Interrogation Information (Pt. 1)
"I'm Josh Talbot." He was 19 years old, a high-schooler from the suburb Burnaby (to the east where the nukes hit to take out the refineries and petroleum storage tank farms) who lost his parents in the nuclear attack 4 years earlier. "Mom and Dad... I was downtown for the day..." After being left behind in the confused evacuation of the city, he'd drifted around the Downtown core and the West End (the high-density neighborhood sandwiched between the business district and Stanley Park).
He lived with the people who'd taken up residence in several underground shopping malls and the Skytrain tunnels connecting them under the downtown core. "They call themselves "Undergrounders". I think most of them were probably homeless before the war."
Lee explained that the city's homeless population (like street people anywhere) had a high incidence of drug and alcohol addiction, in addition to mental illness (aka "dual-diagnosis").
"They took good care of me." Then this guy came through about a year, year and a half, ago, he was like... He said his name was "Cyrus". Which sounded cool. He said his family had taken over the park, Stanley Park. The people were building a home that no one could take away."
"Some people left with him, and I was tired of living like a freakin' mole, eh? So I went too."
"Most of the time it's cool. Hunting and fishing. Hanging out. Sometimes we trade some of the weed we grow with the Undergrounders."
"But we always do what Cyrus wants. Sometimes, like with those guys... he made us do stuff." He looked severely disturbed and even ashamed.
"Well, ah okay. The ambush of the convoy. Last year."
"We keep sentries watching West Georgia St. on the West End (city) side, in the Tea House, 'cause Pacific St. is blocked off. We can put more kind of in a line watching for people on foot coming in from the West End, if we think something's going down. People in the downtown tell us, friends in the Undergrounders."
Clarke and Lee knew that while anyone could simply walk from the West End into the Park, West Georgia and Pacific were the only two vehicle entrances to the park, aside from the Lion's Gate Bridge. West Georgia continued on as the 3-lane Causeway through the heavily-wooded heart of the park,
"We have another bunch of guards at the Lookout by the bridge. There's an old restaurant and gift shop there."
"Most of the rest of the people in the Park live in either the Tea House restaurant or in and around the old Zoo and the Aquarium. There's about 80 people, about 60 adults and 20 kids. Most of the adults can and will fight, some harder than others."
"At any rate, the sentries guarding West Georgia saw these people coming and flashed a warning signal to the rest of us. We got into position along the Causeway."
"A little ways into the park after all the turn-offs, it's all one big ambush zone. There are spider holes dug along either side, tunnels and paths to move from place to place, trees rigged to fall to block the road or take out, you know, vehicles, punji stakes, pits with spikes, bunkers with stockpiles of firebombs and pipe-bombs, slingshots to throw them, caltrop thingies to take out tires, tripwires, everything you can think of. Everyone had crossbows, bows, knives, axes, even some swords."
"We let the convoy get good and into the park on the Causeway, then Cyrus signaled us to let them have it when one of the bikes in front hit the piano wire, took the rider's head clean off. Dropped trees in front and behind to stop them, blew up the outriders; anyone trying to get into the woods to fight us fell into the pits, hit the stakes, got shot with crossbows, whatever. Some of 'em tried falling back to the trucks and some guys actually used lines to swing down from the trees and on top of them."
"They surrendered. Most weren't even dead, they were just cut up or had arrows in 'em."
He looked a little sick remembering what came next. After a bit of a break to help him calm down, he continued.
"We I can give you a list of names, but I really don't want to go into a lot of detail after. I guess I can testify if you want me to. I only know their first names or their "street" names, though."
After he wrote down the names of everyone that he remembered that was involved, they segued into what happened a couple days ago.
"I guess someone seen you come in, the wake on the water. The moonlight. I think they might just have heard something, maybe gone to take a leak."
"They woke the people in the park, runners went out. When we seen you were going towards the bridge down on the seawalk, Cyrus already set up this little "welcome" for anyone coming that way. A dozen guys involved. They used torches, stayed in the woods out of sight. Distracted anyone into looking one way, they hit them with firebombs from behind."
This was basically what happened. Although at the time it seemed like 30 or more attackers, indeed a dozen could have pulled it off. If they were practiced and had a plan.
"When the guys on the raft fired off some grenades, I guess one came down and killed someone. A kid. People were really mad."
"We saw where you went that night, back to the Marina here. We also seen other boats coming and going yesterday."
"So Cyrus says there will be blood. Soon as it's dry we're going to take out the Marina. We're supposed to keep watch and figure out where you're coming from, because the Marina obviously isn't your base, it's just where the boats are."
