Chapter 472 - 217: The Spark
"All he had to do was sign a document to remove a drug from the insurance list or define a surgery as a non-essential procedure."
"With that pen, he sentenced tens of thousands to death."
"Did the law do anything about him? Did the police arrest him? No. He’s still collecting his year-end bonus, still appearing on magazine covers, still being hailed as a business leader."
Frank slammed his hand on the table.
"Luigi pulled the trigger."
"He pulled that trigger for us."
"He did what every single one of us has dreamed of doing but never dared."
Frank looked Leo straight in the eye.
"He’s not a fugitive. He’s a spark."
"If we can’t even protect someone who dares to fight back... if we can’t even protect someone who ruined his own life for the sake of justice..."
"Then to hell with revitalizing Pittsburgh."
"No matter how well we pave the roads or how big we build the factories, we’ll just be turning ourselves into more obedient, healthier slaves for those capitalists."
Only the sound of Frank’s heavy breathing filled the office.
"So..."
Leo finally spoke, his tone still calm.
"Your plan is to have him smuggled into Canada like a rat?"
"But Frank, you and I both know that Canada is hardly the final destination, right?"
Leo stared at Frank.
"The FBI’s operational capacity there is no different than it is in Pennsylvania."
"So, Canada is just a jumping-off point."
Leo closed in on Frank, one step at a time.
"Tell me, what’s your next move? Where do you plan on sending him?"
"This ’path to freedom’ you’ve planned for him... where does it end?"
"The war-torn Middle East? You want him to sleep to the sound of bombs every night in the ruins of Syria or Lebanon?"
"Or some corner of Africa carved up by warlords? Have him go to Somalia or Sudan and use his financial knowledge to help a warlord balance his books?"
"You want a genius who grew up in comfort, who’s barely even held a gun, to survive in a place where the only law is the law of the jungle?"
"He’ll become a ghost, Frank."
"He’ll rot in a place like that. Maybe he’ll die of malaria, or maybe in a robbery."
Leo shook his head, his eyes filled with deep disappointment.
"Is this how you protect a hero?"
"Is this how you treat a spark?"
"By sending him away to be extinguished?"
Frank froze.
He heard the mockery in Leo’s voice.
"And you?"
Frank shot back.
"You’ve suppressed the news and you’re holding him at the station."
"What for?"
"To offer him up to Washington as a sign of your allegiance? To prove to the bigwigs that you, Leo Wallace, are a good, rule-abiding Mayor?"
"All for your own career?"
Their gazes clashed.
Leo didn’t look away.
"Frank, you only see the spark."
"But you’ve forgotten that a spark that falls on a haystack will only burn everything to the ground."
"For a spark to become a torch that illuminates the darkness..."
"It needs a torch."
"I have no intention of handing him over to Washington, nor do I plan on letting him scurry off to Canada like a rat."
"I’m going to let him speak."
"I want him standing in a courtroom, in front of the cameras, in front of the entire United States."
"To tell it all."
"Frank, you should remember what it says in the Gospel of Matthew."
Leo stared at Frank, his words quickening, carrying an immense, oppressive weight.
"’You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.’"
"Luigi is that lamp."
"This lamp may have been lit with blood. Its light may be blinding, even hideous. But it is lit. It is burning. It is giving off heat."
"And your plan is to take a basket and hide it away. To bury it in the snows of Canada and let it be silently extinguished."
"That would be a betrayal of all that suffering."
Leo grabbed Frank by the shoulders.
"I won’t let it be extinguished."
"I’m going to raise this lamp high. I’m going to put it on the highest lampstand."
"I’m going to make this fire burn brighter and more fiercely."
"I will shine a light into the darkness, leaving it with nowhere to hide."
"That is where a spark belongs."
"It shouldn’t be snuffed out on the run."
"It should be immortalized in a blaze of glory."