreed to go without me and take my phone. She and I will have check-ins by text at predetermined intervals. Her burner phone”—Paul shook his head; he hated that misunderstood term—“will remain in the hotel and not travel with our other phones. My clean phone will remain in a cache on the outskirts of a residential development.

“I will communicate my status and make any requests to you using AndFlmsg via NVIS. I have listed the times and frequencies on the sheet. Primary is 80 meters, and 40 meters will be our secondary if 80 isn’t working. I know 40 works better during daylight hours, but I’m going for a lower probability of intercept by making 80 our primary. Listen on both and I’ll make adjustments on my end. There are three comms windows a day. Only one contact is needed in every twenty-four-hour period. Because of the frequencies we’re using for this NVIS plan, all three windows will be during daylight hours to keep the signal limited to a smaller area. If three consecutive windows are missed, NVIS is to be discontinued, and you are to make contact with Andie via telephone with the words, ‘Paul wanted me to look in on you while he was in Florida.’ She will then give you directions to her location, where two or more of you will then go for a face-to-face meeting. I anticipate keeping her closely apprised of my actions and findings via face-to-face meetings if possible, or via dead drops if necessary. From the information she can provide you face-to-face, you should be able to determine what I need or where I am. If she is unable to provide an update on me, you will activate the dead-man protocol and access and distribute the information in the dead-man cache. Do any of you see flaws with this communication plan so far?”

Mike “Mikey B” Blackburn spoke up, “Twenty-four hours is too short.”

Paul looked at him. “Why?”

“Because five or six days from now, you’re going to have nothing to report and still feel obligated to make a comm window. Or you’ll be somewhere you shouldn’t transmit and convince yourself you can get away with it because we’re expecting you.” He shook his head. “Thirty-six minimum. You can keep yourself out of trouble for thirty-six hours without us, can’t you?”

“I’d like to think so. That’s why I love you guys. Thirty-six hours, then. If thirty-six hours pass from my last successful contact, initiate lost-comms procedures. Honestly, I hope none of this is necessary. If it turns out to be overkill, it’ll still be a good exercise.

“I have no intention of overt illegal activity, but I make no promises and will take action as my findings dictate. As I get to the bottom of the actions or inactions that led up to the death of my mother, I plan to start kicking some hornets’ nests. I will hunt and harass those who are responsible and, if possible, see that they change their ways or lose their place. This can’t all be done in a week’s time, but I hope the light I cast will start the roaches scrambling.

“Finally, this USB contains the video from the security camera. It shows everything from the county meeting the well contractor and capping the well through the sheriff’s actions. There is also a bootleg copy of my mom’s hospital chart. We are working on the official chart, and that will take some time. If it appears to you that I have failed or gone completely silent, you are to disseminate the information. Take the shotgun approach and hit as many outlets as you can. I think some of the best would be some of the large social media accounts that break these types of stories. Small-town politics won’t be able to stifle that. If I am able to access more information throughout next week, I will be storing that in the dead-man cache. You’ll get the location later; the information will likely be stored on a microSD card.

“I’d like to meet one more time before I step off.” The men shook hands, shared a few bear hugs, and went their separate ways.

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Paul goes in gray. And the deeper he digs, the clearer it becomes that the sheriff is only the most visible hand in the cookie jar.

By Necessity: A Private Rebellion by Jackson Parker. Available now.

[Amazon Link] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPXW9N1J

Jackson Parker writes grounded thrillers from the rural South, drawing on firsthand experience with rural communities, emergency medicine, and the outdoors. By Necessity is his first novel. Follow him on X at @jxnparkerbooks or at jacksonparkerbooks.com.