Empire (Empire 1)

“You know what I’m talking about,” said Cecily. “I’m talking about family, and faith. Here in this house, we’re not trying to take advantage. Our family doesn’t try to profit from the death of the king. Our family always has enough to share, even if we don’t have enough to eat. Do you understand?”

“Sure,” said Nick. “That’s church talk. Because Dad has a weapon and goes out and kills the bad guys. He doesn’t just hide in a castle inside a moat and help the poor and the sick.”

“Your dad,” said Cecily, “does not go out and kill the bad guys. He goes out and does what he’s ordered to do, and the goal is to persuade the bad guys that they won’t get their way by killing people, so they’d better stop.”

“Mom,” said Nick, “all you’re saying is that our Army persuades them to stop killing people by being better at killing people than they are.”

She slumped back in her chair. “Hard to reconcile that with Christianity, isn’t it?”

“No it’s not,” said Nick.” ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ ”

“You listen?”

“I read.”

“I just turned down an offer from the President. LaMonte Nielson. I used to work for him. I must have done a good job, because he wants me to come work in the White House.”

“Are you going to?”

“No, I’m not. And do you know why?”

“Because of us?” said Nick.

“Because the best thing I can do to make this world a better place is to do a really brilliant job of raising you kids. And I can’t if I’m not home to do it.”

“If you worked in the White House,” said Nick, “you might have been one of the ones they blew up.”

“But I wasn’t. And I won’t be.”

“They’ve got to be mad at Dad,” said Nick.

“Who?”

“The boss terrorists. He shot their guys. He stopped one of their rockets. He almost stopped them from killing the President.”

“I suppose they’re a little bit mad at him. But they didn’t expect us not to shoot back.”

“They’re not going to come here to kill us, are they?”

“No,” said Cecily.

“In the movies, they always go after the hero’s family.”

“They do that because it’s a Hollywood formula. To make the movie scarier so you’ll keep watching for the whole two hours. In the real world, these terrorists don’t care about regular people like us. They strike at big targets—like the World Trade Center and the President.”

“And the Pentagon,” said Nick.

“And soldiers in the field. We’ve always known that was Dad’s job. But our house? Like I said—it’s a castle.”

Nick nodded. Then he got up and went to the fridge and opened the freezer compartment and took out a fudgesicle. “Want one?” he said.

“I don’t like chocolate,” Cecily answered.

“A creamsicle?” said Nick.

“Bring me one, you monster of temptation,” she said.