First was an income tax increase, followed by the implementation of a value-added tax, an increase of the minimum wage, and last, the printing and insertion of additional cash into the economy. This would create inflation, which would, in turn, force businesses to increase their prices. Consumers would ultimately take the hit. More would be taken from their wallets and products and services would cost more. Again, businesses would be to blame and people would turn to the government for help.
As the weather began to warm, so did the divisions in Blue Creek’s politics. While Governor Asher was becoming wildly unpopular – a recent poll had put him at thirty-four percent approval – he still had his die-hard supporters. A group of business leaders, formed by Patton Larsen and his associates, built momentum and quickly became the loudest voice in the town’s politics. A vote on the economic package was set for May 1st. Because of the negative attention of the impending vote, anticipation of the outcome was palpable. The separate anti-Asher groups coalesced into a single, large political movement. They held a letter writing and email drive to pressure members of the Council to vote against the package.
When the day of the vote finally arrived, Blue Creek was terribly divided. The pro-Asher movement, behind Anna and Charlie, was pushing their pro-package message through the media. The publicity helped the policies gain some popularity, but overall, the people of Blue Creek were very much against it. The vote was scheduled for seven that evening and was going to be carried on live TV. Hours before the vote, hundreds of people, representing both sides of the issue, gathered in front of City Hall. The Blue Creek Police Department was in “all hands on deck” mode to provide security and keep the two sides separated.
In an attempt to bring calm and keep order, Governor Asher went on TV to give an address. Although he was undoubtedly in favor of the proposals, he beseeched citizens to accept the results of the vote, whichever way it went. A half hour before the vote, a large bus pulled up in front of City Hall. All twenty-one members of the Blue Creek Council stepped off and made their way into the building. There was some cheering and jeering, but mostly, the crowd was quiet, mostly out of dreaded anticipation of the outcome.
Council member Peter Grace was in a tough spot. The vote was tied ten to ten and just his luck, he was the last person to vote. He wasn’t really on the fence – he had known for weeks how he was going to vote – he just knew that he was about to become a symbol of derision and anger. He would’ve voted for the package anyway, but a visit to his home the night before helped him make his decision. He hadn’t recognized the man, but he knew it was someone he shouldn’t mess with.
The man was there to inform the Councilman that he knew why Grace fled his home in Ohio. If he didn’t vote the right way on the tax package, the rest of Blue Creek would know. The man threw in the last caveat—if he voted against it, not only would everyone on Blue Creek know that he had committed various crimes back in Ohio, and was wanted by the law there, he would also be beaten within an inch of his life. Swallowing hard, Grace nodded again. He closed the door and started to think about what to do after being voted out of office.
“And how does Mr. Grace vote?” came the voice of the Speaker.
Peter Grace was shaken out of his trance. He looked at the Speaker, then ahead to the gathered audience. A pregnant silence hung in the air. He nervously cleared his throat and leaned closer to his microphone.
“I vote yes, Madame Speaker,” he said, his voice cracking.
Loud applause broke out from one half of the room. The Speaker nearly pounded her gavel through her desk.
“Let’s have some order!” she said to no avail.
Although Councilman Grace had just become the hero to half of this room, he had just become the enemy to nearly three-quarters of Blue Creek. On one hand, he would be voted out of office—there was no doubt about that. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have to spend months in a body cast.
Supposedly they had just won a victory, but Anna and Asher didn’t feel like celebrating. It felt more like they had just had a near-death experience. They usually would have been in bed by this point, but the Governor was too frazzled by the near miss. He chalked the victory up to his charm and political acumen, but Anna knew better. She was the one who had deployed the thug to the Council member’s house. Not wanting to deflate what was left of Asher’s ego, she decided to not mention it.
Anna was nursing her second drink while Asher was either on number seven or eight. She wished he would just pass out. However, he was still going strong on his anti-Wilson rant, something he was doing more often the less popular he became.
“So what’s the old bastard going to have me do next, buy a nuke from the US government and drop it on all of our heads?” Asher asked, almost completely drunk now.
Anna almost laughed, but this wasn’t the time to encourage him. The last thing they needed to do at this point was divide themselves. There were outside forces at work trying to do that. What she needed to do was help him see the big picture. Yes, they would take their lumps in the polls and at the ballot box, but once they had power, it was going to be hard for anyone else to take it away from them. Instead of placating Asher and giving into his woe-is-me mood, she set her drink down and glared at him.
“You know what,” Asher said, raising his glass towards her, “you look like my mother when you make that face.” He chuckled and downed the rest of the dark yellow liquid.
“Screw you, David,” she said viciously. “Why don’t you pull your head out of your ass and listen to what we’re trying to do here? It’s not about one election or one policy.”
