The Fiery Trial Read online

  U.S. House of Representatives

  The Speaker Pro Tempore hesitated before he spoke. He looked down at the papers on his desk, shuffled them, and played with the computer in front of him. Then, at last, he looked up.

  "By a vote of 216-214, the motion carries. The Speakership is declared to be vacant. The House will now proceed to the business of electing a Speaker."

  Washington State Conference Centre, Seattle, WA

  Governor Sandra Owens of Vermont had initially been inclined to decline her invitation to the Seattle conference. While she'd only met Governor Randall in passing at a handful of conferences, she knew enough about the people behind him, especially his friends at Praetorian International, to be wary of the tone and tenor of the conference he had convened.

  Now, after listening to speech after speech advocating the use of the amendment process to enshrine, now and forever, the policy preferences of some conservatives in the nation's foundational document, she finally decided to get up and speak.

  "After hearing all of the other speakers today, I think that I must ask a fundamental question: what purpose is government meant to serve?"

  "Is government meant to serve the interests of the majority of the people? If those, the proposals put forward here today – permanent and Constitutional caps on spending, taxation, and borrowing, are frankly bizarre and destructive. It seems to me that the majority who have spoken here today put the liberties of some of the people above the good of all of the people."

  "What is proposed now – both here and in Washington – is to undo a consensus that has existed for nearly a century. These proposals are, quite frankly, revolutionary. I use that word deliberately and I hope that those who are listening take notice of it. They will not be implemented – they cannot be done – without tearing this nation apart. What you propose to do is to strip not only the income but also the dignity from a significant percentage of the people. Do you believe that they will sit by in idleness when this comes to pass?"

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Great Mutiny

  The Oval Office, The White House

  White House Chief of Staff Jamal Anderson was not the only one wondering whether or not the President had slept at all as he furiously paced around the Oval Office at a hastily called meeting at a little after 7AM.

  "Who the fuck do these people think that they are?" the President ranted as he sucked down an iced coffee from the White House mess.

  The House of Representatives had recessed at shortly after 4AM, but not before electing Terrance Rickover as the new Speaker. As soon as that happened, the Republicans in the Senate had stopped their talking filibuster of the Economic Reform Act and recessed for the night as well. The new Speaker had gone before the press, his eyes blood-shot but his voice filled with energy and conviction and announced that the House would press forward with a series of resolutions declaring various Presidential acts and decrees to be illegitimate.

  "What about the Economic Reform Act?" a reporter from CBS shouted at the Speaker.

  "That thing? It's dead," replied Rickover from the podium.

  With protestors still ringing the Capitol, a majority of both houses of the Congress had slept in their offices. Both the Senate and the House were due to come back into session at noon.

  "This," raged President Bryan, "is nullification. It's the same thing that the slaveholders thought that they could do before the Civil War. Well, it didn't work then and it won't work now."

  "Mr. President," said the Secretary of the Treasury, his tie crooked and his face unshaven, "we've been working on this all night. There just isn't a way to take another step here without the consent of the Congress. We've already stretched everything as far as we possibly can. We've had every lawyer on the payroll – and a bunch who aren't – going through everything that could possibly be looked at. Moving forward requires Congressional action."

  "Bah," the President waved his hand, "a bunch of wavering Republicans voted with the majority because they were afraid of being the odd man out. They're not all in favor of this madness. We can peel some votes away."

  "They're pretty energized," the Director of the Legislative Office pointed out, "they think that they've pulled off something really big. I think that they're going to hang together for a bit."

  "We still haven't decided what exactly to do about the crowds outside of the Capitol," interjected the Acting Attorney General, "they're still growing."

  "That's fine. That's fine," repeated the President as he strode around the perimeter of the room.

  "Mr. President, we've already had multiple deaths here..." said the AG.

  "You don't think I fucking know that?" the President exploded, lunging in the man's direction.

  "I know that people have already died because of this bullshit. Don't think that I'm not very aware of that!" shouted the President as he stabbed an accusatory finger towards the Acting Attorney General.

  "What, then?" said the man.

  "We need to respond to this aggression," said the President, "we need to make sure that the Congress knows that they can't just do the bidding of their fat cat masters and pay no price for it. We still have plenty of cards to play."

  As the room cleared, the President looked downwards at his desk, where a pre-paid cellular phone that allowed him to contact his old friend formerly of the CIA sat.

  U.S. House of Representatives

  A relatively junior Congresswoman from upstate New York was holding down the chair as Terrance Rickover began his tenure as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

  "Pursuant to the adopted rule, no debate will occur on the resolution and no amendments will be entertained," said the presiding officer as Rickover watched from his seat.

  "No greed! No greed!" came the shout from the assembled crowd as the House continued its business.

  "God, they're loud," said Rickover to Representative Nelson, who had been rewarded for his service in making Rickover the Speaker with a promotion to the position of House Majority Whip.

  "No greed! No greed! No greed!"

  "Jesus," said Nelson, looking up at the gallery. Both he and Rickover were trying to trace the source of the news when every phone in the place began buzzing. Rickover answered.

