Intentional Consequences

by Charles Harris

  INTENTIONAL

  CONSEQUENCES

  The Political Cyber Conspiracy to dominate the 2020 presidential election and reshape American democracy

  Charles E. Harris

  Copyright © 2019 by Charles Edison Harris

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9781087423807

  www.charlesharrisbooks.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover design by Ginger S. Huebner

  Cover photograph by Songquan Deng/Shutterstock

  To the American Voters

  who hold the future of our country

  in their hands

  and

  In memory of my Mother, who taught me the power and value of words

  Part One

  Saturday, March 9, 2019

  You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

  Scott McNealy, "Sun on Privacy: 'Get Over It',” Wired, January 26, 1999

  The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

  Edward Bernays, Propaganda (Brooklyn: Ig Publishing, 1928)

  Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.

  Petrarch

  Chapter 1

  The guests at Eva Johnson’s Austin pool party heard the noise before they saw the cause.

  The sound was a high-pitched whine, like a swarm of bees sweeping up the long sloping lawn from Lake Travis toward the house. George Ball saw it first. “It’s a drone! There!” he yelled. As George pointed, a black drone almost three feet square buzzed in from the lake and hovered about 100 feet above the backyard, its cameras aimed at the pool and the dozen couples around it.

  Climbing out of the pool topless and tan in a black thong, Eva said, “I heard that noise when I was working in my studio last week. I never went out to see what it was.”

  More curious than concerned, Eva and her guests watched as the drone danced over the yard and house for a few minutes, then pulled back toward the lake. Like Eva, most of the women were topless. The men were wearing board shorts or short swim trunks made of stretchy tan-through fabric, with one Speedo.

  “Look, it’s coming back!” Debbie Matthews yelled as the drone suddenly zoomed back toward the house. It settled in over the pool, hovering at no more than 50 feet, the cameras gimbaling to lock in on them.

  Curiosity turned to apprehension and panic as Brian Cone said, “Hey, check the cameras! It’s filming us!” In seconds, Debbie grabbed a towel and wrapped it over her bare breasts and white bikini bottom. Most of the other women and some of the men scattered into the house. One woman stayed in the pool, turning her back to the drone. Eva and another topless woman defiantly held their ground. Wearing a sheer blue bikini, Mary Ball joined them. Scott Perkin’s new girlfriend, Xeng Li, looked on from the edge of the porch, in a black thong bikini made of open weave mesh.

  George said, “We should take that thing out.”

  “Good idea, but how do we do it?” asked Eva.

  “Shotgun. Anybody got a shotgun?” George asked.

  “We don’t even own a gun,” Dan Johnson said.

  “How about a bow and arrow?” Mary said, grinning at George.

  Dan laughed and said, “What? Com’on, Mary, I know you’re a champion archer, but…”

  Mary interrupted. “No, really. George and I are bowfishers. I read about a guy who was arguing prisons should use bowfishing arrows to take out drones delivering contraband to inmates. My gear is in our truck outside. Bet I could nail that thing with one shot.” Before anyone could say anything, Mary ran through the house toward the motor court.

  The drone shifted its position again, dropping to 30 feet or so over the far side of the pool. Mary returned with her bowfishing rig, staying out of sight of the cameras on the hovering plane. She connected a barbed carbon-core arrow to the line running out of the AMS Retriever bottle reel attached to her bow.

  She looked at George.

  George gave her a thumbs up.

  Mary pulled back the string on the compound bow and let the arrow fly at one of the drone’s spinning rotors. The arrow flew up and through the rotor guard, shattering the rotor blade as it hit and wrapping the arrow and its 450-pound-test braided spectra line around the remains of the blade, the rotor motor and the rotor guard. With one rotor gone, the drone started to spin, wrapping the slack in the line around itself. As the drone began to tilt and drop, its flight control software fought to correct by ramping the speed of the remaining rotors.

  Mary grabbed the high-velocity reel handle and quickly cranked it, pulling in almost 30 inches of line with each full turn. She drew the line taught, increasing the pull on the drone as it tried to spin, and destabilizing it beyond the correction capabilities of the flight software. As the electric motors powering the remaining rotor blades screamed, the drone slid sideways through the air and crashed onto the pool deck 15 feet below, breaking off one of the rotor arms.

  George yelled to Dan, “Get the power! Shut the rotors down and keep it out of the pool!”

  “I’m on it,” Dan said, grabbing the drone as it tried to crabwalk across the deck. He found the connection to the battery case and pulled the power wires loose. The blades slowed to a stop. The guests applauded.

  George and Dan ran to the drone. Eva hugged Mary as Dan said, “Mary, where did you learn to do that?”

  Mary smiled and said, “First time ever on a drone, but I’ve bagged a lot of game fish. I was worried we’d lose it when I was reeling it in, but we took it down. My best catch ever!”

  “What do we do with it?” Eva asked.

  “Let’s put it in the garage,” Dan said. “I’ll take it to the office tomorrow. I have a guy who flight tested drones like this for a defense contractor.”

