Chapter Twenty.

From the transcript at trial: Commonwealth of Virginia v. Alvin Scheer DIRECT EXAMINATION, CONTINUEDBY MR. STENNINGS:.

Q. So, Alvin, were you taken by surprise when things turned around so fast?

A. Oh, yes, sir, Mr. Stennings. I never thought for a second that the whole...well, nearly the whole, I reckon... of the military would turn on Washington the way they did.

Q. And you saw your chance then, exactly when, Alvin?

A. Well...with them soldiers in the blue dress uniforms guarding Washington, I was no better off than I was before...not so far as getting close to my target went, anyhow. But I heard that all the governors were getting together in Virginia Beach and I figured, under the circ.u.mstances, that eventually the President would have to go there too. So I packed my bag and my rifle and I headed south....

Washington, DC

A cynic might have scoffed at smoke-filled back rooms. The cynic would, of course, have been years-decades-out of date. There was no smoke.

Other than that, though, the back room was much the same. In it a.s.sembled the real movers and shakers on the national political scene. One party's worth, anyway.

"Ladies and gentlemen," began Carroll, "our fortunes have definitely headed south."

"Is there no hope then, James?" asked the party chairman.

"None with Willi, no, sir. She's burned more bridges than the Texans blew up. Worse, she tied a whole bunch of the rest of us to railings on those bridges and...man...I tell you...the fire's gettin' hot."

The chairman lifted an eyebrow, inquisitorially. "All of us?"

"Yes, sir. I mean, we know her close confidants are going down. Vega...well, h.e.l.l...the whole Cabinet. Maybe that c.u.n.t McCreavy might have gotten out in time. And don't think for a minute McCreavy won't be testifyin' against us, too. The rest'll be singin' like birds inside half a month."

"Willi can't control them, then?"

Carroll shook his head emphatically. "No way. She's going to be spillin' her guts, too...and likely it won't take her as long. She's a lot smarter than most; more ruthless, too."

"Does she know about this meeting, James?" asked one of the two women present.

"Ma'am, I don't think so. She's, for the minute, in such a blue funk about everything that's happened that I don't think she's listenin' to much of anybody about much of anything."

"Useless, then...or harmful."

"Harmful is the only way to read it, Mr. Chairman," piped in Walter Madison Howe, Rottemeyer's always-kept-in-the-background Vice-President.

Sadly, reluctantly, the chairman nodded his head. Looking around the room's important occupants he saw...some regret, yes. But little opposition; none, in fact.

The chairman looked pointedly at Howe. "Can you handle your responsibilities to the party, Walter? Rebuild everything we've lost or are about to lose? I know it will be hard, very hard."

Howe exhaled. "I can set us on the right road, sir. But rebuilding seventy years of effort? And that was seventy years in a world already more or less under our thumbs? We'd be doing well if we did it in forty. And that's a big 'if.' That miserable Seguin woman is going to be an awful impediment to our purposes as well."

The group discussed Juanita, Willi, a host of problems-Republican, Democrat and Independent-before reaching any firm conclusion.

Again nodding the dignified old head, the chairman turned to Carroll. "Can you fix the problem for us, James?"

"I've already taken the liberty, sir...."

Houston, Texas After so long without it, liberty felt strange to the senses of Jose Bernoulli. Indeed, based on the shocked, stunned expressions on half the faces emerging into liberty's light, Bernoulli was by no means alone.

Not that the sight of liberty, confronting people emerging at last from a long dark, was so very pleasing. That sight, in this case, in this city, was as often as not one of wrecked and burned cars, trashed buildings, and bloodstains.

At least they've taken the bodies down from the lampposts, thought Bernoulli.

Underneath a nearby lamppost, under guard by the engineer's platoon, some dozens of former federal agents labored at cleaning up the mess, shoveling broken gla.s.s, prepping wrecked automobiles for towing...cleaning up unsightly stains.

"G.o.d in Heaven," muttered the short Tejano, "I hope we never have to do anything like this again."

Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia "Please don't ask me to do anything like this again, Juani," pleaded Jack as he walked by her side down the long aisle between cheering-and a few scowling-attendees at the convention.

It was the off season; hotel s.p.a.ce was plentiful, the convention center unbooked. Transportation by air and ground was easy. Moreover, the U.S. Army's own "Transportation Center," at Fort Eustis, was nearby to a.s.sist and coordinate, as was Oceana Naval Air Station and Norfolk Navy Base. And, given how much the Armed Forces were looking forward to the expected changes from the convention, that support was cordial indeed.

And Virginia Beach was a great place for a convention, in any case. Though off season, the weather was unseasonably warm. The area reeked of history, of sights to be seen and restaurants to be sampled.

It was a place and time of the greatest excitement.

It was also bedlam, nothing less. Schmidt followed Juanita through the ma.s.s of cheering...cheering what? Nuts Nuts, was Schmidt's opinion. And, though he tried to hide it from everyone, Juanita knew that opinion, even shared it to a degree.

A quick glance confirmed Juani's suspicions. "Smile, G.o.ddamit, Jack. You're the man of the hour. Act like a politician for once in your life, will you? It won't kill you, you know."

Schmidt nodded, forced a smile to his face and then leaned over to whisper in Juani's ear, "These people are insane, Governor."

Juani shifted her eyes, glancing quickly at a bearded man in a confederate uniform with a pole bearing the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia grasped tightly in his hands. The man wore gray clothes with a double set of bra.s.s b.u.t.tons topped by a broad brimmed gray felt hat.

She smiled, warmly, and tore her widened eyes away. "I know, Jack, but what can you do?"

"Run to the insane asylum?" he asked, rhetorically. "It should be safe enough since all the real nuts are here."

"Jaaack..."

"Okay, Governor, okay. I'll be good."

