Page 71 of Longing for Liberty
THIRTY-TWO
President Wright walked with a cane,though he didn’t seem very frail. When he made it inside, he cracked the cane against the wall, making me jump. Amos pulled us swiftly to the side, and I saw Walinger and Roan scramble, a look of shock and fear on Roan’s face as he shoved himself into his pants and quickly zipped, sloppily tucking his shirt.
The music shut off, leaving a silence that almost hurt my ears.
“Father!” Roan rushed forward. “So good to see you.”
Father? What in the fresh cold hell…
Wright leaned against his cane as the other two men spread out like they were looking for something. Roan’s eyes flicked to both men, then back to Wright.
“We wanted to welcome the academy’s top five,” Roan said, sounding young and desperate. “I wanted them to?—”
“Alcohol!” one of the men called from the kitchen. Wright nodded and swiveled his head to the other man, who wiped a finger across the eagle’s wing, studied his finger, and nodded to Wright.
When Wright looked back at Roan, the current president immediately fell to his knees.
“Forgive me, sir.”
Oh my God.
Amos whispered, “Stay back.”
He and Walinger went forward and dropped to their knees on either side of Roan, all of them sitting back on their heels, torsos tall, heads bent. Wright pointed his cane at the five boys and then pointed his cane at the floor. Without hesitation, all five boys came forward and took the same submissive positions behind The Three.
I’d seen a lot of creepy things over the past six years, but this was the most stunning. And I had no doubt this was something normal to them, which made it so much worse.
“Women,” Wright said, not looking away from Roan. “On your faces.”
What? I looked toward the other women, who all fell to the floor where they were, faces down. I did the same, having no idea what was going on. My belly was flat against the cold floor, arms at my sides, forehead on the tile like the other girls. I breathed hard, and I could hear the sounds of everyone else’s ragged breathing echoing through the room.
I was almost too confused to be scared. Wright had always come across as slightly aloof. Unaware. Easily swayed. Not the secure, strict man who’d walked in here today. He’d been president when the worst terror attacks on American soil had ever happened. His poor decisions had crashed our economy and ruined foreign relations. America couldn’t wait to get him out and get Roan in. I tried to remember that bombshell reporting about the Order of Mercy. It said he was tied to the OM, and I had thought it was a stretch. But all along…wow. Roan’s own father.
“Thirty of our people are dead this month, Samuel,” Wright said. “And instead of praying for their plight to end, here you are plunging your bodies into Satan’s pleasures.”
“I’m sorry, Father. I’ve been so upset! I needed to forget for one moment?—”
“Silence! You are the President! And the future leader of OM! You don’t get toforget.”
“Yes, Father,” he whispered. “You’re ri?—”
Whack. Roan made a small sound that made me jump, but he seemed to suck the sound back in. Good Lord, he was hitting him! When the next hit came, Roan barely grunted. His father must not have liked that, because the nextwhackwas louder, and he gave a muffled cry.
“And you, Amos,” Wright said, making my stomach clench. “You are supposed to be my shepherd. The one leading my boy to the light. The prodigal son who became the strong one. What would my brother think if he were here to see you, his devout son, with a harlot on your arm?”
Wait, wait, wait…my brain skipped right over the harlot part to the first part.My brother…
Amos said nothing, and when awhooshandsnapsounded against his body, still nothing. He was hit five successive times, each one getting louder, until a gruff sound finally escaped him.
He moved on to Walinger, who let out a pitiful shaking moan with eachthwack.
I tried to think through the horror of the situation. Were Amos and Roan cousins? This was all too disturbing! And the beating sounds of the cane against the men’s backs were making me ill. My eyes began to burn, and I couldn’t hold back the shaking as tears silently fell to the tile. What kind of fucked up family unit was this? I wanted no part of it.
“And you!” Anotherwhackfollowed by a younger boy’s yell. “Is this what you want to emulate? A leader who falls victim to every vice known to man?”
Whack!
“No, Elder!” the boy cried out, and I heard him actually crying, sniffling, and my own tears came faster as I squeezed my eyes shut.