  George and Dan carried the drone into the garage. On the way, George said, “This looks like a pretty serious piece of hardware.” George had spent six years as an officer in the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command and was all business when it came to weapons and security.

  Dan said, “Yeah, look at those cameras and the electronic gear. This didn’t come from some kids.”

  Poolside, Eva could tell her guests were uneasy. This was the first pool party of the year for a group Eva and some of her married girlfriends had put together several years ago to host small gatherings where they could have fun swimming topless and wearing clothes they wouldn’t wear around town. Everyone in the group was in their thirties or forties and trim enough to be comfortable with each other. They called their get-togethers “Fun Parties” after Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” To the dismay of their partners, they played Cyndi’s iconic song at least once at every party.

  The girls definitely had fun, and the guys happily followed along. Eva and Dan’s house was a popular venue, especially for pool parties, with plenty of privacy and no kids that needed to be parked in sleep overs so the adults could play. Like a lot of supper clubs, the members enjoyed each other’s company and talking about families, sports and politics. They also enjoyed the freedom of flirting and showing off in a couples setting where friendships mattered and crude behavior was strictly off limits.

  What they didn’t enjoy—or expect—was a
drone invading their privacy.

  When George and Dan returned, Eva killed the music and said, “OK, everybody, let’s talk about this before have some barbeque and get on with the party.” As the guests drew closer, she could see most of the other topless women had put on their shirts or wrapped towels around their bodies. A few had added shorts. A little late, she thought.

  “I’ll go first,” Eva said, still topless in her thong. “Dan, was this drone was shooting video and, if it was, should we be worried about that?”

  Dan said, “It has at least two cameras, so it was probably shooting video. Hard to know whether it was recording it on board or transmitting it live—maybe both.”

  “Great,” Debbie and several of the other women said, almost in unison. Murmurs followed. Wrapped in a towel, Sally Schwartz said, “So I could wake up tomorrow and find myself topless and almost bottomless on YouTube or worse? Not good. How can people be allowed to do this? What the hell do we do about it?” Most of the other women were equally unhappy. They all talked at once.

  Dan said, “OK, OK. From the looks of this thing, I don’t think we’re dealing with somebody hoping to film a topless pool party. This is a reconnaissance-grade drone. While the guys who fly those things might enjoy the videos, I don’t think they’ll put anything on the internet.”

  Sally said, “Easy for you to say. It’s my boobs on the video." Several other women echoed her concern.

  John said, “If this was a reconnaissance drone, who sent it and why would it be here?”

  Dan said, “No idea who sent it. Unless the Feds are looking for somebody, which I doubt, it was probably doing some kind of business espionage related to my political analytics company—probably network mapping or penetration testing.”

  “What about my technology company?” Eva asked.

  Dan paused, then ignored her. “Any other questions?” he asked. No one spoke.

  What an asshole, Eva mused. He can be so condescending.

  Eva said, “Well, thanks to Mary it’s not coming back. We need to get on with the party! Lunch is coming!

  The guests broke up, talking in small groups as Dan fired up his Wolf grill. Soon, the sweet smell of barbequed bison burgers, chicken and sausages floated across the pool deck, whetting appetites and diverting attention from the drone. Eva brought out fajita fixings, iced tea and salads, promising fresh fruit and key lime pie for dessert later.

  Once the food was ready, Dan pulled Eva aside and said, “I need to call my IT Director. I want him to check for any unusual network activity and set up some scans.”

  Eva said, “OK. Are you worried about the drone? It’s obviously put a damper on the party. We’ve got some pretty unhappy women—and men, for that matter.”

  Dan said, “I’m more concerned about espionage and network intrusion than whatever video it took.”

  Eva said, “I’ll try to rebuild spirits, but I’m really pissed off. I don’t want this thing to destroy the fun we’ve had with this group. If we can’t count on privacy at this house, where do we get it? And we think the internet has no privacy. Anyway, make your calls.” She gave him a hug.

  Everyone spread out and table-hopped for lunch. Most of the women discarded their towels or traded them for shirts or swimsuit tops.

  Debbie Matthews, Sally Schwartz and Eva sat together at a table under a big umbrella. Debbie and Eva were topless. Sally still had an unbuttoned shirt tied loosely around her.

  Trying to shift the focus off the drone, Eva asked, “Debbie, how’s your website for Moms doing?”

  Debbie said, “Fantastic. It just keeps growing. Registered users are up. Time on the site is up. Posts and comments are up. I’m beginning to get some good national advertisers.”

  “That’s exciting,” Eva said. “Any interesting topics trending on the site?”

  Debbie said, “The usual for this time of year. Where the best family vacations spots are. What to do with the kids when they’re home for the summer. Best sunscreens. Going braless, which is definitely trending. There’s a surprising amount of political chatter. Lots of Moms still gloating over the role women played in the 2018 mid-terms.”

