TIME TO RESIGN

iUniverse, Inc.

Chapter One

The thin, red-haired man put down the sign and held up another one: "Japan claims Yosemite National Park,".

"What the hell's that about?" Jamie asked.

"Just watch, sweetheart," Angie said as she turned up the volume on the TV. "This is a live rally in Richmond."

The man put the sign down, grabbed a microphone, pranced across the stage, and said in a loud voice, "My fellow Americans, you owe China and Japan two trillion dollars! You can thank your wonderful politicians in the United States Congress, and they're getting ready to ask China to buy more treasury bills so we can owe them an additional two trillion on our maxed out credit card.

"If China and Japan want to be paid, how do we pay them? We don't have any money in our piggy bank; the United States Treasury is broke; the Social Security fund is empty; and there's no slush fund.

"China and Japan knew that when they loaned us the first two trillion dollars but, my fellow Americans, they knew we had Yellowstone; they knew we had Yosemite; they knew we had land and buildings.

"So if they ask us to pay up and we can't, they can claim Yellowstone National Park. Wait! Wait! That wouldn't do it. We'd need four hundred and ninety-nine more Yellowstones to give them just to pay our first two trillion.

"What if we just give them some houses? Yeah, that'd do it! Okay, let's give 'em some houses. What? How many you ask? A few hundred? No, my fellow Americans, we'd have to give them eight million houses that cost an average of a quarter million dollars each just to satisfy our present two trillion dollar debt. If they dip into their savings to give us another loan, we'll owe 'em sixteen million houses.

"What about giving them a state?" he asked and held his head and rubbed his brow. "No! No! One state won't do it. We'd have to give them all of Delaware, all of Connecticut, and all of New Jersey to settle our debt.

"Or we could just give 'em half of California or maybe half of Texas."

"No! No!" the crowd chanted.

"Is this guy for real?" Jamie whispered as he seated himself in a side chair.

"He is, sweetheart."

"And that's not all, my fellow Americans," the red-haired man yelled, "China and Japan is only one- sixth of what we actually owe. If we want to pay our total debt, then we need to give up forty eight million houses! Yeah, forty eight million. That's half of all the houses in our country. We'd own half, and our creditors would own the other half."

Pausing for a moment, he scratched his head, held the rim of his eyeglasses, and said in an apologetic tone, "Well, that'd do for now, but a year from now, we'll owe another two trillion, and that's another eight million houses ... sorry."

He looked out into the crowd. "I don't know my country!" he screamed. "It's being destroyed before our eyes by inept lawmakers." He pointed toward the northeast and yelled, "They have to resign ... every member in the United States Congress has to resign! They have mismanaged our money; they have grown their own net worth; and they have broken this country.

"When they are replaced, the replacements must be required to sign a contract with their individual Secretary of State agreeing to reduce the size of the government by 30 percent over a period of two years, and to reduce the government payroll by the same percentage. They must not compromise our safety by cutting the military.

"They must agree to limit spending to 90 percent of present tax revenue and apply the remaining 10 percent to the national debt.

"They must agree to cut welfare by 30 percent over a period of two years.

"They are not allowed to cut social security or medicare.

"They must agree to sell 30 percent of government land to American investors and use the proceeds to pay on government debt.

"They must agree to ban unionization of federal employees.

"They must agree to limit tax increases to 1 percent annually for a period of ten years.

"They must agree to be subject to legal action by their state's attorney general for mismanagement of government funds.

"They must agree that they will serve no more than twelve years in the Congress.

"And they must agree to vote according to the majority of their constituents."

Angie turned to Jamie and said, "He's right about the Congress. They do need to resign."

"Yeah, but he's never going to get things done just hootin' and hollerin'. He needs to sound more aggressive ... more powerful.

"He needs to look out over his audience, hold his fists above his head and yell out like a mad general." To illustrate, he jumped up from his chair and waved his fists in the air. With dark blond hair that looked as if it had been tousled by the wind, he stood erect at six-foot-two. His flat stomach and muscular torso were definite indications of his 15% body fat. And he was confident in his demeanor. Over the last seven years, he had grown even more confident than the quarterback-in-charge that he was in high school and college.

"You make a good, mad general, sweetheart," Angie said.

Chapter Two

"I love Holly Hill," Angie said, "even if we have to endure bad guys with grenade launchers."

They walked slowly across the lawn.

The noise of a car caused them to turn quickly.

"What's this?"

"Might be a nosy neighbor, sweetheart."

"Whoever he is, he's getting out. Let's spread out a little bit just in case."

They walked away from each other until they were about twenty feet apart.

"Looks like an ordinary guy," Jamie said. "Ordinary with dark-rimmed glasses."

"Maybe he's a librarian. No! Wait! He's the guy we saw on TV. He's the guy that wants Congress to resign."

"I believe you're right. What's on your mind?" he asked as the man came within six feet of him and stopped.

"Uh, I came to talk with you." He looked at Jamie, then turned to Angie. "I know both of you. You're Angie," he said, then turned. "And you're Jamie."

"What else you got?"

"I know you from the firefight you and Angie had down in front of the monument. Man, that was a real live movie. Bullets were flying all over Constitution Avenue. I saw all those cars on fire, and I saw you chase that guy into the monument. Only you came out." He stopped long enough to search their faces." So I got your license plate number. As soon as I got home, I tapped into the Transportation Division's database at General Services Administration." He looked at them again. "That's where I got your name."

"You hacked in," Jamie said, correcting him.

"Man, that's such a nasty word, but anyway, I got your names. Then I tapped, uh, hacked into the CIA's database and got your address. So, here I am."

Jamie looked at Angie, then turned back to the man. "Well, you're good. We think we saw you on TV yesterday ... down in Richmond. Your name's Ben ..."

"Ben. Ben Jefferson."

"Any kin to Thomas?"

"Some say I'm a distant, distant, distant, but I've never been interested enough to find out."

"So,...