Page 91 of The Rebel King

“Why do you say that?” I ask, already in mild panic mode.

“He strikes me as a guy who goes off map a lot. It won’t be the first or the last time, I’m sure. He’s not his brother.”

“Um, cardinal rule, Glenn.”

Our team established a cardinal rule not to draw comparisons between Owen and Maxim and to discourage the press from doing so, too. There will be those who say this is an opportunistic move by Maxim when it’s really a huge sacrifice in so many ways. Financiallyandpersonally.

The producer counts us in, and when the camera’s red light pops on, it zeroes in on Maxim.

“I’m here to formally announce my candidacy for president ofthe United States of America,” Maxim says. “No one is more shocked to hear me say this than, well, me.”

“Was this in the speech?” I ask Glenn, flipping through my printed copy of Maxim’s talking points. “I don’t remember this beginning.”

“Told you so,” he says dryly. “I don’t know if he’s even looking at the teleprompter.”

“Many of you first met me when my brother Owen was running for president.”

We said we wouldn’t go straight to Owen.Sigh.

Maxim chuckles. “You think your big brother’s a pain in the butt? Try growing up with the guy who knows from the time he’s like five years old that he’ll be the president one day. Whole other level of bossy.”

Kimba walks up beside me. “I know you’re losing your shit over here, but he’s doing great. Let him be.”

“Why is he not using the speech we spent hours on?”

“Great leaders have a great gut. Trust his, okay?”

I release a long breath and nod reluctantly.

“I never aspired to be president,” Maxim says, his smile fading. “I wanted to change the world, and most of the politicians I saw weren’t doing that. They were taking care of themselves. As most of you know, I’m a wealthy man. I was born into it. I didn’t ask for it, but I have it. That’s privilege. I’ve leveraged it in my personal life to help those who don’t have it. Now I want to do that on behalf of those in this country struggling. I’m an unapologetic capitalist. I believe in choices and hard work. That’s why I’m running not as a Democrat or as a Republican but as an independent.”

He angles a wry look into the camera, a lock of dark hair falling forward and probably winning him some votes. “This is the part where you write me off, right? Because no independent has ever won a presidential election. This is also the part where you’d be wrong. I don’t plan to be a footnote or a novelty in this campaign. Iplan to be a force in it, always redirecting to the issues when we get distracted by tabloids, shaping dialogue around the needs of everyday Americans even if you have trouble seeing me as one.”

He leans forward, elbows on his knees, as I’ve seen him do a thousand times when he wants to drive home a point. “Maybe you’re concerned because I’ve never governed. I understand the intricacies of government, and I’ve run a billion-dollar company. I know how to make money, which is something a country like ours, in trillions—yes, with a T—trillions of dollars in debt, could use, but I also don’t believe people should be sacrificed for the dollar.”

I’m holding my breath, no idea how the public will receive this.

“We face bigger problems than we ever have in this country. We need bold solutions. So many things about the future scare many of you, and I get it. According to experts, automation, robots will be taking a huge slice of the jobs humans do. Whole cities could soon be underwater because of climate change. Tensions all over the world have many of our global neighbors on the brink of war. I won’t pretend it’s not scary, but I assure you that I’m not afraid. Genius and innovation live in the DNA of this nation. If we face new problems every day, there are those among us who have the answers, who willfindthe answers. And where those answers don’t exist, we’ll create them. I’m a guy who knows how to make something from nothing. I’ve done it for myself. Let me do it for you.”

The passion in his expression tempers, and a sad smile curves his lips. “I started this talking about my brother, Owen. As you know, he was assassinated not long ago. I’m announcing later than the other candidates because I had no intention of ever doing this. I wanted to support my brother. He would have made an amazing president, and Millie would have been an extraordinary first lady.”

He pauses, swallows, and blinks rapidly, a sheen of tears over his green eyes. “I would give anything to have him back—to have him sitting here instead, telling you about health care and Social Securityand equal pay and all the things he believed were theleastwe could do as a people.”

He looks down at his hands, clasped between his knees, and then back into the camera. “That choice was taken away from me, but this one hasn’t been. I choose to do what I always wanted to do—to change the world—and Owen made this cynical, jaded guy a believer again. I’m hoping that I can do the same for many of you. This is not a campaign of small moves but of huge ideas. I’ve built my life on impossible dreams.”

His wicked grin scares me because I know it promises mischief. “Once, I was trying to impress a beautiful girl, and I told her all my big dreams—that I wanted to make the world a better place, that I wanted to change a nation,thisnation. I asked if that was arrogant or presumptuous. You know what she said?”

He chuckles and presses his hands together. “She said revolution requires a certain degree of hubris. I have hubris to spare. Whether you know it or not, we need a revolution. We need to shake things up. The status quo is insufficient for what lies ahead. Let’s not fear the future. Let’s make it.”

CHAPTER 40

MAXIM

“You have hundreds of messages,” Jin Lei tells me in clipped tones.

“Well, I did just announce I’m running for president,” I say, not looking up from my laptop. “That tends to get the people going.”

“I can’t believe you’re really doing this,” she says, leaning one shoulder against the doorjamb. “Like, president.”

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