Spiders from the Shadows

TWENTY


Offutt Air Force Base, Headquarters, U.S. Strategic Command, Eight Miles South of Omaha, Nebraska


The day and night passed slowly. The family was told to remain in the small office, able to leave only for showers in the gym and to eat. After some begging and some fairly believable threats, Sam convinced the old tech sergeant who had been assigned to look after them to let him use the gym. He spent the next three hours running, boxing on the shadow bag, and lifting weights. Sweating and completely exhausted, he showered and fell asleep.

The next morning he was as agitated as he’d ever been. This time, he wasn’t alone. Sara paced as well. Luke and Ammon watched them as they leaned against the far wall. Azadeh sat on the rolled-out sleeping bags, working on her English by reading.

“Unbelievable,” Ammon muttered as he watched his brother pace.

Sam shook his head, thinking on the broadcast they’d watched the previous day. “How do you describe it?” Sam asked in an incredulous voice. “Swearing him in and then impeaching him, all in the same day!”

Sara kept on pacing. “It looks that way,” she said.

“How stupid,” Luke muttered. “It seems like—”

Sara cut him off. “No, it wasn’t stupid. It was brilliant. I mean, think of this. They found out Secretary Marino was out here. With him holed up here at Offutt, there was no way to get him short of a military attack upon the base. Were they willing to risk that? Clearly not. Would they be able to assassinate him like the others? Highly unlikely. Brucius isn’t stupid. His security forces can take care of him. And this was better anyway, much better. By swearing him in and then impeaching him, they utterly removed him as a threat. Fuentes is the president. Legally, Brucius is completely powerless. There is nothing he can do.”

“But why? Why would Congress do that?” Luke asked. He kept his face down, a little bit embarrassed that he didn’t understand. He’d spent too many weekends climbing rocks, too many nights texting all his buddies and chasing girls whose pictures used to fill his wallet, too see that. I c