Authors: John Barnes
IMMEDIATELY AFTER. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 11 AM MST. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2025.
The door had barely closed before Whilmire asked, “Did you even
intend
to consult with us?” in a tone suitable for asking a waiter what’s in the food while hoping not to learn anything.
“We agreed,” Cam said, “that you would always be
informed
. And so you are. You know what’s being said as soon as it’s said. As for the policy Graham Weisbrod announced, if it’s as advertised, it simply declares that we are going to do our duty, as bound by our oaths—that is my oath and the general’s, Reverend. As a gesture to allay some very legitimate public concerns about whether the Constitution is going to stand, considering the recent unrest about that very issue, it seems wise. Now let’s use our time and make sure it says what Graham Weisbrod says it says.”
“Just when what’s always been the best part of the country has the freedom to be the way it should be, you go running to bring these people back.” Whilmire stared at Cameron Nguyen-Peters as if he were a specimen in a pathology lab.
“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.”
ABOUT THE SAME TIME. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 11 AM MST. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2025.
“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.”
“You are throwing away everything we have worked for,” she said, now very quietly, rose to her feet, and opened the door. “You won’t need me this afternoon. I am going to take a nap.”
In the silence after she left, Norman McIntyre said, “Mister President, I think you’d better get the deal nailed down while she’s still gone and sulking. And it’s none of my business but I don’t think you should take her back.”
“I have to take her back to Olympia,” Graham said. “I can’t very well just abandon her here—”
“Not what I meant.”
“I know, but it was what I was ready to answer.”
IMMEDIATELY AFTER. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 11:30 AM MST. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2025.
As soon as they were seated, Cameron Nguyen-Peters said, “We found that your text was fine as is. I’ll send it out at the same time you send your version out. I suggest as a general principle that the restoration government should not have its hands tied. It’s going to be the legitimate Constitutional government. We’ve just been caretakers. The caretaker should not bind the real government.”
“I absolutely agree with that principle,” Graham said.
“Good,” Cameron said. “I’ll ask my staff to prepare a list of all the decisions we’ve made since the TNG was formed; we’ll send the list to the restoration governments so they can ratify, nullify, or whatever.”
“I’ll do the same for the PCG’s actions. What’s that leave from
your
list?”
Cameron looked down at his notepad and read aloud.
“Mechanics for the election
What to do about the New States—which overlaps
the election issue
merging the armed forces
hard line against the Castles, no recognition and no special position.
“Also we wanted to propose a joint military expedition into the Lost Quarter, which might overlap most of the other issues. We want to at least take down Castle Earthstone, and General Grayson has suggested that if the TNG and PCG cooperate fully, we could do a great deal more.”
Graham grinned. “Almost exactly my list, except for that last bit—which I like a lot.”
In the next few minutes, they delegated every complex issue to joint committees and resolved every simple one. Election procedure and military merger went to joint committees to be set up in Pueblo in the next month. The New States of New England, Chesapeake, and Allegheny, never having assembled governments, were void; the PCG would cease trying to organize them. The New States of Superior and Wabash, having now functioned for some time, would exist until the restoration government took power, would have electoral votes based on their seats in the Provi legislature, and would then be admitted, or not, at the discretion of the restoration government. Any former state could secede by majority vote from a New State until the restoration Congress provided otherwise. Regular, pre-Daybreak Army units, which mostly answered to Temper civilian control, would cooperate with New State governments in exactly the way they cooperated with older, pre-existing state governments.
Both governments agreed to accord no special legal status to any Castle, and that no government communications were to refer to any of the titles the freeholders gave themselves, “except internal reports for law enforcement,” Weisbrod added. “General Grayson, if I may suggest, why don’t you draft a list of options for dealing with Castle Earthstone, and with the Lost Quarter in general, and forward it to General McIntyre for comments? Assume you’ve got any resources we are not obviously using for immediate defense. Give Cameron and me some cheap options in case we have to be misers, but also give us a couple of Cadillac plans, the biggest and best things you think are within our grasp.”
“I’ll do that immediately, sir,” Grayson said.
Weisbrod smiled. “Now, if there’s nothing left on either list, should we, maybe, think about a declaration of principles at the end of the joint communiqué? Something to guide any future courts or our successors in what our thinking was?”
“The principle we’re after,” Cameron Nguyen-Peters said, “is to trust to the common sense of the people who are going to be elected, which also means to the common sense of the people electing them.”
McIntyre sighed. “I’d like that principle better if it didn’t sound like a complete abdication of responsibility.”
Graham Weisbrod peered at the general over his glasses; of the people in the room, only Heather knew he couldn’t see a thing that way, that it was purely an intimidation trick Graham had picked up decades ago. Graham waited two beats. “Well, General McIntyre, it’s appropriate to abdicate responsibility when you’ve made a mess and there’s someone else around who can clean it up better than you. As for the mess, look at my government, or at Cam’s. As for cleaning up, there are thousands of small towns, dozens of military units, tens of thousands of small businesses, community organizations, you name it, that are doing the cleanup right now. I assume we’ve both read the news from Wapakoneta in the
Post-Times
?”
Fussing with exact words took a couple of hours, but the president and the NCCC seemed to enjoy it, and insisted on continuing over a late lunch. Long before dark, they were shaking hands for the camera.
Sure hope we’ve got film that lasts now,
Heather thought,
because whoever publishes the history books is going to want that picture.