Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) Read Free

elegant. Each Elder in three piece suits from the finest foreign
outfitters. Caine smirked as they looked at them filing in. It amused him so
that they all tried to be like him. Dress like him. Copy his mannerisms. Some
even tried to mimic Caine’s voice to sound like him. As if that would provide
them with the mental capacity that he enjoyed. It was pathetic, truly, but they
were a necessary evil so he tolerated the bastards.
    All the Elders lived
in this high rise. Everyone under Caine lived two stories below him and their
digs were not nearly as good as Caine’s penthouse. That was how it should be.
They had to earn their right to be at his level, and as far as Caine could
tell, none of them ever would.
    “Thank you all for
attending,” Caine said once all the Elders took their seats. They all gave
their full, undivided attention to their leader. “I’ll try and make this
short.”
    “Well,” a middle aged
man named Travis Johnson said. “We can start by going over that damned
terrorist attack last night.”
    Caine pointed his
finger. “I’m tired of telling you to not speak out of turn. Now, going on to
that point, it was actually the reason for this meeting. I’ve heard some
rumblings from some of you that you feel like this whole resistance thing is
getting out of control.”
    Johnson raised his
hand this time. When Caine pointed he said, “That’s because it is getting out
of control. I knew from the get go that this whole ‘Committee’ idea was shit.
We armed our enemies and…”
    “And, what?” Kerry
Blake, Caine’s second in command, demanded. “What have they really accomplished?
They’ve blow up a few buildings, sure. Maybe they have caused more damage than
we anticipated. But, in the grand scheme of things, we have accomplished our goal. We have spread fear on the citizens and it is those Americans who
have taken the blame.”
    Caine clapped his
hands together. “Well spoken, Kerry. Gentlemen, everything is under control.”
    Johnson raised a hand
again before talking. “You can’t be serious. We’ve got to take care of this
problem. They’ve exposed our population control scheme. They’ve discovered each
other and the different rebel groups we armed will one day band
together…”
    “Enough from you,”
Caine said with a sharp voice. “You have forfeited your right to speak.”
    Caine had to pause for
a moment. This Johnson was inching closer and closer to his own very public
execution. He never grew used to another person questioning his authority as
much as Johnson did. There were times when Johnson did make a valid point. Not
that it ever mattered anything to Caine. He could be dead wrong and he still
expected the Elders to buy in. Lucky for them they never had to experience
Caine being wrong. When he was a successful politician in the old days, and now
during his time as supreme ruler of a country, nobody ever questioned him. If
someone did, there were always dire consequences. He continued once he
collected himself.
    “Now, yes, these
terrorists have caused some damage. And, like was just said, they have gotten
just a little bit out of control. And, yes, we will take care of the problem.”
    A younger Elder raised
his hand and was given permission to speak. “How do you propose we deal with
the problem?”
    Caine thought about it
for a moment. Days like today reminded him of how much he hated the Elders. It
pained him to realize that he did need them. Getting his teeth drilled on
without numbing medication was more tolerable to him than this fact. If he lost
even one of them, save Johnson who was too stupid to do anything about it, his
sphere of influence would drop. To reassure them was vital. Their puny brains
just couldn’t comprehend his plan. No matter how many times he told them, how
many different ways he explained to them, they still couldn’t get past how the
resistance doing damage was a good thing. It created chaos which the USR would come
in and clean up. Fear