(eng) Orson Scott Card - Empire 01 by Empire

Author:Empire [Empire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The PT Cruiser didn’t like going faster than 65. At 70 it started trembling.

Then again, Cessy didn’t like driving faster than 65 anyway. And she was driving. Cole was sitting behind the seats with the shelf over his head. They looked like two nice citizens on their way to or from church. Unless you looked closely and saw all the weapons on the floor of the back seat. And the guy in the back with the machine gun.

Aunt Margaret was taking the kids to the home of some very good friends in Hamilton. “Good Croatians,” she said. “They’ll not breathe a word. And I’ll stay with the kids the whole time.” She was only driving Charlie O’Brien’s car as far as Lawrence, and her friends were picking her up there. She’d mail Charlie’s keys to him and tell him where to get the car. “I feel like a spy,” she said.

“You should feel like a refugee,” answered Cessy.

But it still tore her apart to leave the kids behind. And she could see that even though Mark was as manic as ever and Nick as quiet, they were scared. There was terrible stuff happening on the news, and their own parents were right in the thick of it, and now they were going into hiding. The girls, of course, were irritated that Mom and Dad were leaving them, but they had no clue about the outside world. They’d be fine, she was sure of that. Fine fine fine.

“I thought I turned down that job in the White House,” Cessy said.

“Well,” said Reuben, “technically, since the President isn’t in the White House . . .”

Cessy wished she could have heard the discussions when LaMonte told them he wasn’t going to Camp David or any of the known locations. “Since we don’t know whom we can trust,” LaMonte would have said, “we can’t vouch for our security anywhere.”

“Some political adviser was bound to say, “It’ll look like you’re in hiding. It’ll cause confusion and make you look bad.”

“I’m not running for anything right now,” LaMonte would have said. “And the country doesn’t need another dead President right now.”

But . . . why Gettysburg?

“Gettysburg?” she said out loud.

“It’s an appropriate place,” said Reuben. “He’s not moving the whole government there, just himself and enough aides to keep communications going. Lots of parkland. A good buffer. Relatively easy to maintain reasonable security.”

“Plenty of places for people to sneak past checkpoints,” said Captain Coleman from the back.

“Symbolically,” said Reuben, “it’s the place where the last Civil War we had broke its back. And it’s close to Washington. He can come back whenever he wants.”

“Also lots of motels for his staff,” said Captain Coleman.

“And since the visitors information office is closed most of the time, it won’t really interfere with park operations,” said Reuben.

Cessy explained to Captain Coleman. “He’s still irritated that we got there after six on a summer day and they were already closed. Three more hours of daylight. This was two years ago, remember.”

“I

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.