A handful of Keene’s fellow freshmen filled the waiting room, pacing and stirring, their terms of service newly begun. Like Donald, they were young and still hopelessly optimistic. They were bringing change to Capitol Hill. They hoped to deliver where their similarly naïve predecessors had not.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 3)

Importance: Keene comes to Washington, D.C., as a new and hopeful congressman. Keene hopes to do good, to change the country and the world for the better. However, Keene does not realize the tragic irony of what he is setting out to do. He will not come to bring positive change. Instead, he will become a part of a negative change that will lead to the deaths of billions.

It makes you wonder, don’t it? Why we all feel so rotten inside?
-- Hal (Chapter 6 paragraph 28)

Importance: As Keene awakens for his first shift, he meets and becomes acquainted with a man named Hal. Hal, like...