Intentional Consequences

by Charles Harris

  Within a day, the critics dredged up the allegations that Valerie Williams tried to hide the professional bias her wealth created. Those claims were followed by the assertions of racism from her students. Blogposts and op/eds called for her to resign her position at UT-Austin. Within a day after that, negative posts tied Rakesh to JPAC, which created a firestorm of speculation about which candidates might be using JPAC’s political analytical services and whether Rakesh’s reunite America program had been designed to help any of those candidates. Several of the candidates denied using JPAC. Others refused to comment.

  The effect of all of this on Rakesh’s proposed sponsors was predictable: They ran for cover.

  Rakesh was crushed, but not surprised. Sitting in his study with Valerie, he said, “I’m amazed at how spineless America businesses have become when political activists rally their troops. It’s disappointing. I’m not trying to be partisan; I’m trying to be patriotic. Maybe that’s where we are today. If you’re patriotic and care about America, some progressive activist group is going to target you for something. And as soon as they say anything, the big companies are going to duck.”

  “For most companies, it’s just Marketing 101. Companies take positions they think will help their business, which means attracting the customers they want to attract. They avoid positions they think will harm their business. Target demographics matter here. For most companies, younger customers are more valuable than older ones because the younger ones spend more, both now and over their longer lives. These younger customers often have more progressive values, which can skew how a company thinks about its political persona. Some companies with aggressive marketing strategies, like Nike, may be willing to risk offending a less valuable customer segment if they can fire up their most important customers. It’s like a political party firing up its base. Risk avoidance works the same way in reverse. It’s not like an election where you win if you get 51%. Most businesses can’t risk losing the other 49% of their customers. Employee pressure in some companies can also keep them from supporting political and social programs. Google’s employee contributions were 95% Democratic in the 2018 mid-terms.”

  Rakesh said, “But big businesses do take positions on some social issues.”

  “True, and mostly because they think it’s good for their business. Most of those examples involve diversity or racial or gender equality—issues that go to the heart of who we are, or at least want to be, as a nation. Those are safe bets in today’s world.”

  “I’d like to think preserving American democracy is a safe bet too, but apparently not safe enough. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think many businesses are going to be willing to take the risk of sponsoring what I’m trying to do.”

  “You may be right on the challenge of landing major corporate sponsorships. The platform issues in 2020 are not going to help you attract business partners. With both parties attacking big tech, those companies will be especially cautious about offending either side. Some potential sponsors may not want to be associated with you because you made your money in tech. Health insurance companies are going to be worried about seeming to take sides on the fight over Medicare for All. The list goes on.”

  “I’m trying to reunite America. I’m not trying to take positions on those platform issues.”

  “That’s not the way your opponents will paint it. They’ll call you out for being against new ideas and progressive change. They’ll align you with the billionaires and big businesses they’re attacking as part of their basic thesis about America.”

  “It’s depressing. If what you say is correct, my program could be hurt just by having some of these leading companies as sponsors. By the time their propaganda machine gets finished, the progressive activists will be claiming we accepted ‘tainted’ money from the capitalist companies that are sucking billions of dollars out of the pockets of innocent Americans.”

  “You’re probably right. Elizabeth Warren would have a good time with that. But don’t overreact. Andy’s article attracted a lot of positive comments from everyday Americans. You can find other ways to leverage that popular support.”

  “I’m not going to give up. I’m going to focus on the underlying social values—the approach Eva and I talked about on our trip back from San Francisco. I’ve had Dan looking at how we could implement that using the Crystal tools. He thinks we could be very effective and still stay largely behind the curtain if we decide that’s best. The budget would be reasonable, and I would just fund it personally.”

  “I like that approach.”

  “Dan’s going to start virtual testing with the AIs next week. We could be ready for mainstream deployment in two to four weeks.”

  “That sounds encouraging. You need a boost. Do you think the questions about JPAC will affect its business in the 2020 election cycle?”

  “Possibly. Dan’s worried about it. So far, only one presidential campaign has pulled out and it wasn’t a major. My bet is we’ll end up with more business, not less. People like to work with winners, and JPAC is by far the best political analytics firm out there.”

  “Have you decided what to do about Dan’s earnout?”

  “I’ve talked about it with him. He’s embarrassed and contrite about what he did, both to me and to Eva. He’s a bright guy and still very valuable to the business. I think we’ll work something out that keeps him tied to the business for a longer period without any change in the total incentive. He’s pretty well shattered over Eva. Do you know how she’s doing?”

  “I talked with her last week. She’s still angry and hurt, which isn’t surprising. But she’s getting on with her work. She has another gallery show coming up and Daneva Tech is about to release its image editing software for beta testing. We’re going to have lunch next week.”

  Chapter 71

  As Andy was catching up on his email in his Brighton apartment the following day, he came across an email listing Susan Ward as the sender. Curious, he opened it. Dated almost three weeks earlier, the email said:

  Andy,

  Hi. This email was set for delayed transmission. If you are getting this email, I may be dead or in trouble. I have placed a password-protected PDF file on a secure website, which you can access by following the instructions you’ll receive in a separate email. You can also download the file and delete it from the site.