"We came here yesterday and started to take notes. After dark, Sebastian, the other guy I was with, rode his bike and delivered them to the Park. Takes about an hour. No code or nothin'. Same deal tonight."
Josh paused, adding something he just remembered.
"Oh yeah, before we captured the trucks, we used alcohol for the firebombs. Traded with the Downtowners for it, with the weed we grow. Those trucks... they're tankers. I think they came from the airport. One's got gasoline in it. Cyrus says the other was full of jet fuel. We got some other stuff as well, mostly food and such."
"You have a map? Well, ah, the park is kind of triangular. Points to the east and west, and to the north. The causeway sort up goes up the middle and leads to the bridge. The other end of the causeway is West Georgia St.. Aside from West Georgia, the other road into the park is Beach Ave. Between Beach Ave. and West Georgia is Lost Lagoon, kind of like a lake. On the other side of the Causeway is, like, water, too. So it's easy to block off the Causeway. We get around on mountain bikes, on the paths."
"There's a dozen people at the west end of the park, all warriors. Living at the Fish House restaurant building. They cover Beach Ave. There's another dozen in the cafe/gift shop at Lookout Point keeping watch on the bridge."
He admitted that he made a mistake earlier; when he said the Teahouse he'd really meant the Fish House.
"The rest live around the buildings in the east end of the park. Like, the zoo, the aquarium, um... there's a stadium, a police station. From there they can cover West Georgia and the Causeway. Plus, there are fishing boats we pull up by Lumberman's Arch."
"No one really lives in the middle of the park, there's no water supply. Oh, I think maybe there's a couple families living in tents by Beaver Lake."
"Ah, okay, Cyrus and his bodyguards live here. It's where those fuel trucks are parked."
"It's hard to separate, you know, civilians from fighters, Cyrus' "warriors". 'Cause some of them got families, some of the moms could fight (don't know if they would). I've sort of separated them into where the children are and are not."
It was a little different from classical cult lines, where rigid control over reproduction and sexual activity was the norm.
"There are some guys dug into the island here." He indicated the Naval Cadet training station called HMCS Discovery in Coal Harbour. (Also known "Deadman's Island", as it was formerly a pre-European native burial ground.)
"I don't know why Cyrus doesn't attack them, but they've got barbed wire, shitloads of ammunition and guns, some machine guns. Mines, who knows what-all. Food, too lots of it, I think Cyrus gets food from them to leave them alone? We got some bunkers dug-in on the land side to keep watch, but no regular guards. We leave them alone, they leave us alone."
This isolated group had been referenced by Belanger. His friend and contact in the downtown, Sheppard, traded with them on occasion. He somehow thought they were Americans.
"Plus, there's a ship, like, the back half a ship there, by lighthouse point. Cyrus says it's radioactive, not safe. It's washed up, like, on the rocks. I think it's from when the bomb went off."
The MIRVed warheads were targeted around the eastern portion of Burrard Inlet, over the petroleum refining and storage facilities in North Burnaby, Port Moody and Ioco. (Ioco was in fact the largest refinery in the Lower Mainland, where an isolated hamlet/company town had grown up around the "Imperial Oil Co." refinery complex, and this in turn was also the basis of the name "Ioco".)
Perhaps this was the remains of a ship anchored offshore from the massive Port of Vancouver freight terminal in the Inlet, caught by the shockwave of the blasts. Back broken and separated into two pieces some fluke of water-tight compartments and floatation chambers enabled the rear half to drift with the tide out towards the narrows, where it had grounded on the rocks off Brockton Point Lighthouse.
"There's no prisoners I know of being held right now. Any outsiders Cyrus captures he usually kills, hangs from the bridge. If there were any, they would be held here in the cop shop, the police station."
"Some of the people (in the Park), they get off on the violence. I think most others just want to live in peace, are even afraid of him. They don't want to say anything. Cyrus has everyone afraid that the army and the police are going to come in an' kill everyone."
"I think people outside, they're scared of Cyrus. He's built up a pretty bad-ass rep. Most of the Undergrounders downtown don't really want to get involved, but don't really love the government either. There are a few of them that even say he's crazy but no one has stood up to him."
He moved on to Taras' other questions, prompted as necessary.
"Uh, I don't really know what Cyrus' big lans are. He wants all the gangs to join forces and resist the government. Talks about it all the time. He talks about holding a meeting in the summer some time, like a rally. He's mentioned the Bridge Trolls, the Hells Angels and the Los Diablos."
