Empire

“I don’t know either. I’m not accusing him. I’m really not. But this stuff just won’t go away.”

Cole nodded. “I guess it’s like having a song on your mind. You can’t get rid of it. You hate the song. So you sing it to somebody else, and now we’ve both got the song on our minds.”

“I’m so sorry!” she said. “You’ll notice that I didn’t call you, you just came over.”

“Absolutely,” said Cole. “And I’m glad you told me. Really. No lie. I’m glad you told me and nobody else.”

“Because they’d think I’m crazy?”

“Because word might get around and somebody might kill you,” said Cole.

She was rocked by that. “Come on.”

“If it’s true,” said Cole. “If it’s true. Then you’re just begging to be murdered. To shut you up.”

She reached over to the papers, turned on the shredder beside the desk, and turned them into confetti.

“Very dramatic, but they’re on disk, aren’t they?” said Cole.

“Not for long,” she said. “And yes, I do know how to overwrite files so that they are truly and completely erased.”

“But you know and I know,” said Cole. “And we’re both going to keep watching, aren’t we?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t think of this as something dangerous.”

“Yet you didn’t talk about it to anybody.”

“I thought they’d think I was crazy. Everybody talks about Torrent like he’s God.”

“The savior of America,” said Cole. “But it might not be assassination. Declaring you mentally unfit and taking your children away vould do the same job, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re scaring me,” she said.

“I’m sorry. But I’m not joking. You’ve planted the seed in my mind. I’ll watch. I promise you. I love this country. I don’t want a dictator. But I don’t want you to talk to anybody else about this. and I don’t want you to do any more research. You had to call people to get this information. You had to go to websites, you had to vrite to people, correct?”

She nodded.

“So you might already be on a list somewhere. Even if it’s only nside Torrent’s head. For what it’s worth, though, I think there’s a good chance you’re completely wrong. Which means you’re safe. But then it’s just as important not to say these things out loud to anyone else because if Torrent’s innocent, then this is… really kind if vicious slander.”

Cecily nodded again.

“Cecily, let’s both watch him. Let’s see how things play out. What he does with real power, when he gets his hands on it.”

“All right,” she said.

“Meanwhile,” said Cole, “I really have missed you guys. I really do like your kids. Can we be friends? Paranoids together, yes, but also friends?”

“Mark and Nick adore you.”

“And vice versa,” said Cole. “I’ll visit now and then, and sometimes we’ll watch Torrent on the news and exchange knowing glances. With any luck, we’ll laugh about what we were thinking tonight.”

“Were we thinking it? Or was I the only one?”

“Oh, you’ve got me thinking it, all right. You got the song on my mind, too.”

They left the office. Cole insisted on rinsing the ice cream dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. “First time I’ve done dishes for anybody who wasn’t my mom,” he said. “I mean anybody I liked who wasn’t my mom.”

“I’ll have cookies for you next time.”

“Good, because it’s my life’s ambition to be fat.”

She gave him a hug at the door and he hugged her back. “I can’t help it,” she said. “I feel better now, because somebody else knows.”

When he was gone, she locked the door, went downstairs, got all the confetti from shredding those papers, and ran them down the garbage disposal in the kitchen.

At the Democratic convention,Torrent was nominated for President on the second ballot.

A week later, at the Republican convention, he was nominated by acclamation.

He became the first President since Washington to be elected with all of the electoral votes. And the largest popular vote in history, of course, since it was only divided with a handful of fringe candidates. But there was a huge turnout at that election. As pundits delighted in pointing out, if Torrent had gotten only half the votes he got, he still would have had the largest vote total of any presidential candidate in history.

People believed in him. They were ready for peace. They were ready to be united.

And in a house in Potomac Falls, Virginia, the Malich family watched the election returns with Bartholomew Coleman as their guest of honor. There was no suspense. But the TV stayed on, filling the sound clips of cheering crowds and excited newsmen.

Now and then, Cole and Cessy exchanged knowing glances.

When the polls closed in California, President Nielson appeared on camera. He had been reelected to Congress from his Idaho district in a landslide of his own. He seemed genuinely happy as he said, “I am pleased to announce my resignation from the presidency, effective tomorrow at noon. I was never more than an emergency President, and the emergency is over. There’s no reason for Averell Torrent not to start right away doing the job you chose him to do.”

Cecily broke down in tears. Just for a moment. “That’s just like LaMonte. Have we ever had a President who truly didn’t want the job?”

“Besides Warren Harding?” said Cole.

“Who?” said Mark.

“A dumb guy who got chosen to be President once because he looked presidential and all the people who actually wanted the job had too many people who hated them,” said Cole. “But your mom is right. Nielson did a good job as long as he was needed. And he chose his successor.” He grinned at Cecily. “Just like Trajan and Hadrian and Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.”

“And you claim you’re not a historian,” said Cecily, wiping her eyes, but laughing ruefully.

Thirty minutes later, Torrent came on the screen.

“I am honored beyond measure by the trust the American people have shown in me. I’m glad that so many people have come to the polls to show they share my dream of a nation united, a single people who sometimes disagree, but always remain friends and fellow-citizens. I will live up to your trust to the best of my ability.

“I am moved by the generosity and humility of my good friend, President LaMonte Nielson. Not only did he raise me to national prominence, but also he trained me for the job that you have voted to give me. His willing resignation from the presidency is in the spirit of Cincinnatus, the great Roman leader who, having saved his city, resigned all his offices and returned to his farm to continue his life as an ordinary citizen.”

“A Roman reference,” said Cole.

“But not an emperor,” said Cecily.

Torrent was still talking. “There is nothing ordinary about LaMonte Nielson, however. He will continue to serve in Congress, and he will continue to hold a place in the hearts of the American people, in gratitude for his excellent service during our deepest national crisis since the Civil War.”

“Exactly the right thing to say,” said Cecily.

“Tomorrow I will be sworn into office as the second appointed Vice President to succeed to the presidency because of the resignation of his predecessor. In January, I will be sworn in again, for the term you just elected me to. But I have not forgotten that last June, on the thirteenth day, foreign terrorists murdered the elected President of the United States, the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and other dedicated servants of the American people in the performance of their duties.