CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel by A. Bernette Read Free Book Online

people, no matter what choice they made. Through many
years and past mistakes, they’d both learned the hard way that it was better to
wait and be right, than to rush into wrong. Silver didn’t plan to have to
justify another money driven move to her constituents like she and Magiro had
done many times before. Not if a matter of weeks could yield better and more
complete information. 
    “You
two are acting like a pair of wussies! Ya’ scared your little people are gonna
get upset and not vote for you again? Well, how the hell do you think they’ll
feel when my people have to fire them because they can’t make their bottom
line? You wanna know how mad your people’ll be then? Well, I can tell you one
thing’s for sure, they won’t be blaming me!”
    The
Stache paused and picked up his tablet. “You call us back here when you’ve put
together the rest of your sorry excuse for tanking the economy. The environment
is going to be here. It’ll work itself out. However, your job may not be.” The
Stache pushed his chair forcibly back and it smashed into the wall under the
window. He smoothed his mustache again and marched out the door.
     
    ***

    Silver leaned against the back of a chair and crossed her arms. She knew all too well how to play the
politicians game, after giving thirty years to it, but when it came down to
working, she was all business – and direct. These traits didn’t endear her to
many of her fellow representatives but it was something Gregor Magiro had
learned to respect over the years. It was also something that got her respect
from her constituents. They kept reelecting her, despite the money and votes
that UniCorps’s partner corporations and political funding pots would
constantly throw up against her. 
    “Gregor,
we need to talk,” Silver said looking at the few who lingered as if waiting for
something else.
    “You
all are excused. We’ll give it another go after we get the report from the ARC
in May.” Magiro dismissed the others from his office. 
    They
would be off for the coming two weeks as part of the more engaged schedule
implemented by the World Consensus. It allowed for a four week on and two week
off schedule with special adjustments made for major holidays.
    Since
going year round they had found themselves with more time to prepare meaningful
legislation and actually review it. He’d been a part of the group that had
pushed for the year round schedule when he was just a second year
Representative. He, however, had selfishly chosen not to vote for the term
limits on his position. This was his career and he wasn’t going to
self-sabotage it. That would be stupid. 
    Once
the room was emptied and left to Magiro and Silver, they sat back down. Magiro
pulled the report back up on his tablet and Silver pulled it up on her device.
He always kept a paper copy until he was ready to recycle it. That was buried
somewhere in a drawer at his desk. Magiro didn’t trust that the information
wouldn’t disappear or change somehow with no record of what had really been
there. It had happened before with a crucial part of the ARC program and was
never recovered.
    “Did
you see this, Gregor?” Silver asked pointing to her projection of her device. 
    “Yes,
I have Silver. It’s not good. I’m afraid all of this may blow up in our faces
if we don’t do something. The one thing we cannot do is drill more pump holes,”
Magiro stated emphatically.
    “I
know. Still, the question isn’t what can’t we do. I want to understand what we
CAN do? There is always a solution. Magiro, even though The Stache says people
are working hard on a solution, I guarantee that if they really were, we’d have
seen something by now. The Stache and UniCorps are lying. Point blank. We are
going to be stuck holding the muddy stick trying to pull our way out of the
muck, when everyone else has gone home to lie in their piles of money. I will
not be the patsy, Gregor. You hear me? I will not. I have plans and