  Two weeks from the day you receive this email, another delayed email from my account will go out to Patrick Healy, the New York Times Politics Editor, giving him the same access information to the site. If you want to have an exclusive, you need to delete the file from the site before he gets to it.

  I believe you are at serious risk until your story is released. You may be next. Please use the information quickly. Give the FBI what they need.

  Susan Ward

  Andy closed the email and opened the second one with the access information. He navigated to the site and double-clicked to open the PDF file. He entered the password and the file opened. “My God,” he said out loud as he began reading.

  The file consisted of two pages. The first was a page of typed text. The second was a photograph of an attractive Asian woman. The typed text said:

  My name is Susan Ward. I am making this statement because I am concerned about my personal safety. The following information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. This document is intended as a roadmap in the event something should happen to me. The total situation is much more involved.

  I met David Bernbach after he invested in my company, PaprW8.

  Mr. Bernbach died at my house recently after a meeting there with me and Zhang Xiu Ying, a Chinese agent who works for the Ministry of State Security in Beijing. Ms. Zhang and I graduated from Stanford University together. Page 2 includes a recent photograph of her.

  Mr. Bernbach did not die of a heart attack. I believe he was killed by someone associated with the Chinese government.

  At the time of his death, Mr. Bernbach had been working on a plan
for the 2020 U.S. elections. His goal was to take advantage of the present partisan bitterness to gain popular support for radical structural change in the U.S. government that would usher in single-party control for the Democrat Party. (I mention this only because of its relevance to Mr. Bernbach’s death. This statement is not intended to provide details of Mr. Bernbach’s plan, which involved many people and parts.)

  Mr. Bernbach intended to use his political, business and international connections to accomplish his plan.

  At Mr. Bernbach’s urging, PaprW8 licensed software from a Chinese company called CnEyeco Tech. The deal included both software and access to extensive PII data needed to exploit the software in marketing political issues and campaigns. I believe much of the PII data was stolen in the U.S. by hackers working for the Chinese government. Until very recently, PaprW8 had been working to commercialize this software by this summer, using a SaaS-based system.

  As part of the deal, PaprW8 also received image editing software from CnEyeco that may have been stolen from an American company called Daneva Technologies. Until very recently, PaprW8 has been testing that software.

  I have been the PaprW8 executive driving the relationship with CnEyeco and Mr. Bernbach. Mike Hastings, the CEO of PaprW8, is not responsible for any of this.

  Mr. Bernbach became concerned a reporter with the Sentinel Observer was working on a story claiming Mr. Bernbach was involved in a conspiracy with various people and entities, including PaprW8 and the Chinese government, to use technology and other tools to influence the 2020 presidential election. He believed the Chinese government had become aware of this potential story and was going to terminate their relationship with him if he could not stop the story. As a result, he took aggressive measures to try to stop the story.

  I believe Mr. Bernbach was killed because the Chinese government feared they would become publicly associated with Mr. Bernbach’s alleged conspiracy even if they formally terminated their relationship with him. To reduce their risk, Mr. Bernbach needed to be eliminated.

  PaprW8 recently decided not to continue working on the CnEyeco system or the image editing software. This may put my life at risk if the Chinese conclude I am no longer committed to the relationship between PaprW8 and China.

  Ms. Zhang and I were lovers in college. We recently became lovers again. I am going to Kauai for a week for vacation. Ms. Zhang is joining me there for four days. I fear others, but I trust her with my life. My assistant has my travel details.

  The statement was signed and dated by Susan Ward.

  Andy saved the file to his hard drive and his cloud server, recording the password he needed to open the file. Then he deleted the file from the website where Ward had placed it. He sent a text to Eva: “Please call me. Urgent news.”

  Eva called him five minutes later. “Don’t talk, just listen,” he said. He read her the email and the PDF, then forwarded both to her and texted her the password to open the PDF.

  Eva said, “She’s right, you need to get your story out. You need to get this your editor. You need to call your dad. In the meantime, you need to be very cautious. Have you seen anybody tailing you since you left Austin?”

  “No tails. If the Chinese decide to take me out, they’re not going to waste time with tails. I’ll see my editor in the morning. I’ll call my dad now.”

  “Andy,” Eva said, “Seriously, be careful. I care about you.”

  Chapter 72

  The following morning, Andy was waiting for his editor when he arrived at the office. “Get your coffee and sit down,” Andy said. “You’re not going to believe this. You remember Susan Ward, the PaprW8 COO who was involved with Bernbach?”

  “Yeah. The woman who just died on a cliff up in Big Sur?”

  “That’s her. Read this.”

  Andy gave his editor copies of the email and the two pages from the PDF file. The editor read them and looked up. “Fucking amazing if it’s true. Are you sure this isn’t a hoax? If the Chinese can kill these people, they can sure hack this woman’s email, especially if she’s dead.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that. Crap. But why would they send this? I can only hurt them.” He re-read the documents. “I don’t know how I could be certain.”