Asher scoffed at that. He wanted to remind her that the experiment started with everyone equal in socioeconomic status, but she would just brush this aside. It was at that moment that he decided to go ahead with his plans. She didn’t know this – sitting on the floor with her back up against her recliner – that David Asher had just decided to take Blue Creek in his own direction.
There was a similar scene at the Larsen house—a depressed, drunk man with a woman trying to comfort him. Patton had alternated between rage and disbelief at the outcome of the vote. He’d poured hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into stopping passage of the economic package. He’d cranked up the activity on his blog, writing what he believed were his best pieces. Traffic at his site had been at its highest. Patton had every reason to believe that they would stop the new policy proposals. But something had gone wrong.
Part of Patton wanted to relent—to give up the fight and let Charlie Henry have his way. He’d still make his money for a while. If worse came to worse, he could pay his way out of the experiment and go home. Another part of Patton understood the consequences of his leaving. He was the only thing standing in the way of Charlie Henry bringing “utopia” to Blue Creek.
“You tried everything you could, Patton,” Jennifer cooed. She rubbed his neck the way he liked and he was finally starting to relax. Patton grunted in disagreement. However, he couldn’t think of anything else he could have done.
Their conversation drifted onto other topics and eventually led to Mike and what he was up to.
“What’s wrong with him?” Jennifer asked, obviously concerned.
“No idea. I haven’t even really seen him.”
Patton suddenly started to chuckle.
“What?” Jennifer asked, smiling. She was glad to see him smiling.
“Do you remember that story Mike was telling us about him and his brother when they went to Brazil?”
Jennifer’s eyes gleamed as she watched her husband recount the story.
“You really don’t remember that?”
“No. I don’t recall.”
Patton chuckled to himself again then stopped.
“What did you just say?”
“What?” Jennifer replied, confused at Patton’s sudden change of mood.
“What di
d you just say?”
“You asked me if I remember the story and I said I don’t recall him telling a story like that.”
Patton sat up quickly in bed. The effect of the alcohol in his system was suddenly gone. He swore and slapped himself on the forehead.
“What?”
“Recall. Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”
Jennifer was starting to get concerned. Patton was on another one of his rants.
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s over eighteen months until the election. Once these policies kick in they’re going to crash the economy worse than it is now. We can recall Asher because people will be impatient and angry.”
Jennifer chewed on this idea for a minute then realized something.
“Is a recall in the constitution?”
“I don’t know. I’ll check in the morning. If it’s not we’ll have to get it on there.”
Jennifer looked skeptical.
“Wouldn’t Asher have to sign that?”
Patton nodded.
“Yes, but ten people voted no tonight. That means we would need four people to override a veto. They’re going to be too scared to not vote for a recall.”
Jennifer was still unsure but she let it go.
“Anyway,” Patton said, yawning. “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed.”
Bao was sitting through yet another meeting. The schedule returned to normal for a time, but recently, they were back to multiple meetings per week. Bao was working on his second energy drink, but it would be his last for the day. Despite that, he still had to fight to stay awake.
There were two main agenda items in this most recent set of meetings. First was the economic package that passed months earlier. The second was a more recent development—David Asher was being recalled.
A surprisingly happy Michael Varner led the meeting.
“What we got economically?” Varner asked Dr. Edmunds, the head economist.
Edmunds pulled a report from a folder and cleared his throat.
“To be frank, the policies have been an utter disaster for the economy. They’re so bad you could almost say that someone is purposely trying to make the economy tank.”
Bao laughed out loud at this, but quickly stifled it. Most at the table turned to look at him, but he took a sip from his drink, embarrassed at his outburst. He reacted this way because this was exactly what Patton Larsen claimed during the debate over the policy package. Larsen continued to make the claim on his blogsite, but he’d largely been ignored.
“Something to add Bao?” Michael Varner asked, a somewhat playful look on his face.
Bao stifled another laugh and said, “No sir. My report speaks for itself.”
He’d recently submitted a long, detailed report on this exact topic. Most of it was taken word for word from discussions he’d had with Patton.
“What do you think Dr. Edmunds?” Varner asked.
Edmunds tapped his pen mindlessly on the report. He was obviously debating how to answer.
“I used to laugh at Larsen’s claims, but now I have to wonder. I mean, these policies, especially when taken together, are absolutely horrible. Growth is stagnant at best. Consumer confidence is almost nil. Prices are high, wages are low. Unemployment is growing because the business tax burden is so high and people aren’t spending much right now.”
“What about the economic stimulus?” asked one of the political scientists, who was obviously supportive of what the Asher government was trying to accomplish.
Edmunds rolled his at the question.
“That did nothing but cause consumer prices to go up. Yes, they printed and gave money to people that were hurting, but businesses had to increase prices because the value of the currency decreased. It had zero effect overall.”
Bao could tell the woman wanted to respond, but she had no facts to retort with. Edmunds continued, predicting further economic problems for Blue Creek. Someone asked Dr. Edmunds when things would improve.
