The Crimson Fall (The Sons of Liberty Book 1) (12 page)

“We are done here,” Lukas said. “I believe it’s time for you to leave.”

“Very well, Mr. President,” Rhys said, with both mockery and humility on his voice, before turning to leave.

“And Rhys,” Lukas said as he looked briefly to Maria and then back at the man he hated, “the time has come for you to forget about what will forever be out of your reach
and
your
league.”

Rhys took a sidelong look at the first lady and smiled with a nod before leaving the room. Lukas walked over to the one upright couch that remained, telling Maria not to worry about the wine. She sat down with him and together they watched the fate of that very necessary law unfold. As he sat there with his wife, trying to suppress the anxiety and fear creeping to the surface, Lukas thought back to his days of youth and wished, if only for a moment, that he were a fearless king.

Adam walked out onto the floor with his shoulders back and head held high, despite the looming knowledge of defeat. The senators around him were busy readying themselves for the evening’s historic events. The commotion slowly died down as those who saw him motioned to others, spreading the word of his unexpected appearance. He found the chair that had been reserved for him at the front of the room and sat down quietly as the commotion picked back up. David Malcovich, the Majority Leader, wasted no time getting down to business.

“The members of the Senate will take their seats.” He hit the gavel three times to better seize their attention. “Under the previous order, the Senate will take their seats.” The men and women began to quiet themselves as they slowly wandered to their places. “Senators, tonight we will be voting on the proposed Geneva Peace Treaty that will regulate the production, distribution, ownership, and legality of future firearm manufacturing processes. Before we start the call, I’m going to take a step back from our usual procedures for just a moment, if you will bear with me. This bill hits particularly close to home with last year’s terrorist attack. The death of Joseph Reinhart, a member of this body who sat on the Arms Committee, continues to bring me grief as I suspect it does you all as well. Joe was a good friend to many of us, but he was a brother to only one. Earlier, Congressman Adam Reinhart of Colorado petitioned to speak on his brother’s behalf, which Minority Leader Gerber and I have conditionally granted if you would agree with a yea, nay vote. All those in favor say aye.”

The chamber erupted. Adam was taken aback by how strongly the Senate had responded and a brief hope welled up in him that maybe tonight would go better than he expected.

“All those opposed say nay.”

Two or three nays were shouted from somewhere in the room, most likely for the simple show of it, but Adam knew he would have his stage.

“I’m glad to see a sense of chivalry remains in this chamber. The yeas have it. Congressman Reinhart, you have the floor.”

Adam set his leather case down and walked humbly to the stand. He had decided against any notes or the use of an nVision teleprompter–partially due to the fact that he hadn’t even made up his mind about any attempt to address the Senate until late into the prior evening–but a larger part of him believed that his words would need to be natural and from the heart if he stood a chance of swaying any of them this late in the game.

“Thank you, senators, for your willingness to hear me tonight. I don’t plan to take much of your time. I recognize this as quite the break from the tradition of this assembly, but this isn’t about tradition anymore, is it? This is about what’s best for America and something that has the power to forever change us. For you all to grant me this opportunity, as an American, truly speaks volumes of your character. Joe was a great man and to represent him tonight is truly an honor.”

Adam paused as he fought back against the unexpected lump in his throat. He had believed the days of openly mourning his brother were past, but the very thought of losing his secret battle for the truth caused a familiar and hopeless agony to resurface. To be there that night, condemning the law one last time from the very stage of its almost certain passing, was in all likelihood the final nail in the coffin that would entomb any future for him in politics. However, he had come to believe that if he abandoned the fight before he exhausted all other options, be they reckless or not, that he would never forgive himself. It had actually been quite liberating to come to a state of mind as a paid politician where he cared less about his livelihood and more about his country’s well-being. In fact, outside of his family and that new sense of patriotism, his only care left in the world was to see justice served. As he composed himself, Adam inwardly vowed that no matter what the outcome of the night was, his every action from that day forward would be to unearth and unleash the truth that Lukas had buried deep beneath a mountain of bodies and lies.

“Do we have a problem?” Adam asked after his pause. “Any one of us here knows the answer to that question is undoubtedly yes, and I am not going to argue against that notion. Do we know what the problem is? Again, yes. We have failed each other as a nation and as a neighbor. We used to proudly say ‘united we stand’, but I fear the sad truth has become that we now merely coexist apart from one another. Yes, we have a problem, and yes, we know what that problem is. But is this the best we can offer the American people? Is the only solution to drastically alter the Second Amendment and the very instruments of freedom that have kept this nation safe from tyranny for two hundred and fifty years? Are we so ignorant that we actually believe we can legislate ourselves out of the clutches of evil? We have harbored too much hatred for one another for far too long, and because of that, we are literally destroying ourselves from within. This is not the right answer.

“Laws may protect us but they cannot change someone’s soul. We’ll kill one another with sticks and stones if the heart of our nation remains the same. We see time and time again as people walk into public places and take the lives of those around them. Passing this law as an effort to change that hate is like giving pain killers to a person who has been repeatedly stabbed in the chest. We don’t need medication in the form of a new law. What this nation needs is a resurgence of accountability and good men to take a stand and destroy the root cause of this evil. We have all but forgotten the patriotic men and women before us who died for this nation. By their blood they have stained the stripes red and by their devotion they have fused the stars together. If we forget those sacrifices that bond us together, we will be left with nothing more than a white flag to wave before the world, telling them that this land is ripe for the plucking. The greatest sin of our generation is that we have forgotten who we are, and that is what has cost us most. We cry out in disbelief and wonder where our sense of unity has gone. At the same time we enact a federal law making it illegal to require our children to speak the pledge of allegiance anymore in all fifty states. You ask why American citizens are brutally murdering each other. I think the real question we should be asking is how can we expect them to behave any differently?”

