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Steve walked cautiously into the Atlanta Journal Constitution lobby. He had not shaved for days, nor had he any sleep.

He walked up to the receptionist and asked her if he could see the news editor.

"Do you have an appointment?" she said.

"No, but it is urgent that I see him. I have a news tip," he said as he nervously looked around the lobby.

"What kind of news is it?

His eyes grew wide. He did not want to discuss it in the lobby. He did not know who might be listening.

"Is it local, sports, national, international?" The receptionist continued.

After looking again at the man in the corner who had just entered the lobby, he leaned forward and softly told her, "National news."

"What is your name?"

"Steve, Peters."

She called Tom Nash and told him that a Steve Peters was in the lobby to see him with a news item.

Tom usually did not accept walk-ins with news, but it was a slow news day. The State of the Union address was not until Tuesday. Congress was out of session until then and President Gaddianson had taken a few days away from the White House to prepare for the Union address.

"Sure, send him up." Tom said.

"Steve, may I get you coffee or something else to drink," Tom said in a very friendly manner as he welcomed Steve to his office.

"No thanks."

Tom invited Steve to have a seat as he sat on the edge of the desk.

"Well Steve, tell me what you have."

He looked straight at Tom and said, "There is going to be a coup next week."

Tom said: "Hold it a moment Steve. Let’s back up a moment. Maybe you had better just start with telling a little about yourself. Where do you work?"

"I work for the IRS, in Taxpayer Assistance. I have been there for the last four years. I have worked for the IRS for a total of fifteen years." After a thoughtful pause he continued. "I do not want my name associated with this story. The IRS has a problem with employees speaking to the press."

"Alright, if we go to press with the story we can keep your name out of it. Now, how did you find out about the coup?"

"My hobby, you could say, is history. Over the last several years I have had special interest in the history behind how tyrants and dictators came to power. I have looked at such people as Lenin, Hitler and Stalin. I was attempting to find some common factors between their rise to power, their personality, and the way they governed once gaining power. I believed that a pattern could exist that could help society see the danger signs and stop such tyrants before they came to full power."

"I found that there were commonalties among all the cases that I studied. I was expecting to find some, but the degree of predictability was astounding!"

"After finding the similarities I decided to use it to try to predict where dictatorships would occur. Since the USSR had just broken up, I thought that it would be a good area to look for potential dictators. I found that the conditions in that part of the world were ripe for someone to attempt such."

"Back in 1994 I started to focus in on one particular country that came out of the USSR. I was attracted to statements and actions by their president. After careful study of everything I could find on him I concluded that he was going to attempt a complete takeover. By the end of 1996 my conclusions were confirmed."

"I examined other countries with the same success. After looking at economic conditions of the country and the personality of the leader, I could predict with confidence how he would govern."

"I tried to publish my findings but could not get my paper accepted."

"By this time I was starting to take more notice of certain things in our own national news. I went back over all my notes on what lead up to a dictatorship and found the clues in the newspaper that a potential tyrant was raising to power right here in the USA."

Steve moved behind his desk and took a seat.

Tom had a very sober look on his face now. "Tell us more about the clues you are referring to. How do you know that the military will attempt a takeover?"

"No, no, they have nothing to do with it!" Steve blurted out. "The military is completely out of the loop here. They are only going to be ignorant pawns. The coup is going to be so subtle that the media will likely never even think to call it such. The media will see Martial Law as a necessary response to terrorism by right wing radicals and they will praise his actions, just as the media did in Germany with Hitler."

"You noticed that there has been a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks over the last few years. This is what initially attracted my attention. The attacks themselves do not indicate anything regarding a potential dictator. It is the pattern behind the attack."

"If you look at the history of Germany and Russia, you will similarly find patterns of terrorism and supposed lawlessness prior to the Nazi or communist takeovers. History has shown us that the terrorism in Germany and Russia was being carried out and influenced by the Tolts. This is the name I give to those supporting a totalitarian leader. History has shown a tendency to promote others to be the terrorist."

"Terrorism is used to destabilize a country and its security. It is used to create ethnic tension and fighting. With this, the government is viewed as too weak or unwilling to stop the terror. This is when the Tolts step in, claiming that they will stop the terror and crime. They put the blame for the entire problem of social decay on some ethnic or ideological group whom they will need to stop. In Germany they were the Jews, in the USSR they were the counter revolutionaries."

"Now, the Characteristics of a dictator are distinct. The opinion that ‘the end justifies the means' is common with all dictatorships. Dictators believe that they alone can save mankind. They believe it is their destiny to have the power. They appear to be unable to accept responsibility when they are shown to be wrong. Potential dictators do not think of a difference between themselves and the state, they see themselves as the government and consider themselves exempt from the law. The tyrant considered everyone around him expendable."

Steve paused and took a long breath.

Steve continued, "The money is coming from outside the country to support gangs and militia that will create the need for the change from a democratic government to martial law. The final terrorist act will be directly against the government on Tuesday, at the State of the Union Address. Afterwards a state of emergency will be declared and martial law instituted. The terrorist attack will be blamed on the militias. "

Tom could wait no longer. "Who is behind the planned coup, House Speaker Richmond?"

"No, NO!" Steve reverberated. "He does not meet the profile for someone to become a dictator. The Tolts have tried to make him look like he was power hungry to divert attention. The person behind this is President Gaddianson. All the facts point to him, and that he has to act on Tuesday before Congress can vote on impeachment."

"You have to look at the data and you will see that not only is it possible but very probable. Remember the media thought at first that Hitler and Stalin could not be that kind of person, as history has born out."

