(1976) The R Document (3 page)

President Wadsworth to Director Tynan. Furthermore, she had tried to tell him, it was a loser’s job. For all the importance he would have, in the end he would be a scapegoat. The country was going rapidly downhill, and he’d be at the wheel. Nor did she like the business of his office. Above all, Karen did not want to live in a fishbowl, did not want the forced friendships and socializing and the nakedness before the news media demanded by his position. They were newly married then - the second time for each - only two years married now, and here she was in her fourth month of pregnancy, and she wanted only closeness, privacy, bliss, and she did not want to share him.

He rose from his chair with the resolve to be by her side all evening, no matter how difficult that proved, and to be kind. He stretched to his entire stringy six feet two, until he could hear his bones crack. He briefly considered his cadaverous - but not unhandsome - visage and rumpled dark hair in the mirror, and then he saw that the limousine would arrive in twelve minutes. He started for his private sitting room, beyond his secretary’s office, to wash and change, wondering all the while whether it would be a momentous and memorable night.

*

When their Cadillac limousine drove through the open gate in the black iron fence along Pennsylvania Avenue and entered the curving White House driveway, Collins could see that a great number of news people were on the lawn across from the north facade, with their lighting equipment turned on and waiting.

Mike Hogan, the FBI agent who was his bodyguard, twisted around in the front seat and asked, ‘Do you want to talk to them, Mr Collins?’

Collins squeezed Karen’s hand and said, ‘Not if I can help it. Let’s go right inside.’

Once they had left the car at the North Portico, Collins was affably noncommittal with the press. Taking Karen’s arm, he hurried after Hogan toward the White House entrance. He answered only one question before they went inside.

A television newscaster called out to him, “We hear you’re going to be watching television tonight. How do you think it’ll come out?’

Collins called back, ‘We’ll be watching a rerun of Gone with the Wind. I think the North will win.’

Inside, two surprises awaited him.

He had expected the gathering to take place in the Red Room, or in one of the smaller entertaining rooms located upstairs, but instead he and Karen were escorted to the Cabinet Room in the West Wing. He had expected thirty or forty people to be on hand, but there proved to be only a dozen or so besides Karen and himself.

Along the wall that faced the green draperies covering the French doors that led to the White House Rose Garden, near the shelves of books, a large color television console had been installed. Several persons were standing watching the picture on the screen, although the audio had been turned dov/n low. Half the black leather-covered chairs around the long, shining dark Cabinet table (which suggested to Collins a coffin lid for the Cardiff Giant) had been turned to face the television set. On the opposite side of the table, beneath the Great Seal set in the east wall and between the United States flag and the Presidential flag, President Andrew Wadsworth was engaged in an animated conversation with the Senate and House majority leaders and their wives.

Although Collins had been in the Cabinet Room a half dozen times before - five times as Deputy Attorney General substituting for ailing Attorney General Baxter, and earlier this week as Attorney General himself - the room seemed suddenly unfamiliar to him. This was because it had been rearranged, with many of the chairs moved away from the Cabinet table to be nearer the television set. At the far end of the table, before the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington hanging over the mantelpiece, hors d’oeuvres were being kept warm in gleaming copper chafing dishes set on a green cloth and supervised by a chef in a jaunty white hat. The

staid room had been transformed, by informal disarray, into oversized, comfortable play quarters.

As Collins, with Karen clutching his arm, surveyed the scene, the President’s chief aide, McKnight, hurried forward to welcome them. Quickly, they were taken on the rounds of the Cabinet Room, to meet either again or for the first time Vice-President Frank Loomis and his wife; Miss Ledger, the President’s personal secretary; Ronald Steedman, the President’s private pollster from the University of Chicago; Secretary of the Interior Martin; then the Congressional leaders and their wives, and then President Wadsworth himself.

The President, a slight, dapper man, suave and urbane, almost courtly, with dark hair graying at the temples, a pointed nose, a receding chin, took Karen’s hand, shook Collins’, and was at once apologetic. ‘Martha’ - he was referring to the First Lady - ‘is so disappointed she won’t be here tonight to get to know you better. She’s in bed with a touch of the flu. Oh, she’ll be all right. There’ll be a next time…. Well, Chris, it looks like a happy evening.’

