Free The Chosen by Joyce Swann, Alexandra Swann

disappearance that the priest was being held in the F ederal C ourthouse in a detention cell reserved for terrorists. Michael and Jeff were well aware of this, but they were convinced that if they could get enough public support for Nathan O’Brien the RUA would be forced to release him. They were wrong.
    Twenty-eight days after his disappearance, the Department of Justice released a statement that Father Nathan O’Brien had been found guilty of terrorism and, in accordance with recently enacted statutes concerning threats to national security , had been executed that morning.
    When Michael received the news, he was eating breakfast with Kris and Mitch. Without saying a word, he stood and walked out the kitchen door. Kris watched from the window as he headed straight out into the desert , look ing neither to the right nor the left. She continued to watch until some sand hills blocked her view.
    Jeff entered the kitchen and asked , “Where’s Mike?”
    “I don’t know. He got a text and then left without saying anything.”
    “Where’d he go?”
    Kris pointed out the window.
    Jeff walked for fifteen minutes before he found Michael sitting by a clump of mesquite, his eyes were red and his face was wet with tears.
    Jeff waited for Michael to speak. “I am such an idiot!” Michael shouted . “ I thought that I was so smart! I was going to create all this buzz, and the F eds would have to release Nate. The only thing I’ve managed to do is kill the nicest guy I’ve ever known!”
    “Mike,” Jeff said , “ k nock it off. They were going to kill Nate no matter what anyone did. The moment they issued his arrest warrant he was a dead man. The y probably only kept him alive as long as they did because of all the public support. You did exactly what you were supposed to do—it just didn’t turn out the way you had expected.”
    Jeff continued, “I’ve known all along that this was how it was going to end for Nate. He was one man, and when one man becomes too much of a liability, the government always ge ts rid of him. However, when thousands of men get that much attention, they can get rid of the government. I know that you were supposed to do exactly what you did , and I also know that we ’ re supposed to continue doing exactly what we ’ re doing. I’ve been talking to Keith about having Jessie find out how many people are being held without charges. Th ousands have been arrested as domestic terrorists, but no specific charges have been brought. ”
    Michael looked at Jeff with interest. “So is this going to be the Where in the World is Everybody ? w ebsite ?” Michael asked without humor.
    “No, this website is going to be The Wall . I’ve given it a lot of thought during the past few weeks. We will build it like the Vietnam Memorial Wall in D.C. It will have a brief explanation at the top saying that these are the names of American citizens who were arrested as domestic terrorists and then vanished. We will list them in order of our receiv ing their names. As we get the name of each missing person, he or she will be added to the top of the list.”
    “What ’ s that supposed to accomplish?” Michael asked.
    “Have you ever seen the Vietnam Memorial in person?” Jeff responded.
    “I’ve seen pictures. I’ve never been there.”
    “Well, then you have no idea of its impact. My Dad took the family to D.C. for a vacation when I was fifteen. One day we went to see all of the monuments. My dad saved the Vietnam Memorial for last, and by the time we got there, I was bored and hungry. When I saw that it was just a big black wall with a bunch of names on it, I thought, ‘This won’t take long.’ I was prepared to walk past the wall as fast as I could without getting a reprimand from my dad, but when I saw on the inscription that the names were listed in the order of the men’s deaths , I thought that it would be interesting to see the names of the first and last casualt ies of the war. When I read