Throughout the ages, mankind has undergone revolution after revolution, each of which changed the way the world worked. The agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the information revolution. We are long overdue for another! The sad condition of our world is such that it is ripe for a world revolution. We must be the catalysts for this; it will not occur on its own."

The President of the United States leaned back in his chair, his hands folded. "I'm gonna need some time to think about this, Mr. Reynolds. I'm still not convinced."

**********

The president peeked between the curtains hanging over the Oval Office's window with its newly installed, thinly painted, stainless steel reinforcements. "The cabinet's right , you know," he told himself, gazing out at the angry mob plainly visible on the far side of the White House's outer gates. "It's time for a change." If he couldn't tell that from all the political backhanding he'd had to deal with to get his position, the crowd blocking Pennsylvania Avenue gave it away.

The government had become corrupt. He couldn't begin to fathom the number of officials all the way up to Congress that regularly accepted bribes or manuvered innocent people just for a shot at better chances of more power. Though he thought himself to be an honorable man, he couldn't say the same for even his cabinet. Maybe the government hadn't become corrupt; it could have been that way since the United States proved itself a power to be reckoned with.

He watched as black-clothed police edged anxiously nearer to the crowd, riot gear ready, though no one had gotten out of line. As a whole, the people seemed restless, worried. Financial troubles seemed to infest the population like maggots on a three-days-dead deer by the side of the road, spreading like fuzzy, white mold on cheese. The rich were billion- or trillion-aires. The poor barely scraped by month to month, let alone when December 25 or April 15 rolled around. The middle class was dying with any sense of morality left in pop culture. Honor, duty, and respect were now just antiquated ideals replaced by more easily accessible and acceptable morals of violence, drugs, and premarital sex. Any surviving religions were persecuted and scarcely practiced but for one: that which trusted in the god of Money. He could barely let himself allow his five-year-old daughter to watch television, listen to the radio, or go to the movies in the fear that she might pick up on those behaviors.

As if all that wasn't enough, the Supreme Court had ruled on the case of Smith vs. Averton County Police. Reverand Daniel Smith had preached in his Texas church while the Averton County Police Chief had visited. Smith had made sever incredibly rude but true comments concerning both the police chief and the president, motivating the chief to suspend Habeus corpus and imprison Smith. The reverand sued. But at the Supreme Court, the issure arose that other key political figures were mentioned during the sermon. Although the president agreed with Smith's side, the Court decided in favor of the police to cover their own behinds in the future. Judicial restraint meant nothing anymore.

He turned from the window as some of the crowd caught a glimpse of him and begame more riled, shaking fists and pressing against the fenceline. Reynolds's report lay on his desk as the president imagined fire had lain on the pile of books at Hitler's bookburning party. It was alligned neatly with the edges of his oversized cherry desk. He flipped the slim, navy three-ring binder over to the third section, labelled "foreign issures."

Slavery now flourished again in Africa, some of which had been brought into the hidden places in the United States. While children starved in South America, Africa, and Asia, America farmers were being paid to not grow food.

On top of all that, They wanted him to do this. They didn't live here, nor did They seem to want any modicum of power. He couldn't imagine what They expected to get out of this, but Reynolds had assured him that the United States had better do what They asked. And They had asked a lot.

He thumbed through the other pages in the report then jabbed a button on an ornate, cream-colored box on his desk. "All right, Reynolds, c'mon in."

A bald head with round, black glasses poked into the room, followed by a short body.