Juanita, followed by Jack, began to climb the steps to the stage on which stood the podium. She really didn't feel quite at home. Worse, she felt a horrible itching between her shoulder blades, as if someone had set cross hairs on her back.

At the top of the stairs, once again standing by the governor's side, Jack whispered, "I've heard Willi herself is going to show up."

New York, New York

Wilhelmina Rottemeyer looked grimly at the message bearer, not more than half listening to the message. She thought, Feldman seems to have lost that useful obsequiousness for which he had once been so notable. Ah, well...why should he be any different from any of a hundred others of the "four f's" that have turned their backs on me? Even Caroline...but that thought, that wish, that reminiscence, she let go as being too painful to consider.

Feldman was far less groveling than she had become used to over the term of her administration. But there was a nervous quality to his voice and manner that raised Willi's hackles.

"So, yes, Madame President, the party is insistent that you must go and address this convention, to save what you can. The chairman says you owe him this much."

"My a.s.s," snorted Rottemeyer. "I wouldn't trust my safety in Virginia now to a division of tanks. I sure as h.e.l.l won't trust it to anything less."

"You'll be safe enough," answered Feldman, his doubtful tone belying his words.

"Even you don't believe that."

"You'll be safe from arrest, then. Will that do?"

"No."

Momentarily nonplussed, Feldman considered his next move. A slight smile crossed his face. He checked his wrist.w.a.tch and said, "Governor Seguin is due to address the convention in about three minutes, Madame President. Why don't you watch that and then consider?"

Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Juani took the podium, took a deep breath, and lastly took in her audience. They're not all nuts, Jack, no matter what you think, nor even most of them. They're not all nuts, Jack, no matter what you think, nor even most of them.

And Juani was right, as she had been right about limiting the violence, about resting her cause on the backs of the people. As she had been right and Jack had, often enough, been wrong. There were nuts in the audience and nuts at the convention. But there were also governors, legislators, academics. There were people of note and people unknown. Most of them were definitely not "nuts."

The governor, who was the chairwoman for this convention, looked out again over the sea of faces. Most seemed friendly, pleased, and supportive. The ones who were not? Well...there are a number of states that are hostile. Well...there are a number of states that are hostile.

Juani began, "I would like to think that most of us know why we are here at this historic event. Nonetheless, for clarity's sake, we ought to restate it now. We are here, const.i.tutionally a.s.sembled, to write or rewrite a Const.i.tution for the United States of America. Perhaps it might be better to say that we are here to amend our existing const.i.tution. I say 'amend' because everything I have learned since this convention a.s.sembled and everything I am told by the people of my own state says that few people, if any at all, really want to get rid of the Const.i.tution that we have lived under and cherished for more than two centuries.

"I don't want to dispose of it myself. And I will, for whatever my own vote is worth here, vote and argue and filibuster and do whatever I can to keep from losing that magnificent law of our land."

Juani gazed out over the crowd. No real reaction to that. Does that mean they agree with me? Disagree? Aren't sure yet? Well...on we go...

"What I propose then is that we, as our first order of business, go over the current const.i.tution and vote yea or nay on each line and pa.s.sage, that we then do the same with the existing amendments, and only then should we open up debate on further amendments and changes."

Juani's face turned determined. "And we must be so very careful that we do not throw out the good with the bad, the baby with the bathwater.

"Because not everything the federal government has done is bad. Much of it has been so completely necessary that we could not exist as a country without it."

They didn't like hearing that too very much, did they? she observed. Well, they have to hear it.

"Let me explain.

"You do not like, most of you, some of the things the federal government has done with...oh...say...the commerce clause to the Const.i.tution. Fine, I agree with you; I don't like some of them either. So let's say we get rid of the commerce clause at this convention. How long will it be before Louisiana enacts tariffs on Midwest food coming down the Mississippi? I give it a year. Maybe less.

"You don't like federal taxation? Fine, I agree with you. Do you like having a secure supply of oil? Well, how do we get that without an army to secure the Middle Eastern oil fields? How do we pay for that army without taxation?

"How do we build and maintain highways? Control flooding? Coordinate legitimate anticrime efforts that cross state borders? Keep up the railroads? Keep the ports dredged?"

"Ah, but 'The feds interfere too much,' I hear you say. Fine. I agree with that, too. But while Louisiana is enacting those tariffs, once we dispense with the commerce clause, how long before every state north of there dumps every kind of trash and pollutant into that same taxed Mississippi River...because there's no higher authority to keep them from doing that?"

Casting her eyes to the left center of the a.s.sembly, Juani caught sight of what she a.s.sumed, from their signs, was the National Rifle a.s.sociation contingent.

"You do not like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, many of you. And I agree wholeheartedly that it was a branch of government that went completely out of control along with most of the Treasury Department. But consider just what you do want. Do you want anyone, anywhere, to be able to have any kind of weapon they want, no matter how destructive? Chemical weapons? Nuclear weapons?

"Of course, you don't want that. n.o.body does. How are you going to draw a sensible line, though? These are the kinds of questions this convention must answer."

Juani tapped delicate brown fingers on the podium, keeping time with her next words, "And it must answer them, as did the original Const.i.tution, for the ages for the ages!"

She paused, reached for a gla.s.s and took a sip of water before continuing.

"The last thing I want to address to you is how we got to this point. No, I don't mean the slow steady growth in federal power that overwhelmed the states and individual citizens in time. No, I also don't mean the cultural changes in the United States.

"I mean the worst mistake. The one that made it impossible for a political party in power to accept losing. The one that former President Tavern made when he let his predecessor, Thomas Gates, be prosecuted for his malfeasances in office.

"Was Gates a swine, a rapist, a panderer and philanderer? He was all those things and worse. Did he deserve jail? Oh, yes.