“We were about to start a riot in Kansas City when this girl tried to expose us,” Julia explained. “We’re trying to look for her so we can figure out what she knows.”
“You know she has to die right?” Jared said.
“Yes,” Julia said impatiently.
“Good,” Jared said. “See that it is done.”
Jared hung up the phone and looked back at the TV. The attacks were not supposed to start until the middle of Felicia Hall’s speech, so he still had time to kill. His impatience was growing though; he did not like to hear news of people interfering with the Black Hand. He had barely tolerated the continued presence of the Conspiracy in the city, though he had people working on identifying the people who had “rescued” Liam.
Jared continued to watch the TV, waiting for the chaos to start. It was at least a little comfort that the Conspiracy would not be able to do anything about this newest plan.
Felicia arrived at the convention hall and swept into the building haughtily. She was sick of the delays due to security and wanted to speak to the crowd and to the country. After passing through the hallways towards the convention floor, she was stopped by her campaign manager Jasmine Peters. “Deep breath, Felicia,” she said, knowing that the candidate would likely be in a towering temper.
Felicia stopped and took a deep, settling breath. “Good,” Jasmine said. “Here’s the finished speech. Harold has really outdone himself this time.”
Felicia looked over the speech and said, “I think this will be good. Provided we can even get this done.”
“If you’re talking about what happened at the Globalist Convention, that won’t happen here,” Jasmine said. “We have several different firms running security here, including the Secret Service. If one tried to start that shit, they would be stopped by the others.”
“And what about outside the convention hall?” Felicia said.
“There won’t be anything. The city is on virtual lockdown, what can anyone do?” Jasmine asked.
“When something does happen, I will not let them drag me off that stage, do you understand me?” Felicia demanded.
“Yes, but it won’t come to that,” Jasmine said.
Felicia was waiting in the wings for her moment to take the stage. Her sister was making a glowing testimonial about her as a conservative champion in her time as Governor of Virginia, talking up her credentials of uniting multiple parties and her executive experience. She even managed to work in a bit about her caring for people on a personal level, though she like so many others of her generation had remained unmarried. She wondered occasionally if she should bring up the depopulation crisis that was already ravaging other parts of the world, but there were other matters that took precedent at the moment.
Suddenly, it was her time to take the stage. She had to shake her feeling of annoyance and put on a smiling face as she took the stage. Felicia hugged her sister and made her way over to the podium, letting the exuberant crowd die down.
“First of all, before I begin, I would like to thank the City of Philadelphia for their hospitality for hosting us this week. I know that it has been a giant nuisance having the city virtually locked down and I do apologize for that. It was the only way the city would let us have a full convention. And we needed a full convention to show that we don’t fear anything from street gangs.”
“With that said, I am pleased to announce that I accept the nomination of the Conservative Party for President of the United States.”
Felicia paused there, allowing the crowd to cheer again. When they had finished, she continued, “As Conservatives, we have our work cut out for us. The mood of the country is towards more federal control, more state control, more government control. That is not the solution to the problem. There are countless examples of nations trying this approach. Each and every time, it has ended in failure.”
“The problems facing our nation today cannot be solved by the federal government or some fairy tale about reeducation. The problems of our country must be solved at home by us first. If you look around, you see broken families all over the nation. They are broken by the poor economy, the endless violence in the streets, and our failed schools. Half of the people aged 25-30 are still unmarried. How can we secure the future of the country if there is literally no future for the country? This problem must be fixed in our homes first before we can tackle the big problems.”
“One of those big problems are the gangs running around the streets, unchecked, unchallenged, killing at will. Some people have told you to get used to it, that this is just the way things are now and we must accept it. I refuse to accept a solution that leaves American families at risk. As your President, my administration would work with local authorities to rid us of these gangs, but the only way to truly get rid of gang violence is to protect the American family first.”
“It is no coincidence that the collapse of the family is intrinsically tied to the rise in gang violence. With no parents to guide them, children must find their own way and that way is ruled by violence and fear. Our children…however few they have become…have very few examples to follow on how to be a good American. We must bring that back and rebuild our country from the family, to the community, up to the state, and on to the nation.”
“Now…” Felicia trailed off, noticing activity in the periphery of her vision. Some of the Secret Service present were talking into their earpieces. Her annoyance level rose; something was going on that might disrupt her speech.
For the moment though, she decided to carry on with her speech. She glossed over her pause by clearing her throat and saying, “Excuse me. Now, some candidates have offered pie in the sky ideals about letting the federal government control every aspect of our lives. This is not a solution, this is madness. Such a motion would allow the government unlimited control and threaten our very existence as a free society. Under my administration, you will be free to live your lives within the bounds of the law as you see fit. You won’t have some bureaucrat from the Fed telling you where you have to send your children to school, what they have to learn, what you have to work in, or even something as personal as what you eat. That is NOT the American way!”