“When David Asher is out of power,” was all he said.
Michael Varner turned the conversation to the recall of Governor David Asher. Bao figured there were over a hundred years of experience in politics. After a half hour of discussion, though, Bao realized that no one had a clue how the recall had come about. Bao knew that it began and ended with Patton Larsen, but no one else wanted to acknowledge this fact for some reason. He must have reacted because Varner asked for his opinion.
“Again, my report speaks for itself. I submitted it a couple weeks ago.”
Several researchers pushed back against Bao’s conclusions, but he didn’t back down. He watched Patton put the movement together. He’d even tried to recruit Bao to spread the word, but Bao was able to reject the offer without revealing himself as spy for Insight Resources. Despite his reticence to participate directly, Bao was able to see how it all unfolded. Once everyone agreed to disagree they moved on to the election itself.
The vote would take place on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Like the original election, if none of the candidates won a majority it would go to a runoff between the top two candidates. Recent polling showed Asher’s positives to be low and his negatives high. Voters were engaged in the process, which didn’t bode well for Asher’s survival. Bao left the meeting certain of two things. First, David Asher would not survive the recall. Second, it was possible that Blue Creek might not survive the removal of David Asher.
David Asher finally came to terms with the fact that he was facing recall. There were a lot of reasons and a lot of blame to go around, but no matter the cause, David Asher blamed Charlie. Furious, he pulled his phone from his pocket and called Anna. She hesitated to answer, but she knew she would have to deal with him sooner or later.
“Hello David.”
There was a pause, but Anna could hear him breathing.
“David?”
“He said those policies would be fine.”
Anna paused and took in a deep breath. She was tired of dealing with prima donnas and she had them in both ears. If Asher did something wrong, she’d hear about it from Charlie. If Charlie did something wrong, she’d hear about it from Asher. She was starting to think it was time to pare their partnership down to two … or maybe just one.
“Yes, he did,” she finally answered. She was trying to keep her cool, but she knew it was going to be difficult.
“And he was wrong. Again.”
“Yeah. What am I supposed to do about it at this point?” she asked, her voice raising in intensity.
Asher didn’t answer. He knew it was too late for them to do anything. They would just have to weather the storm. The only question was whether they would hang together or go their own ways.
“Have you talked to Charlie?” Asher asked, calmer now.
“Yes. He’s … in shock. He guesses he underestimated Patton Larsen.”
“Yeah. No shit,” Asher scoffed.
Anna laughed, but quickly stopped herself. She realized that Asher was technically the only person affected by the recall. A long, awkward silence fell between them.
“What now?” Asher asked, sounding almost desperate.
“I don’t know,” Anna replied, frankly. “We can’t give up, though.”
Asher sighed loudly, annoyed with the obviousness of the comment. He steeled himself for what he was about to say next, knowing she would protest.
“Tell Charlie I’m done with his advice. He obviously doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I’m going to have to save this myself.”
Asher paused, but Anna remained silent.
“The only question is, are you going to help me?”
Another pause. Anna felt trapped and wasn’t ready to make this important of a decision.
“Well?” Asher asked.
“I don’t know, D
avid. I’m going to have to think about it.”
“You mean, you’re going to have to talk to Charlie.”
She closed her eyes and bit her lip. She wanted to end it all now and let him do what he wanted. But they’d come too far. And besides, Asher was right—Charlie messed up and made a lousy decision, based on what? Ego?
“Okay. I’ll help you. I don’t care what Charlie thinks.”
Asher nodded, relieved. He was determined to save his office, even without her. However, he knew that having her on board was going to be a lot better for his chances.
“Okay then. When do we get started?”
“I’ll call you,” Anna said and hung up.
She set her phone down on her lamp table. She rubbed her eyes and massaged her temples. A massive headache was coming and she needed to head it off somehow.
Worse than the headache, though, was the inevitable conversation with Charlie. She and Asher were going to continue and Charlie would have to take a backseat. It could go either way, really. He could be calm, which always made him seem more psychotic. Or, he could fly off the handle and yell and scream at her. She never knew which Charlie she was going to get.
Mike Wilson was the first person to submit his paperwork for the recall election. Another candidate from first election, and two newcomers, entered the race. All told, five people, including David Asher, would run for the governorship of Blue Creek City. As the campaign progressed into the summer, it became apparent that Mike Wilson was going to win handily. Not only that, he was likely going to win an outright majority in the first round.
Governor Asher hated to debate, but he was desperate. Those in the campaign knew it was his only chance to close the distance. In every speech and television appearance he claimed that Mike Wilson was afraid to debate. The pressure for Wilson to debate increased and he finally relented. It was set for the Friday before the election. It would give voters one final look at the candidates and give them four days to make their final decision.
Careful Measurements Page 22