Every week or so I'm going to post one of my favorite sections from my new novel, "A Feast of Wolves." The book is best described as "a new Civil War in America," or "A French Revolution comes to modern day American."
This section is fairly early on in the book, when young professor Chase Selby and his fellow Reasoners meet what's left of the federal government for the first time. It's a big meeting held in one of the board rooms of the Treasury building. The Reasoners are the panel of 12 "most reasonable" people who have been selected from a broad range of disciplines across the country - great thinkers who are considered the last reasonable minds in the country, the rest of the country seemingly haven chosen sides in the "Us and Them" stand-off that has lead to a guillotine being placed (and used) on the steps of the U.S. Capitol by the insurrectionists who call themselves Changers.
I won't deny that I laughed out loud many times writing this section. I wanted to show the inefficiencies of the government and what caused, at least in part, the crisis in the first place. But things got away from me and I really came to enjoy the arrogance of the government officials, and most particularly, Miles Mallickey, the chosen representative of the feds. That happens to writers often, or at least it happens to me. That's when you have lift-off. In this case, I think the excerpt also shows the kind of Dr. Strangelove humor as it's clear no one knows what the hell's going on or how to put Humpty Dumpy back together again. Every day that I watch the news, I have the sense I nailed it more than I understood at the time. You can be the judge, but please, don't be too hard too hard on Miles. The guy's merely doing his job.
CHAPTER 13. The
GOR
The Reasoners were about to commence
their first meeting
with the GOR, the government of record. Already
it was like nothing any of
them had anticipated.
There were more than thirty of them, first of all, and they entered the room as if the meeting were their call, in their offices,
and on their terms. In no way did they look like the representatives of a defeated, or at least fatally compromised, federal government.
They were also impeccably dressed in business
wear and outfitted with leather folders
and laptop satchels
and tablets. They shook hands and passed around creamy white government business cards, not just to Brueler and the Reasoners, but to each other. They distributed other printed materials, reports with titles
like Objectives in Managing Dissent
and State Report
Alerts. Chase guessed
that the young
people who did the handing
out were assistants, but he had to wonder
where exactly the materials had been printed.
As far as he knew, the Government Printing Office was currently being
used as a morgue.
Due to numbers, the government people had to take one whole
side of the immense table
while the Reasoners took the other.
There was a lot of shifting. A dozen of the younger government people
automatically took chairs against the walls. They efficiently opened sleek
laptops to take notes.
The chief representative for the government turned out to be
Miles Mallickey. Miles
Mallickey?? Representing the entire United States government? This took just about every Reasoner
– even Brueler – by surprise.
Mallickey was not an impressive man. He was diminutive, with a 1970s side part, big hair to match, and a strangely froggy mouth. He wore a poorly tailored
hunter green suit and a large digital
watch. What he lacked in bearing, however,
he made up for in a sort of “what makes Miles run” determination. Every American had, at some time or other, seen Miles Mallickey
on television. A few even knew that back in the dark ages Miles had once actually won a seat in the House of Representatives. He never repeated
the feat, but that one term had been enough
for Miles. It put his toe in the door.
He stayed on in Washington in a number of Cabinet positions for the next twenty-odd years.
All of this meant that Miles Mallickey knew not just every back lane of Washington, but how to manage
both legislation and egos.
Brueler introduced everyone politely, but once they were seated,
zeroed in immediately on the obvious
question in the mind of every Reasoner
there. “Mr. Mallickey, can you vouch
for your standing
here?” Miles reached
back to one of the aides sitting
along the wall.The aide handed him a piece of paper,
which Miles handed across to Brueler. “I am speaking
with the full authority of the United States government,” he said. “I am the highest government authority available at this moment for this purpose and have complete
authority to bind the government
in any manner as these talks may necessitate."
Brueler read the letter of authority. Surprised, he handed it to Agniew, who shared it with Tay Hamer and
then Kirsten Pappason. It made its way down the table. “Mr. Mallickey, that document is three weeks old,” Brueler said.
“The date isn’t material!”
