"The following points detail MLK's overall designs between now (3/8/65) and the '68 Pres'I election. MLK has discussed the following topics in high-level SCLC staff meetings, has forbidden staff members to announce them publicly or discuss them outside staff meetings and has rebuffed all criticism that points out one obvious fact: The breadth of his socialistic agenda will divert his energies, deplete SCLC resources and undermine the credibility of the civil-rights movement. It will enrage the American status quo, perhaps cost him congressional and presidential support and will earn him the enmity of his 'limousine liberal' supporters. The true danger of his plans is that they may well serve to fuel and unite a coalition of hard-core Communists, Communist sympathizers, far-left intellectuals, disaffected college students and Negroes susceptible to inflammatory rhetoric and prone to violent action."

MLK on Vietnam:

"Genocide cloaked as anti-Communist consent. An evil war of attrition."

MLK plans speeches. MLK plans boycotts. MLK plans dissent.

MLK on slums:

"The economic perpetuation of Negro poverty. The bedrock of de facto segregation. 20th-century slavery, euphemized by politicians of all stripes and creeds. A cancerous social reality and a condition which mandates a massive redistribution of assets and wealth."

MLK plans speeches. MLK plans boycotts. MLK plans rent strikes.

MLK on poverty:

"The Negro will not be truly free until his God-given rights to coexist with whites are supplanted by economic entitlements which make him the financial equal of whites."

MLK plans speeches. MLK plans dissent. "Poor People's Unions." "Poor People's Marches." Poor people hooked on dissent.

MLK on inclusion:

"We can only topple the apple cart of the American power structure and commandeer and equitably redistribute its resources through the creation of a new consensus, a new coalition of the disenfranchised, which will not tolerate men living in luxury while other men live in wretchedness and filth."

MLK plans speeches. MLK plans workshops. MLK plans dissent.

Summits. Workshops. Brain pools. Coalitions. War protesters. Pacifists. Leftist pamphleteers. Vote drives. Reapportionment. Resultant mainstream clout.

WHITE RABBIT cited concepts. WHITE RABBIT ran timetables. WHITE RABBIT quoted dates.

MLK prophesied. MLK decried Vietnam:

"It will escalate into the most murderous misadventure of the American 20th century. It will divide, rip asunder and produce skeptics and people of conscience in epic numbers. They will form the nucleus of the consensus that will burn America as we know it to the ground."

Timetables. Fund drives. Operating costs assessed. Vote potentials. District boundaries. Registration stats. Tallies. Figures. Prognostications.

It's huge. It's grand. It's magnificent. It's insane. It's megalomaniacal.

Littell rubbed his eyes. Littell fought double-vision. Littell dribbled sweat.

Sweet and blessed Christ-

Mr. Hoover would cringe. Mr. Hoover would gasp. Mr. Hoover would FIGHT

Littell cranked a window. Littell looked out. Littell saw freeway ramps. The cars looked new. The taillights streamed. The signposts blurred bright.

He lit a match. He burned the file. He flushed the ashes down the sink. He prayed for Martin Luther King.

o o o

His words stuck.

He savored them. He replayed them. He said them in Dr. King's voice.

He surveilled Lyle's house. He parked adjacent. No Merc extant/no collectors/no movement. Say Lyle dozed late-give him time-time the collectors' approach.

North Ivar was dead. Windows glowed black white. The glass bounced TV shadows. He shut his eyes. He dipped his seat. He waited. He yawned. He stretched.

Headlights-

They passed his car. They swiveled. They strafed Lyle's house. There-the blue Merc.

Lyle parked in his driveway. Lyle got out and walked up. Lyle saw the door crashed and trashed.

He ran inside. He hit lights. He screeched.

Littell shut his eyes.

He heard crash sounds. He heard toss sounds. He heard oh no yells. He opened his eyes. He checked his watch. He timed Lyle _seeing_ things.

More toss sounds. More crash sounds-no yells or screams.

Lyle ran out. Littell clocked it: 3.6 minutes.

Lyle stumbled. Lyle looked woozy. Lyle looked unkempt. Lyle got in his car. Lyle pulled out. Lyle hit reverse and floored it.

He gunned it. He smoked tread. He smashed the barrier fence. The car flew. The car upended and flipped.

Littell heard the crash. Littell heard the tank blow. Littell saw the flames.

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 8/11/65. Internal telephone call transcript. (OPERATION BLACK RABBIT addendum.) Marked: "Recorded at the Director s Request" / "Classified Confidential 1-A" / "Director s Eyes Only." Speaking: Director, BLUE RABBIT.

DIR: Good morning.

BR: Good morning, Sir.

DIR: I was saddened by the news on your brother. You have my condolences.

BR: Thank you, Sir.

DIR: He was a valued colleague. That makes the circumstances surrounding his death all the more troubling.

BR: I won't apologize for him, Sir. He indulged occasional binges and behaved accordingly.

DIR: The suicide aspect troubles me. A neighbor saw him back his car off that hillside, which confirmed the LAPD's findings and the coroner's verdict.

BR: He was impetuous, Sir. He'd been married four times.

DIR: Yes, in the manner of one Mickey Rooney.

BR: Sir, did you-

DIR: I've reviewed the LAPD's paperwork and I've spoken to the Las Vegas SAC. WHITE RABBIT's house had been thoroughly ransacked. A neighbor told officers that WHITE RABBIT's souvenir gun collection had been stolen, along with the contents of his desk and file cabinets. Agents questioned the collection crew at the Desert Inn. A man admitted that he broke into WHITE RABBIT's house, two days after the suicide, and that it had already been ransacked, which is undisputedly a lie. The LAPD officers who responded to the suicide call said that they found the door open and that they viewed the ransacked state of the living room.

BR: It fits, Sir. My brother had run up casino debts before, although never to such a large amount.

DIR: Did WHITE RABBIT keep a private file on the dealings of the SCLC?

BR: I don't know, Sir. He adhered to a need-to-know policy with me on most security matters.

DIR: CRUSADER RABBIT's proximity to the incident bothers me.

BR: It bothers me as well, Sir.

DIR: Was he being spot-tailed during the time preceding WHITE RABBIT's binge?

BR: No, Sir. We had already set WHITE RABBIT up to meet him, and I didn't want complications. Nevada agents had been rotating on and off of him, though.

DIR: CRUSADER RABBIT keeps popping up. He hops from catastrophe to catastrophe with rabbitlike aplomb.

BR: Yes, Sir.

DIR: He appears in Bogalusa. Voila, WILD RABBIT's friend Charles Rogers disappears. He appears in Las Vegas. Voila, he views the prelude to WHITE RABBIT's suicide.

BR: You know my distaste for CRUSADER RABBIT, Sir. That said, I should add that he did call and warn you.

DIR: Yes, and I spoke to him yesterday. He told me that he helped WHITE RABBIT outside, and that WHITE RABBIT simply passed out in his car. His story sounded plausible, and the assigned agents have not been able to crack it. They tell me that he did terminate WHITE RABBIT's casino credit, which further buttresses his credibility.

BR: He may have somehow capitalized on the incident, Sir. I seriously doubt that he provoked it.

DIR: I'm keeping an open mind for the moment. CRUSADER RABBIT is capable of outlandish provocations.

BR: Yes, Sir.