  Then Andy said, “Wait, let me look at something.”

  He opened his laptop and pulled up the PDF and checked the metadata. “OK,” he said. “The PDF creation date is the same as the signature date. Susan Ward is the creator. Look at this. There’s a message in the metadata description box. It says, ‘For validation: Eva Johnson was wearing a yellow jumpsuit when I met her at the opening of her gallery show in San Francisco. I offered to have breakfast with her the following morning, but she declined.’ Damn. She wanted to make sure we could tell she created this.”

  “That’s pretty clever. Get ahold of Eva Johnson and be sure it’s true. But before you do that, let’s think about what to do with this. The email’s right. You could be in danger. We need to get your story out even if we do a second installment with more.”

  “What about the FBI?”

  “If we go to the FBI and this thing leaks, we’ll lose the biggest scoop of your career. Mine, too. Plus, if the FBI starts chasing the Chinese on this, they could decide to take you out as well. No, we need to get your story out. Then you can go to the FBI.”

  “My dad wants me to go to our family’s country house in upstate New York until the story breaks. Is that an option?”

  “I don’t like it. You need good internet and a full court press here to do your story. Plus, you’re safer at the office. The building security is good, and the newsroom is locked. Spend some nights here. Order out for lunch and dinner. We can get an extra security guard for a week or so. The key is getting this thing done in days, not weeks.”

  “OK, I’m on it. I’ll need some input from you as I structure the story. Lots of pieces. I’m going to need to simplify the thread.”

  “This is a winner, Andy. Don’t screw it up!”

  Chapter 73

  Looking in the mirror of his elegant room at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton, Bob Franks straightened his tie and smiled. He was wearing a dark blue pinstriped suit from Brooks Brothers with a white shirt and a red and blue silk tie. With the suit’s trim cut, he looked successful, fit and professional.

  Franks was having a busy week. He’d started in Baltimore on Monday. On Tuesday, he’d had three separate interviews in D.C. Wednesday, he’d been in Boston, which had let him spend Thursday at home before his evening flight to Philadelphia.

  Today was the most important meeting of the week—maybe the most important meeting of his career.

  He received a warm welcome at the campaign headquarters office, where he was ushered into a windowed conference room and served some coffee. Moments later, his host bounced into the room.

  “Bob! Welcome to Philadelphia! We have a busy day for you. I’m so glad you could be here today, when Joe’s in town. Have you ever met him?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “We’re going to win this thing, Bob. America needs somebody who can pull things back together again. That’s not just a campaign slogan. People on both sides are sick of all the crap. Revenge and crazy progressive issues may dominate the media but when people get in the voting booth, they’re going to realize they don’t want someone who’s going to continue the bitterness and mudslinging. They’re not going to want somebody who’s going to take their private health insurance away and trash the economy with free everything. They’re not going to want to pay for someone else’s college loans. They’re going to want somebody who can deliver results instead of continuing the Trump drama and proposing things that don’t make economic sense. We’ll have to publicly embrace some of the progressive issues, of course, but hopefully just for the primaries and not enough to create any permanent damage in the general. Center-left, baby! It’s our time!”

  ◆◆◆

  Franks left the headquarters a little after 3:30 p.m. On his way to the
airport, he called his wife. “Great meeting,” he said. “I think I’ve got it. Should have the offer letter by Monday. I’m going to cancel my Monday meeting in South Bend, but I’ll hold off cancelling Minneapolis and El Paso until I see the letter. This is the big leagues, hon. We need to celebrate. Doesn’t get any bigger than this. I’ll still be behind the curtain, which is where I play best. Dad would be proud.”

  Chapter 74

  Andy’s conspiracy story broke in the Sentinel Observer nine days after he had received Susan Ward’s email message from the grave. Trending on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and virtually every political and news app, Andy’s explosive findings were all over social media and the network and cable news. His article quickly skyrocketed to the top of the most popular and most forwarded stories on the internet.

  Eva read the story in Washington. D.C., where she was attending the opening of a new gallery show of her work the following day. She shot a text to Andy: “Congratulations! Fantastic job. Take some time off and celebrate. Come to Austin. Back from DC late Sun.”

  The Sentinel Observer’s lawyers had scrubbed the article carefully, stripping out any unsupported allegations that could create collateral damage to the peripheral players and lawsuits for the Sentinel Observer. To provide some cover and avoid tipping off the Chinese any more than necessary, the story omitted some key sources and details, such as the delayed email from Susan Ward, although it used the information. It also left out other things that had helped Andy’s research, including the Daneva Tech software decoy, the JPAC social media campaign that had raised Chinese concerns about Bernbach and the meeting Rakesh and Eva had held with Mike Hastings in Menlo Park. The story didn’t cover Eva’s drone attack or home invasion. As Leonard Mayer had pledged, he wasn’t in the article.