HOMELAND: Falling Down (Part 1 of the HOMELAND Series) Read Free

protection.”
    He went on to say a few words about how divisive and radicalized the election had become then switched to the less cheerful subject of the economy. The phrase ‘Economic Armageddon’ splashed across the screen below his foreboding expression.
    Eduardo returned to his coffee. Sensationalism was the name of the news game. It was all about market share. The bigger the disaster, the bigger the share. News editors were under the gun to find new and imaginative ways to make mountains out of mole hills, scaring the hell out of people on a daily basis just to keep them watching.
    He bought a newspaper, wondering how long newsprint would still exist. He didn’t own a digital reader. He considered himself a progressive guy, but was still a traditionalist when it came to the feel of a crisp paper in his hands and ink on his fingers.
    The headline read, ‘America Defaults!’ It was old news. The announcement that the government would not meet its debt requirements happened weeks ago, prompting China and several other countries to stop buying U.S. treasury bonds. World markets dropped by ten percent, but rallied and regained most of their losses as usual. China ‘encouraged’ America to honor her obligations by threatening to take possession of real assets as payment if America stiffed them on the bonds they already owned, but everybody knew they weren’t going to do anything. He read on about pending hyperinflation, government shut downs, death, destruction…blah, blah, blah. Exaggeration. Hyperbole.
    Narrative license.
    An article on the third page caught his eye. The Fairness Now movement was erupting in cities across the country. The New York chapter had taken over Zuccotti Park near Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Estimates put the number of protestors there in the hundreds and growing daily. The city was extremely concerned about the sanitation challenges this posed. He decided to go check it out when he got the chance, staying upwind if at all possible.
    He went out into the brisk New York autumn air to catch a cab to network headquarters in Midtown. Traffic choked to a stop as the taxi reached the middle of the Queensboro Bridge. This was one part of civilization he didn’t miss.
    He spotted a well-groomed man in an expensive suit staggering toward him from the Manhattan side. He watched as the man stopped a few yards away and looked over the rail at the East River.
    “Looks like somebody had one too many lunch martinis,” Eduardo said to the driver.
    The businessman put a leg over the rail.
    “Shit!” Eduardo threw the door open and jumped out of car.
    “Hey, asshole! You pay first!” the cabby yelled in a thick Indian accent.
    The man’s other leg was across now.
    “Here!” He tossed the driver a hundred. “Keep the change!”
    “Not enough!” the driver said and pointed to the meter.
    It indicated another sixty-five dollars due.
    “Fine.” Eduardo threw another c-note at him before grabbing his trusty backpack and sprinting to the side of the bridge. “Don’t do it!”
    The man looked blankly at him. “It’s gone.”
    “What’s gone?”
    “It’s all gone.”
    The man leaned forward, letting go of the railing.
    “No!” Eduardo watched him plunge into the icy current. He scanned the swift swells for signs of life. There were none. He was gone.
    Eduardo looked back to the traffic still halted along the bridge. The great smoking chain of cars stretched as far as he could see. No one seemed to notice that there was only one person where two had stood a moment ago. The motorists all sat in insulated idling cocoons, separated physically and emotionally from the world outside. It seemed life had become as cheap here as it was in Syria.
    He set out on foot, wishing memories could be cast into the river as easily as a man’s life.
    Midtown wasn’t as he remembered it. The normally bustling streets were eerily still. This wasn’t the lively New York Eduardo knew and loved.
    A group