Cross Down

“During the January Sixth riots, most of the protesters were initially peaceful, crazed though they might have been. It took only a small number of hard men goading the demonstrators to turn that crowd into a violent mob that threatened our institutions.”

General Grissom explains to President Kent that it does not take much prodding to convert a peaceful but discontent American into a tool for violence. This is demonstrated in a later chapter when a handful of insurrectionists amid protestors outside The Air and Space Museum spur the entire group to violence and blow the museum doors open then push into the museum. This tactic is utilized across the nation to create an overall impression of chaos and partisanship that is beyond repair.

“I say, ‘We’re trying to save the world.’ ‘Huh,’ she says. ‘You two fools ‘bout twenty years too late for that.’”

After asking what Cross and Sampson are up to and hearing their response, Nana Mama, who later references a hard upbringing during Jim Crow, responds with the sentiment that the world is beyond saving. Discontent and a lack of hope for the future are central characteristics in the men and women who support Grissom’s evil plan, as well as the unwitting supporters whose discontent and hopelessness are exploited to further Grissom’s aims. Although Nana Mama experiences discontent and hopelessness, she does not fight the system but does help the people around her, easing the hopelessness in others.

“The safety drill covers everything from a fire in the school to a hose leak, but its real purpose is to prepare for an active shooter in the building. The way of our troubled lives, I think.”

Sampson drops his seven-year-old daughter Willow off at elementary school after passing through metal detectors and walking past armed security. His daughter is wearing a heavy backpack that conceals bullet-resistant panels meant to protect the girl if a shooter attacks the school. School shootings are one of the many reasons Americans feel hopeless about the future. When children murder children en masse there is no hopeful response. After leaving his daughter at the school, Sampson ruminates on the idea that his bulletproof backpack is all that can save her during an attack.

“School saved Alex, and the army did the same for me, and our paths came back together at the Metro Police.”

Sampson and Cross endured difficult childhoods that could have compromised their futures. Cross’s parents were murdered, and Sampson’s father left, while his mother was jailed. It was only because Nana Mama took them both that they were able to find their calling. Though they were friends in their youth, they grew apart as they pursued their separate goals, reuniting with the police force as experienced adults. Sampson recalls his childhood and rekindled friendship with Cross as he waits in the hospital to learn if Cross has survived being shot.

“They are not resting on their laurels, bitching to their neighbors about the state of the world or spending evenings on the internet arguing with strangers around the globe. No, they are men and women of action, people he carefully evaluated and selected.”

Maynard is one of Grissom’s chief insurrectionists. He is working ardently to enact Grissom’s seditions conspiracy. In recruiting his team, Maynard selects former military and law enforcement officers who have grown disenchanted by the state of American politics. He harnesses their discontent and unifies them behind a goal, spurring them to action. Repeatedly, Patterson uses the example of the January 6 rioters to demonstrate how well-meaning Americans can be spurred to action, their patriotism twisted into something evil.

“There’s a rot or something going on within all areas of the government, civilian and military. Different philosophies—anti-government, anti-progressive, anti-conservative. Just a series of hate groups that have members everywhere.”

FBI agent Ned Mahoney explains to Sampson that the government has been compromised by hate groups that have members in all branches. The employees owe allegiance first to their group, and second to their nation. This, according to Mahoney is what threatens to destroy the American system. By the novel’s conclusion, Mahoney will be proven correct, though he hardly knew at this early stage that the rot was encouraged to spread by Grissom and his seditious forces.

“Every caller, every talk-show host, was sure that he or she was the only one who knew the real truth and had the real solutions. It was always ‘the other’ who should be arrested.”

As Sampson drives south on his quest for answers that might link the various domestic terror attacks together, he listens to the radio. He hears every group blaming the other, proclaiming their moral superiority, and decrying the actions of their perceived enemies. He hears of a nation divided by group affiliations that come secondary to their patriotism, and as a result, endanger the nation.

