from the New York Times.
'I'm flattered you're here,' said Evan, recognizing the man. 'I had no idea I was worth your time.'
'I think you are, and my time's not that valuable. Where are you coming from, Congressman?'
'I'm not certain, but to answer your first question, I'm not sure I belong here. As to your second question, since I'm not sure I should be here, I'm in the enviable position of saying what I want to say without regard to the consequences—the political consequences, I guess.'
'That is news,' said the acerbic Stan-the-man, writing in his notebook. 'Your statement, sir.'
'Thanks. I think I'd like to get it over with. Like a lot of people, I don't like what I see. I've been away from this country for many years, and maybe you have to get away to understand what we've got—if only to compare it with what others haven't got. There's not supposed to be an oligarchy running this government and yet it seems to me that one has moved in. I can't put my finger on it, or them, but they're there, I know it. So do you. They want to escalate, always escalate, always pointing to an adversary who himself has escalated to the top of his economic and technological ladder. Where the hell do we stop? Where do they stop? When do we stop giving our children nightmares because all they hear is the goddamned promise of annihilation? When do their kids stop hearing it?… Or do we just keep going up in this elevator designed in hell until we can't come down any longer, which won't make much difference anyway because all the streets outside will be in flames… Forgive me, I know it's not fair, but I suddenly don't want any more questions. I'm going back to the mountains.' Evan Kendrick got off the desk and walked swiftly through the stunned crowd to his office door. He opened it, quickening his steps, and disappeared into the hallway.
'He's not going to the mountains,' whispered Patrick Xavier O'Reilly to his wife. 'That lad is staying right here in this town.'
'Oh, shussh!' cried Annie, tears in her eyes. 'He's just cut himself off from the entire Hill!'
'Maybe the Hill, lass, but not from us. He's put his not-too-delicate finger on it. They all make the money and we're scared shitless. Watch him, Annie, care for him. He's a voice we want to hear.'
The Icarus Agenda
Chapter 19
Kendrick wandered the hot, torpid streets of Washington, his shirt open, his jacket slung over his shoulder, not having any idea where he was going, only to clear his head by putting one foot ahead of the other in aimless sequence. More often than he cared to count, he had been stopped by strangers whose comments were pretty equally divided but slightly weighted in his favour, a fact he was not sure he liked.
'Hell of a job you did on that double-talking prick, Senator!' 'I'm not a senator, I'm a congressman. Thank you, I guess.'
'Who do you think you are, Congressman Whatever-your-name is? Trying to trip up a fine, loyal American like Colonel Barrish. Goddamned left-wing bachelor-fairy!'
'Can I sell you some perfume? The colonel bought some.'
'Disgusting!'
'Hey, man, I dig your MTV! You move good and you sing in a high register. That mother would send all the brothers back to 'Nam for raw meat!'
'I don't think he would, soldier. There's no discrimination in him. We're all raw meat.'
'Because you're clever doesn't make you right, sir! And because he was tricked—admittedly by his own words—doesn't make him wrong. He's a man committed to the strength of our nation, and you obviously are not!'
'I think I'm committed to reason, sir. That doesn't exclude our country's strength, at least I would hope not.'
'I saw no evidence of that!'
'Sorry. It's there.'
'Thank you, Congressman, for saying what so many of us are