“We were founded on ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We did not come together as a nation and decide to let some entity with unlimited power control us. No, we came together for the exact opposite reason. This nation was born out of the ideal that any one individual knows what is best for themselves and should be allowed to act accordingly. We cannot abandon that ideal because people are breaking the law. These people will be made to answer for their crimes, as is required. But they should not be used as an excuse to make wholesale statism a reality in our nation.”
“I still believe in the American dream. I still believe it should be possible for anyone to live as they please without heavy-handed interference from some unelected bureaucrat. This is something that we must return to. We must show the world that we are a strong people, unburdened by fear or…”
The Secret Service moved on to the stage, distracting Felicia. “What are you doing?” She demanded.
“There’s a security risk, we need to move you to safety,” one of the suits said.
“Is this risk actually in the convention?” Felicia demanded angrily.
“The Black Hand is skirmishing with the police in the streets,” he replied. “We need to move you to a secure location.”
“NO!” Felicia roared in outrage. “This is EXACTLY what I am talking about! I will NOT let some two-bit wannabe terrorists dictate what I do! There is no threat to me here! I will finish this speech!”
The Secret Service was in no mood to deal with her indignation. They led her away forcibly from the stage and back into the hallways. She was blinking tears of fury out of her eyes as they moved through the halls to her motorcade. As she exited the building, she could hear distant gunfire.
As she entered her limousine, she leaned against the door and said to herself, “Godda
mn it.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Additional Training
Greg was annoyed. It had nearly been a month since the Black Hand had kidnapped Liam Hensen, forcing his Conspiracy to come after them. In that time, the Black Hand had seemingly grown at an exponential rate, much to his chagrin. The Conspiracy was rapidly falling behind and Greg knew that it would take drastic action to turn things around before the Black Hand overwhelmed them.
On the last day of June, Greg was having the normal Saturday meeting with the other Conspiracy leaders. Eric had arrived early, as he had something of significant importance to discuss with Greg. Ashley was there as well, as Greg was more at ease with her around in the wake of his first kill three weeks before.
“I don’t know what exactly happened in Philadelphia, but I know we were involved,” Eric explained. “I can’t keep up with all of the Black Hand anymore Greg.”
“What do you mean?” Greg asked, crestfallen.
“I mean, we are growing out of control,” Eric explained. “There are cells in every corner of the country. Jared’s apparently been holding interviews to restock the leadership structure here in the city itself. They’re going to gun for the Conspiracy soon.”
“What are our options?” Greg asked.
“We can’t beat them here, Greg,” Eric said. “We’re hopelessly outclassed in money, fighters, and war materials. We have two choices: give up or quit the city.”
“Those aren’t options,” Greg said angrily.
“Those are the only things that I can come up for you,” Eric said. “They’re strong, stronger than they were when they destroyed half of the city by a long shot.”
“What the hell caused this?” Greg asked dejectedly.
“The gangs all flocked to them,” Eric said. “They saw them drop the flag on the Globalist convention. It was a sign of power that could not be ignored. The message was clear to them, fall in line, or suffer the consequences.”
“Don’t we have other cells too?” Greg demanded.
“We had one in Kansas City that was worthwhile, but they were wiped out by that tornado,” Ashley said.
“We’re on our own, Greg,” Eric said.
“We still have the Fed,” Greg replied.
“It doesn’t matter if President Hoch is with us or not if we don’t have the people to keep up with the Black Hand. Look, my best estimate of the Black Hand in my borough is up to well over two thousand. That’s in one borough. Between Ashley’s keyboard warriors, Zach’s actual warriors, and my spy ring, we barely have five hundred people. We’re outnumbered at least twenty to one, and that’s just here in the city,” Eric told him.
“So we fight small skirmishes, pick them off a little at a time,” Greg said. “Maybe we can draw out Jared Bennett that way.”
“Do you think you would be able to get Jared Bennett by himself?” Eric asked. “This is a man who brought the entire weight of the Black Hand to Staten Island just to get revenge on a rogue borough leader. There are always going to be thousands of Black Hand between him and you, no matter how many you manage to pick off.”
Greg did not know what to reply, but was saved from doing so by a knock on the door. He answered it, letting Zach, Christine, and Charles. With the leadership all there, Greg decided not to waste any time and make his point.
“We are going to lose to the Black Hand soon if we don’t do something quickly. That’s why I want to have everyone in the organization trained to fight,” Greg said.
“What brought this on?” Zach asked.
“Well, most of it is because the Black Hand has grown out of control recently,” Greg explained. “We’re being thoroughly outclassed in every sense of the word. We need to be able to beat them at their game.”
Greg paused. “Also, we just need to be ready. Remember when I had to fight someone?”
“Yeah,” Zach said slowly.
“I can’t have everyone in the Conspiracy be unready like I was. This is going to be long fight and I want everyone to be prepared for the worst,” Greg said.