  "Mr. Speaker," said the voice on the other side, "a group of protestors have managed to breach security."

  "Well, fuck," said the Speaker as the chants began to intensify.

  "No greed! No greed!" the protestors continued to scream.

  "We have to clear the chamber," explained the Chief of the Capitol Police.

  "No," insisted the Speaker, "we shall do no such thing."

  The volume and variety of the chants increased as the protestors made their way closer to the House Chamber.

  "Mr. Speaker," we cannot absolutely guarantee your safety or that of the members of the House. We've got to clear out."

  Rickover looked up into the gallery, where a group of protestors had managed to shove their way on past the guards and were crowding out all of the legitimately-admitted visitors.

  "Jesus," said Nelson, pointing at one group of protestors, "they brought motherfucking ropes with them."

  Dropping ropes down from the gallery, the protestors scrambled up over the railing and began to lower themselves en masse to the floor of the House of Representatives.

  "Get the fuck out of here!" shouted a burly Missouri Congressman as he charged towards one of the people who had invaded the floor of the House. To the surprise of the Congressman, a former college linebacker, the protestor threw a well-placed punch that sent him flying to the floor.

  There were more protestors now, more than Rickover could count. More than two hundred people, wearing filthy but expensive rags, had now managed to surge onto the floor of the House chamber.

  "Fuck," breathed Rickover as several other members of the House moved to hustle him off the floor.

  Representative Jack Hawkins of Oklahoma, a Yale Law School graduate and a Ma
rine Captain in Iraq, rushed forward to put himself between the Speaker and the oncoming protestors. One of them lunged in the direction of Rickover, reaching out with his hand. Hawkins pulled back and then swung his fist wildly in the direction of the protestor, making solid contact with the side of his head and then knocking him to the floor with so much force that the man bounced back up after impacting the ground. Another protestor rushed at Hawkins and the Congressman turned slightly, dipping his right shoulder and then getting a grip on the man's back before using his leg to sweep him to the floor.

  There were hundreds of protestors streaming in now, descending upon the House chamber as some Capitol police officers and a few dozen members of the House struggled to push them back.

  "Terry," said Nelson as they watched the scene, "we have to go."

  Reluctantly, after almost moving to turn back and join the melee on the floor of the House, the Speaker allowed himself to be escorted out through a side door under the cover of a number of members of the Capitol Police with drawn guns.

  "What the fuck happened!?" shouted the Speaker the moment that the door closed behind him. Then he stopped, looked around at the faces of the men surrounding him, and tried to re-calibrate his response.

  "I don't understand how such a breach could have happened," he said in a more-restrained tone of voice.

  "Security must not have wanted to use maximum force," said Nelson after a prolonged pause.

  "To defend the Capitol from an intrusion by rioters?" said the Speaker.

  "Best guess," said Nelson quietly.

  The Speaker attempted to place a call to the Chief of the Capitol police, but received no signal.

  "Fuck," he said, "someone find me the fucking Chief."

  U.S. Capitol Grounds

  "Fuckers!" screamed Christopher Sorensen as the solid line of protestors kept him and the rest of the anti-Administration demonstrators away from the Capitol building itself.

  "This is a fucking set-up," said Martin Green as they surveyed the scene. Right before noon, the DC and parts of the Capitol Police had set up lines of officers and control devices, ostensibly for the purpose of separating the two battling factions of protestors, but they had actually had the effect of giving a small group of radical pro-Administration protestors the ability to breach the security around the Capitol.

  "Fuck you!" shouted one of the protestors back at Sorensen and the rest of his crowd. In response, Sorensen picked up a rock and threw it into the crowd of left-wing protestors, hitting one of them in the face and drawing blood.

  "Die motherfuckers!" said Sorensen. Nuance had departed the arguments of both sides at some point during the last few days.

  The injured protestor's compatriots gathered around him and began to scream abuse and Sorensen and to call for the police to act against him. A DC police officer, following orders to hold his position along the physical barrier that had been put in place, merely shrugged.

  The Oval Office, The White House

  "The optics of this are not good," the Legislative Director fretted as they watched the scenes from the floor of the House of Representatives broadcast across a half dozen different networks.

  "Oh, I don't know," said the President laconically, "I think that it shows the world how upset the people are and that our opponents cannot govern."

  "Mr. President," interjected Daniel Hampton from the video chat link, "I have to tell you that the situation here in New York is very grave."

  "Yes, yes, I've heard you," replied Bryan.

  "No, Mr. President, you clearly haven't," said Hampton, "or you would have acted already. The economy is coming apart at its seams. It's taking all of my strength – and that of everyone working from me – to keep the whole banking system from collapsing in upon itself. We are in uncharted territory here."

  "I am well aware of that, sir," said the President, "that is why it is so urgent that the Congress act."

  "Mr. President," said the Secretary of the Treasury, "there comes a point in a standoff where someone has to blink. We have rioters overrunning the Capitol and banks nearing collapse. People are dumping dollars as fast as they can find ways to do it."

