Storm (Swipe Series)

sheriff raised an eyebrow and leaned forward at his desk. “You’ve come here, I assume, with some sort of confession?”
    “Well, maybe yes and maybe no,” Connor said.
    The sheriff nodded. “Before you speak, son, I feel obligated to tell you—my investigation into your parents’ crimes is ongoing, and it’s only a matter of time before I’m going to need you to testifyin the town’s hearings against their conspiracy. You’re a Marked man now, and that makes you fully adult in the eyes of the law. Anything you say to me today can and will be used against you. You understand me, Mr. Goodman?”
    Connor sat still for quite some time. Why must this be so much harder than it needs to be? “In that case,” he said finally, “I’ll only say this: whatever it is my parents may or may not have been guilty of . . . whatever their plan and actions may or may not have entailed . . . I need you to know—they were acting at the request of General Lamson.”
    The sheriff stared at Connor for a moment. And then he couldn’t help but laugh.
    “Connor. You’re a good kid. You’re a smart kid, a hard worker, and a selfless volunteer for your community. You’re our country’s first General’s Award recipient and you should be very proud of it. But just because you’ve been honored by our general does not mean that your parents had carte blanche to commit whatever treasonous acts they fancied. Surely you understand the wide leap in logic between these two things.”
    “It’s not a leap!” Connor pressed. “Forget the award—the award itself meant nothing. It was a setup! Lamson came here to talk to my parents. The night after the ceremonies, he stayed, he asked me to leave. He talked with my parents himself . . . nearly an hour, he was in there . . .”
    “And I’m sure he had many complimentary things to say about you, but—”
    “No! He didn’t! That’s what I’m trying to tell you! That meeting—it had nothing to do with me at all! Lamson came here for my parents . Not for me. I was just the distraction. The rabbit he used to pull off his magic trick. I happened to be a believablecandidate for the award that he gave me, sure, but that’s only because he designed the award to fit my profile. He could have made something up for anyone! If he’d wanted to conspire with the Jeffersons, then he would have given Patrick a General’s Award for swimming. Had it been the Wolfes he needed, then right now Katherine would have a General’s Honorary Medal for best actor. It’s all just nonsense! The trophy as it was went to me because my parents were in charge of the weather mill’s launch systems. My parents were the ones best positioned to do Lamson’s bidding. And his bidding—was to shut down America’s cloud seeding for as long as humanly possible!”
    “Connor. At this point I feel I must tell you—slandering the general-in-chief of the American State is, in and of itself, its own form of treason—”
    “But it isn’t slander! It’s the truth!”
    “Mr. Goodman, why ? Why in Cylis’s name would the leader of the American State, one half of our great, new Global Union, conspire to starve Americans ? Why would the general ask his own citizens to wreak havoc and hardship upon their fellow patriots—and his biggest supporters? Connor, I admire your familial devotion, but this fiction you’re spinning doesn’t stand to reason. It’s only out of compassion for your obvious state of shock that I’m not arresting you for it as we speak.”
    Connor sat back against his chair with his head in his hands. “Sheriff, what I’m telling you is serious . Lamson’s guards pointed guns at me just for prying into this!”
    “Well, you’ll forgive me for taking the general’s word over yours.”
    “You haven’t heard the general’s word! That’s exactly what I want you to do—ask him about it! He’ll tell you! He’ll tell you myparents weren’t traitors. They died for him! They died for their country!”
    The sheriff stood up and walked to the front of his desk. He leaned back on it, trying, perhaps, to look calm and cool, for Connor’s sake. “Connor. You’re not hearing me. If I were to call DOME and inquire about this . . . were I even to suggest that what you’re saying to me might possibly be true—something I do not believe, by the way—then you and I both would face charges for treason.”
    “Sheriff, I know. Trusting me on this—even entertaining the idea of it—is most