Autumn (Four Seasons Book 1)

by Robert Sullivan

  “I don’t get why they gave up so quickly though,” Blake said.

  “Might’ve been because of the Conspiracy, along with the tornado,” Theresa said darkly.

  “What?!” Julia said indignantly. “The Conspiracy is only in New York!”

  “Well, the real one maybe, but they have a strong social media presence and inspired copycat groups all over the country,” Theresa explained. “Even here in Kansas City.”

  “Fuck that is going to be a huge problem, those fuckers have caused us all kinds of hell in New York City,” Julia said. “So that’s another fucking thing we have to worry about. We need somebody to investigate into this.”

  “So that’s two people we need,” Blake said. “A gang handler and a PI.”

  “And we need money for both of them,” Julia said.

  “I’ll work on getting more people to help me, ahem, get some income,” Blake said. “If you’ll excuse me…”

  During all of this Rebecca and Spencer had been listening quietly, with Spencer only moving to take pictures of the three. When the talk moved to the Conspiracy, Spencer nudged Rebecca and said, “I’ve heard enough, let’s go.”

  They snuck away from the meeting and went back to the car, with Spencer checking behind to make sure that Blake had not seen them. They got back to the car and found Georgia had been dozing. She woke up with a start and said, “Well what were they?”

  “They’re almost certainly Black Hand,” Spencer said. “They didn’t say it explicitly, but one of them said they were from New York and got really upset that the Conspiracy is here in the city.”

  “Was,” Rebecca corrected.

  “They didn’t know that. Otherwise they would have not wasted time plotting to get an investigation into what we are…were…doing,” Spencer said darkly.

  Spencer drove the car out of the damage zone and back towards the Smith house. “I’m going to try to set up a meeting with some local officials. When that happens, Rebecca, I’d really appreciate if you would come with me as a witness.”

  Rebecca sighed and said, “Sure, whatever. I don’t really have anything else I could be doing.”

  A few days later at the outset of June, Spencer finally got his meeting with the city council. Representatives from the surrounding suburbs such as Overland Park and Leawood were there as well. Rebecca had not realized that so many people would be there and some measure of nervousness was beginning to work its way through her. She hoped that she would not be called to speak very much and that Spencer would handle all the talking.

  Spencer at least appeared ready. Rebecca leaned over to him and asked, “Did you know there would be so many people?”

  “I figured there might be,” he replied. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Rebecca. I’ve got a handle on this.”

  Spencer strode in front of the politicians and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate the time you have given me today. I contacted the city council because a threat is attempting to grow in the metro area. The other night, my friend Rebecca and I discovered that a cell of the Black Hand is attempting to grow in the city.”

  There was a murmur of interest among the city leaders. “It is my belief that they are going to try to take advantage of the chaos from the tornado and grow here like they did in New York. I followed them into the damage zone where they had a meeting,” Spencer explained, showing pictures of the three Black Hand leaders. “They discussed extorting people for protection money near the tornado path and also bringing back the gangs that fled the city to help enforce Black Hand tyranny in the city.”

  “This is a shocking claim. What proof do you have that these are Black Hand leaders? It is our understanding that they are solely in New York,” the mayor of Lenexa asked.

  Spencer moved forward to another slide. It showed a closeup of the armband that had the black handprint pointing downwards on Blake’s arm. It was compared to another shot of a Black Hand soldier from security footage from New York. “One of the people at this meeting had an armband replicating the Black Hand symbol. Given the notoriety the gang has garnered over the country, it is unlikely somebody would be wearing it unless they were a part of the Black Hand,” Spencer explained.

  “What do you recommend then?” the mayor asked.

  “Hunting down these three individuals. I do not have last names for them, but they’re first names are Theresa, Julia, and Blake,” Spencer told them.

  “Thank you, Spencer,” the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri said. “If you would leave your findings and your contact information with us, we’ll get back to you on our investigation into the matter.”

  Spencer nodded and did as he was asked. He turned to leave with Rebecca and smiled, whispering, “I think we got it.”

  Rebecca and Spencer stepped just outside the door when the latter suddenly bent down to tie his shoe. As they bent over, they overheard one of the leaders in the room say, “Did you seriously drag us all the way out here for that? Does that kid really think we are going to waste our time on three wannabe vagrants?”

  “Did you not see what the Black Hand did to New York?! If there is a chance that violence could be brought here, there is no way we can ignore it,” someone else shouted.

  “We are going to ignore it,” the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri said above the din. “We have enough to worry about with the fallout from the tornado. The Black Hand is in disarray from what we are told and it’s likely these three have flown the coop. They’ll fail here too without our help.”

  Spencer looked furious. Rebecca grabbed his shoulder and said, “Don’t go back in there. We don’t need them.”

  “What are you saying?” Spencer asked.

  “If they aren’t going to do anything then we will,” Rebecca said. “We should bring back the Conspiracy and give the Black Hand something to worry about. It’s what Anne would have wanted.”

