Chapter 520 - 241: Theseus’ Ship
The Mayor’s Office.
Leo Wallace sat on a sofa in the reception area. On the coffee table before him was a bottle of whiskey and two glass tumblers.
No documents, no maps, none of those headache-inducing reports.
Just whiskey.
"Sit."
Leo pointed to the seat opposite him.
Ethan sat down.
He looked at Leo.
The young Mayor looked even more exhausted than he was.
Leo was leaning back against the sofa, his tie already ripped off and tossed to the side.
His gaze was unfocused as he stared at the amber liquid swirling in his hand.
"Have a drink."
Leo pushed the other glass toward Ethan.
Ethan didn’t refuse.
He picked up the glass and took a sip.
The sharp burn of the alcohol slid down his throat, starting a fire in his empty stomach.
"You’ve been exhausted lately, haven’t you?"
Leo spoke, his voice a little hoarse.
"It’s been fine," Ethan replied. "Compared to writing policy reports in Washington that nobody reads, at least it’s fulfilling here."
"Cut the official-speak, Ethan." Leo chuckled. "I know what you’re thinking."
Leo looked up, meeting Ethan’s eyes directly.
"You think I’m making a mess of things."
"You think I’m leading this city—and even all of us—off a cliff."
Ethan’s hand tightened around his glass.
He was silent for a few seconds.
Then, he set down his glass.
"Yes."
Ethan said frankly.
"I think you’re playing with fire."
He decided to say everything on his mind.
"Leo, I came to Pittsburgh because I trusted Senator Sanders’s judgment, and because I believed in your vision. The Mutual Aid Alliance, the revitalization plan, the ideas about worker cooperatives—they’re all wonderful, they’re great."
"But your methods..."
Ethan stared at Leo.
"Leo, you don’t seem to care about the rules at all."
"You treat the rules like a rag to be used and then thrown away."
"I want to know, what is your goal?"
"Richard Taylor."
Leo slowly uttered the name.
"Chief Operating Officer of the Republican National Committee."
"I was on the phone with people from the Republican Party, talking about Bob Campbell."
"I knew it."
Ethan said.
"That demonstration in front of the Parliament Building in Harrisburg—you organized it."
"I was thinking at the time that the chants were too coordinated. The angry citizens at the very front—their movements were too professional, as if they’d been trained."
Ethan gave a wry smile.
"I don’t have a problem with that, Leo. I know you’re a pragmatist."
"Politics is a dirty business. Creating some controlled chaos to achieve a goal is standard operating procedure."
Ethan paused, his expression turning serious again.
"But you collaborating with the Republican Party... that’s another matter entirely."
"That’s collusion with the enemy."
"We’re Democrats, Leo. It’s not just a label; it’s our side. You’re now working with our arch-enemies to attack our own Governor."
Leo picked up his glass and swirled the ice inside.
"Ethan, I thought you were smarter than those student activists who just shout slogans."
Leo took a sip of his whiskey.
"Do you really think it makes a difference? Campbell is our target. If someone hands me a knife and tells me it can kill Campbell, am I supposed to refuse it just because the person who gave it to me is wearing red?"
"It does make a difference."
Ethan’s voice suddenly hardened, and he stared directly into Leo’s eyes.
"The difference isn’t who gave you the knife, but how you’re wielding it."
"Leo, I don’t care about the donkey or the elephant, and I don’t care about those nebulous ideologies."
"What I care about are checks and balances."
Ethan held up his hand and drew a triangle in the air.
"A political party isn’t just an election machine; it’s also a restraining mechanism. It’s a complex system designed to ensure that no single person can possess absolute power."
"The Whip, committees, the primary system—the whole point of these things is to prevent anyone from going rogue."
Ethan’s speech quickened.
"Look at what you’re doing now."
"You’re the Mayor; you control executive power."
"Through pork-barreling, threats, and inducements, you’ve effectively hijacked legislative power. The City Council is now your rubber stamp."
"You’ve established the Mutual Aid Alliance and its note system, giving you financial power independent of the Federal Reserve system."
"You even hold a degree of judicial interpretive power, and you have the police chief obeying your every command."
Ethan stared at Leo, his eyes filled with alarm.
"And now, you’re going to ally with an external enemy to strike at your superior within the system."
"You are systematically dismantling all the guardrails that could restrain you."
"You’re building a Bonapartist regime in Pittsburgh."
"You’re accountable only to yourself. You have no restraints. You’re a tyrant."
Ethan’s voice echoed in the room.
"I came here to help a reformer, not to be an accomplice in the creation of a monster."
A brief silence fell over the room.
Leo saw the fear in the young man’s eyes.
It wasn’t a fear of Leo himself, but an instinctive dread of some kind of power spiraling out of control.
Ethan was an elite forged by that very system. He believed in the system, he believed in the rules, and he believed that even a bad system was better than no system at all.
"So..."
Leo set down his glass.
"You think I’m Caesar?"
Leo smiled.