“I still don’t see the evidence of a large-scale operation that’ll result in us curbing civil liberties, putting troops and armored vehicles on the streets, and trying to control news coverage. That kind of shit happens in Venezuela. Not here.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Landsdale fights against General Grissom’s request for martial law and the use of the National Guard. She represents the anti-federalist argument that has played out against federalists since the formation of the United States. When Grissom asks for more federal, centralized power, she counters that the states, with support from the federal government, should take the lead. This ongoing political debate is played out to one extreme Cross Down, showing the extent of government overreach in times of crisis.

“American taxpayers foot the bill for the Defense Department’s annual $725 billion budget, and as one of those accountable for its spending, he sees it as his responsibility to allow himself to be interviewed by certain members of the fourth estate.”

The fourth estate is a term for the unofficial fourth balancing power in the three branch government, which is the media. The media is responsible for speaking truth to power, and the First Amendment is a central pillar in American political thought. Although General Grissom will have the reporter who interviews him killed, he allows the interview to take place, gleaning vital information from the journalist in the process and recognizing the value, and dangers, that a free press represents.

“I enlisted right after 9/11 when the entire nation was united, filled with determination to strike back against the attackers and settle accounts. Well, thanks to the politicians, the uniformed bureaucrats in the Pentagon, and the talking heads on cable, that unity was pissed away. I don’t even recognize this country anymore.”

Bastinelli, one of the former members of the Afghanistan team, declines to accompany Deacon and Sampson on their quest to confront the shadow forces threatening the nation. In so doing, he is a foil to the protagonist’s primary motive and goal. Bastinelli’s response highlights why the former patriot lost his patriotism, when it happened, and how. He perceives America’s lack of unity as a sign that the nation is no longer worth risking his life for. Sampson, in contrast, confesses similar emotions but continues to fight for the country despite the lack of unity and national pride. Bastinelli’s response is a stark juxtaposition to Sampson’s view.

“The purpose of terror is terror.”

Spoken by General Grissom, these words concisely demonstrate the underlying goal of terrorism. It is not ideological change, political change, or even military change. Rather, the purpose is simply to terrify an innocent population. Grissom brutally utilizes terror knowing that fear can drive people to abandon their principles in service to survival. He hopes that enough Americans will support his coup because they fear for their lives.

“A few years ago, if you wanted to blend in here, you carried an AK-47, Russian-or Chinese-made, no difference. But due to an unfortunate chain of events, the Taliban, now in power, had tons of American vehicles, ammunition, weapons, mortars, artillery, and other military goodies.”

After arriving in Tajikistan to cross the border illegally into Afghanistan for the second time, Sampson explains why they carry American weapons openly now. The cyclicality of history is on display in the rotation of weaponry from Russian made (Russian occupation of Afghanistan: 1979-1989) to American-made (American Occupation of Afghanistan: 2001-2021). Neither nation left the region as victors, but both nations left caches of weapons behind after their departures. Sampson acknowledges the cyclicality of history through the weapons left behind.

“We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful.”

This now famous quote is attributed to an unknown American soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. It was found engraved on a Zippo lighter, one of many such lighters bearing slogans of protest and peace. The presence of this quote in the CIA station in Tajikistan suggests a strong parallel between America’s war in Vietnam and America’s war in Afghanistan.

“Was it opium from here that was converted to the heroin that poisoned my parents?”

Sampson finds a brick of opium in the rubble of Mir Kas, the destroyed village in Afghanistan, and wonders if it is the source of his family’s woes. General Grissom uses the sale of drugs exported from Afghanistan to fund his coup, destroying lives on both sides of the planet in the process. Grissom, on several occasions, demonstrates his willingness to kill people he deems morally weak. Drug users, thus, in Grissom’s view, are expendable. For Sampson, however, finding the opium brings about a rare moment of introspection and emotional pain as he considers the possibility that his childhood could have been very different without the influx of drugs into America’s inner cities.

“It’s the news media’s job to report the news. That won’t be affected. But when you have certain cable networks and their respective talking heads spreading lies, rumors, and absolute bitterness in order to drive up their ratings, that’s not news anymore. It’s inciting hate, inciting violence, poisoning civil discourse.”

