by Leslie Wolfe
“Oh, my God,” Steve said, “are you saying his wife’s heart disease might have been a setup?”
“I am saying it’s possible. They definitely know how to give people precisely timed heart attacks.”
“Interesting idea, definitely worth looking into,” Tom said. “Let’s get back to decision making for now. How do we do this, want to take a vote?”
Alex felt the sweat break at the roots of her hair. She was scared, yet very excited at the thought of being part of such a bold operation. Oh, God...please let this be the right decision.
“Can’t believe I’m crazy enough to say this, but I’m willing to do it. I think if I say no, there will be no one else left to say yes the right way and get to the bottom of this. I’d be abandoning you, this team, Robert, and every single individual who will want to cast a vote this November. But I am not a spy...I will need some serious time with Sam to teach me a few tricks. I will need tons of support.”
She spoke with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm she felt with every fiber in her body and could not explain. I did get stirred up. Tom was right. But I am also certifiable. And scared, she thought. She took a deep breath, then continued, “I would prefer it if I don’t end up dead or in jail. It scares me to even think about that, so I won’t. And I will need a very stiff drink as soon as we’re done here.” She smiled awkwardly. Her hands were trembling, but she felt good about her decision. Fuck the bastards.
“We’re batshit crazy, all of us, but let’s do it,” Brian said. “Can’t believe myself; I have everything a man could dream of, and I’m willing to risk it all because of some patriotically bruised ego by a threat of unknown source and magnitude. Textbook definition of insanity.”
“Steve?” Tom asked. Steve was back to leaning against his favorite wall, a look of concern wrinkling his forehead.
“I’m behind you, like I’ve always been, but I’m fearful that we’re getting in over our heads. We’re sending Alex to who knows where, while we’ll be in the safety and comfort of our California office. That just doesn’t seem right.”
“I’ll be fine,” Alex said. He was protective of her, too protective for a rational business decision, but it did make her feel good.
“Lou, how about you?” Tom asked.
“I’m all in. What I wouldn’t do for five minutes alone with whoever thought this shit up,” he replied without any reluctance.
“OK, then, let’s do this,” Steve said. “Let’s nail whoever’s playing with our country and our future. But if I sense the danger levels are beyond acceptable, I’ll hit the brakes.”
“Fair enough,” Tom said. “We’re in agreement, then. Let’s hope it’s the right thing to do. Drinks, anyone?”
They attacked the room’s mini-fridge bar in a tight formation, not wasting any time with glasses or ice.
Alex gulped a shot-size bottle of Martini vermouth and said, “Since we’re all facing mortal peril with this case, and considering tonight might very well be our last night of freedom and relative tranquility, can we at least make the most of our stay in Vegas?”
...35
...Wednesday, January 20, 9:01PM EST (UTC-5:00 hours)
...Flash Elections: At a Glance
...Nationally Syndicated
The waving colors of the American flag marked the show’s opening credits, then faded out, leaving the studio image of Phil Fournier in its place.
“Good evening, everyone. Republican Senator and presidential candidate Doug Krassner held a press conference today, presenting his platform in more detail and answering questions from the press for an unprecedented marathon of almost three hours.
“Krassner impressed his audience with the very firm stance he holds on many contentious items of general concern, such as immigration reform, healthcare, unemployment, economy, poverty, illiteracy, and defense.
“Some of Krassner’s views were quite surprising, considering that traditionally Republicans have been more on the side of big business. Despite incorporating platform ideas that are out of alignment with current big business lobbying efforts, Krassner maintains that this platform is actually going to help big business more, by bringing long-term vision and strategy to the forefront.
“For example, Krassner’s views about immigration state clearly that he will not support a relaxation of the immigration laws, leading to more temporary or permanent foreign workers being allowed to enter the workforce, as long as the American workforce is plagued by long-term unemployment. This single point is an exposed nerve for big business, that has been lobbying for an increased number of temporary visas and the relaxation of immigration limitations and criteria in the effort to secure highly qualified labor at lower cost.
“Krassner is very aware of this issue and has promised big businesses that he will work with them to make sure their labor needs are solved without prejudice to their interests and without any further prejudice to ‘our wounded and desperate workforce,’ as he called it. When prompted by questions from the media, he quoted thoughtful and compelling solutions, such as a government-funded program to relocate unemployed workers to where the jobs are, including housing buy-back and buy-in aids, significant tax breaks for corporations that choose to establish operations in high-unemployment areas, incentives for telecommuting work arrangements, and professional development programs for the unemployed, where corporations would be invited to participate and train their future workers in exchange for tax breaks. He also proposed tax incentives for corporations that hire young graduates and place them in skill development or apprenticeship programs.
