A state of disobedience (43 page)

Alvin closed his eyes and made himself think of his wife as she had been. He imagined her scolding him,
Alvin Sheer, you've got to take responsibility for your actions.
Even the scolding brought a smile to his face, unaccountable, perhaps, to the witnesses.

The warden's head nodded a last time. From behind the partition two men began to force the drugs through the tubing and into Scheer's veins. First came a heavy dose of sodium pentathol. It rendered Alvin unconscious, though not necessarily incapable of dreaming . . . the smile remained, after all.

The sodium pentathol would have killed Alvin eventually on its own, so high was the dose. But no chances were taken with such matters. It was immediately followed with a lethal dose of pancuronium bromide. Alvin's diaphragm and lungs were instantly paralyzed. This, too, would have killed him, eventually.

Lastly was administered a killing solution of potassium chloride. Alvin's heart stopped. Perhaps his dream remained, for a few minutes.

Friedberg cursed and twisted and shrieked abuse at her guards, at the warden, at Juanita Seguin, and at Texas in general.

"Let me go, you fucking assholes.
Let me go!
Don't you realize who I am? I'm the fucking head of the fucking FBI. You don't strap
me
onto a gurney. I put you on one."

Ignoring her protests, her guards hauled her to the gurney and strapped her down roughly. The entire time, Friedberg hurled abuse at them, abuse they ignored.

She began to scream and twist, upsetting the technician's aim and causing him to have to make multiple strikes with the needle. At each failed penetration Friedberg screamed anew. Finally, weakened, she began to sob and to beg. The needles went in.

Juanita took the place of the warden for the next phase, something of an unusual deviation. "Louise Freidberg, you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers of the murders of Josefina Sanchez, Maria Ramirez, Pablo Trujillo . . . Father Jorge Montoya," she concluded.

At the conclusion of Juanita's list of nearly one hundred murders, the warden took over again.

Friedberg screamed until the sodium pentathol reached her brain.

Various amendments to the United States Constitution proposed at the Virginia Beach, Virginia, Constitutional Convention:

* * *

Amendment—The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed. No direct taxes shall be levied upon living persons, real or artificial.

* * *

Amendment—Federal expenditures shall not exceed ten percent of Gross Domestic Product. An estate tax, not exceeding fifty percent may be levied on estates over ten million dollars in current dollars upon portions of those estates exceeding that amount. The figure of ten million dollars shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the rise in cost of living as determined by the Consumer Price Index.

* * *

Amendment—The Social Security and Medicare tax is repealed. Current interest holders in the Social Security system shall have their money repaid within ten years at an interest rate of nine percent.

* * *

Amendment—Within ten years from the date of enactment of this amendment the Congress shall not have the right to delegate its authority under the constitution. The Congress shall reduce the manpower of currently existing agencies to which it has delegated its authority by ten percent per year.

* * *

Amendment—No one shall be elected to any office of the federal government more than twice in succession, three times in life, or twelve years total.

Amendment—Every four years, in conjunction with the election for the presidency of the United States, each ballot shall list all the members of the United States Supreme Court. That justice of that court whose name garners the greatest number of votes in that election shall be forever disbarred from a seat on the Supreme Court or any federal elective office.

* * *

Amendment—At any time when a majority of the governors of the states shall vote, in joint session, to overturn any decision of the Supreme Court impacting upon the rights of the sovereign states under this Constitution, that decision shall be overturned. Thirty such governors shall constitute a quorum.

* * *

Amendment—The Second Amendment is hereby repealed. The federal government shall insure that no private individuals keep or possess nuclear, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction. All other forms of weapons may be owned, borne and possessed by the citizens of the United States without restriction or registration. Such weapons may not be taxed.

* * *

Amendment—No suit against the United States, or any of its states, for any grievance which accrued more than twenty years prior to the enactment of this Amendment, shall be maintained or sustained.

* * *

Amendment—The Regular Armed Forces of the United States shall be no greater in manpower than half of one percent of the population of adult citizens of the United States. In the event of war requiring greater levels of manpower, the states are required to provide further troops, up to six percent of the state's population as determined by the most recent census.

* * *

Amendment—Neither the federal government, nor any of its branches, shall make any rule limiting or interfering with the free exercise of religion on the part of any of the lesser polities of the United States or the citizens of those polities.

* * *

Amendment—A human being shall be defined as an implanted, fertilized ovum of the human species, or any later stage of development of that implanted ovum. All human beings within the United States shall be entitled to the full protection of the law.

* * *

Amendment—It shall be the right of citizens and lawful residents of the United States to speak in plain, standard and traditional English. It shall be illegal and actionable against any citizen, resident, business entity, educational institution or government to make any attempt to limit that right on the part of a citizen.

* * *

Amendment—Federal law enforcement personnel are restricted to not more than one twentieth of one percent of the adult population of the United States.

* * *

Amendment—Whereas responsibility and authority must be equal, and whereas it has been demonstrated that abuse of authority is inevitable at some point for some responsibilities, so the United States Government is relieved of the following responsibilities: to ensure the economic well being of individuals of any class or by any means or for any period of time, to regulate commerce except that no state shall be permitted to set up tariffs against any other state or states, to conduct economic planning, to ensure the rights or presumed rights of any group as a group, to engage in social engineering, to interfere with or aid education at any level.

 

Prologue:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Interlude:
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Interlude:
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Interlude:
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue:
Appendix

A State of Disobedience

Novel

0-7434-7170-9

10.1125/Baen.0743471709

Baen Publishing Enterprises

Tom Kratman

Stephen Hickman

Science Fiction

2003 by Tom Kratman

2003-12-01

US English (en-us)