Forty-Five
“My favorite plans are the ones I don’t get a say in,” Rui said.
“You can have input into the plan,” Rox said. “But I’m taking the hemming and hawing off your plates. I promise you I get it; I think if it were just me I’d be having the same internal conversation. But it’s not. I have a responsibility to all of you. And we have a responsibility to every other kid who’s growing up like us, who may not be in a position to defend themselves when the shit storm hits if one of us kills a President- even one as monumentally stupid, ignorant, lazy and incompetent as this one.”
“You forgot gross,” Sonya added. “Not a fat-phobic thing, but his whole predatory vibe; he can’t even stop horn-dogging at his daughter in public.”
“And greedy,” Ben said.
“And cowardly,” Anita added.
“And delusional,” Cris said.
“And bigoted,” Rui said.
“I think that was covered in ‘ignorant,’” Rox said.
“I know, but I don’t think it covered the depth of his bigotry. He doesn’t dog-whistle; he puts his MLA to a dog’s ringpiece and screams through it at the top of his lungs. I’m sure it’s also some kind of animal cruelty.”
“The point here is that this isn’t going to come hardest down on adults who can defend themselves. It’s going to hit kids. There’s more Breed kids being born every day; the next generation will be at least double the size of ours. Which means there’s going to be even more of them in vulnerable situations. Besides, I think he’s going to lose in November, and that is going to rip open that hole he’s tried to fill with boasts about crowd size and tearing down the first black President’s legacy. His entire administration has been him trying to prove he was better than a black guy- the one who got reelected. It’ll break him, and no one deserves that ego blow as much as this guy.”
“What if he doesn’t?” Anita asked. “What if there are just enough crooked Republicans out there to rig it for him, and the Democrats cave, again, and let baby have the bottle he stole.”
“Even then,” Rox said, “there’s a difference between a very public execution by a Breed who wants the world to know we can take down Presidents, and Anita sneaking into the White House November 4th and making it look like a heart attack.”
“You’re joking, right?” Sonya asked.
“Merely noting there’s a difference, primarily in the safety of our people. In both cases, I have to use the talents and privilege I have to stand up for people who can’t, for whatever reason. But we also have a duty, to the next generation, to be an example of how to make it in this world. If we can, we’ll leave them a better world, but if we can’t, we at least have to show them how they can leave one for the generation after them.”
“I’m still not sure I like it,” Anita said.
“November 5th work better with your schedule?” Sonya asked.
“I mean that separating him from his guard, that opens up new chinks in their armor to exploit, and puts all of our eggs in the one basket.”
“Maybe,” Rox agreed. “But they aren’t going to work with us. If we had weeks, maybe months, we could do a softer approach, prove that we could breach their security and then try to convince them that we want to strengthen it. But we don’t have the time. We don’t know when Raif’s plan is going down, just that it’s soon. Even without Mira, I think he’ll plow ahead. But that means improvisation, and desperation. That means his people are going to be angrier, and we need to be extra careful. And we don’t have to remove the Secret Service, we just need to be able to operate independent of them. Because I get the feeling they’re not going to get the nuance that some of us are on their side. The absolute last thing we want is to be caught between them and Raif, with both sides shooting at us.”