Patricians: Power Politics (2 of 9)

Chapter 21: Working through the Pain

Clouds covered the night sky just beyond the window of the office room. Only the lights of the city tried to penetrate the haze blocking the stars. Sitting behind the desk, Victoria was burning the midnight oil on a new bill for Congress. Several pads lay scattered across the wooden desk. President Woods had asked Victoria to create a new bill to govern cybernetic implants for the public. Allowing Victoria to craft the bill would protect Muse's business interests while appearing to protect the public. That had been President Wood's original intention. Victoria saw the task as protecting the public interests, but not her husband's.

Drafting bills required a great deal of work and painstaking attention to prose. Lawyers argued in court over the fundamental meaning of one word in a sentence in order to change the entire meaning of a law. Victoria laboured over the bill to close any loopholes created by the language. Born into a family that held politics to be of the utmost importance, it had shaped the young girl into the woman sitting at the desk. The importance of politics in Victoria's childhood had drawn her to Henry in the first place. Henry and Victoria had grown up with parents who had instilled in them a sense of responsibility to the people around them. In many ways, the couple had the weight of the world placed upon them at birth.

Victoria felt it necessary to restrict Muse's rights, including restrictions focused on limiting the ability to sell military-grade cybernetic implants to the public. Memories of the attack on the mall played in her mind, and her anger still raged. Each line of the bill was filled with the vigour of Victoria's belief, as well as her broken heart. Trying to stay unbiased was impossible, so she embraced it. Cybernetic implants were being used by both teams attempting to abduct Julia, and the team that had succeeded possessed state-of-the-art implants, according to Henry. Victoria was trying to bury her anger and pretend everything was okay since the abduction, but her writing of the law revealed the truth.

Reading over the bill forced Victoria to face her emotions for the first time since the abduction. Julia's kidnapping had filled her mother with anger and blame. Victoria knew she had lied to her husband when she denied blaming him. After the abduction, Victoria told her husband she had pressing work back in Washington, but that was another lie. The truth was that home only served to cause her more pain. Every room reminded Victoria of her daughter, every noise brought back memories of watching Julia play, and every smell caused a flood of painful memories.

The bill would attempt make sure no one else's daughter or son was ever abducted, and it was a declaration of blame on cyber technology. Victoria still loved her husband and knew that right now he needed the ability to focus. Any attack on Henry would cause crushing emotional pain and doubt. Victoria knew how much power she held over her husband, and that her anger would crush his heart while stoking his fears. Henry hid his emotions behind a stoic mask of duty and responsibility. But he couldn't conceal his heart from his wife.

Behind that stoic mask of duty lay a heart brimming with emotion and empathy.It was both the source of her husband's strength and all his pain. All the work Muse had done, all the charity work the company did, and all the dreams Henry chased, were fuelled by his empathy and love. Henry loved even strangers the same way he loved everyone. Early on in their relationship, Victoria hadn't wanted to share her lover's heart with others. For a long time, Victoria struggled with the feeling, and she often asked God to take the sin of envy from her heart.

When Henry had shown his wife his neural implant, she had gotten mad at the risk he had taken with an untested and dangerous surgery. The ensuing fight almost ended their relationship. Julia was still a baby, and here was her father taking a risk that should have killed him. For weeks, the couple argued, and it was almost the end of their relationship several times. Over the next week, every Muse employee began undergoing the neural implant surgery of their own free will. Henry was very persuasive, and the way he described connecting to the World Wide Web with his mind was compelling. The government fast-tracked the program because of the military implications, and, almost overnight, the technology was everywhere.