Page 71 of Booked for Kidnapping

Goodness. Between the two of them, they’d slay me with their smug confidence. “I need to read this bill over and get caught up on current events. Go away, Mr. Hampton. If you have something that bears any resemblance to a clue, text it to Bradley.”

“All right. We’ll resume this in the morning. Bradley, don’t let her work too much tonight. Sacrifice your body if you must.”

Bradley coughed, and then he laughed. “Sure, Dad. Whatever you say. When you call Mom, tell her I love her. Confess the full price of what we bought today, and make sure you reinforce that Janette was glued to the case the instant she spotted the necklace. That should buy you time to justify your purchases. I’ll contribute with working on a new stock portfolio for you.”

“That should help contain the beast. Call me if there are any issues.”

“We will,” Bradley promised.

SIXTEEN

I worried the damage was already done.

The changes in the bill left me with more questions than answers, but I appreciated the newspaper’s analysis of every clause, which explained things in layman’s terms. As a general rule, the analysis established Americans would be little more than pawns in a military dictatorship, which would be thinly disguised as a democratic republic. The people, those who weren’t drafted to serve in the military, would still be able to vote, but they’d only be able to vote for their local representatives and the President of the United States. The bill took the constitution, snapped it in half, and scattered its remains to the four winds.

The bill’s writers had gone so far as to list which sections of the constitution would need to be reworked and rewritten to allow for the bill’s changes to go through without being hampered. I took the time to jot down every section they intended to destroy, discovering most of the Bill of Rights would be eradicated or changed to suit the new government.

The only basic right left intact would be the Freedom of Religion, and even that would undergo changes. Churches would lose some of their current rights, becoming a cash cow for the government. Most charities would come under fire as well under the new rules involving so-called religious freedom.

It disgusted me that the writers believed barring charitable contributions should become a constitutional matter.

Sometime after polishing off our leftovers and taking a bath together, Bradley lost the war with his fatigue, leaving me to tear through the human rights violation the United States would become if the main bill was made it into law. With a better idea of the current state of affairs in the upper government, I began checking into the candidates to become the next President of the United States. Senator Westonhaus would play the game, taking over Castillo’s role as the next Tyrant-in-Chief. The newspaper that had coined that phrase took a lot of flak from the government-backed reporting outlets.

Interestingly enough, the moderate media outlets joined in, highlighting the biased network’s coverage of the Tyrant-in-Chief.

The simplicity of the accusations amused me. As President Castillo refused to denounce the bill meant to enslave Americans, the media held the opinion he was guilty of treason of the highest order, deliberately planning and abetting the murder of millions of Americans while overthrowing and rewriting the government to suit his personal pursuits.

The eradication and rewriting of the constitution, at least in the eyes of the attorneys, counted as treason. The accusations of government-wide treason had started shortly after Senator Westonhaus had announced his run for the White House, and not a week went by without something adding fuel to the flames. To my disgust and dismay, I’d been part of the picture, being used by both sides to attempt to sway the people.

Upon closer research, I discovered Senator Westonhaus typically took hits to his campaign whenever my name came up, and the competition capitalized on it. After having read the bill and digested what the clauses actually meant, I suspected all of the candidates worked under Castillo.

Not a single one of them made a campaign promise to lay the bill to rest, instead focusing on removing various questionable bits. Within a few hours, I understood the looming threat of civil war.

Americans could be prideful, stubborn patriots, but the bill had overreached just far enough to unify a generally split nation.

In a way, I appreciated the circumstances. Every election I’d witnessed had divided the nation further and further, a painful reality to watch unfold. For the first time in my life, rather than be divided, the sides melded, everyone understanding they had a lot to lose, no matter which choice they picked.

I worried the damage was already done, and there’d be no way We the People would be able to change the flow of the government, not without the sacrifice of hundreds or thousands or millions of Americans.

No matter what happened, I worried every path would lead to a great deal of shed blood.

At six in the morning, while Bradley still slept, I tiptoed into the bathroom, closed the door, put the toilet seat down, and sat, thumbing through the contacts on my cell phone until I located Beatrice’s number and dialed it.

“Hey, bitch. Your keepers finally let you out unsupervised?” Beatrice answered.

“I am hiding in the bathroom while Bradley sleeps.”

She laughed. “Finally tired him out, did you?”

“Apparently.”

“What can I do for you? You surely aren’t hiding in a bathroom this time of the morning without wanting something.”

“Can I have a sane government for Christmas?”

“If only. They’ve been bringing you up to speed, I take it?” Beatrice heaved a sigh. “You’re hitting the news here fairly hard. The pictures of you with Bradley are adorable, though. Somebody has gotten a lot of pictures of you staring at him with a disgusting amount of adoration, and he’s no better when he’s staring at you.”

“That would be Mr. Hampton,” I complained. “He fed the newspapers pictures. He’s an entity of true evil.”