Read 3 Thank God it's Monday for Free Online

not want to be a part of what
is happening. I do not want my name, my legacy going down in history tied to
the storm that is coming.”
    “Stop being so vague, senator,” Jake urged.
    Hallie scolded him with her eyes.
    “What Jake means is if you want us to help, we need you to
be more specific,” Hallie corrected.
    Jake put his hands on hips.  He had to agree.
    Robert sighed.
    “I wanted to warn you. I talked to Matt Rodman two days
ago,” he started.
    “The Speaker of the House, right?” Hallie said.
    “Yes. We were friends growing up. His family and Nancy’s
were close and spent summers in the Keys and winters skiing in Colorado. Anyway,
we have been cooperating with a clandestine group of investors and businessmen
for decades. Ever since college, really. They supported me in my law firm, got
me a partnership, pulled strings and then bankrolled my first campaign for
North Carolina State representative in my district. They were always in the background,
there was very little correspondence. Mostly, it was invitations to events
where words were whispered, handshakes exchanged, maybe a cigar or a bit of
whiskey.” His eyes searched the room.
    “What name would you give these people?” Jake asked. He was
riveted to the story.
    “Name? Several times they called themselves a “collective”
or a “consortium,” but in the beginning, they called themselves something
else,” He bowed his head in thought, his hand to his chin. “Viv-something. It
has been years, but I think it was Latin. ViVeri maybe. Yeah, that’s it. They
had these tie tacks in the seventies with interlocking Vs.”
    “Five Vs?” Hallie asked.
    “Yeah. How did you know? Have you heard of them?”
    She shook her head.
    “No. It’s from a movie, V is for Vendetta . It is from
a Latin phrase, vi veri veniversum vivus vici,” she explained.
    Robert looked at Jake with a sense of awe and incredulity.
    “What kind of wife do you have here, pard?” he said
appreciatively.
    “One that hopefully can tell us what that means. The
suspense is killing me.”
    She shook her head.
    “It means, ‘By the power of truth, I, while living,
conquered the universe.’ It is a reference that can be interpreted in a number
of ways, really. It is all in how one defines truth, I suppose.”
    “So, I gather these Viveri guys didn’t just give you some
money, clap you on the back and give you tickets to the opera. Am I right?”
Jake said to the senator.
    “No. They would from time to time send ideas for new bills,
introduce me to powerful lobbyists. Once in a while they would tell me which
way the wind was blowing, so to speak. Investments, vote counts for bills, and
so forth. All under the table and hush-hush. I am ashamed to say I never bucked
the system until recently. I was too dependent on it.”
    “So what has changed?” Hallie said. It was almost
imperceptible, but Jake could tell that Hallie was disappointed in their new
friend. She was fishing for a way for the senator to redeem himself in her eyes.
    He bowed his head.
    “People are going to die. Mostly guys like me. I wasn’t the
only one, but lately, several of my friends in Congress and in some of the
state posts—governors and state senators throughout the south—have been voting
against measures that this consortium have been trying to get us to put into
play. It is a bunch of pork belly spending and most of it is wrapped up in
other bills so tightly it almost pinches some bills right off the floor before
they are even put to committee. Anyway, I guess collectively, we have been bad
boys.” He shrugged.
    Jake shook his head.
    “Politics give me a headache. No offense, senator, but help
me out here. What are you saying? The only thing I heard that I can understand
is people are going to die.”
    “I don’t blame you, son. I guess we have worn out our usefulness.
It started last year when some of the ‘old guard,’ so to speak, began losing
their posts to challengers. These were