What You Have To Do: A Short Story

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ATF Special Agent Karen Wolfe stays busy busting moonshiners and cigarette smugglers in Missouri. There are tales and rumors of something more brewing there: A group of extreme, right-wing, anti-government fanatics may be setting up shop in the Ozark Plateau. But hers is a small office, not likely to be selected by the powers that be in D.C. to run a sting operation against the group.

However, to the surprise ATF office manager, Lucas Walker, the Kansas City office is given the assignment to infiltrate the burgeoning paramilitary group. Karen volunteers almost at once. It takes a lot of convincing, but Walker agrees to give her the assignment.

Karen begins studying both the background of such groups and her cover story, but she's already had a taste of right-wing violence in her own family. A similar group in the northwest killed her mother's cousin, a liberal, Jewish talk show host. A chance to stop similar violence is something Karen has wanted since she joined the ATF.

Her cover story in place, Karen--now Charlene Anderson--begins to attend a Christian Identity church to hear the words of a new leader who calls himself Prophet. Prophet and his mentor notice her "devotion" and invite her to join their growing compound, Patriot City.

Established there, Karen begins to collect information she knows will convict Prophet of gun-running, armed robberies, and perhaps something more sinister. She's so good at playing her part, Prophet assigns her a special duty in Patriot City, something that had seemed unlikely when she volunteered.

Now, she's faced with a choice no woman should have: her life or control over her own body.