Read Online Suck It Up and Die by Brian Meehl - Free Book Online Page A

and looked through the anti-jumper fence at the Statue of Liberty floating on the distant harbor. His cell phone rang. It wasn’t John Lennon; it was the heavy opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth:
dun-dun-dun-duuunn!
He answered it.
    Luther Birnam was on the other end and spoke in a husky voice. “I wish you hadn’t left the parade.”
    “I wish you’d been there to stop Rachel from flying off the handle.”
    “And to stop you from putting your foot in your mouth?” Birnam asked.
    Morning huffed. “How do you know about that?”
    “I have my sources.”
    There was no doubting it. Birnam could disappear for two months, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have eyes and ears everywhere. “Where are you?” Morning asked.
    “At Leaguer Academy.”
    Morning was shocked. “You mean you’re just up the Hudson and you couldn’t—”
    “Not the new academy,” Birnam said. “The old one.”
    Why he was there baffled Morning. The old Leaguer Academy, where Morning and Rachel had become Leaguers, was inside a mountain in California’s Sierra Nevadas. The hidden academy had been abandoned when the new one was opened after American Out Day in an old boarding school up the Hudson River. “What are you doing there?”
    “That’s not important,” Birnam replied. “What’s important is that we halt Rachel’s dangerous behavior.”
    Morning didn’t like the sound of “we.” “Why don’t you tell her to stop? You’re the president of the IVL.”
    “I’m not king of the vampires. That’s not how we play it these days. I’m going to turn my videophone on.”
    Morning was taken aback; he hadn’t seen Birnam’s face in two months. The few times they’d Skyped, Birnam had been audio only. He always had an excuse like “computer-idiot” or “technical difficulties.” Morning switched his phone to speaker and looked at the screen as it blipped on. Instead of Birnam’s face, the screen showed a piece of paper.
    Birnam continued. “Since Rachel turned the parade into a showdown between us and them, I want to end the first anniversary of Out Day with a real peace offering, not one delivered by doves with hawks’ talons. Read the post I’ve written for the website.”
    The writing was so tiny it challenged even Morning’s vampire eyes. “ ‘In celebration of this day, I am requesting that every Leaguer refrain from all CDing whatsoever. In the same way we have proved we no longer draw blood from the human well, we will prove we have no intention of using our powers to our advantage, or to the advantage of Lifers wishing to harness our powers. If even a white dove, the symbol of peace, can frighten a Lifer, then we must stop all CDing. We must show the most skeptical and fearful that the only CD every Leaguer wants to perform is the one that transforms us into citizens endowed with all the rights enjoyed by our mortal brothers and sisters.’ ”
    Morning stared at the screen as it went back to black. “Rachel’s never going to go along with this.”
    “Why not?” Birnam asked.
    Morning clicked the speaker button off and re-eared his phone. “If there’s no more CDing, it’ll destroy her show.”
    “Our goal isn’t the success or failure of a TV show,” Birnam said. “It’s getting the VRA passed.”
    Morning frowned. “I’m not sure she gets that.”
    “That’s why I need your help.”
    Before Birnam could give him an assignment, Morning veered. “Mr. Birnam, you really want to know what I think of your post?”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s all good and noble, but a lot of Leaguers are tired of all the compromises.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You compromised Worldwide Out Day into American Out Day. Then you compromised us to second-class citizens.I’m not sure how much more you can ask Leaguers to swallow before they …” He paused, looking for the right word.
    “Before they bite back?”
    “I wasn’t thinking that, but yeah. I mean, if you wanna stop Leaguers from playing