‘I hope so, Mr President,’ said Collins. ‘What do you hear?’

‘As you know, the state Senates in New York and Ohio ratified the 35th early yesterday. Now we’re entirely in the hands of the New York Assembly and the Ohio House. Immediately after yesterday’s votes, Steedman had his teams of pollsters swarming over Albany and Columbus, buttonholing state legislators. Ohio looks like a cinch. Steedman has the figures, and they’re impressive. New York is a little more iffy. It could go either way. Most of the legislators polled were Undecided or No Comment, but among those who did reply, there’s been a definite gain over the last poll. It looks favorable. Also, I think Vernon’s latest FBI statistics - Hello, Vernon.’

Director Vernon T. Tynan had joined them, occupying all empty space, a formidable presence. He was shaking the President’s hand, Collins’ hand, complimenting Karen on her appearance.

‘I was just saying, Vernon,’ the President resumed in his vibrant voice, ‘those figures you sent over an hour ago, they

should have great impact in Albany. I’m glad you got them in on time.’

‘It wasn’t easy,’ said Tynan. ‘It took a lot of hustle. But you’re right. They should help. Ronald Steedman seems less certain. I just had a word with him. Based on his projection, Ohio should be in our corner, but he feels New York is up in the air. He doesn’t seem too confident there.’

‘Well, I’m confident,’ said the President. ‘Two hours from now we’ll have thirty-eight out of fifty states, and a new amendment to the Constitution. After that, we’ll have the means of preserving this country, if it ever becomes necessary.’

Collins nodded in the direction of the television set across the table. ‘When does it start, Mr President?’

‘Ten or fifteen minutes. They’re just warming up with some background.’

‘I think we’ll have a look,’ said Collins. ‘And a drink as well.’

As he guided Karen away, he realized that Tynan remained in step beside him. ‘I think I can use a drink, too,’ said Tynan.

They went silently toward the end of the Cabinet table where the President’s valet, Charles, was supervising the drinks over his rows of glasses and bottles, an ice bucket, and a champagne cooler.

Tynan looked past Collins at Karen. ‘How do you feel, Mrs Collins? Are you feeling okay these days?’

Surprised, Karen raised her hand to smooth her short blond hair, then automatically lowered it to touch her loose chain belt. ‘I’ve never felt better, thank you.’

‘Good, good to hear that,’ said Tynan.

After Collins had got a glass of champagne and some caviar on a wedge of toast for his wife and a Scotch and water for himself, and started her toward two empty chairs in front of the television set, he felt her tug at his sleeve. He inclined his head toward her.

‘Did you hear that?’ she whispered.

‘What?’

‘Tynan. His sudden concern about how I feel - if I’m

feeling okay. He was practically telling us, in his own way, that he knows I’m pregnant.’

Collins seemed confused. ‘He can’t know. No one knows.’

‘He knows,’ whispered Karen.

‘But even if he has found out, what’s the point’?’

‘Just to remind you he’s omniscient. To keep you and everyone else in line.’

‘I think you’re overreacting, honey. He’s not all that subtle. He was just being social. It was an innocent remark.’

‘Sure. Like the wolf’s in “Little Red Riding Hood”.’

‘Shh. Keep your voice down.’

They had reached the chairs almost directly in front of the large television set, and they both sat down.

Sipping his drink, Collins tried to concentrate on the screen. The distinguished network commentator was saying that several minutes would be given over to recapping the procedure of adding a new amendment to the Constitution and, more specifically, to the laborious passage of the 35th Amendment from its inception to this moment when it was on the brink of ratification.

‘There are two means by which a new amendment to the United States Constitution can be initiated,’ the commentator began.

Collins set down his drink, lit Karen’s cigarette and then his own, and eased back to listen half-attentively.