  Spencer nodded. “Then we should honor her memory. I’ll bring back what people I can, but it isn’t going to be easy, Rebecca.”

  “I know,” Rebecca said fiercely. “But that doesn’t mean it has to be easy for them either.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Globalist National Convention

  “Are they going to do a roll call?” Charles asked. “They didn’t exactly have a primary process.”

  “No, they won’t,” Christine said. “They have delegates, but they’re not tied to a state or anything. It’s just party leaders casting their vote for Hensen.”

  “How do you know that?” Charles asked.

  “I read the program,” Christine said simply.

  The two Conspiracy leaders were in the rafters of Madison Square Garden looking down as the convention was getting under way. It had been officially opened by the leading Globalist in Congress, whose name was Travis Vick, moments before and they were waiting for the first traditional ceremonies of the convention to get underway. After a speech by Vick, the delegates would cast their vote to nominate Liam Hensen as their candidate for the Presidency.

  “Who’s going to be their nomination for Vice President?” Charles asked.

  “Samantha Jones,” Christine said. “The announcement just came down yesterday. She is the only Globalist governor in the country. She was only elected in Maine in 2038.”

  “Makes sense,” Charles said. “Let’s get a better view.”

  Jared was watching the delegate roll call with supreme boredom. He and Ethan’s old squad had gotten a security job at the convention and he was guarding the stage with Vincent not too far away. They had to pull some serious strings to get a place within striking distance of the speaker’s podium, but the catch was they had to be there for the whole convention. It was going to be a long three days until he could spring he plan to abduct Liam Hensen.

  “Jared come in. There’s some people up in the rafters. Should we clear them out?” one of the new squad members named Kyle asked.

  “Yes, get them the hell out of there,” Jared said impatiently.

 
Charles and Christine were approached by a burly security guard who said, “You two need to clear out of here. No one is supposed to be up here.”

  “Yes, sorry,” Christine said. “Let’s go, Charles.”

  Kyle watched them go before saying, “The rafters are clear again.”

  “Good. Keep it that way, we can’t have anyone up there at all during this convention,” Jared replied. “We need that area clear because to help make sure no one can see where we go on Thursday.”

  Greg was back at his apartment with Eric, Ashley, Zach watching the convention open. Zach and Eric had openly questioned why they were being forced to watch when Greg pointed out that since they were getting supplies from the Fed, it was important to keep track of who could end up being President. Greg further incentivized the deal by providing food and alcohol. Eric promptly suggested a drinking game, but with the lack of knowledge about the party platform, it was impossible to know which clichés they would drink to.

  “When are they going to establish a platform, I need something to make a drinking game off of,” Eric said grumpily.

  “Why would you need the party platform?” Ashley asked.

  “Once they have a platform, I can use the beliefs they are insisting on to make a drinking game. Whenever one of their speakers peddle those beliefs, you drink,” Eric explained.

  Greg laughed out loud. “If there is one thing politicians like to do, they like to peddle their nonsense all the time. Eric, you need to be careful though, it happens so much you might pass out from alcohol poisoning.”

  “Don’t you worry about me, I’m not a lightweight,” Eric said defiantly.

  “Hold that thought, they’re almost done with the roll call,” Zach said, pointing at the TV.

  They watched as the final delegate count was tallied and showed a unanimous vote for Liam Hensen for President. The crowd roared in approval as the convention moderator said, “With a unanimous vote, the Globalist Party selects Liam Hensen and Samantha Jones as their nominees for President and Vice President of the United States!”

  “They’re definitely excited,” Greg said. “I can’t believe they grew so quickly, did anyone here know what the Globalists were four years ago?”

  “Nobody seemed to know who they were four years ago, not until they inexplicably started picking up Congressional seats in the 2036 elections,” Ashley said. “And then even more in 2038.”

  “It’s not hard to get ahead when you’re a new party and everyone is sick of the old ones,” Greg said. “It’s been that way for decades, people hating how Washington is handled. It’s how Donald Trump of all people got elected President in 2016. People were sick of the same old, same old.”

  “I remember when that happened,” Zach said. “It was quite the shock. There were people in my high school who were crying the day after it happened and walking out of class to ‘protest’, like that would do any good. My generation was an…interesting bunch.”

  “They’re the ones who are trying to lead the country now,” Eric said.

  “Trying is the operative word,” Greg said darkly.

  “Hey, try not to be bitter, Greg,” Ashley said softly. “Liam Hensen looks like he’s alright.”

  “He looks a lot better than the rest of the field anyway,” Greg said. “I just wish we knew what they were running on.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Zach said. “The schedule says they’re going to release the party platform tonight. They’re making a big deal out of it since it is their first convention, first national party platform, and so on.”

  “They need to show the nation that they are nationally relevant,” Greg said. “They have to do this on a grand scale, just as grand as any of the other parties.”

  “Well, so far this is turning out bigger than any other party so far,” Eric said. “We still have the Big Three to go through later this month, but I like where this is going so far.”

  “You actually pay attention to politics?” Zach said incredulously.