"But, ah, the trucks came from the Airport, and I don't know if he has any real contact with the Los Diablos, so maybe it's just blowing smoke?"
They'd heard about the Bridge Trolls, living on Sea Island and YVR (Vancouver International Airport). The possible link to the Hells Angels (aka "Hells Angels Motorcycle Club", "HAMC", "HAs", "Angels", "Hells") was no big surprise, they were an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and a major criminal narcotics syndicate in BC and throughout Canada from before the war. They were well-organised, well-funded and well-armed. They had survived with little problem in the lawless atmosphere after the collapse of civil order. Mention of the Los Diablos were a little surprising; they were a street gang and low-level dealers from before the war, located mostly in suburban Burnaby and comprising many Hispanic immigrants from Central and South America.
He went over the Stickmen's numbers, weapons, training and organisation again. It was essentially the same as before: 60 adults, 20 children (give or take). About 2/3rds of the adults were male. Maybe 50 effectives, trained to use the weapons they had, mainly bows, crossbows, machetes, knives, Molotov cocktails.
Training daily was with weapons, some loose small-unit tactics (based on ad hoc sections of 5-10 warriors), and a lot of physical training. This high level of activity required more and better food than they could get themselves, necessitating trade with the outside.
Operationally they mostly were trained to react defensively to attacks on the park, via ambush and counter-attack, "but we have a few scouts (Cyrus' bodyguards) and we do go out of the park to take revenge on people. Plus lots of people know the city, how to get around. We know every inch of the park, and we are pretty quiet in the woods or the city when we need to be. When people come into the park it's usually via the Causeway. Once we get warning we get into our groups (which are designated ahead of time but change and are not permanent), man the bunkers and spider holes, let them get a ways in and then stop them and take 'em out."
Relations with other communities were varied.
"Most Undergrounders are afraid of Cyrus. Some trade with him every month, he gets food and other supplies. He says they're not the enemny, but it's hard to tell if he will change his mind at some point!"
"You know... there are other people in the downtown. Some Hells Angels run a club called "Brandi's". Used to be a strip joint, now I think it's a whorehouse. They got armed guys outside all the time, Harleys, the whole deal."
"They say you can get anything there. It's because, well, people say he likes 'am young. So he goes there to get his rocks off when they got someone in because he doesn't want to mess around with "his people". Guess that would be too much for people."
Josh looked disgusted and grossed out by this admission.
"So, ah, he meets with the Angels there, at Brandi's. I guess."
Kelsey remembered the club, it was in the upper stories of a well-built office block downtown, at the NW corner of Dunsmuir and Hornby. Above the Keg Ceasar's steak house restaurant, it had a private elevator from the street and an elaborate security system. Before the war it was rumoured that the HA's owned it, now it was pretty certain.
"So far, there isn't any kind of cooperation with outside groups against UBC. Also against West Van. Things like that, Cyrus goes it alone. Helps build our rep, he says."
"Morale? Like, how happy are people? People are afraid, but Cyrus takes good care of people and things are better in many ways than outside. No disease or starvation. Some people are a little afraid, yeah, but things aren't bad enough to make people want to leave. In fact, as he goes along, wins fights and does more stuff and gets away with it, people are starting to think maybe he's right, that we don't need anyone to come in and run our lives."
As for intelligence network, Cyrus had a few sympathisers in the Undergrounders that he trades with.
"They give him information, sometimes they come to the park to tip him off or tell him when he's in the downtown, which is, like, every week. Also, the HAs give him info when he visits them, too. I don't know if he as a radio or something."
a) Where are the Hell Angels located? Have they any prisoners with them?
b) What are the shortcomings being experienced by the HA in their violent campaign?
c) What is the HA operational and political planning?
d) What are the HA numbers, organisation, deployments, training, weapons and communications means?
e) How are the relations with the undergrounders and other communities?
f) What is the magnitude of involvement of the HA against other communities including plans against UBC?
g) What is the HA morale like? How are the conditions in their bases?
h) What are the HA's intelligence network details and priorities for operations against other citizens?
"I think the HAs are located in the club downtown, and the clubhouses out Coquitlam. Maybe a couple in Surrey, too, and down in White Rock (which was also technically Surrey). They run the "free market" on Annacis Island, you can get anything there you want, anything. People say they got connections to the US Army down in Washington."
"So far they're not violent towards the Undergrounders or the Stickmen. I hear they pretty much could take what they want throughout the rest of the city, but they usually don't unless you piss them off. There's people in New West, cops and such, that keep them out. They're pissed about that."
