"Are we going to our deaths?"
"No."
Roosevelt countered Leo's pessimism, his tone still carrying a reassuring quality.
"The facade of politics has changed, the rules have changed, and even the players have been swapped out several times."
"But one thing will never change."
"What?" Leo asked subconsciously.
"Human nature."
"Greed, fear, vanity, ambition. These fundamental drivers of human behavior have never changed, from the days of the Ancient Roman Senate to now."
"I may not be able to name those people, and I may not know what their current titles are."
"But."
Roosevelt's voice dropped low.
"I know the smell of power."
"Power has a scent, child."
"That scent is the same whether you're in the White House of 1945 or on Capitol Hill in the twenty-first century."
"It gathers in certain places and flows toward certain people."