  “When it suits me,” Eric said simply. “Or when I need to an excuse to play a drinking game and the Knicks or Jets aren’t playing to give me a drinking game to play.”

  “There’s World Cup qualifiers coming up!” Greg said indignantly.

  “Yeah, I drink based off of the efforts of bad teams. Our national soccer team is at least respectable since they overhauled the whole thing after that fiasco in missing the 2018 World Cup.” Eric said, getting up to find more alcohol.

  “Whatever. What do you guys want to do until they announce the platform?” Greg asked.

  “Let’s just play a game or something,” Ashley suggested.

  “Risk,” Zach immediately said.

  “You would say that,” Ashley said.

  “It’s a great game,” Zach said. “Greg, do you mind if I take over the TV?”

  “No, go ahead,” Greg replied. “I want to see how this goes.”

  Zach used his phone to change the TV to the Risk game that he had as an app on his phone. The game could be voice controlled by simply shouting commands such as “roll dice” or “invade Eastern Canada”. The four of them quickly established their territory and went about playing the game. Zach was clearly no novice at it, however, quickly overrunning the other three from his base in Eastern Asia.

  “That wasn’t even fair,” Greg said.

  “If you want to win a war, you have to think about strategy, not just small battles,” Zach replied.

  Greg frowned and said, “Have we been doing that?”

  “What do you mean?” Zach asked.

  “Have we been executing sound strategy and not just focusing on small battles?” Greg asked. “I mean, the Black Hand has almost collapsed, but what if that was just one battle and there is a larger war that needs to be fought that we aren’t seeing?”

  “The Black Hand represented the most immediate threat,” Zach replied. “But remember, there is someone pulling the strings throughout the country that allowed the Black Hand to grow here in New York. Remember how the Task Force was explicitly told to look the other way as the Black Hand grew out of control? How far is that person’s reach?”

  “With the Black Hand almost out of commission, I think we need to focus on that next,” Greg said.

  “Well short of interrogating Federal officials, I don’t think we will get very far with that,” Eric said. “Although the idea of harassing government officials is amusing, we won’t get very far with it because if we were found out, the Fed would almost certainly retaliate.”

  “Not unless we had the President’s permission,” Greg replied, suddenly thinking the idea. “There are people in the Conspiracy that are detectives, right?”

  Ashley replied, “I’ve definitely gotten a lot of interest from people like that through the social media channels, but I don’t know if any of them are detectives specifically.”

  “Ask around,” Greg told her. “I’m sure if we have some they would like the idea of investigating the Fed.”

  “Why would they do that?” Ashley asked.

  “It’s a career making case if they could expose corruption in the Fed,” Greg replied.

  “He’s not wrong,” Eric said. “I’m starving though, can we order some pizza?”

  “Yeah, why not,” Greg replied. “We might as well have something to do while we wait for the platform.”

  Later that evening, Ryan Waters arrived at the convention hall to explain the platform that Liam Hensen had drawn up. Since this was the first time the Globalist party had done something like this, they had waited until after the roll call to show that this was Liam’s party and that if you were going to be a Globalist, you were going to follow what he said. Ryan was banking on loyalty to Liam more than loyalty to the party to keep people in the seats as the platform was promogulated.

  Ryan walked through the doors of the main convention hall to rapturous applause, allowing him to smile. This was going far better than he or Liam could have anticipated when they started t
he campaign in the previous year. With luck, he would be able to carry this momentum through the next five months.

  Jared watched as Ryan drew closer to the stage with the sheets of paper in his hands that designated the party platform. Jared nodded at him and stepped aside to let him pass, but Ryan stopped and said, “Thank you for your service. I hope everything goes according to plan.”

  Jared was confused, but did not say anything as Ryan passed. He decided that he must have been referring to the security gig and drove the odd comment out of his mind as Ryan reached the podium and said, “Hello, New York and America. How are we all doing tonight?”

  The crowd cheered even more loudly. “I know that you have sacrificed much to be here tonight and there is a lot more work to be done in the next five months, but I am confident that with your time and effort, we can win this election and start making good changes to the country and help it get back on its feet,” Ryan said. “I can, at long last, give you a comprehensive plan of what this party will be fighting for this fall.”

  All over the nation, people watched with bated breath. Liam had run an intentionally vague campaign up to that point, as his critics had been quick to point out. Liam’s main goal had been to get people’s attention first and then lay out his platform so they could draw their own conclusions instead of being given an abridged version of it by the media. Now that he had the whole country’s attention, he felt that it was a good time to lay out his plan.

  “This is what the future President of the United States will be fighting for,” Ryan started. “First and foremost is the security and safety of the people of the country. Efforts will be made to secure American cities from gangs and rogue militias, with the National Guard and the Army both available to help in this effort. Those who are currently in gangs and rogue militias will be given a ninety-day grace period to claim a pardon that will available to those who wish to accept it. The conditions for this pardon will be that they must swear not to threaten public lives or property again and they must be rehabilitated by whatever means deemed necessary by a commission that will be set up to handle this task.”