"I don't know what the Angels want, really. They don't like cops, I think they want to take over? Lots of people say they feel safer with them, they're better than nothing. They took care of business after the government left. People commit crimes or cause trouble, they form a posse and go after them."
An outright military or political takeover didn't sound too likely for an organisation that sought to exist on the outskirts of society, although a callow 19 year-old might not know this. It was more likely they would seek to influence local politicians in some manner from the shadows, if it were. This might happen if they helped influence an election, or disrupt the introduction of a fragile civil order in order to force some kind of compromise favourable to their interests.
"There's about 20-30 downtown to run the club. I seen them carrying shotguns, M16s, even machine-guns on the building. A Brinks truck is parked there."
"Same at the free market, at least 30 there, heavily armed. They also got a couple more Brinks trucks parked there, some technicals with machineguns on them too."
"I ain't been to their other clubhouses but I seen maybe a couple hundred bikers or more, one time on a "ride". They are all strapped on a rise, plus they had a couple vans and technicals along as support behind."
Lee would explain later that OMGs were organised into "chapters" of 5-30 members or more, each with a clubhouse. Interested prospective members were "hang-arounds", actual recruits were "prospects" and were allowed to wear colours on a probationary basis and their first tatoos. These formed the bulk of the support personnel. Full members were "Full Patch" and allowed to wear the gang's full colours and get even more elaborate tatoos. Club officers like Sergeant-at-Arms, President and Treasurer/Quartermaster were all elected and ran the club as a triumvirate. They held weekly meetings called "Church", and the local chapter leaders met at a "Council" with probably an elected "Director" for the city or region.
"The Undergrounders trade with the survivalists on Deadman's Island, Cyrus and the Stickmen, and the other people living in Vancouver. The Undergrounders also go to trade at the Free Market and in New Westminster."
a) Where are the Hell Angels located? Have they any prisoners with them?
b) What are the shortcomings being experienced by the HA in their violent campaign?
c) What is the HA operational and political planning?
d) What are the HA numbers, organisation, deployments, training, weapons and communications means?
e) How are the relations with the undergrounders and other communities?
f) What is the magnitude of involvement of the HA against other communities including plans against UBC?
g) What is the HA morale like? How are the conditions in their bases?
h) What are the HA's intelligence network details and priorities for operations against other citizens?
"I think the HAs are located in the club downtown, and the clubhouses out Coquitlam. Maybe a couple in Surrey, too, and down in White Rock (which was also technically Surrey). They run the "free market" on Annacis Island, you can get anything there you want, anything. People say they got connections to the US Army down in Washington."
"So far they're not violent towards the Undergrounders or the Stickmen. I hear they pretty much could take what they want throughout the rest of the city, but they usually don't unless you piss them off. There's people in New West, cops and such, that keep them out. They're pissed about that."
"I don't know what the Angels want, really. They don't like cops, I think they want to take over? Lots of people say they feel safer with them, they're better than nothing. They took care of business after the government left. People commit crimes or cause trouble, they form a posse and go after them."
An outright military or political takeover didn't sound too likely for an organisation that sought to exist on the outskirts of society, although a callow 19 year-old might not know this. It was more likely they would seek to influence local politicians in some manner from the shadows, if it were. This might happen if they helped influence an election, or disrupt the introduction of a fragile civil order in order to force some kind of compromise favourable to their interests.
"There's about 20-30 downtown to run the club. I seen them carrying shotguns, M16s, even machine-guns on the building. A Brinks truck is parked there."
"Same at the free market, at least 30 there, heavily armed. They also got a couple more Brinks trucks parked there, some technicals with machineguns on them too."
"I ain't been to their other clubhouses but I seen maybe a couple hundred bikers or more, one time on a "ride". They are all strapped on a rise, plus they had a couple vans and technicals along as support behind."
Lee would explain later that OMGs were organised into "chapters" of 5-30 members or more, each with a clubhouse. Interested prospective members were "hang-arounds", actual recruits were "prospects" and were allowed to wear colours on a probationary basis and their first tatoos. These formed the bulk of the support personnel. Full members were "Full Patch" and allowed to wear the gang's full colours and get even more elaborate tatoos. Club officers like Sergeant-at-Arms, President and Treasurer/Quartermaster were all elected and ran the club as a triumvirate. They held weekly meetings called "Church", and the local chapter leaders met at a "Council" with probably an elected "Director" for the city or region.
"The Undergrounders trade with the survivalists on Deadman's Island, Cyrus and the Stickmen, and the other people living in Vancouver. The Undergrounders also go to trade at the Free Market and in New Westminster."
