The Devlin Deception: Book One of The Devlin Quatrology Read Online Free Page A

whistled,
hollered and applauded -- "and let's see what's gonna happen."
    Debbie turned to a mullet-cut guy in a wifebeater T-shirt who had
just returned to his stool next to hers and mumbled, "What the
fuck? I LOVE Brittany; she's got a great voice, better'n Whitney
Houston. And now we gotta watch that lyin' (N-word deleted) AGAIN?
Buy me a beer, Darryl, so I can get through this shit. I'll make it
worth your while later." She leered suggestively at him.
    Darryl, five beers into his usual twelve, and having been the
recipient of Debbie's well-practiced favors several times in the
past, debated with himself for perhaps two seconds and then agreed;
he'd just settle for eleven beers tonight.
    Seventy-nine-year-old Marion Herman and her eighty-four-year-old
hubby, George, retired co-CEOs of a custom steel manufacturing
company in Indianapolis, were sitting at a table in the front corner
of the dining area, far away from the bar, pool tables and the stage.
Visiting Slinky Joe's for the first time, they felt completely out
of their element, but had been enjoying Salt and Pepper's music, on
the recommendation of their neighbors, Ron and Eileen Roderick.
    Marion looked at George and said, "Honey, have you got your
hearing aids turned up?" George nodded and murmured, "Tuesday."
Marion sighed and rolled her eyes.
    Pete grabbed the remote, changed all the TVs to the 24-hour news
channel and ran the audio through the band's amplifiers, catching the
news anchor in the midst of his commentary:
    " ... -itzer, and we're on pins and needles here. The White
House has not issued any hints of what this speech is going to be.
We don't even have an early release of it, so we're completely at sea
on what he might say."
    He paused, listening to his earpiece. "I'm just hearing that
we're ready to go live to the Oval Office. So here we go."
    At that point the picture shifted to the Oval Office, but instead of
President Obama's well-known visage, a stranger smiled awkwardly at
the camera. He looked to be in his early fifties, smallish, bald
with a light fringe around the sides and back, a bulbous nose, ears
too big for his head, an overbite and a weak, receding chin.
    Debbie leaned over to Darryl and said, "Geez, who the fuck is
this guy? He looks like a fuckin' munchkin."
    George whispered to Marion, "Is that Harold Lloyd?" Marion
whispered back, "No, George; Harold Lloyd is dead." George
whispered, "Did we go to the funeral?" Marion whispered,
"Shh."
    "Good evening, my fellow Americans. I know you expected to see
President Obama sitting here, but I've just fired him, along with
Congress, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the Supreme
Court, and it's all perfectly legal."
    At that, a collective gasp arose from the crowd, and Debbie looked at
Darryl and mumbled, "What the fuck? What'd he say?"
    "Shhh," hissed the matron sitting to her left.
    George took Marion's hand in his and said, "This isn't Friday
Night Live, is it?"
    On all the TVs, the stranger said, "My name is Gordon Donne,
D-o-n-n-e, and up until right this moment, I was the owner and CEO of
Donne Enterprises International, a private multinational corporation
which may be familiar to some of you. For the rest of you, there's a
lot of information about me and my company on the Internet."
    At that point, journalists, hedge fund managers, CEOs, and heads of
state all around the world typed his name into their search engines,
which nearly crashed those search engines' servers.
    "This morning, after President Obama signed the 1500-page Save
The Economy Act, three clauses in which authorized my actions, I
bought the federal government, lock, stock and barrel, and I've taken
over the executive, judicial and legislative responsibilities. Since
I'm taking on all three of those roles, my salary will be triple what
I would ask for just one, so you taxpayers will be paying me three
dollars a year instead of one.
    "Before I go further, I want to acknowledge something that I
have no doubt