by R. A. Mathis
The throng hushed, waiting for her to speak. Individual shouts of “Thank you!” and “God bless you!” issue forth from the people.
Sanger put up her hand. “Don’t thank me. Don’t thank God. Thank President Tophet. He sent the fire from the sky. It is the State that has fed you. I was the Party that saved you today.”
A chant began. “Tophet! Tophet! Tophet!”
The agent’s mouth parted in a cruel grin as she waved triumphantly to her admirers.
11
EDUARDO
The New Capitol
Deep Beneath Denver International Airport
Eduardo lay in his bed, staring into the eternal darkness of his sunless world. Valerie’s head rested on his chest. The luxurious sheets caressed their naked bodies. She purred as he stroked her soft blonde hair. He checked his watch. Time for work. He grabbed a remote and activated his apartment’s circadian light simulator.
The warm glow of artificial sunrise filled the room.
Valerie looked up and smiled at Eduardo with sleepy eyes. “Good morning.”
Eduardo kissed her forehead. “Sleep well?”
“Mmm hmm,” she hummed musically. “You?”
“Yeah.”
Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
She smiled again. “What did I tell you about that?”
Eduardo chuckled. “I know, I know.” He slid out of bed. “But you know I can’t stay in one place for long.”
Valerie sat up. Her smile disappeared. “What are you saying?”
“I’m going to Tennessee.”
“There is no Tennessee.”
“Right.” He started to get dressed. “I’m going to FEMA region…Which one is Tennessee in?”
“Four, Eddie.”
“Thanks.” He slipped his arm into the sleeve of a silk a button-down shirt. “That’s where I’m going.”
“Aren’t you happy here…With me?”
He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Of course I am. The last few weeks have been great, but I can’t change who I am. I have to be where the action is. That’s why I have to go to Tenn…Region Four.”
“You don’t have permission.”
“You can get it for me.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re coming with me.”
She laughed. “For a second there, I thought you said I was going with you.”
“Sure! Why not?”
“Are you high? I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you!”
“Think about it. Our job is to get the President’s message out and to expose the resistance for the traitors they really are. Martha Jefferson is the darling of the American Constitutional Front. She was captured in Region Four. She’s still there, at least until Tophet decides what to do with her. That’s where the story is. Help me go there and tell it.” Emotion cracked his voice. “Help me hurt the people who killed Angie.”
Valerie pulled the sheets close to her neck. “You still love her.”
Eduardo looked out the fake window. “She’s dead.”
“And yet you love her.”
Eduardo sighed. “Yes.”
“What the hell am I?”
“You’re great, but…”
“But what?”
“I need to go to Region Four.”
Valerie snatched her clothes from the floor and threw them on, humiliated.
Eduardo touched her arm as she dressed. “Don’t be this way.”
She recoiled from his touch. She stomped to the door, her shoes in her hand.
“Will you let me go?” Eduardo asked.
Valerie grabbed the doorknob and marched into the hallway outside. “Go to Hell for all I care!” She slammed the door behind her.
The Blood of Patriots
Freeport
The cheers of the crowd on the courthouse lawn echoed into Hank’s cell. It sounded like the whole county—what was left of it— was gathered outside. The clamor calmed as Sanger’s voice rang across the PA system.
“You were starving. Now you are fed. Your children go to sleep with their bellies full. You lived in fear of Dante. Now you are safe. We live in a world darkness, but President Tophet will bring light!”
“Tophet! Tophet! Tophet!” The applause erupted anew, then receded as Sanger continued.
“But there are terrorists among us. They want your children to die of hunger in front of your eyes. They stood by while bandits stole your food and murdered your friends and loved ones. They would keep us in the dark. They kill! They destroy! They did this!” She took off her eye patch to reveal a pink, scarred hole where the eye used to be.
The crowed jeered with rage.
A squad of Green Guards entered the jail and opened Hank’s cell.
“Time to go, Sheriff.” One of them, a former deputy, started to handcuff his old boss, but stopped when he remembered Hank had only one arm. He scratched his head, trying to figure out how to secure his prisoner. He asked his comrades, “Any ideas?”
“Try this.” One of the greenies removed the sling from his rifled and tossed it to the guard.
Two men held Hank’s arm to his side while the former patrolman put the sling around him.
“That oughta do it.” The guard tightened the restraint around Hank’s waist, pinning his arm to his side so tightly that his fingers tingled. “Let’s go.”
Hank’s eyes squinted in the cold light as the guards led him outside. The roar of the crowd rang in his ears as his escorts prodded him to the scaffold. Friends and neighbors punched and slapped at him as he passed. He locked eyes with a woman he went to church with. She spat in his face.
Hank struggled up the steps of the platform under a pelting rain of rocks and filth hurled from a hundred hands. He looked out onto the faces of the throng. They burned with hatred the likes of which he’d never seen.
His handlers jerked him next to Brandon’s rotting corps, which still swayed in the icy wind. They put the noose over Hank’s head and tightened the knot against the side of his neck.
Sanger addressed the crowd. “Behold the price of treason!”
The mob exploded with deafening frenzy.
Sanger put her mouth to Hank’s ear and said, “I have a special surprise for you.”
He cut his eyes toward the agent, determined not to show fear.
Sanger beckoned to someone standing out of his sight. A green guard arrived with Maggie in tow.
Sanger grabbed the girl’s little hand and put it on a lever next to the rail. “When I say now, you pull this.”
“No!” Hank yelled. “Not like this.”
Maggie pulled her hand from the handle. Sanger forced it back, pinning the child’s hand to the rough wood under her iron grip.
The little girl looked into her grandfather’s eyes.
Hank said to her, his eyes clouded with tears, “It’s okay, Maggie. I love you. Always remember that.”
Sanger bore her teeth in a sinister sneer. “Now!”
Hank closed his eyes, ignoring the mob, and found peace.“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy na—”
Then it was over. He never heard the crowd’s cheer, Maggie’s scream, or Sanger’s laugh.
Guards ushered the crying girl into Finbarr’s waiting arms as Sanger put a sign around the sheriff’s broken neck.
It read ‘Terrorist.’
Thank You!
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Table of Contents
Contents
Front Matter
Night and Fog
01 HANK
02 COLE
03 HANK
04 MARTHA
05 EDUARDO
06 COLE
07 HANK
08 MARTHA
09 COLE
10 HANK
11 EDUARDO
The Blood of Patriots
Thank You!
