[Intro]
[Pipe organ states the three-note typewriter motif as metal stamps strike a slow martial pulse.]

[Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Stamp the file and clear the screen,
Feed the names into the machine.
Law and loyalty fuse between
The blackened lines no vote has seen.
Tonight they draft, precise and clean,
The mandate for the machine.

[Verse 1]
[Narrator]
Past midnight underneath the Hill,
Fourteen binders wait to fill.
Coffee burns beside the seal,
Cold fluorescent panels kneel.
A fountain pen begins to race,
Red corrections crowd the page.
Every office, post and place
Gets a number, name and cage.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Narrator]
No trumpet sounds, no soldiers ride,
Just folders opening side by side.
The quiet room becomes a tide—
And every lock is turned inside.

[Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Stamp the file and clear the screen,
Feed the names into the machine.
Law and loyalty fuse between
The blackened lines no vote has seen.
Tonight they draft, precise and clean,
The mandate for the machine.

[Verse 2]
[Narrator]
One man circles “Day One” twice,
One drafts orders, cold and concise.
One marks judges fit to choose,
One lists workers they can lose.
A strategist rehearses blame,
A lawyer narrows every claim.
A vacant chair receives a name;
The Constitution leaves the frame.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Narrator]
They call it order, call it cure,
A chain of command made hard and pure.
But when one hand controls the door,
The key commands the keeper more.

[Instrumental Break]
[Staccato guitars answer the pipe organ while the typewriter motif passes through cellos, timpani and double-kick drums.]

[Bridge]
[Narrator]
The machine has neither fang nor face,
It wears a tie and measures space.
Its gears are memos, charts and law,
A crown need not be forged in flame—
It can be filed beneath a name.

[Build-up]
[Counsel]
Kloze the binder. Turn the key.
Call submission “liberty.”
Name the master “policy.”
Teach the lock to praise the key.

[Final Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Stamp the file and flood the screen,
Feed the state into the machine.
Law and loyalty lock between
The order signed and what it means.
Fourteen chapters, sharp and clean—
The mandate for the machine.

[Post-Chorus]
But underneath each printed line,
A human hand may still decline.

[Outro]
[Narrator]
The presses stop at 4:03.
Outside, the Capitol lights still glow.
Inside, the first red stamp comes down:

“LOYALTY.”