‘One means of initiating an amendment is to have it proposed in Congress. The other is to have it initiated by a national convention called by Congress at the request of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. No amendment has ever been started by such a convention. All have begun in Congress in Washington, D.C. Once a resolution proposing a new amendment is made, in either the United States Senate or the House of Representatives, hearings are held on it by the Rules Committees and the Judiciary Committees. After the amendment is approved by these committees, it goes to the floors of the Senate and the House. To be approved, it requires a two-thirds vote of each legislative body. Once approved, it does not need the signature of the President. Instead, copies are sent to the General Services Administration, which in turn distributes the amendment to

the Governors of the fifty states. The Governors merely send the amendment to their state legislatures for debate and vote. If three-fourths of the state legislatures - that means 38 out of 50 states - ratify the amendment, the amendment becomes an official part of the Constitution.’

Collins snuffed out his cigarette in the nearest ashtray and then reached for his drink, still watching the television screen.

The commentator went on. ‘Since the original ten amendments became part of the Constitution, and since the year 1789, there have been 5,700 resolutions introduced in Congress to amend the Constitution one way or another. There have been suggested amendments of every sort - to replace the Presidency with a three-person ruling council, to get rid of the Vice-Presidency, to change the name of the United States of America to the United States of the Earth, to change the Electoral College vote system, to change the free-enterprise system so that no one individual might possess more than ten million dollars. Of the handful of 5,700 amendments that did not die in Congress, that did get out to the states, only thirty-four have been ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states. There has usually been no limitation as to the time the states have to ratify or reject. The most quickly approved amendment in our history was the 26th, giving 18-year-olds the vote. Only three months and seven days after it came out of Congress, it was ratified by three-fourths of the fifty states. Which brings us to the latest amendment, the 35th, which we may see killed or made law of the land tonight.’

Collins heard the movement of bodies, the scraping of chairs, and observed the guests who were beginning to crowd around the television set on either side. Then he devoted himself to the television screen once more.

‘The controversial 35th Amendment, designed to supersede the first ten amendments - or the Bill of Rights - under certain emergency circumstances, grew out of a desire by Congressional leaders and President Wadsworth to forge a weapon to impose law and order on the nation if required.’

‘Weapon?’ interrupted the President, who had just sat down near Collins. ‘What does he mean, weapon? If ever I

heard prejudicial language, that’s it. I wish we could pass an amendment to take care of commentators like that.’

‘We’re passing one,’ Director Tynan boomed from his chair on the opposite side. ‘The 35th will take care of those troublemakers.’

Collins caught Karen’s sharp glance, and squirmed uncomfortably toward the television screen again.

‘ … and so after it came out of committee and was introduced as a joint resolution,’ the commentator was continuing, ‘it went to the floors of the Senate and the House for final vote. Despite vocal - but limited - opposition from the liberal blocs, both bodies of Congress gave the 35th Amendment overwhelming approval, far exceeding the two-thirds vote required. Then the new amendment was sent out to the fifty states. That was four months and two days ago. After a relatively easy passage in the first states voting on it, the voyage of the 35th became increasingly stormy, as opposition was organized against it. To date, forty-seven of the fifty states have voted upon it. Eleven have turned it down. Thirty-six have approved it. But since the Amendment needs thirty-eight votes of approval, it is still two states short. As of tonight, there remain three states that have not voted - New York, Ohio, and California. New York and Ohio are concluding their voting this very night - a historic event that will be seen shortly on this network - and California has scheduled its vote a month hence. But will California be needed? If both New York and Ohio turn down the Amendment tonight, it will be dead. If both ratify the Amendment tonight, it will become part of the Constitution immediately, and President Wadsworth will have his arsenal to combat the growing lawlessness and disorder that is slowly strangling the nation. The voting tonight in New York and Ohio may be fateful, may change the course of American history for a century to come. Now, after a brief commercial break, we will take you to the State Assembly in Albany, New York, where the floor debate is just concluding before the final roll-call vote will be taken.’

The commercial for an oil conglomerate, which declared that at least one conglomerate was in business only as a public service to make life happier and easier for the people,