Page 79 of Booked for Murder

I’d take what I could get, and with minimal help, I made it from the stool to the wheelchair without putting any weight on my cast. “What was my grade for the shooting?”

“Better than I expected for how rusty you are. You’re motivated. It’ll do.”

The lounge adjacent to the firing range reminded me of a fancy night club mixed with a high-end cafe. The sofas, capable of eating people, made an excellent place to relax and read. I even managed to scoot from the wheelchair to the woman-eating couch without help, although the cushions did their best to trap me in their sinfully soft embrace. I contemplated a nap. Instead, I propped my cast up on the opposite arm, grabbed a ridiculous number of papers from the nearby coffee table, and began the tedious task of flipping through them to get a better feel for what the politicians were up to.

According to the table of contents, the bill would completely revamp the magical aptitude rating system, reorganize how the government approached certain classes of abilities, mine included, and otherwise rewrite how the United States functioned.

I could understand why people would kill over the legislation, and it only took me a few pages to figure it out. The rich would become richer, but people like me, exsanguinators with a rating of over 80.0%, would be drafted to serve in the military or some branch of law enforcement. To add insult to injury, those hurt most by the rules would be the young, as they’d be drafted as soon as their abilities were identified. The legislation prevented those under for life contracts from being drafted, although the owner of the contract would be required to track and report the whereabouts of their exsanguinator at all times.

I suspected if they had their way, we’d all be microchipped and tracked continuously.

Other dangerous abilities, including pyrotechnics of over 80.0%, would likewise be recruited into the military upon discovery. People like Bradley would be snagged in the government’s grab for military or law enforcement, although he’d be given a cushier role in the court system with a notable exception.

Those who held for life contracts enjoyed the same benefits as those who lived under them. I could only presume the for life contracts the adepts often used served as a loophole to make certain that those with high enough ratings to be a threat but too low to truly classify as an adept would fall under the heel of the government goonies also known as politicians.

Assholes, one and all.

To my annoyance, the more I read, the clearer it became the politicians in charge of the bill wanted people like Bradley alive and happy with their lot in life, offering a variety of incentives to encourage them to participate willingly while layering on some fairly severe consequences for draft dodging.

I didn’t need any help reading between the lines; the rules would put people like me in the line of fire while encouraging people like Bradley to play within the restraints of the reformed government.

The documentation didn’t offer any suggestions on who might have killed the creators of the bill or why. However, it did offer four names of potential targets, the surviving politicians responsible for its existence.

I considered lighting the entire thing on fire for the satisfaction of watching it burn.

“That’s quite the expression on your face,” Bradley said. “How are you feeling? I’m going to guess angry.”

“That’s one way to put it. I’m conflicted.”

“About?”

“Are we really losing anything as a society if these assholes bite the bullet? This bill is a human rights violation. It’s just atrocious.”

“Yeah. That was my general opinion when I started going through it last night. I am not impressed. The whole thing is designed to catch adepts who have refused to participate in the for life contracting system or those who don’t tend to be selected—borderline adepts, people who could potentially become a significant influence but haven’t quite gotten there yet. It would enslave their children, especially with the trend of children developing strong abilities. You haven’t gotten to the bad part yet.”

“Bad part?”

“Towards the end, they reclassify the entire rating system. Your rating will remain ridiculous. According to the new system, my rating would drop to roughly 60.4%, as I have some limitations in how often I can use my abilities before I’m exhausted.”

My brows shot up, and I flipped through the sheets to locate the aptitude rating charts, discovering a complete overhaul of the system. I held the opinion Bradley’s should have remained in the upper spectrum, but they adjusted the ratings to include organic versus inorganic readings, with inorganic-exclusive abilities automatically losing thirty percent off its score. “I can’t tell if this is good or bad for you.”

“Good, mostly. The for life contracting system eliminates rating requirements and instead uses a rarity rating. I maintain a high rarity rating, but I have a lower applicable rating, which would allow me to legally dodge the draft. As I will maintain the appropriate rarity rating, your for life contract with me would still stand, so you’d remain protected from the draft. My parents are too old for the draft, which is defined as anyone below the age of fifty.”

“They’re leaving the draft open to anyone below fifty?”

“It’s after the charts for the rating adjustments.”

I needed a match, some gasoline, a building capable of holding every copy of the bill in question, and the creators of the legislation. Once I had the pyre going, I would need many marshmallows. “This is complete and total bullshit.”

“It also explains a lot about why the FBI and local law enforcement aren’t moving in a satisfactory fashion regarding these investigations.”

“But they get a lot of cheap labor. I don’t see the problem. Granted, I haven’t had much time to look through this nonsense yet, so there’s probably worse stuff in here somewhere.”

“They’ll lose their jobs to a bunch of drafted people who don’t want to be in law enforcement in the first place. They’re not stupid, and if anyone leaked these documents to the Feds or cops, they would not be inclined to find the real killers, as these murders might stall the bill so it doesn’t make it through to the President of the United States. The real problem is this: if it does make it through to the top, there’s a decent chance he’ll sign. It benefits the military too much for him not to. They’ll want this to pass before the end of his term, as it’s doubtful the next President will sign. I suspect the next President would threaten to veto it and kill the bill before it even reached the congress.”

Crap. “We can’t win, can we? We either allow the bill to die along with a bunch of asshole politicians, or we find the killer but run a high risk of this bill making it through legislation?”

“Right. That about sums it up.”