  "Thank you for your offer, Mr. Secretary," said the President, "I would be happy to accept your resignation."

  "Mr. President?" said the Secretary, wide-eyed.

  "Thank you for your service to this country, John," said the President, leaning forward over his desk.

  The Secretary of the Treasury looked directly at the President for a second as the President stared intensely at him before turning and wordlessly exiting the room.

  "That goes for everyone in this room!" shouted President Bryan. "Him that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart: his passport shall be made and crowns for convoy put into his purse. We would not die in that man's company who fears our fellowship to die with us."

  "Mr. President," said his Private Secretary, "the Speaker of the House is on the phone for you."

  Everyone in the room exchanged looks for a moment.

  "Ok," said the President, "transfer the call."

  The President sat back in his chair and waited for the phone to ring. When it did, he picked up the receiver.

  "Hello," began the President.

  "We got your message, Mr. President," said Rickover.

  "Message?"

  "Don't bullshit me, Mr. President. Someone orchestrated that invasion of our chamber – of the people's House. You want to stop us. But we won't be stopped."

  "Mr. Speaker, I am as appalled by the events of today as you clearly are. Though I am a touch less emotionally unbalanced by it than you clearly are."

  "You think that you're genuinely clever, don't you, Mr. President?"

  "I am a servant of the American people and I am using every tool at my disposal to safeguard the interests of the American people."

  "You are attempting to undo every single safeguard against tyranny that the Constitution offers...."

  "I am attempting to ensure that there are cops on the streets, that our Doctors get paid..."

  "This is just you and me talking, stop posturing," said the Speaker.

  "I'm not. That's the reality of this, Mr. Speaker. I am fighting to ensure that basic services get provided to ordinary people and you are attempting to make an ideological point. I am more than prepared to sit by and await the decision of the American people as to the relative merits of our positions."

  "Mr. President, what you are doing is using a crisis that you yourself manufactured as a pretext to attempt to assume extraordinary and extra-Constitutional powers for the purpose of expanding the government. Having failed to achieve this fully, you are now resorting to illegal means to attempt to intimidate your critics into silence or compliance."

  "I'm sorry that you feel that way, Mr. Speaker," said the President smugly.

  "Mr. President," said the Speaker, "the United States Capitol has just been invaded and occupied by a hostile mob. The DC Police are unwilling to intervene. The Capitol Police tell me that they are unable to do so. What is required now is the use of either Federal Law enforcement resources or the use of the military in aid of the civil power under the terms of the Insurrection Act. As the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I am formally requesting that you, as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and the officer charged with seeing that the law is faithfully executed, act to ensure the security of the Capitol and of the Congress."

  The President sighed deeply.

  "As you said yourself, Mr. Speaker, it is the people's house and I think that the best way to bring it back from chaos is to respect the will of the people."

  Office of the Speaker of the House, The Capitol

  "Asshole!" said Rickover as he slammed the phone down on his desk. After pausing for a second he looked up to find the Majority Whip standing in front of him.

  "Mr. Speaker, I think that there's someone whom you need to meet now," said Nelson, standing aside to allow a towering black man in a well-t
ailored suit to approach the desk.

  "Mr. Speaker, my name is Jacob Henry, I'm a Special Projects Manager for Praetorian International."

  Rickover took the man's hand.

  "It's good to meet you, Mr. Henry, though I'm afraid that I don't have much time for meetings with anyone other than my staff today. I know that Praetorian has been a generous contributor to my campaigns, to the RCCC, and to the RNC is the past – and I hope that you will be in the future – but I don't have time for anything other than the most essential business today."

  "I fully appreciate that, Mr. Speaker," said Henry, "and I don't want to talk about money either. I want to talk about a contribution of another sort."

  "Ok," Rickover looked up, "I'm listening."

  "As I'm certain that you're very well aware, Praetorian's original line of work is training and deploying private security forces. While we have since expanded into many other fields, that remains our core business and we are very good at it."

  "I see," said the Speaker, tapping his fingers on the desk, "and what sort of price would you be seeing for this... assistance?"

  "Sir, I am a patriot. The owners of this company are patriots as well. They recognize that everything they have they owe to the United States of America."

  "And the value of everything they own depends on this President being stopped as well, yes?"

  "Well, there is that as well," Henry conceded, "but someone needs to defend the Congress and it's pretty clear that the police aren't going to do it and the army rests in the hands of the President."

  "So, in other words, you're going to raise a new generation of Minutemen?"

  "Something like that, Mr. Speaker," said Henry.

  The Speaker shot a look in the direction of Nelson.

  "Do we have an alternative?" he asked.

  "I don't believe so, Mr. Speaker," said the Whip, "not unless we decide to cede the Capitol to the mob and to relocate the Congress to another location... Assuming that a quorum would even follow us."

  "Like the Roman..." said Rickover softly to himself, looking off in the distance.

  "Mr. Speaker?" said Nelson.