Revolution (59 page)

     He smashed out the duct and took aim at the Trooper’s legs. He swept his pistol across the floor, blasting out the Trooper’s legs from under them. They fell, screaming, into puddles of blood. He emptied his entire magazine into the fallen bodies.

     Finally, he crawled out of the duct and surveyed the carnage. On the far side of the control room, he spotted a group of suited men sitting at the control panels. He pointed his weapon at them and they raised their arms in surrender.

    Campion reached the grill at the end of her air duct. She peered through and saw another group of soldiers aiming their weapons at a different elevator door.

     Campion had heard the muffled thundering of automatic weapons as Rayne did his deadly work. Like Rayne, she checked to make sure she had a full magazine and then smashed out the grate.

     She swept the room with her pistol, taking out the Troopers one-by-one. When she reached the end of the line, one of them fired back at her. She grunted with pain as a bullet seared into her armored shoulder. She used the last remnants of energy to target the remaining Trooper and bring him down. Then, she passed out from pain and blood loss.

     Rayne disarmed the prisoners and forced them to lie on the floor. One of them reached for a spare gun in an ankle holster. Rayne spotted him and shot him in the head. He was high on adrenaline and wired to kill. He took several deep breaths and switched on his headset.

    “Come in, Brennon,” he said.

    “Go ahead,” Brennon answered.

    “Level 2 is clear. You can come up on the elevators.”

    “Received.”

     Peter checked all the bodies wearing suits. He recognized a few famous faces, but none of them were the president. He looked up at the ceiling of the control room, imagining the expression on President Frump’s sweating face in the master control room above.

    Brennon and the other survivors met him on L2. The scanner still picked up eight carbon signals in the upper master control room. She switched on her headset and spoke into the receiver.

     “Bravo Squad to Charlie Squad. Do you read me?” she asked.

    “Loud and clear, Bravo Squad,” a female voice answered her from her right earpiece.

    “We need reinforcements. Send squads into the Powerdrome. Use scanners to converge on our signals.”

    “No problem, Bravo Squad. Charlie Squad is en route.”

    “Thank you,” Karyn said, switching off her headset. She turned to Peter and smiled, tiredly, at him. “They’re not going anywhere,” she said. “Let’s wait for back-up and take them out at our leisure.”

    “I like the way you think,” Peter said, grinning back at her.

    It didn’t take long for backup to arrive. Lt. Benson and Charlie squad met them in the devastated great hall. They brought unusual weapons with them.

    ”What are these?” Brennon asked.

    “Powerdrome nerve gel rifles,” Benson said. “They will incapacitate a target without killing it.”

    “That will be ideal for capturing the president alive,” Rayne said, reaching out and taking one from a soldier.

    “According to the blueprints I found, there’s an emergency exit stairwell hidden behind a secret door in the corner of this chamber,” Benson said. “It should be over there,” he added, pointing to a corner behind a massive pillar.

    “Take two soldiers to L2 to check on Campion,” Rayne said to Benson. “The rest of you come with me.”

    They found the door camouflaged to blend into the wall. Rayne and Brennon led several soldiers from Charlie squad into the stairwell. They ascended two flights of narrow metal steps until they reached a landing at the top with an emergency exit.

     Rayne kicked open the door and led the soldiers into the upper control room. Eight suited men were sitting at panels staring at view-screens. They looked up as the rebels entered.

    “Stand up and put your hands in the air,” Rayne commanded.

    Observing the rifle barrels pointed at them, the suited men complied.

    “The middle one is the president,” Rayne said, focusing his gun on him.

    “How do you know?” Brennon asked.

    “I’ve met him before,” Peter said.

    “Are you serious?” Karyn asked, raising an eybrow.

    “I know you,” Frump said to Rayne before he could reply to Brennon.

    Frump’s expensive black suit was disheveled and torn at the elbow, but otherwise he looked like he did when Peter met him in the conference room in the presidential tower. Rayne also noticed a light sweat beading on his tan forehead.

