CHAPTER 2
"A true patriot..."
The Senate hall began to fill with people. A sea of suits captured by close-circuit television beamed into the homes of every politically-minded American on that fateful night. October 10, 1994, would be a night that many would not soon forget. The media members were abuzz with rumour, some true, some wholly false. These journalists would not soon forget this night. Also abuzz were the Senators themselves. Some whispered the praises of tonight's keynote speaker. Others denounced the rumours brought forth by the hungry media. Still others shifted uncomfortably in thier seats out of barely suppressed fear. This would be a night these Senators would not soon forget.
Another who would not forget this night was the keynote speaker himself.
Away from the media circus unfolding in the Senate Hall, Senator James Andross paced the length of his small office tucked in the far back of the Democratic wing. Senator Andross' face bore the brow furrows and deep creases of a man who had spent the last week in deep thought and worry. And indeed he had. For after this night, there was no going back. No more compromises, no more double dealing. It will be out for all to see. No more secrets, he thought. The dark grey suit on his aged, yet still powerful frame felt tight and constrictive, like a straitjacket. And indeed, it had become a home for the insane, this "august Senate."
"No more secrets," he said aloud. He did this often when he had to make a critical decision. It needed to be spoken aloud, he believed, so it made sense when the sounds were formed in the air. But, nothing made much sense anymore. The America he knew was gone. Gone the way of the Roman Empire, shaking on a quaking foundation of petty greed and corruption. The audacity of his "fellow Senators" made him grotesquely ill. Have they no shame? Have they forgotten what it means to be a leader in this country? How could all this have happened?
But the reasons why were pointless. Purely human reasons, and they had chosen thier path. They had succumbed to the old adage. Absolute power, he thought. I'll show them absolute.
He paced to the small office door of the Wisconsin Democratic office, and cracked it open. Outside, just down the hall, his reason for doing this sat on the bench off to one side. The small, frail boy sat cross-legged on a wooden visitors bench, hunched over a small video game handheld. He wore an ashen grey suit, like Senator Andross, but whereas Senator Andross looked the role of a respected member of the highest lawmaking body in the United Sates, his son Billy looked pitiful, like a trussed up funerary corpse. Young Billy Andross had no remarkable physical traits, nothing obvious to set him apart from other children his age, that of fourteen, save his rather pinched and sickly look.
As Senator Andross gazed upon his only remaining family member, he heard the voices that had eaten away at his soul for the last week and a half.
"Think of your son, James. We wouldn't want anything to happen to him."
"Call this whole thing off. No harm, no foul."
"This is a mistake you're making. And I promise, you WILL live to regret it."
The last threat from his "fellow Senators" stuck in his mind. They want to hurt my son, take away my reason for being. I can just walk away. I can quit now, send the media home, end this whole thing...
...while my country is carved up and fed to these animals on a silver platter.
Just then it had dawned on Senator James Andross. There would be no retreat now. No backpedaling. No escape. But first, something needed to be done.
"C'mon...unh...almost...nooo...aw, man!"
After losing his fifth life on the game he was, until now, deeply engrossed in, Billy Andross threw aside his GameMaxx with disgust. All the frustration that came along with being fourteen and on the losing end of life swelled in his small chest. He looked up at his the office door wherein his father worked. He always worked. Always busy.
That thought conjured up images of his mother. Mom. She was gone now. She couldn't take anymore. No more of Dad's rhetoric on "civil liberties" or "the forefathers' dream." She just left one day, leaving behind a note and a hot dinner for he and his father. Since that day five years ago, it had been only Billy and his famous father, the Senator.
The hell are we doing here anyway? I could be over at Simon's right now, but nooooo...we're here. Again. What the hell is so damn
"Will? Could you come here, please?" His father called him from down the hall. Billy looked up at his father, so imperious-looking in that crisp suit he always wore, and today had somehow suckered Billy into wearing. And my name's Billy, dammit. Not Will. He rose to his awkward feet, and began shuffling down the hall to his father's darkened office. His father pulled the door open for him, and then said a quick,"Stand up straight, young man. No need to shuffle around like I'm calling you to be executed."
"I may as well be. Death by boredom," Billy responded in that 'I'm-fourteen-and-I-know-everything' tone.
Senator Andross sighed heavily. As he shut the door, he turned to face his son, he looked deep into his son's eyes. It was then that Billy saw. His father was near tears.
"Dad? What's wrong?"
With a heavy voice, Senator Andross spoke, "Son. I'm about to do something that's very dangerous. Something that is about to change the whole way you and I live. It's not going to be a good change, but a very difficult one. Do you understand?"
Billy's heart raced. Here, in this moment, Billy's entire preconceptions of his "indestructible father" were being shattered. In this instant, Billy Andross saw his father; not as a Senator, a national hero, a respected politician...or even the man that drove Mom away. He only saw his father, on the verge of losing his practiced self-control. It was surreal. The man had always been impervious to emotion. Why now? God, what's happened?
James Andross took a heavy breath and began.
"The other Senators are crooks, son. But rather than robbing from one person, they're robbing from us all. They're looting our country blind, and for years, I did too...by being silent. But I can't watch what they're doing to America anymore. I can't be silent anymore, Will. Tonight, I'm going to present evidence to the newspeople outside that shows all sorts of criminal acts by my co-workers." At this, James handed his son a small manila envelope. "In there is everything I need to present my case. Audits, bank accounts, photographs...all of it."
Billy thumbed thru the evidence, and felt his heart race again. "What are you telling me, Dad?"
"They threatened me, Will. Threatened me, and...threatened you."
Billy's heart ceased to race. In fact, it seemed to have stopped working all together. The other Senators had threatened his life, his father went on to explain, as a strongarm tactic. A bargaining chip. Billy's life was worthless to them, just another asset to be exploited. Even more frightening, was that he knew them all as kindly old men who always treated him with kindness. And now, his life was forfiet. It was all a lie. Pretense to get his father to play along.
"This is the hardest part, Will. I won't let them scare me. And you can't let them scare you. Do you know why I'm going to go thru with this?"
Billy shook his head in shock...a reflex action at best.
"Remember all those stories I told you when you were little? The stories about the great men that came before us? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin...all of them? The reason I do this is because I remember what they stood for. They stood for standing up against this kind of misuse of power. They believed in the ideal that they were free to think as they wished, and many lives were lost for that very idea against a gonvernmental body just as corrupt and decadent as the one I'm about to bring down. I'm doing this all, because I love my country, son. Do you love America and the freedom she gives you?"
Billy nodded, slightly at first, and then it struck him. His father was going to risk everything in his life to bring down the bad guys. His father was going to battle the forces of evil. His father was about to become a hero in the name of America. Billy looked up into his father's eyes, and gave him the only answer he could.
"I love you, Dad, and I love America too. Do what needs to be done."
For the first time in a week and a half, James Andross felt pride at what he must do. He smiled, and hugged his son tight. They held for a long time, and when they broke, both father and son felt pride in the other. Then, Senator James Andross released his son, and together they walked to the door. Before opening it, James squeezed his son's shoulder tight, and said,
"For America, son."
The boy, who would not ever forget this night, looked back at his father, beamed with pride, and replied,
"For America, Dad."