  Eva said, “The gender gap among white voters really was amazing. Hard to believe Trump and the Republicans could piss off white women as much as they did, especially in the suburbs, and still retain white men so well. If this holds, it could have a big impact in 2020.”

  Debbie said, “You’re right. Women are feeling more and more empowered in politics, which is way overdue. We’re already seeing this play out in other areas, too, from business to fashion to television.”

  Eva said, “Are you still seeing posts on the #MeToo movement?”

  “Yes,” Debbie said. “Not as much as during the Kavanaugh hearings and all the news about Harvey Weinstein, but it’s still echoing. The movement’s done a good job of increasing awareness and changing attitudes. My concern is the due process side. I don’t think ‘guilty until proven innocent’ is an acceptable standard, especially when the media or some mob on the internet is playing judge and jury. It’s like virtual lynching.”

  Eva asked, “Are you writing anything about that?”

  Debbie said, “I’ve done some drafts focusing on the importance of due process whether you like somebody or not, but I’m nervous about putting anything out. The line between politically correct and politically incorrect is thin. The tribal group-think mentality is scary. Zero tolerance and permanent shaming.”

  Sally said, “Nobody dares to disagree when the activists and the media attack. Look at you, Debbie. You’re articulate and thoughtful, but you don’t want to join the conversation because you’re afraid of getting clobbered in the social media.”

  Debbie said, “I am. These people don’t want engagement. They want to win by declaring they’re right and claiming the other side doesn’t deserve to be heard.”

  Sally said, “Yeah, but who are all these self-righteous people imposing their standards on the rest of us? Who says they’re right and we’re wrong? What makes their views so important?”

  Eva said, “Go back to when we were growing up. In addition to our families, we were influenced by our schools, our church, our elected officials and what we read in the newspaper. Today, our trust and faith in those institutions is fading. We get a lot more input from the internet, and the activists know how to use social media to sell their agenda.

  Debbie said. “John Delaney put it pretty well the other day when he said 2020 was going to be ‘the first social media primary’.”

  Sally said, “Maybe I should rephrase my question. Who do these elitist jerks think they are, lecturing me like this? Bob and I are getting tired of being castigated by condescending people who want to make us look like bigots or worse because we dare to discuss the merits of whatever wacko program they’ve decided meets their moral standards this week. I’ve been an independent my whole life. Bob and I voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But we’re about done with these self-appointed definers of what liberal democracy is supposed to look like.”

  Debbie said, “What Sally just said could be a big deal in the 2020 presidential election. Most of the Democrats who flipped Republican seats to get to the U.S. House in 2018 won on promises to work across the aisle to get things done. They didn’t run on the far-left progressive policies so many of the 2020 presidential prospects are embracing. Trump won in 2016 by vacuuming up blue collar voters who felt abandoned by the Democrats. The Democrats’ shift to the left could help him win again in 2020 by vacuuming up independents and moderate Democrats who feel abandoned by the progressive takeover of the party.”

  Sally said, “I agree, Debbie. It’s not just the abandonment, though. It’s the condescension and the derision. It’s being told you’re not a good American or a good Democrat or whatever, because some snobby millennial or Harvard professor or political class jerk has decided what you think isn’t even worth discussing. I’m happy to argue conflicting positions. I’m not happy being told
I’m an irredeemable deplorable for daring to challenge their self-proclaimed moral authority.”

  “Shazam,” Eva said. “Tell us how you really feel, Sally. Maybe we should book you on Fox News.”

  The food went quickly. As the plates were being cleared from the tables, Eva shifted the music to another playlist and turned up the volume.

  It was surprisingly warm for a spring day. A few of the guests jumped back into the pool, re-igniting interest in the sheer bikinis. Some of the women took their tops off in the pool. But the shadow of the drone remained. Unlike most Fun Parties, almost half pulled on shirts or swimsuit tops when they were dancing.

  Mary Ball and Bob Schwartz walked down to Eva’s studio to see her latest digital flower prints. A few minutes later, Eva followed to explain how she created the colorful large format flower designs by training and collaborating with her “AI,” as she called the artificial intelligence software on her computer.

  Bob said, “Eva, these are fantastic! No wonder you have so many gallery shows.”

  “Does your AI create the art on its own or do you participate too?” Mary asked.

  Eva said, “Unlike some artists who want to prove AI alone can create art, I’m interested in the human-machine collaboration. I give my AI the images to look at or send her out on the internet to find them. I also set her initial instructions. She’s the one who discerns the patterns and colors and designs in nature. As she looks at more and more images, her ability to do this gets better and better. I usually add constraints or suggestions on colors, geometries or other shapes. If I suggest something that clashes with what she’s learned, she lets me know. So, she teaches me as I’m teaching her. It’s really a partnership.”

  Mary said, “That’s really cool.”

  As the afternoon went on, the couples slowly gathered at the bar and the adjoining tables for fresh drinks, fruit and some conversation. Most of the talk centered on upcoming plans for the summer, peoples’ kids and businesses and how ugly politics was getting to be.