The Mick, it seemed, was ready for a
fight.
“Two people who signed it
are now dead.”
“It hasn’t been rescinded, Mr. Brueler. Therefore my authority is as unassailable as your own.” Mallickey opened
his leather portfolio. “Look, we have a lot to cover, and my people and I have more to do today.”
A raised eyebrow
from Brueler. It was hard to imagine
a meeting more important
than briefing the folks who would decide the very future of the United States, but apparently Miles had places to be.
Miles clicked a pen in his
hand. “What can you tell us?”
There was a long, still
silence. Brueler looked to the Reasoners. The
Reasoners looked to Brueler. The government people
looked to the Reasoners.
“About what?” Brueler
finally asked.
Van DeVere,” Mallickey said.
“What about him?”
He shrugged. “Well, on our side we’ve drafted
a legal demand to the General to recant his position and to justify
any refusal to defend both this city and to verify his protection of any and all other federal installations. We have also outlined a possible charge of dereliction of duty and how he risks being
stripped of his command. This chaos has to stop, and order has to be restored.
You need to make this position clear to Van DeVere. We need to take these people out as well as anyone else threatening the sovereign control
of the United States government.”
Agniew asked, “Take who
out?”
“The Changers.”
“All of them?”
“Of course.”
Agniew was so stunned, he
struggled with his response. “But
… Congressman … by anyone’s estimate there are millions of them across the country and at least a
half a million in this city alone. So
… that’s your solution?”
Mallickey shook his head. “That’s your
solution. That’s what you’re going present to General Van
DeVere.”
An assistant reached forward
and placed a can of Coke in front of Mallickey. He cracked it and swallowed
half. Clearly, the Mick was done.
He had shown his tough guy bona fides, and was waiting for a response.
Finally, General
Williamson spoke in his low earthquake rumble.”Congressman, you are aware, I
assume, that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled – ”
Mallickey waved
that off. “A different time, General, and, if you missed the headlines, only two Supreme
Court justices still have their heads on, so – ”
“I think you’ll find their rulings
still stand,” the General persisted. “And any military officer,
and certainly someone
of the character of General
Van DeVere would never – ”
“Yeah, yeah, honor, manhood, et cetera,” said the Mick. “But I think you’ll find the General
was constrained in taking orders from a representative of the Congress. Our legal argument
– and it has complete
support from more than three Harvard and Yale scholars
– is that with the invention of the Reasoner
Compromise, we have a whole new power structure, none of which the court was able to take into account.
So, there’s nothing
that prevents the Reasoners from telling DeVere
to get back to work.”
The silence that greeted
this seemed to go on forever.
Finally, Ambassador Macomb crossed his legs elegantly
(armed, definitely armed, Chase thought) and asked gently,
in that buttery southern lilt, “If I may?” There were nods from the other Reasoners. His manner was so courtly, who could refuse him? The Iron Butterfly, they used to call him.
“Congressman Mallickey, there may be confusion here about
exactly what our duties are and where our powers lie.”
Mallickey shrugged. “I’m
happy to clarify if people need me to
clarify.”
The Ambassador smiled and continued. “In fact, we are intended
to be an impartial body,
tasked with assessing and hopefully providing a direction that will bring the two parties together
to reunite the nation as a whole. To be, literally, the last reasonable minds to put an eyeball
to this most vexing of conflicts. You, however, are talking as if we are in the employ
of yourself and the Government of Record, and that, I’m afraid, just isn’t so. As well,
it should be noted that the Reasoner
Compromise explicitly prohibits
us from any direct
contact with the commanders of the
United States military without expression permission – ”
“Sure, sure,
sure,” Mallickey said.
“That’s what we all said, but if we just hold it at that – I mean, if that’s all you do – then how the hell do you expect to get things back
on track?”
“Well, for starters,” Vin Jansert jumped in, offering
that trademark smirk,
“I sure as hell thought
we’d be helped
by someone like, say, the President of the United
States – or whoever is acting as President. I didn’t think our first meeting would be with a cut-rate
leftover Congressman.”
