John Barnes - Daybreak Zero

“Those people are as American as you or I,” Cam said, “and the Constitution says what it says. We work for the American people, not the church-approved people, and we took our oath to the Constitution, not to Jesus. Or to Reverend Peet—since some people confuse the two. For example, the Constitution allows me to say things that piss you off, such as, for example, that there has not been any Rapture, there never was going to be, there never will be, and that what you’re running is an exceedingly cruel con game on people who have lost loved ones.”

There was a stunned silence.

“Well,” Cam said, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I found that rather refreshing. Reverend, if your Post Raptural Church intends to gerrymander the nation so that your followers are a majority in the rump that’s left, you will not only have a fight from those of us loyal to the nation as a whole, you will have an even bigger fight from those of us who might be trapped in the rump. The United States is going back together, without provisos or take-backs. The president elected in 2026 will be the president of the whole thing. Now let’s look and make sure that Graham Weisbrod is committed to that too, and that he’s not pulling a fast one.”

The silence dragged on until Whilmire said, “I’ll pray for you.”

“Let me know how that works out.” Cameron sat still for a long moment. “And the document?”

Grayson took his copy, put it on the table in front of him, and adjusted his reading glasses. “I’m no lawyer but I’ll do my best.” He pointedly did not look up at his father-in-law.

Whilmire pretended that the paper was not there, and said, “I need to pray—”

“Daddy,” Jenny said, “maybe you and I should have a little talk outside. While the Natcon and the general see what they can figure out about that document, I mean. Why don’t you and I have a chat?”

She led her father out by the arm. As soon as the door closed, Grayson, not looking up, murmured, “She’ll get us the time to work but we better use it.”

Cam nodded, and brought his concentration to the pages before him. A few minutes later, he said, “I see nothing wrong on the first reading.”

“If I were teaching a class on writing orders,” Grayson said, “I’d use this as a model, and it says exactly what he said it does.”

“One more time through?”

“We should.”

At the third time through, they agreed that there was no question: it unambiguously ordered every Federal office and officer to accept, support, and obey the government elected in 2026. “And actually,” Grayson said, “those last three paragraphs boil down to No barracks lawyering, no attempts at barracks lawyering, and you know damn well what I mean by ‘ barracks lawyering’ so don’t even think about it. They make it better .”

“Yeah. Unofficially, just between us—will this set up a country you want to run for president of?”

“Unofficially, hell yes.”

“And have I completely messed up your relationship with your father-in-law? I got pretty carried away there.”

“Jenny has always been able to handle him. Doubt my qualifications for the presidency all you want, but never doubt she’ll make a hell of a first lady.”

“Wouldn’t dream of doubting it. I guess we’re ready, then, so we’ll go in and agree to—”

The door opened. Whilmire came in, looking tired and old, with Jenny holding his arm in a grip midway between support and arrest. “We don’t live in the same universe, Mister Nguyen-Peters, but I am serious when I say I shall pray for you. And for myself. And I think even for the general here. I don’t believe I will have anything of value to add for the rest of the conference; I’ll talk with you sometime after I consult with the Church leadership.” He pressed his daughter’s hand down off his arm, and closed the door with no noise, but firmly enough to send a shudder through the floor.

“You have a free hand,” Jenny said. “He won’t like whatever you do but he can’t stand to be left out of a deal. And you’re welcome.”

“No you are not! You are not restoring the United States! You are giving everything away to a usurper!” Now that only McIntyre was present, Allie was screaming at Graham. I guess Norm must be used to this by now.

Graham was wondering if she’d slap him this time. If she does I’ll make Norm testify and leave her here, in jail. Let Allie try to work one of her deals with Heather. The thought strengthened him, and she seemed to feel that. She sat back in her chair, rubbing her face. “This is so wrong .”

McIntyre, as he usually did, appeared to be checking the paint for spots.

Graham said, “The Tempers need our legitimacy. We need their effectiveness. The restoration government will need both. First we put the United States back together so it won’t come apart again; then whoever—”

“You aren’t listening to me at all, are you?” Allie stared as if she had never seen him before. “For whole lifetimes everyone who was serious about really doing public policy well in this country has had a never-shrinking heartbreak list: all the things we couldn’t do because of the anti-intellectual, anti-government, anti-competence forces that came out of the churches, and business, and the army, the people who insisted we had to have a backward, non-functioning, nineteenth-century government. So they finally threw their big hissy fit and went off to Delusion City to play soldiers of God, we finally put together an expert, policy-oriented, smart government, with the full blessing of the Constitution. We totally shut down those people, the ones who think because they take an oath to the Constitution, they own it, and it says what they want it to. We have a complete set of social programs, Graham—”

“On paper,” he said. “They only start once there’s money—”

“But we have them. And a national civil discourse law, and real environmental planning, and conduct of private business regulations—”

“All of that,” he said, “is a provisional Congress and Cabinet giving shadow orders to phantom agencies. Mostly about ghost problems, things that mattered before Daybreak. What the Provisional Constitutional Government has been doing, I am ashamed to say, is not just all about the words, it’s only about the words.”

“We got everything passed that Roger Pendano ever wanted to do, in three months.”

“But Roger wanted to do it . No one is actually doing any of the things the Congress keeps voting in; for some of the new agencies, we haven’t even provided for office staff. Meanwhile we have famines, troops going home on their own because they haven’t been paid, nutball Daybreakers smashing in from all sides—”

“So why aren’t we controlling some of those war expenses, by making an alliance with tribes that have the power to do us some good, instead of with the Jesusoids and the Army people instead?”

Graham blinked. “Allie, are you seriously proposing allying with the tribes? After all they’ve done, after what happened to Arnie, after what the RRC has established—”

“It’s politics, Graham, you make alliances where you can find allies. We share so many values with the tribes—”

“Name one.”

“A concern for the Earth—”

“Have you looked at the sky lately? Where do you think all the soot came from? The tribes are Daybreakers, Allie, they’re how Daybreak continued itself. It means to kill us. Bless his heart and rest his soul, Arnie Yang went too far and fell into it, but he warned us while he was falling and he was right. There are things you can’t cut a deal with and problems that aren’t matters of policy.”