Zach shook his head. “A lot of the people in the Conspiracy aren’t fit enough for military service. Both mentally and physically. It isn’t easy.”
“How many do you think can be trained?” Greg asked.
Eric sighed. “I can get my spy ring trained at least. They appreciate the danger at least, working directly with the Black Hand.”
“I don’t think any of the people in my network would be willing to do it,” Ashley said. “Besides, I don’t know how many of them are actually in the city.”
“It’s a start,” Greg said. “With this additional fighting force, we may be able to engage the Black Hand in limited skirmishes. That might drive some recruitment for us.”
“We may not have time to wait for that,” Eric said. “We need a contingency plan if this falls through.”
“What do you mean?” Christine asked.
“We need to be ready to leave the city at a moment’s notice,” Eric said.
Greg sighed. “Who wants to handle that?”
Christine sighed. “I’ll do it. I’ve haven’t had much to do since Bob left.”
“Does anyone know where he is?” Greg asked.
“He’s trying to recruit political candidates still,” Charles said. “He’s having less success than we are.”
“Keep an eye on him,” Greg said. “If he’s still protecting Juanita and Bennett finds out, he’ll likely be a target.”
“You actually care about him?” Charles asked, bemused.
“No,” Greg said shortly. “But he could expose us if he was captured by the Black Hand.”
It was a grim pronouncement. “I’ll keep a close eye on him,” Charles assured him. “But I won’t let him know why.”
“Good,” Greg said. “Zach is there anywhere we can practice?”
Zach thought for a moment. “Upstate somewhere probably.”
“When?” Greg asked.
“Any time after I find a suitable site,” Zach explained. “We’ll do it on a weekend though. I can teach basic gun handling and some war games for training. They’re going to have to be reasonably fit before they come out though.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Eric said. “My people are all fit. Everyone in this room is fit too by the looks of it.”
“What do you mean, ‘everyone in the room’?” Ashley asked warily.
“You are going to be a part of this too, aren’t you?” Eric asked.
“I was,” Christine said.
Ashley looked unsure, so Greg said, “The firearm training will be mandatory because you may have to defend yourself at any time, but you don’t have to do the war games.”
“Why not?” Zach said frowning, despite Ashley’s obvious relief. “We are going to be in a fire fight at some point, so everyone needs to be ready for it.”
“Eventually yes,” Greg admitted. “But maybe we can let our people test the waters some.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “These war games will be fought with paintball guns so there isn’t anything to worry about. But sure, we’ll take it easy to start off with.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Fourth of July
Liam Hensen was in a good mood as he made his way to New York for Independence Day. He was going to be a guest at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, with the proper security of course, then be a guest of the mayor during the firework show over the Hudson. He had no need to worry as it had been made clear to the Black Hand that they were not to do anything during the holiday. The Globalist Master had even quipped in a message that everyone was getting the holiday off.
For his part, Liam did not have anything planned for the day, other than some socializing. There was no rally or speeches planned; he was simply there to take part in the festivities. He had given himself the easy day as the next four months were going to be a dog fight to the end. The conventions were over and the main stretch of the general election was getting underway. In
Liam’s mind, the race was coming down to between himself and Felicia Hall.
There had not been a sufficient number of polls to have come out in the wake of the incident in Philadelphia to measure whether or not there would be a measured effect on them. Liam had suggested the disruption to show that the country was too out of control for the Conservative candidate to handle. He had been obliged to wait a week to see if his scheme had worked.
On the way to Coney Island, Liam noticed that Ryan suddenly had a furtive look on his face as he looked at his phone. “What’s up?” he asked.
“The polls…they’re off,” Ryan said slowly.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked.
“You’ve been trailing Hall by about three or four points on average,” Ryan explained. “This poll from Rasmussen I’m looking at has you down by eight.”
“They’re biased, so what?” Liam asked impatiently.
“Gallup has you down ten,” Ryan continued.
Liam was stunned. “What the fuck?”
“You lost a couple of points and Hall took several points from Green,” Ryan said. “What the hell is going on?”
“You mean after she was taken away by the Secret Service and shown she couldn’t handle the situation…people are going for that?” Liam demanded.
“It must have been the way she ended it,” Ryan explained.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked.
“When she was about to be taken away by the Secret Service. She demanded that they let her finish and that she would not bow down to the violence,” Ryan said. “Voters must have taken a liking to it.”
Liam was flabbergasted. Up to this point, the campaign had been going smoothly, with a steady rise in his poll numbers as the year had worn on. This was the first reversal of fortunes he had had and he was stunned by it. He had expected to take the lead by August and coast to the White House.
“So…what Bennett did backfired?” Liam reasoned.
“It’s not his fault,” Ryan said. “He’s just doing what he’s told. It was our idea and it backfired. We have a lot of time still, we can get this under control. You just need to do what you do best and we will get back to where we need to be.”
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