    “You should,” Peter said. “I just met with you a few days ago in the presidential tower.”

    “You’re Malcom Getty,” Frump stated with a trace of awe in his voice as recognition flooded his heavily tanned face. “What are you doing slumming it with these riffraff?”

    “Actually, my name is Peter Rayne. I infiltrated your organization as Malcom Getty and sabotaged the Underworld computer system, so my friends would have easy access to this nice island of yours,” Rayne said, grinning.

    “That was you!” Frump exclaimed, eyes widening.

    “That was me,” Peter said, raising his eyebrows.

    Frump’s handsome face contorted into an expression of fierce hatred as he lunged for Rayne’s rifle. Rayne was ready. He smashed the rifle stock into the president’s face, dropping him. Frump hit the floor, groaning. Rayne looked down at him and pointed his rifle at his bloody forehead.

    “Mr. President,” Rayne said. “I’m placing you under arrest.”

Chapter 42

May 7, 2068, an excerpt from the diary of Peter Rayne –

    Today is a national holiday. It’s been ten years – to the day – after the start of the Second American Revolution. A lot has changed since then. I’m certainly in a better position than I was before. Ten years ago, I worked as a forklift operator in a warehouse. Now, I’m the Secretary of State for the greatest country in the world. I have no problem saying that since the Justice Reforms of 2059 were put into effect.

    Campion had planned for the eventual demise of the old government and the start of a new one. She had numerous experts from every field on her staff; they were ready to take over when the time was right.

     In 2059, the time was right. Elections were held and a new President was voted into office. Campion ran for President, but lost. The winner of the election was a famous civil rights activist. She was the daughter of one of the greatest civil rights activists of the twenty-first century, Martin Prince. Alicia Prince took office on November 4, 2059. She broke through the only boundary left as the first female President. 

    In November, 2059, the country went in a new direction. Alicia Prince was a strong President and introduced a number of political, economic, and sociological reforms. The newly elected House of Representatives and Senate voted the reforms into reality. For the first time in history, the House and the Senate were no longer partisan; they were united. A new era of cooperation had begun.

    Campion didn’t lose out completely. The new President appointed her as the nation’s Secretary of Defense.

    By that time, Campion had recovered from her injuries. Explosive bullets had blown off her right arm in the Powerdrome Battle. During the eighteen months of her military dictatorship, she served as commander-in-chief without a right arm.

    In October, 2059, she had a cybernetic limb installed. Her new arm was actually stronger than her previous one. Campion’s scientists had learned to harness the robotic technology in the Powerdrome for medical applications.

    Jane is retired now, after serving as Secretary of Defense for eight years under President Prince. Now, she’s a writer. Her memoirs are on all the best-seller lists. She does talk shows and lecture circuits. She’s quite a character. But, of course, she always was.

    It wasn’t easy during that first year: 2058. We had our share of problems. We had to quell a number of insurgencies by members of the old regime: former governors, legislators, business leaders, and military commanders who backed President Frump. We were engaged in some bloody battles. After slightly more than a year of fighting, we were victorious. Major hostilities were declared over on August 6
th
, 2059, three months before the first democratic elections.

    Campion and I saw our share of the action. She’s written extensively about some of the most pivotal battles in her memoirs,
The Second American Revolution
.

    It wasn’t easy building a new government and subduing the rebellious remnants of the old one. As I mentioned, Campion acted as a military dictator for the first eighteen months of the transition government. It was a difficult time and we often thought we were going to fail.

    It helped that we had backing from the international community. The re-opening of diplomatic relations with the major countries of the world was pivotal in securing peace. After eighteen months of uncertainty, elections were finally held in November, 2059, and Campion was able to step down from her position as supreme military dictator. It was a great day and helped solidify our new position in the world community.

   Campion said she never enjoyed the absolute power she held for eighteen months, but I know her better than that. What person wouldn’t want to be Caesar for a year and a half? Especially, an egomaniac like her.

