“And who the devil is the Honorable Albert M. Brockman?” asked someone in the rear.
“I’ve been trying to remember. The message listed government jobs he’s held, including some assistant secretary job-I suppose that’s the ‘derived authority’ angle. But I can’t place him.”
“I recall him,” Dr. McCracken said suddenly. “I met him when I was in the Bureau of Animal Husbandry. A career civil servant…and a stuffed shirt.”
There was a gloomy silence. Ted spoke up. “Then why bother with him?”
The Leader shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Ted. We can’t assume that he’s no good. Napoleon might have been a minor clerk under different circumstances. And the Honorable Mr. Brockman may be a revolutionary genius disguised as a bureaucrat. But that’s not the point. We need nationwide unification more than anything. It doesn’t matter right now who the titular leader is. The theory of derived authority may be shaky but it may be the only way to get everybody to accept one leadership. Little bands like ours can never win back the country. We’ve got to have unity-and that’s why we can’t ignore Brockman.”
“The thing that burns me,” McCracken said savagely, “is that it need never have happened at all! It could have been prevented.”
“No use getting in a sweat about it,” Morgan told him. “It’s easy to see the government’s mistakes now, but just the same I think there was an honest effort to prevent war right up to the last. It takes all nations to keep the peace, but it only takes one to start a war.”
“No, no, no-I don’t mean that, Captain,” McCracken answered. “I don’t mean the War could have been prevented. I suppose it could have been-once. But everybody knew that another war could happen, and everybody-everybody, I say, knew that if it came, it would start with the blasting of American cities. Every congressman, every senator knew that a war would destroy Washington and leave the country with no government, flopping around like a chicken with its head off. They knew-why didn’t they do something!”
“What could they do? Washington couldn’t be protected.”
“Do? Why, they could have made plans for their own deaths! They could have slapped through a constitutional amendment calling for an alternate president and alternate congressmen and made it illegal for the alternates to be in target areas-or any scheme to provide for orderly succession in case of disaster. They could have set up secret and protected centers of government to use for storm cellars. They could have planned the same way a father takes out life insurance for his kids. Instead they went stumbling along, fat, dumb, and happy, and let themselves get killed, with no provision to carry out their sworn duties after they were dead. Theory of ‘derived authority,’ pfui! It’s not just disastrous; it’s ridiculous! We used to be the greatest country in the world-now look at us!”
“Take it easy, Doc,” Morgan suggested. “Hindsight is easier than foresight.”
“Hummm! I saw it coming. I quit my Washington job and took a country practice, five years ahead of time. Why couldn’t a congressman be as bright as I am?”
“Hmmm…well-you’re right. But we might just as well worry over the Dred Scott Decision. Let’s get on with the problem. How about Brockman? Ideas?”
“What do you propose, boss?”
“I’d rather have it come from the floor.”
“Oh, quit scraping your foot, boss,” urged Ted. “We elected you to lead.”
“Okay. I propose to send somebody to backtrack on the message and locate Brockman-smell him out and see what he’s got. I’ll consult with as many groups as we can reach in this state and across the river, and we’ll try to manage unanimous action. I was thinking of sending Dad and Morrie.”
Cathleen shook her head. “Even with faked registration cards and travel permits they’d be grabbed for the Reconstruction Battalions. I’ll go.”
“In a pig’s eye,” Morgan answered. “You’d be grabbed for something a danged sight worse. It’s got to be a man.”
“I am afraid Cathleen is right,” McCracken commented. “They shipped twelve-year-old boys and old men who could hardly walk for the Detroit project. They don’t care how soon the radiation gets them-it’s a plan to thin us out.”