Chapter 41

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John Smith's revelation, it had the reaction that some hoped for and others feared. Coming from John Smith, a man who was both a World Series champion and an astronaut, people believed him. It was the night before the congressional mid-term elections. People went to the polls and, for the most part, voted against president Odonnell's liberal allies. Armed with this knowledge they voted for those who oppossed alien immigration, who supported more military readiness against "superheroes." Some had already voted, a fair amount of them now regretted voting for pro-alien politicians. An organization was founded "I want my vote back." As it's name implied, most if not all of it's members voted for liberal representatives in early voting, and now regretted it. Within the next few days it became clear that the SBA would be a force to contend with in the new Congress. They wouldn't make a majority, but they could form a coalition with the more conservative members of Congress and make trouble. On Friday November 11th president Odonnell was speaking to the alien ambassador through closed circuit television. He also requested that the ambassador bring father Lucci to this meeting.

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Odonnell: I'm not going to lie, this is a setback. More people no longer trust your people, the racists and opportunists are bringing more people to hatred.

Lucci: I have seen this before, more times than I care to remember. People get scared in times of crisis, look for a convenient scapegoat. This will make it harder for them to achieve enough goodness to earn a spot in Heaven before the end.

Odonnell: I'm aware. There's something I want to know. Lucci, you acknowledged that you and your "friends" have manipulated certain events, even genetic structure to create, certain ends. Was John Smith right, did you orchestrate the Capitol bombing to make me president?

Lucci: No, I did not. But I am not alone, there are other beings with my abilities. It is possible that someone helped those lunatics without my knowledge, without the terrorists even knowing they were being helped. I can only promise that I did not do that.

Odonnell: I appreciate your honesty. While we're being honest, how did serial killers end up with you guys?

Ambassador: When the end came to their worlds, most of the true heroes evacuated as many civilians as they could. They didn't have the time to screen people, or decide who was worthy and who wasn't.

Lucci: I admit, my kind are not above doing what, they feel are neccessary to save us all. But we both know that those Halloween killings have not helped us, only hurt our cause.

Odonnell: Agreed, but like you said, you weren't able to account for everyone.

Lucci: You're assuming that the killer or killers were among us. Wouldn't serial killers be more likely to win up in Hell?

Odonnell: I would think so.

Lucci: It is possible that the darkness has sent it's own emissaries here. Kill a few people, get the rest to mis-trust the rest of us.

Odonnell: Makes sense. I just don't how eager the american people will be to accept that explanation. Even if they are, it might make people just more fearful, more likely to turn on anything they view as "foreign."

Ambassador: I agree. All any of us can do is fight to convince people not to give in to fear and anger.