His last statement brought murmurs from the crowd. He knew they would either love what he said or label his words as malicious as a terrorist attack itself.

“My friends, my fellow Americans, what you are about to vote on is not the answer. We cannot expect to free ourselves from this insanity by enslaving us all with the new bylaws of freedom. The answer is to become indivisible once again. If you desire to remove the wickedness in people, we must give them something good to replace it with. Let us focus on breathing life back into America and making her people remember that we are all brothers and sisters. Nothing else will solve this problem. Tonight, I ask that you do not ask Americans to put their trust in this new, unproven technology. Trust and support the liberties that the patriots before us died for and vote down this bill. Then, let us here in Washington take a step back and come up with a solution that does not bind us to what the rest of the world believes is best for a country they do not like. Anything else is just giving more control to the very people who abuse it again and again. Thank you and . . . and God bless the United States.”

The chamber applauded, not like the roaring cry earlier, but an uneasy applause that suggested it was the thought that counted most. Adam grabbed his shoulder bag and left the room before the voting began.

He walked out of the chamber and found a stone bench away from everyone and everything but his thoughts. He sat alone, waiting patiently for the outcome. As he sat there in silence, a part of him wanted to pray. He wanted to believe God would work a miracle and prove Himself by stopping the bill. However, to believe once more would only cause him to place the death of his brother at the feet of the God he couldn’t yet forgive. So he refrained from any prayer or conversation with God, knowing that if he did come to speaking terms right then, his words would not be humble, and they would most definitely not be spoken with kindness.

In the end, though his speech had swayed some, Malcovich found him outside and told him that the vote had passed easily with a seventy-seven to twenty-three tally. Feeling lost and like he had let down his brother and failed his final wishes, Adam shook David’s hand, took his bag, and left the Capitol building for a much-needed walk around DC to help clear his mind.

He wandered the capital streets as a man defeated. He had lost his brother and almost his will to do much of anything in the months after the attack. But Joe’s letter had been an electric jolt, restarting his heart and his motivation to fight back. However, every effort, every attempt he had made to gain traction in his secret fight against the president had been met with utter failure. He walked on until he found himself climbing the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, so close to where his final, painful good-bye to his brother had taken place. When he mounted the vacant steps and stood below the giant stone statue, he almost laughed at the infuriating hopelessness of what he observed. Above the massive carving of Lincoln, the leader who had reunited a nation and freed millions from the bondage of slavery, hovered four FODs, watching his every twitch and move in a very un-free way. On the verge of shouting with frustration, he wanted to curse the nation and what she had become. He wanted to yell out and tell America that she had successfully traded in the keys to her freedom for an insignificant hope of security.

And he might have done just that had the man next to him not spoken.

“It’s a disgrace, if you think about it. Drones circling above the memory of the man that died for liberty.”

“You got that right,” Adam murmured with a disheartened laugh under his breath. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Makes you want to do something about it,” the man said. “Makes you wish there was some way to turn back the clock a few decades and undo what’s been done.”

“More than you know,” Adam said with a hint of sadness. “More than you know.”

“Of course, you first need to know what and how to fight before you take up arms and charge into the fray. Wouldn’t you agree, Congressman?”

Adam slowly turned his head and glanced sideways at the man. He had never seen the man in the suit before, and while he wouldn’t put it past the average person to recognize a congressman on the streets of Washington, he couldn’t help but grow curiously nervous with the stranger either. Adam had been careful not to reveal what he suspected to anyone, but he wondered if the president believed himself invincible now that the treaty was law. Regardless of whether or not this man was friendly, Adam had no intentions of sticking around to find out.

Without a word Adam turned to leave. He made it halfway down stone steps when the man in the suit began following him just a few strides behind. Adam thought about confronting the mystery man, but he decided to walk to the safety of the busy street before he attempted anything that might be foolish. Adam passed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and continued his brisk pace until he reached Constitution Avenue. He turned east—hoping the man would simply leave—but the man in the suit continued to follow him down three streets, always staying just a couple steps behind. On the fourth turn, it became clear that the man was there for something more than a casual stroll through the nation’s capital. Adam wondered if the president had the audacity to kill him on the busy streets of DC, and he told himself he wouldn’t go down without a fight if the man tried. But his chances against a trained killer would be slim to none if he had nothing to fight back with and nowhere to run. So instead, he quickly flagged down a taxi. As a cab came to a halt, Adam opened the door and stepped into the car, but the unidentified man in the suit entered behind him and barked at the cab driver.

“Take us to Garfield Park,” the man said.

“Yes, sir,” the cab driver said with a nod, as though he knew the mystery man who had entered the car with the congressman. Adam began tripping over his own words as the car began to roll.

“Look, I don’t know what you want, but if you kill a United States congressman, you will be hunted down for the rest of your life.”

“Relax,” the man said, “And quiet down. I’m not here to kill you.” He took out a device very similar to the one Rob Bruger had used and twisted the top until it turned from green to blue. “We have a common goal, and thus, we share a common friend. You don’t know her yet, but trust me this old woman is your friend. She’s one of the few left who will believe whatever you think you know about Lukas Chambers. She’s been looking for someone to help her answer her questions and you’ve finally convinced her and her friends that they can trust you. She sent me here on her suspicions that you’d show up to try to stop that treaty from passing tonight and it proved true. Don’t ask me what she wants of you because frankly I don’t know the whole of it. It’s better that way for all of us looking to help America.”