    Which is not to say she doesn’t have her good qualities. The history of the rebellion published in 2064 outlines both the positive and negative qualities of the famous rebel leader. Campion never did anything halfway. It was all or nothing.

    Apparently, that was what the country needed to start on a new track: a person of extremes. Well, they got it. Jane took it all the way, and we, her supporters, backed her.

    I don’t want to make it seem as if she was a tyrant; she wasn’t. Campion had a number of democratic-minded intellectuals advising her in the transitional government. Most of the time she took their advice. Sometimes, she didn’t. When it came to military matters, Campion acted quickly and decisively.

    General Brennon was her second-in-command. She made a reputation for herself as being more ruthless than Campion. When the rogue businessman, Michael Irons, gathered an army of mercenaries in the Midwest, Campion launched an all-out attack on his headquarters. General Brennon led it.

    Most of Campion’s advisors wanted her to approach the situation diplomatically. She didn’t. She sent in a strike force larger than the one we used to take the capitol city. General Brennon took very few prisoners.

    When the rogue general, Patrick Burnside, took over a secure army bunker and threatened to use nuclear weapons, Campion acted decisively. It turned out the supposedly-impregnable bunker wasn’t impregnable. Campion got a man on the inside, or more accurately, a woman, to sabotage the general’s defenses, allowing Campion’s troops to launch a covert attack. These events are described in greater detail in Campion’s memoirs:
The Second American Revolution
.

    Campion’s Chief Advisor, Michael Rosen, also wrote a famous book. In 2061, he published the revolutionary
Twenty-first Century Economic Reforms
. His book also made all the best-seller lists, but, of course, it still didn’t sell like Campion’s.

    Campion’s books were bought by the masses, while Rosen’s books were popular with intellectuals. Campion’s books were packed with action and suspense, while Rosen’s book was packed with advanced socioeconomic theory.

    Rosen’s book was the logical progression from Adam Smith’s book,
The Wealth of Nations,
John Maynard Keynes’s theories, and Austrian Economic Theory. The book detailed all the economic and political reforms that would be needed to get the U.S. economy back on track.

     President Prince inherited an unemployment rate of 20% from Frump’s government. During the eighteen months of Campion’s dictatorship, unemployment rose another 2%. It was no easy challenge to lower the rate and improve the economy.

     After being voted into office, President Prince created and implemented a number of revolutionary economic reforms. She used Rosen’s book as a guide for making new fiscal policies. Rosen’s book was extremely complex and many of the mathematical formulas only made sense to intellectuals. However, there were practical sections that everyone could understand.

    Rosen’s theories went back to the most basic economic principle; Supply and Demand. His assertion was that the depression was caused by a reduction in nationwide demand for products. The reduction in demand was caused by concentrating most of the nation’s wealth in the possession of the richest 10% of the U.S. population – with an extreme concentration in the top 1%.

    Rosen explained that during the twenty-first century, the share of the nation’s wealth held by the top 10% of the population went from 45%, in 2018, to 60%, in 2058. The share of wealth concentrated in the hands of the richest 1% of the population went from 35% in 2018 to 50% in 2058.

    The only positive aspect of this phenomenon was that the upper class had plenty of surplus money to invest in new capital equipment and machinery. The problem with this phenomenon was posed by Rosen in the form of a question: What good was investing in more capital equipment and machinery when there was a steadily decreasing demand for the products being manufactured?    

    Rosen argued that most of the demand for products in a macro-economy came from the lower 90% of the population. He said the lower 90% of the population was concerned with purchasing all the basic necessities for their families; food, clothing, shelter, medical-care, and transportation. This meant they were concerned with buying groceries, clothes, homes, cars, furniture, durable household-products, and basic technological products like pocket computers.

    Rosen argued that the richest 10% of the population already owned most of the basic necessities and durable goods products, which translated to low demand. However, demand by the top 10% was essential because due to a skewed fiscal policy, only the richest 10% of people in the population were increasing their share of the wealth in the twenty-first century. The standard of living was falling for all other classes of people.

