The Killing of Bere Baudin

Can a Teenage Boy Save America from Trumptocracy?

The year is 2059 -- 24 years after the Second American Civil War. Donald Trump is long gone, but his followers have seized power and have abolished voting rights and civil liberties. Schools have purged pro-democratic ideas from their curriculums. Protestors are executed, jailed, or forced to live in Partition 3 with the Dregs. Like most teenagers, Bere Baudin embraces Trumptocracy and aspires to be a wealthy Vorster and to live in Partition 1, a domed city with fresh air. His dreams are shattered, though, when one of his teachers gives him an encrypted ziphoid drive to give to his father, who has disappeared. Police search for Bryce Baudin and arrest Bere and his grandmother.

They escape but Bere becomes distraught when he learns that his father and grandmother are Luminars, an outlawed  group seeking to restore democracy. When police falsely charge Bere with murder and arrest his family, he embarks on a mission to free them and uncover the mystery of the encrypted drive. But first Bere must convince Mr. Greenstone to help him:

"What can I do for you, Mr. Baudin?"

My 16-year-old heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in the tips of my fingers.

I take a deep breath. "I - I want you to kill me."

Greenstone stiffens his posture. ... "I'm sorry. ... I'm a stockbroker, not a killer. But I can refer you to a good therapist." ...

I lean toward Greenstone and whisper in his ear, "'Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' Now will you kill me?"

-Excerpt from Chapter 1