NEXT BEST HOPE (The Revelation Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF

will be hard to find and even harder to capture,” Brown said. “What are my orders if it comes down to him or me? The secret of the plot to assassinate the President might die with him, just like it did with Oswald,” Brown said.
    “In that circumstance, your orders are to do what you must to ensure your own safety,” Sherman Aloysius said.
    Brown extended his hand to the general. “Tell Ert and Leadoff they owe me one,” he said.
    “I’ll send you information about your contact at the FBI in a few minutes. You are doing a great service to your country, Agent Brown.”
    “Let’s hope the good guys win,” Brown said.
    He watched Sherman Aloysius get back in his car and drive away. Then, he went into his cabin, packed a knapsack full of supplies, grabbed the weapons and equipment he always kept ready, loaded them all into his green Camaro, raced down the mountain road not looking back and turned east on the highway on his way to Nashville.

CHAPTER 10
     
    A MAN WHO looked younger than his forty-five years, in a dark blue business suit with a briefcase in his hand, stepped off a streetcar on St. Charles Avenue, in front of Tulane University. He walked a couple of blocks through turn-of-the-century mansions on the tree-lined streets of the Garden District, where camellias burst forth in brilliant colors, amazed all the time that the neighborhood had remained pristine, virtually untouched by Katrina’s wrath.
    Under the heat of the mid-day sun, he took an embroidered handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped sweat off his forehead where a jet black curl of hair fell almost into his eyes. He shucked his jacket and threw it over his shoulder. He reached in his pocket for a note on a slip of paper and checked the address. At first glance, he thought he was at the wrong place because he saw no cars parked on the narrow street, or in the circular drive. When he rang the bell, a vivacious nineteen-year-old girl with brilliant red hair answered the door. She had a mint julep in her right hand.
    “Come right in, Congressman Farragut. We don’t hold the deeds of your ancestors against you,” she said with a Scarlett O’Hara lilt in her voice and the slightest whiff of a curtsy about her person. A faint smile creased the corners of her mouth as she contemplated the cuteness of her greeting.
    “I’m proud to hear that,” the Minority Leader said, as he grinned back at her and gave her a wink.
    “They are meeting in the library. Can I get you something to drink?”
    “Lemonade would be great. It’s getting hot out there,” he said.
    “Go on in the library, and I’ll have someone bring it to you in just a minute,” she said.
    In the library, he found a number of his colleagues, all members of the minority party in the United States Congress. Their secret convocation had nothing to do with governing the country and everything to do with tipping the balance of power back in the right direction, their direction.
    Farragut wasted no time getting to the point.
    “Members of Congress,” he began, “you all realize that we stand at a critical moment in the history of our country and our party. I know I speak for everyone in the room when I say that we wish President Whitfield the best in his attempt to pilot the ship of state.”
    He heard grumblings in the crowd.
    “But, nevertheless, we cannot abandon, even at this grave hour, our role as the loyal opposition,” he continued.
    Now he heard applause from many.
    “I have to say that the term ‘loyal opposition’ has always puzzled me,” he continued.
    There were some laughs in the audience now.
    “Loyal to what? I am loyal to the people of this great country, not to a man from nowhere, a man who has never run for office, let alone won an election,” he said as the mood in the room became like that on the floor of Congress when they voted as a block against a measure they knew they could not defeat.
    “A person could ask who it is that stood the most to gain