    Rosen said that wealthier members of the population were more interested in obtaining additional property, vacation homes, services, and investment returns. This could only take nationwide U.S. demand so far. Demand for durable products from the lower 90% of the population was also needed for a healthy economy.

    Rosen theorized that the high unemployment rate and decreased nationwide productivity was caused by the steadily declining purchasing power of the lower 90% of the population throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.  By the mid-twenty-first century, the purchasing power of the lower and middle classes had reached new lows, while the purchasing power of the upper class, or richest 10% of the population, had increased dramatically.

    Basically, the steady transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the upper class created less nationwide demand for durable products. If there was less demand, there was less production. Less production meant less investment, which meant lower productivity and higher unemployment.

    As the purchasing power of the lower and middle classes steadily declined, the unemployment rate increased as total productivity declined. The richest members of the population hunkered down by holding onto their property and homes, continuing to purchase numerous services, significantly increasing their savings, and reducing their investments in capital as demand for products continued to drop.

     Rosen explained that the economists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century rationalized that a decrease in the durable products industries and a corresponding increase in the service industries was not bad for the economy. They said it was just a matter of more jobs in the service industries replacing old jobs in the production industries.

    Rosen exposed the basic flaw of their argument. The service industries paid their workers far less than the production industries. This meant that as the production industries declined and the service industries increased, purchasing power for workers in the lower and middle classes decreased. Again, this meant less demand for products and higher unemployment.   

    So what was the remedy for the nation’s economic problems? Rosen’s many complex mathematical formulas and graphs backed up a very simple idea. By increasing the purchasing power of the lower 90% of the population, the nation increased overall demand for products in the country, leading to an increase in the high-paying durable products industries and a decrease in the lower-paying service industries. This meant more nationwide production and lower unemployment.

    So how did Rosen suggest we increase the purchasing power for the lowest 90% of the population? He used mathematical formulas and graphs to endorse a very basic fiscal policy; lower the taxes for the bottom 90% of the population, while modestly increasing the taxes for the top 10% and 1%. He said this was the most efficient way to give more purchasing power to the working and middle classes and increase the demand for durable products. The idea was very basic and easy to implement. At its core, it meant significantly lower taxes for people earning from $1000 a year to $200,000 a year. 

    Under the old progressive-regressive tax structure everyone paid higher taxes, including the wealthy, but the lower and middle classes were hit especially hard.

    Under the new tax system, the first $50,000 in individual earnings was tax exempt. This meant no one – including the rich – paid taxes on the first $50,000 earned, so those people earning less than $50,000 paid no taxes, while those earning more than $50,000 paid significantly lower taxes – including the wealthiest members of society.

     The tax rate for those earning from $50,000 - $200,000 was set at an unprecedentedly low rate of 10%. The tax rate for those earning more than $200,000 (the top 10% of the population) was set at a still low, but progressive rate of 20%. Those earning over $500,000 (the top 1%) were taxed progressively at a reasonable 30% rate. Those lucky individuals earning a million dollars or more per year were taxed at 40%.

    Another important component of the twenty-first century economic reforms was the reform of the old, failing Federal Reserve System. It turns out that by creating inflation, the old Federal Reserve System contributed to the decline in purchasing power for the lower 90% of the population more than any other factor.

    Since inflation was a major cause of the reduction in purchasing power for the lower 90% of the nation’s population, dismantling the private Federal Reserve Bank increased nationwide demand for products and reduced the unemployment rate by eliminating inflation. Previously, the former private Federal Reserve Bank printed money at will and “leant” billions of dollars to wealthy private banks within the exclusive system at astoundingly low interest rates, which increased the purchasing power of the wealthiest 10% by dramatically increasing their money supply. Rosen argued that lending money to wealthy bankers at less than 1% interest rates was essentially giving them free money and creating a money supply monopoly controlled by the rich.