Empire (Empire 1)

He waited for Cessy to see it, but she didn’t. So he showed it again. “Look. He’s enjoying it. See?”

“No, that’s a supercilious smile. He’s mocking it.”

“Right, at the start. But now—see how it changed?”

“He was just tired of holding the expression.”

“He’s happy about something,” said Reuben. “He just lost this interview. Cole owned it. Not that everybody believes Cole, but they believe him enough and dislike Alton enough that they’re going to want to know about it—and Alton’s happy.”

“Because he thinks he won.”

“You’re probably right,” said Reuben. “But like you said, he testifies in front of Congress and shows nothing. But here he rolls his eyes, he smirks. And then, when it’s over, and he damaged himself, he’s satisfied.”

“What would that mean?”

“I don’t know,” said Reuben. “But I think we’ve been played.”

“For suckers?”

“Like a violin.”

“Why would somebody possibly want you to announce that they’re planning a coup against the United States government?”

“It makes no sense,” said Reuben. “But still. It’s like when you’re face to face with a guy who might or might not have a gun under his robes or a bomb strapped to his body and you look him in the eye. You got to be able to read him. Alton reads wrong. That’s all.”

Cessy thought about it in silence for a while. Reuben had long since learned that if he filled such silences with talk, she would leave the room in order to be able to think, and then he wouldn’t be there to hear whatever it was she thought of as soon as she thought of it.

“It’s like what LaMonte said about how he could make this thing go away. It just didn’t sound like him. There’s something wrong.”

“Maybe,” said Reuben, “just maybe. It’s not a coup. It’s a grab.”

“I’m sorry, your high-level military jargon just defeated me.”

“A coup is where they arrest the President and replace him. But a grab is where the President is actually in charge of the coup, and he uses the Army to arrest everybody he thinks is a threat.”

“No,” said Cessy. “No, no, and no.”

“Not possible?”

“Not LaMonte Nielson. Truly, Reuben. I know the man.”

“Knew him. Back then.”

“Core character. He’s a very deft and ruthless politician, but he stays inside the lines. He loves the Constitution. He would never.”

“Unless he thinks he’s Abraham Lincoln and the country needs to have some of the lines crossed a little.”

“He’s President for barely a day and he’s planning a military dictatorship?”

A new thought occurred to Reuben. “I hate to say what I’m thinking.”

“I know what you’re thinking and you may consider that this time I screamed ‘no no no.’ He had nothing to do with the assassination.”

“Well somebody had something to do with it.”

“Not him.”

“Somebody really wanted LaMonte Nielson to be President.”