Mallickey seemed
shocked by the demand, if entirely unoffended by the attack on him personally. “The President is
in isolation, and certainly doesn’t report to you!”
There were looks around
the table. Ambassador Macomb tried again. “Perhaps it would be advisable to verify our understanding of where
we are on executive authority.
By that I mean, what happened
to the President.”
“Which President?”
Mallickey asked.
Before the Ambassador could
answer, Vin Jansert
interrupted again. “Start with Drury! After all, he was the last person actually
elected to the damned office.”
Mallickey offered
an angered shake of the head. “That’s
been extensively covered in
the news media. There’s no reason
to go over that.”
“Let’s try anyway,” said
Kirsten Pappason.
Mallickey studied
the faces in the room.
After a moment, he managed, with no small amount of discomfort, to say, in a weirdly flippant manner, “Regrettably, President
Drury was not able to fulfill
his constitutional duties.”
“What does that mean?”
asked the Ambassador. “It means exactly that.”
“I think you’re going to
have to do better than that.”
“The President,” Mallickey said carefully, “is a patriot,
and as such was extremely upset by the guillotine appearing on the
Capitol steps and the flouting
of civil law. As a result, he was moved
to Camp David for his own
safety.”
“That’s not what I heard!” Vin Jansert said. He looked at
everyone around the table. “I heard he had a shit fit. Screaming and yelling
and losing his mind. Everybody’s heard that!”
(Senator Sofia Puccelli’s
words were clear in Chase’s memory. “He is a weak man. A very, very weak man.”)
Mallickey gave Jansert a very cold and very troubled look. “Let’s agree that when the Vice President went up to Camp David to
see him, he determined that the President would no longer
be continuing in his constitutional role.
That was to be passed
on to the Vice President, as per the 25th Amendment.”
“But then they threatened
to kill the Vice President,” Vin said. “And his whole family.”
Mallickey nodded slowly. “For
personal reasons, while the Vice President agreed to invoke the 25th Amendment, he elected not to assume the office.”
“Can he do that?” asked
Hydy Horvat from the far end of the
table. “Just refuse? He was sworn to take over the Presidency if the President was unable to.”
“The Vice President chose not to take those responsibilities
upon himself,” Mallickey persisted.
“And from there?” asked
Brian Gleeber. It was the first time he
had spoken.
Mallickey stayed true to the home team. “As you all know, it was decided that the mantle of the Presidency would best rest with the
Speaker of the House. The Senate’s
objection to that is obviously a matter of long
public record.”
“When was she sworn in?”
But clearly Mallickey didn’t
want to answer
that question. “Look, folks! Everyone knows this.
We’re wasting time!”
“Humor us,” said Agniew.
Mallickey sighed.
“Immediately after 5/22. And just as you all
also know, she was immediately moved to an undisclosed location for her own safety.
But I assure you she is issuing
directives through surrogates and has always been in complete control of the government.”
“Yet here you are,” said Vin. “Making deals for the government. And not her. And here we are. Asked to step in. To solve the
government’s problems.”
“And when was the last time she – Ms. Joles – made contact with General Van DeVere?” Pappason asked.
Mallickey seemed baffled by the question.
“I thought I explained.
We haven’t talked to those
people for weeks. That’s why we’re
tasking you.”
There was silence.
“Well, I now understand one thing.” They all turned.
It was General Williamson.
“What’s that, General?”
asked Mallickey.
The man straightened himself in his
chair. “The problem you’re
having with General Van DeVere.”
“It’s not my problem,” said Mallickey. “It’s
the nation’s problem.
He’s hiding behind
the court’s decree
when he should be fighting
for his country!”
“I’m afraid it’s the same problem
that kicked off some of these
confusions,” said the General. “He’s
clearly waiting for the
appropriate authority to instruct him.”
“He responds to the commands of his Commander
in Chief and the United
States government.”
“And who is that,
Mr. Mallickey?”
A very awkward silence
from the Mick.
"A Feast of Wolves" - available at Amazon.com
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