Rebel Nation Read Free Page B

be the key to figuring out how he could travel through the portal himself. And now she was sitting in a classroom, learning something utterly useless from someone who was probably struggling to keep up with her intellectually. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’d already committed her textbooks to memory, front to back.
    God, her memory. It was a national treasure,
an international treasure
, and it was being wasted.
    He picked up his telephone and dialed. The phone rang on the other end, precisely three times, just as it always did. The most powerful man in the world never answered before the third ring. Langston would have hung up before the fourth ring if his brother hadn’t picked up the receiver.
    His goddamned brother. Everyone died and left Jon Stead the ruler of the free world. Ruler of the whole world. Some days it was like being little brother to Jesus Christ himself. Frustrating and awe-inspiring in crushingly equal parts.
    â€œI’ve already heard.” Not even a hello. “What I want to hear now is what you’re going to do to get this thing back under control.”
    Bennett turned his chair and looked out the big window again. “I’m open to suggestions.”
    The phone went dead silent in his ear. Even the static quieted. Bennett forced himself to breathe. Jon might be the most powerful man in the world—he controlled the viral suppressant that kept everyone on earth alive—but he was also Bennett’s brother.
    Half brother, Bennett corrected himself. They had different fathers. Jon had reminded him of that his whole life. Jon was their mother’s first son. And then Bennett’s father, and Bennett himself, came along and divided her attention.
    â€œHere’s a place to start.” Jon’s voice was slow and dangerous. “Get the Donovan girl back.”
    â€œIt’s not that easy.”
    â€œIsn’t it?”
    The line went dead and Bennett slammed the receiver into its cradle, three times. Then he picked it up again and used the intercom to reach his secretary.
    Karen had been with him for ten years. She was older than dirt and sour to everyone who came into her line of vision, except for him. She was devoted to him.
    â€œGet Leanne Wood in my office, as soon as possible.”
    â€œYes, sir.”

. . . freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.
    â€”LYNDON B. JOHNSON,
SPECIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 12, 1965
    â€œAltitudes in the mountain west, including northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, and western Colorado, protected these states from the virus for longer than those at lower elevations.” The professor tapped the map with a finger, pointing out each state. “These states were less involved in the war than the Midwest, and less inclined to extreme weather conditions than the southern and eastern states and those farther north.”
    Clover Donovan resisted the urge to pull a book out of her pack to alleviate her overwhelming boredom. She had far more interesting and important things to study. She’d picked up a book about raising goats and one about managing fruit orchards from the Academy library the day before and they were both just inches from her fingers.
    She’d learned post-virus geography in primary school. So had every other student in this room. Why was she the only one who seemed bothered by that?
    â€œCalifornia is the one western state that suffered as badly as the other parts of the country during the Bad Times.” Clover threw her hand in the air. The professor looked right at her and continued talking. “Melting glaciers in Greenland have resulted in the flooding of—”
    â€œHawaii is a western state,” Clover said, even though she wasn’t called on. “And Honolulu was moved to—”
    â€œYes, it was. We’re talking about California now, though, and most of the southern part of that state, as well as parts of