Tom stood up and walked back around the desk. "Mr. Peters, thank you for your information, but I am very busy and must return to our work."

Steve stood up and thanked him for his time. On his way out of the office he placed a packet on Tom's desk. "I hope you will at least glance at this information I brought." As he was walking out the door he paused and turned to Tom. "In case something happens to me, I want you to know, I do not own a gun. People tend to commit suicide around Gaddianson."

After he left, Tom took the packet and dropped it in the trash.

As Tom was preparing to leave the office for the weekend, he again noticed the packet in the trash can. With a shrug he reached down and pulled it out. He thought to himself that it might be interesting to look at when things were slow again. Besides, there might be something in there that he could use.

On Monday morning, as Tom was walking to his office, Jill stopped him.

"I thought you might be interested that the man that spoke with you last week, Steve Peters, committed suicide over the weekend. He shot himself."

It took a moment before it hit him that Steve was the man with the conspiracy story. He thought that he must have been very depressed that his story was not accepted. However he did not think that he would have been the type to kill himself.

As he reached his desk, he suddenly remembered what Steve said as he was leaving. Would he have gotten a gun after leaving the building?

He picked up the phone and punched in the number for Jill.

"Jill, did Mr. Peters leave a suicide note."

"Yes, It was on his computer."

He thanked her and hung up.

"Even a paranoid has enemies." He quoted to himself but could not remember who had said it originally.

He wondered if it was the corruption charge against President Gaddianson that convinced Steve that the President was a conspirator. Congress had started impeachment proceedings and it was beginning to look like the votes where there to impeach. There were several civil and criminal charges against Gaddianson that he would have to face without the benefit of taxpayers paying for his personal defense, when he leaves office. Maybe Steve thought that Gaddianson would attempt something now because he was soon finishing his second term of office.

It was easy to see why Steve thought it would be Tuesday. All the members of congress would be present at the State of the Union, as well as members of the Supreme Court, cabinet and department heads. If someone wanted to take out the heads of government this would be the time.

He found the packet that Steve had left with him and opened it up, emptying the contents onto his desk.

As he looked over the information he started to wonder if Steve could have been onto something. Steve had shown a very clear connection between people that were of at least questionable background and the president. His information gave connections of times and events that benefited the president’s cause and greatly weakened his opponents, such as sudden deaths. What started to disturb Tom most was the table of events that showed a connection between attacks on the president by the media and terrorist bombings within this country.

He called and asked Al to look at Steve’s data. He wanted to verify the validity of Steve's information.

It was after 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday that Al returned from checking the information. He had not found any errors.

"Mr. Peters' information is very good. I found no errors in his research." Al said.

"Taken alone the data does look convincing but are the conclusions correct?" Tom paused before continuing. "My question is this, what other conclusions can be made and what could we do about it if Steve has more than just coincidences?"

Al sat back and said, "I do not think we can make any conclusions safely, it could only be chance events. In any case, we will know the truth tonight. Either Steve saw links where there were none, or, we will wake to a new world."

Tom got up and said, "We will leave it at that and see what happens."

Al asked, "what do you think will happen?"

"I do not know. I do not think he is correct, but I do not have the certainty I had when Steve was here." He walked to a chair and sat down.

Tom leaned on his desk, very deep in thought. "I'll call Carol at CNN. We can go over there to see the address. If anything happens we are likely to see more of the action there than if we go anywhere else."

In the control room they spoke with Carol as they listened to the commentaries on who was in attendance. Richmond and most everyone else were there, everyone, except for vice President Moore. The announcer commented that the Vice President was going to be arriving with the president. Also absent were the directors of Justice, Energy and Treasury.

Tom's heart stopped for a moment. He looked at Al and could see that he was thinking the same thing.

The next few minutes felt like hours. Tom had stopped believing in a god when he was in college but he now prayed that the President and Vice President would arrive at the Capitol.

It was only one minute left. Suddenly there was a flash in front of the cameras at the Capitol, and then the cameras went blank. The control room burst into a rush of people checking their equipment and yelling at each other. Everyone was attempting to regain contact with Washington to discover what had happened.

After several minutes, one screen came alive, from a remote outside the Capitol. The reporter was yelling to be heard over the background noise. He was reporting that the blast came from an aircraft that crashed directly into the building. In the background flames rose from the ruins.

As the fire trucks and the rescue teams began to arrive it was apparent that there were no survivors from inside the building. Anyone within a hundred yards was at least injured by the blast or by debris.

The question came about the whereabouts of the president. It was fine minutes before the news came that President Gaddianson had not even left the White House before the bombing of the Congress. The reporter further announced that the President, vice President and their families had been flown by helicopter to Air force One.

Tom had not moved since seeing the blast on the TV screen. His face was pale. He looked at Al. "Could we have stopped it?"

The next day the President's spokesman announced that the attack was by right wing militia that hoped to decapitate the government.

"Effective immediately all of the United States and its territories will be placed under martial law. Until peace can be restored and all of the murderers can be brought to justice, I am suspending the Writ of Hapus Corpus."

Tom hung his head down. Steve saw all of this coming. He had tried to warn everyone, but nobody would believe it could happen here in America. Last night the Congress and Supreme Court were blown away with one explosion. Gaddianson was now in complete control of the country.

In the closing remarks of Steve's conclusions he refereed to the war of 1812. "As Scott watched that morning after seeing the British bombing of the fort, he must have been anxious to catch sight of the flag through the smoke. Now I stand watching through the smoke as I see the flag fall."

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