Early in the novel, Sampson is listening to talk shows on the radio, lamenting the hate he hears, and the constant labeling of the “other” as the source of America’s woes. Likewise, Grissom sees the same problem on cable news. Sampson simply switches off the radio and detaches himself from the system. He cannot be indoctrinated with hate and bias if he knows the source of the indoctrination and avoids it. Grissom, on the other hand, believes that only by censoring the rhetoric can the American public be saved from hate-filled indoctrination. This, however, violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and chips away at the fourth wall, media. Again, Grissom is a foil to Sampson’s response to the partisan media, offering juxtaposed methodologies for confronting broadcast hate.

“Bree, I went through things you can’t even imagine when Jim Crow ruled the land. I’m staying.”

Nana Mama, an old but tough matriarch, refuses to abandon her daughter-in-law, even though she is armed with a knife facing several well-trained men with automatic weapons. Her reference to the Jim Crow Laws, which mandated segregation in many US states until 1965, indicates the level of pain the laws caused. She compares the experience of simply living as a Black woman in America to facing down armed killers approaching her home.

“We all have blood on our hands. The only difference is that now I’ll be making ten times as much working for Global Security Services and I won’t have to wear this goddamn uniform.”

Deacon’s ex-husband, retired General Mason, left the Armed Services to work for a private company developing weapons and working contract operations for the CIA. His motivation for the change is explained here as financial. It is Mason who is responsible for using GSS weaponry to level the Afghan village of Mir Kas. Like General Grissom, Mason is not concerned about collateral damage. Unlike Grissom, Mason’s motives are not grounded in ideology. He is a true mercenary, abandoning all morality in service to money, and as such is a clear villain.

“I was patrolling with some old vet along K Street and he pointed to all the shiny office buildings and said, ‘Man, there’s more criminals per square inch up there than in any other place in DC, and we’re out here busting brothers for dime bags.’”

As Sampson approaches the GSS office building, he recalls this memory from his early days as a police rookie. The memory highlights the two tiers of justice that exist in the American system. Low-income neighborhoods are patrolled, arrests are made, and men and women are incarcerated while white collar criminals have little threat of law enforcement searching them out for observation or arrest, and even if they are caught, punishments for white-collar crime are less strict than for drug-related offenses.

“My fellow Americans, we all know, deep in the marrow of our bones, that our great nation has gone astray these past decades. Wars are entered but never won, resulting in billions of dollars lost, thousands dead, and thousands more wounded for life.”

General Grissom films a video of himself in the Oval Office meant to air after the coup. In the film, he highlights his reasons for taking control of the government. Chief among his list of complaints are the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His son died, his wife was lost, and his career was spent fighting in an arena he viewed as pointless.

“A solid majority of the American people will rally around him for finally ending the terrorist threat. Everything else will be minor. Most Americans want to be able to go to work and send their children to school without having to worry about anyone being blown up by a car bomb.”

After watching General Grissom’s video, Sampson asserts that many Americans eager for peace will trade their rights in exchange for security. This is Grissom’s gamble and the foundational assumption behind his plot to overtake the government.

“There’s only one organization that consistently remains popular among the American people year after year, and you and I belong to it.”

General Grissom believes his plot to overthrow the government will be successful, in part, because of the enduring popularity of the military among American citizens. However, where the soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq came home to a positive reception, the soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam were received home with judgment and scorn.

“And later, one of his campaign consultants said the key to victory was taking all the hate drops and stirring them into one pot.”

General Grissom explains to Colonel Kendricks how he got the idea to sow chaos in the United States by funding all of the hate groups and stirring them to action. The source, he says, was a political race from his childhood where the winning candidate used the same tactic successfully and without repercussions. Grissom’s idolization of the immoral tactic is yet another example of his characterization, and his focus on the ends justifying any means.

“And for what? A sacrifice he and thousands of others paid for with their blood and that this nation spent billions on—and for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Again, General Grissom refers back to the incident that incited his change from a military man serving his country to a man determined to take over the country at any cost. His underlying motivation, which is to prevent others from enduring the pain he endured from losing his son, appears moral, his path to achieve that aim involves mass murder, sedition, and treason.