Hayes interrupted. “You see? His family listened and did what the government told them to. Even served in the military like his kind should have to prove their loyalty. What makes any of you think you’re better than that?”
Sato interrupted, his face hard. “Senator Hayes misses the point, so let me be clearer. My kind, my family’s kind, is American. What happened to my family was wrong. It was a miscarriage of justice. It was not what this country should be. My grandfather was better than the people who harmed his family, yes, but the harm was done. People died. People lost everything and it did not make us safer. It did not make us better people. The Domestic Safety Act does not make us better Americans. It does not make us safer. It takes Americans and strips them of their rights. It depersonalizes them and puts them in camps. Some of the provisions in this bill bear a horrifying similarity to things done to the Jews during World War Two in Germany. Tracking chips. Camps. Restricted movements. Removal of property and redistribution to the government. How long before we put them on trains and steal their gold watches? This bill is wrong.”
Helena wanted to stand up and cheer.
But he wasn’t done. “Two weeks ago a so-called expert panel was here at the capitol to testify about this bill. Not a single Other was on that panel. Worse, when an Other—Molly Ryan—was given time by members of this body, the room was hit with three bombs and Ms. Ryan was severely injured. Today we have an expert panel with actual experts on it and I’d like them to each introduce themselves. Once we’ve got that out of the way we can get to questions and answers.”
The introductions went fine and then the questions from the senators started.
Lynn Reed, Carlo Powers’ second-in-command nationwide, was on the panel, just a few seats down from Molly. Helena caught the shift in her energy, the darkness inside her gut as she spoke. There was a great deal of hate, but more than that, a sheer greed for power. If it wasn’t Others, this woman would be screeching about something else. She liked scaring people, liked using fear as her cudgel to whip folks into a frenzy.
“The proof is that these monsters lived next door to us for generations and never once revealed themselves until they brought down some sort of retribution on their heads. This thing that killed so many of them was divine punishment for their evil. Whatever pact they made to keep the remaining ones safe is what we need to know. Why haven’t they told us about this pact?”
Molly sighed heavily. “We haven’t told you because there is no pact. No divine retribution for existing. What happened to us—to us and not you—was an ancient power. It was not about punishment. It fed on our magickal energy and we were able to defeat it, but not without a heavy cost. It has nothing to do with humans at all. And nothing to do with this bill, so if we could get back to the subject at hand, that would be a better use of our time.”
“You don’t get to decide what we talk about.” Marlon Hayes sneered at Molly.
Sato interrupted. “The hearing is regarding the Domestic Safety Act. As a matter of fact, it’s the topic and it’s quite helpful if we stick to that. We were all sent here to do a job. The people’s business. To get sidetracked by all this other stuff is not helpful. Nor is it the people’s business. So if we can get back to the topic at hand, please.”
Hayes turned, red faced. “You’re insulting Ms. Reed when she’s answering a question.”
“That’s enough, Marlon. The question was asked, we got a bunch of nonsense. Her time is up and so is yours. Moving on.” Delilah Sperry narrowed her gaze, daring Hayes to continue.
Lynn Reed spoke from the table. “You’re going to spend eternity in hell, Delilah Sperry. I don’t have to listen to you.”
Delilah waved a hand, appearing bored. “That’s Senator Sperry to you.” But Helena saw her energy, knew she choked back rage. Her wolf pressed against the woman’s skin, but she held it together.
“My constituents voted for me knowing I was a werewolf. As for eternity, mind your own and get your nose out of mine. Now, back to the question. Ms. Ryan, can you please address the issue of registration and how it would impact the witches in your Clan?”
Molly nodded once and smoothly dove in. Any time Reed tried to interrupt her she simply continued to speak and Helena thought a few times she might have even used her magick to hold the floor. But if she had, Molly was too damned good to get caught, so good Reed had no idea. Which was a positive thing because heaven knew if she thought she was being hexed to shut the hell up, she’d flip out.
“The issue is,” Reed spoke again at the end of the hearing, “we don’t know that they haven’t been manipulating us all along. What if they decide to use their magic to harm us? Make us do something wrong? Maybe they’ve done that since the beginning. We have no proof they haven’t.”
Molly’s mouth tightened, but she didn’t interrupt and Helena wanted to laugh, knowing her friend was annoyed.
“I can only refer you back to reality. The reality where we’re sitting here in a room where some of you want to put us in concentration camps. If we had the ability to make you all our puppets, why would we allow people to bomb our schools and homes? Why would we sit here and listen to this hateful drivel when we could just use our power and make you do whatever we wish?”
“You can’t prove you don’t.”
What was this, third grade?
“You can’t prove a negative. It’s impossible and it makes me wonder what you’re getting out of scaring people and stirring all this violence.” This from Delilah.
“I don’t have to answer to you and your people.”
“My people? United States senators?”
The time was up. Many of the senators, including Sato, needed to be in other hearings, so it broke quickly, if not without some verbal sparring.
Since it was no longer Other business and since Sato had a really busy schedule, his security people took over and Helena headed down to where Molly stood speaking with Cade Warden and Faine.
Lynn Reed hung at the outer edges of the group, watching through narrowed eyes as she waited on Hayes to approach her.
Interesting dynamic there.
“Nicely done, Ms. Ryan.” Helena bowed slightly. “Ready? You have a few hours free and then it’s to the interview.” She didn’t say more than that. Although she’d used some magick to keep what she said quiet, she didn’t want to risk Molly’s safety. The more exposure she had to PURITY and the people at the top, the more she was convinced they were behind the major attacks. Not just the low-ranked idiots who got gung ho, but the very top.
Molly looked back over her shoulder at Reed, who emanated so much negative energy it was palpable, even at a distance.
“Yes, I’m done here.”
“Brace yourselves. We need to go out that way and the hallway looks packed.” Gage came back from the doors where he’d peeked out.
“Absurd that we can’t be safe in the halls of Congress, for heaven’s sake.” Molly sent a glare Hayes’ way, but he was too busy slavering all over Reed to notice.
Helena moved forward. “Faine and I will take point. Gage, you’re on Molly.” They began to move, the rest of her crew taking on their own places to guard the rest of the group.
The hall outside was always loud, Helena figured. Daily work in Congress would be full of contentious issues as well as mundane stuff. Staffers moved through the crowds, some on phones, some heatedly talking amongst themselves. There were protesters for every cause imaginable on their way to hearing rooms.
Normally she’d have found it fascinating. Now she just found it distracting and worrisome. A lot of people to keep an eye on. A lot of energy to try to wade through to get past the normal frustration and anger at issues not related to them in any way.