Sedition (A Political Conspiracy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

asking for copies of the filings.
    It was a nightmare, as far as Felicia was concerned. By waiting overnight, the judge was effectively granting the injunction and giving Blackmon’s legal team time to better formulate their argument.
    To make matters worse, she was about to deliver a joint address with Blackmon to assure the American people the government was in good hands as both parties worked together to stabilize what was a precarious situation.
    She envied George Washington as she looked at him with his left hand on the Bible. He didn’t have injunctions. He didn’t have twenty-four-hour cable news.
    Still, the “People’s Business” had been good to Speaker Jackson. A school teacher, school board member, and county commissioner turned Member of Congress, she’d been on the fast track. She was witty and politically savvy. She had a handsome face and physique.
    Felicia was a Stanford graduate with a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina. Her husband was a well-known neurosurgeon, who’d given up active practice to support his wife’s rocketing political career.
    She won the seat in South Carolina’s first congressional district by a staggering fourteen points over a six-term incumbent.
    Over the course of four terms, the black-haired, blue-eyed shark had amassed a casino-full of favors. When her party narrowly won the house in a midterm coup, she’d cashed in her chips for a leadership position. She was named Majority Whip and then Speaker.
    She wasn’t the first woman to slam the gavel, but she whacked it the loudest. Every favor she’d amassed, every handshake and smile from across the aisle she’d garnered, disintegrated with the squeeze of her iron fist.
    If Felicia were a man, she’d have been considered shrewd and opportunistic. As a woman, though, she became the very personification of a variety of misogynistic terms used to diminish the perceived power of headstrong women.
    She was less than a year into her first term as Speaker, and there were rumblings all over the Hill that she would not keep the post another term. She’d heard them.
    Yet here she was with the possibility of ascension to the highest office. There were three years left in Foreman’s second term, a political eternity. It was plenty of time to change her image. But standing in the way was a litigious ass who wanted to skip his way from the cabinet to the White House.
    Felicia spun on her three-inch heels and plodded her way to the rotunda to address the nation. She prayed she would be the one speaking first. It wouldn’t look good, she knew, to have the secretary speak first. She needed to look like the leader, the one in command. Blackmon would have to take the backseat.
     

Chapter 4
    Matti hurried down the hall to her office, still confused about the conversation with her supervisor.
    What was the NSA really? What intelligence did they truly seek? How long had they been spying on Americans? Was she working for the good guys?
    Of course I am , she convinced herself. There were white hats and black hats, and she knew the difference.
    She thought she knew the difference.
    She didn’t look at the file in her hand until she was at her desk. On the top of the front page was the title “DATURA PROJECT”. She’d never heard of it. In the pages that followed, she learned of what NSA believed to be a fringe group bent on producing some level of anarchy or global reconstruction.
    The NSA believed the initial, informal meeting was during a “Tax Day” protest at Lafayette Park in the District. There were transcripts of what looked to be cellular conversations amongst members of the Datura Project. Matti also found evidence of intercepted text messages. Most were encrypted, and the contents unknown, but a few of the numeric codes were deciphered. They contained meeting information and alerts to larger, non-Daturan rallies or protests. It was nearly impossible to determine where they fell on the