Hammerport

Selected excerpts from the introduction of “The Atlantic War: The Birth of the Partnership” (first published 2176)

Prior to Parsons’ reign of theocratic terror, corporations had exerted power through a variety of devices such as contributions to election campaigns. Parsons found the courage to stand on an anti-corporate platform that led to his alienation and eventual exit from the Republican party. He struck a chord with an American public that had been plunged into a series of unpleasant and ultimately unrewarding conflicts around the world after terrorism dragged the public kicking and screaming into international politics on September 11, 2001. The nation had lost its faith in the political process and so the time was ripe for a new political faith to emerge; Parsons led the Small Business Coalition for a Free America (a.k.a. the Coalition) into office. He had had no real skeletons in the closet, so focus turned towards his wife. Although there was a transparent attempt to smear her as being anti-American, their real Achilles’ heel was completely overlooked, which would haunt the Paragon in his final years.

Elvis was slightly hunched. A heavy, black cloak was draped over his broad frame that spilled onto the ground, obscuring all physical features. The cloak only looked black, however, because it was soaked with something dark and red. It also appeared to glisten and move all by itself. Maggots.

Where Elvis’ face should have been an ornate mirror with a golden frame was suspended, concealing what lay there. The President saw only his own reflection, a shocked, white face glaring back. Bloody drool as viscous as treacle was dripping with agonizing slowness from something behind the mirror to the floor. It pooled on the ground, pattering quietly.

Elvis did not move. The President did not move.

The corporations were determined to hold onto power, however, and a short civil war ensued after President Henry Rathschild declared that Parsons was an agitator, linking campaign money through several of his small business contributors to countries such as the DPRK. The belief in Parsons was so strong that this attack merely bolstered his appearance as a fighter against the malevolent influence of corporate greed. The military soon sided with Parsons against Rathschild. When the civil war concluded, Rathschild was executed for crimes against the United States as were a number of corporate leaders who were directly associated with Rathschild’s response to Parsons’ legitimate claim to power.

The President wondered whether he was just tired. Maybe this was just the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Be, emerging from his subconscious to give him a hard time. His subconscious was doing a great job thus far. He closed his eyes and mentally wished for the thing to be gone. He denied it life.

He opened his eyes and it was still there, defying his demand for normality.

His heart was pounding now. Maybe he might die of a heart attack, he thought. He might die, right here in the Oval Office, before he had a chance to complete his great project. The revival of America must continue. Why? Why was this happening? When everything was going so well?

And his wife. He could not die. His wife needed him. He needed his wife. They needed each other.

He decided that God was the only one who could help him here and began to pray out loud. He would cast this demonic spirit out by invoking the Lord.

Parsons was a man of deep conviction and, even though his intolerant religious views were in no way concealed, the voters were willing to accept him. A dispossessed people will always vote for a bold man of action like Hitler or Milosevic, who is willing to demonise another segment of humanity as the root of all evil (corporate entities in Parsons’ example), with a convenient blind spot where the potential for genocidal madness and untethered aggression exists.

After a programme to dehumanise one sector of society is proved politically viable it is only a matter of time before the rest of that society suffers the same fate.