"Jon Brewer."
Then, to the surprise of most and the delight of Evan, Jon read, "Dante Jones."
A moment later, Jon pulled the next ballot. His face twisted as he read it silently at first but he caught himself in time to read the vote aloud with a straight face: "Omar Nehru."
Omar burst a big grin, nearly dropped the smoke hanging from his mouth, and shouted to his wife, "Oh! Thank you honey!"
Anita flashed a half-hearted smile then returned her eyes to the table in front of her place.
Lori Brewer placed a hand over her mouth to stifle a chuckle. Gordon's chair made a thump as he leaned forward and stared intensely at the ballot box.
Jon pulled out the next paper and read, "Gordon Knox."
Evan glanced at Dante. The two fidgeted. Gordon eased slightly in his chair as he had taken a three to two lead over Jon Brewer with Dante and Omar each receiving one vote.
The next ballot, however, evened things up. The temporary leader swallowed hard before reading his name, "Jon Brewer."
Gordon bit his lower lip.
Jon grasped the next ballot with sweat building on his fingers. He prayed the name circled on the next paper would not be his. Those prayers were answered: "Dante Jones."
Gordon's eyes darted across the table to Dante who sat there trying very hard to remain stoic. Gordon's stare next found Evan Godfrey. The President of the Senate appeared rather calm with one vote remaining. Knox and Brewer remained tied at three votes a piece and Jones with two; the possibility existed for a three-way tie.
However, that was not to be the case. The final ballot was pulled from the box. Gordon peered as if trying to see through the paper with X-ray vision.
Jon did not have the composure to read the name on the paper. He held the ballot aloft for all to see. Evan Godfrey spoke the name of the new Emperor.
"Jon Brewer."
– The office on the second floor of the mansion truly belonged to Trevor Stone, so Jon did not want to go there after the council meeting dissolved. He did not want to loiter in the basement, either, not when he felt sick to his stomach and certainly not with Gordon staring at him. He hit upon the idea of hiding in his wife's office.
Before he could escape, he accepted the obligatory handshakes from Dr. Maple, Dante, and most of the others. He had expected some kind of speech or something from Evan, but instead received a hardy slap on the back and encouraging words.
"Good luck, Jon. When you get settled, we have to sit down and see how the Senate can be of assistance. As you know, I'm not in favor of this whole 'Emperor' thing, but I think the important matter right now is stability. Let's stay in touch. I know I can help you."
Jon then retreated in search of calm before the scheduled press conference on the front lawn. He made it to his wife's office, the old dining room on the first floor. Lori followed him in but before she could shut the door Ashley and JB entered. "Congratulations, Jon," Ashley offered. "Be strong now, for the sake of the people." Jon, still in a state of shock, merely nodded. Jorgie ran over and gave him a big hug. "I know you can do it, Mr. Brewer. Just keep things going until my father comes back."
Even if Jon had not been shell-shocked into silence by the result of the vote, he still would not have known how to answer the boy.
JB pulled away. Before the two well-wishers left, Ashley told Jon again, "It's all in your hands now. Trevor trusted you. Jon, be strong."
As the two left, Lori close the door. Jon broke out of his daze.
"You voted for me, didn't you?"
The tone of his voice suggested Jon planned to take out his fear and disappointment on his wife's one vote. Lori, of course, would not accept such blame.
"Alllrriiigghhty then, that's how this is going to be? It's my fault? There were three other votes for you. Even then, I figured Gordon would win. I never guessed Dante would get a vote, let alone two. But yeah, I voted for you. I thought I would be the only one after what you said this morning." He paced from one side of her office to the other. "Oh, a pity vote? Is that it? I don't need your damn pity." "Yeah, well, you don't need pity but it sounds like you need a good kick in the ass."
He growled at his wife, "I don't want pity, I don't want a kick in the ass, and I sure don't want this! Who are the idiots who voted for me? Didn't they see what happened three years ago? Is that what they want? They want me to ruin it all?"
"Maybe people think that if Gordon Knox were in charge then we'd have ourselves some kind of tyrant. He'd probably slaughter the Senate and turn this whole thing into a fascist paradise. Maybe they have a faith that you're a lot better than that." He clenched his fists and pounded his thighs. "I am a General, a soldier. I am not a politician. I am not a leader." Lori sighed then placed her arms on his tall shoulders as he stopped pacing and gazed at the floor. "Jon, don't try to be the same leader Trevor Stone was. Do what you think is best, not what you think he would do." "That's the problem. I think it's best for us that I'm not in charge." — Three hours after the press conference announcing Jon Brewer as the new Emperor, the freight handlers union went on strike demanding changed work rules to improve safety plus an insistence on regulations against mandatory overtime.
At midnight that same day, four off-duty soldiers were killed when an arsonist torched a popular military night club in Indianapolis; a caller claimed the fire was in response to the 'military' coup. Copycat crimes over the next two days included a homemade bomb detonating during a promotions ceremony in Bangor, Maine and bullets fired into the dreadnought shipyards at Pittsburgh.
While Evan Godfrey took to the air waves to urge calm and restraint, lesser known politicians sprung from the woodwork pointing to the General's ascension to the top post in the land as a sign that there truly existed a military-intelligence conspiracy.
More workers walked off the job on June 12 ^ th in a wildcat strike at the matter-making facilities in Atlanta. This caused a shortfall in the supply of lubricants and petroleum products, which in turn ratcheted up the inflation rate to double digits.
About half of the media remained optimistic over Jon's election. Several did long pieces on his exemplary battlefield record and credited him with the development of the dreadnought program. Those same newspapers and broadcast stations recapped Jon's voyage to South America aboard the Excalibur the year before, calling it a 'heroic' expedition into the unknown.
At the same time, a fair number of media outlets attacked his election, citing his personal failures during Trevor's absence three years ago and wondering why political leadership did not go to someone with political experience.
While the level of panic and problems did not rise nearly as high as three years ago, Jon felt uncertainty simmering out there. He felt it simmering in his own stomach, too.
Things changed on June 13 ^ th.
Jon sat at Trevor's old desk, having been invited by Ashley to look for any items that might be of use. He had the place to himself: Benjamin Trump took his daughter and his grandson to a movie at the small theater in Wilkes-Barre at the request of Jorgie, who seemed obsessed with attending a 'classic films' festival featuring The Manchurian Candidate.
In any case, Jon found stacks of papers covering a wide range of topics, the sheer scope of which generated a painful thump in his temples. The headache forming there was interrupted when Dante Jones and Evan Godfrey entered the office.
"Hey, buddy, what's up?"
"Hello, Dante. Just going through some stuff. You two in town for tomorrow's council meeting?"
Evan made a point of walking over to Jon and extending his hand (his sling finally off) but carried himself in a much more humble-perhaps cautious-demeanor than usual. His voice faltered a bit as he said to Jon, "It's good to see you."