“Krassner said, and I quote, ‘the problem is that corporations don’t want to spend any time in developing their workers. They expect all new hires to come fully trained for the jobs they are getting. Corporate citizenship has become, for some time, just lip service. A demonstrated, yet often ignored fact remains that a corporation cannot sustain itself long term if the social environment and the health of the community around it are decaying.’”
The studio monitor rotated through pictures taken at the press conference, showing the charismatic Republican engaging with the press. Phil continued his summary, “Krassner proceeded in the same strong-minded manner to expose his views on healthcare reform. Healthcare reform has been an ongoing battle for many years, and Krassner’s presentation today dedicated ample time to address it. In his view, healthcare needs to undergo a process of, and I quote again, ‘dramatic simplification.’”
The screen shifted to show footage from the press conference. Krassner’s voice was bold and determined.
“We have a healthcare law that few people understand, and with a reported twelve-million words on some thirty-thousand pages, even fewer will ever actually read. This is ludicrous. We need to simplify healthcare and build a system that allows people to just get care when they need it. Having developed a piece of legislation the size of a truck was a terrible waste of government money.
“The two things we do need to control in healthcare are simplification and cost. Do we understand why, if I want to have my cholesterol checked and I don’t have any insurance, the lab will charge me four hundred dollars? But if I go the next day and present my insurance card, the same test only costs $17.50. What’s really going on? How is that acceptable? Wouldn’t you want to find out? How much should cholesterol testing cost?”
Krassner paused for a second, loosening his tie, then continued. “I believe in the core values of the Republican doctrine, and, based on these values, I believe that we should preserve the unalienable right of the American people to access a healthcare system free of corruption and self-destructive greed. I believe we should look in the right direction when trying to fix healthcare, poverty, and illiteracy. We should go back to our core precepts, the precepts that have been at the cornerstone of our government’s constitution. Because here’s what’s happening: in the maze of healthcare costs that don’t make sense from one patient to the next, and in the wake of a multi-year effort to generate a twelve-milli
on word piece of legislation, we have become weary and unable to remember what we started fighting for. We are defeated.”
Applause and cheer erupted in the press room. The image faded, returning to Phil Fournier’s studio desk.
“Yes, they liked it a lot. But it remains to be seen if Krassner, who some are already calling a radical, can secure the nomination from the Republican Party and win the presidential election after threatening a few big-business interests.
“After today’s press conference, Krassner’s ratings spiked to 41.5 percent. Definitely bold and willing to break patterns, Krassner’s resolve is aided by his personal wealth, making him less dependent on fundraising for his campaign success and less vulnerable to big business pressure. Speaking of breaking patterns, Krassner might have started his press conference attired in a formal business suit, but he ended up losing the jacket and tie and rolling the sleeves of his white shirt to his elbows. Whether that was intentional or not, I guess we’ll never know, but the subliminal message conveyed by his image was loud and clear.
“We will keep you informed of Krassner’s ratings as today’s message reaches the homes of voting Americans. From Flash Elections, this is Phil Fournier, wishing you a good evening.”
...36
...Friday, January 22, 9:27AM PST (UTC-8:00 hours)
...Tom Isaac’s Residence
...Laguna Beach, California
Alex had suggested, and they’d all agreed, that the best location to work on their new case was out of Tom’s home, not the corporate office. Too much sensitive information was in play to allow janitorial services or the corporate building’s administrator to set eyes on any of it. She requested a large corkboard and a whiteboard, and Tom had installed those on the wall of his home office. The chic room had lost in style but gained in functionality, giving up elegant wall art and uncluttered real estate in favor of juxtaposed corkboards, a small meeting table, and enough seating for the team. It made for a crowded workspace, but it was the safest place to have conversations about the new case.
Alex came in carrying colored knitting yarn, a set of dry-erase markers, highlighters, Sharpies, corkboard pins, and sticky notes. She unloaded the supplies on the table and gave a sigh of relief when she noticed the Keurig coffee maker on the small table next to the window. They had everything they needed.
“She’s here; let’s get started,” Steve called from the doorway, then turned and gave Alex a quick hug. “How are you this morning, doing all right?”
“Yeah, I guess. It all started sinking in, what we’re about to do, and...yeah, I’m all right. I think I have an idea where to start,” she said, unsure how to express her thoughts.
“Good morning,” Tom greeted her. “How’s your day so far?”
“Busy,” she responded, gesturing toward the pile of supplies scattered on the table.
Brian and Sam, houseguests of the Isaacs for the past couple of days, took their seats. Lou, still a little intimidated and uncomfortable in Tom’s home, picked the most distant chair to sit on at the back of the room.
“All right, let’s hear your approach, Alex. What are your thoughts so far?” Tom invited her to start.
She took a hurried gulp of fresh coffee and walked toward the whiteboard, marker in her hand. She drew a vertical line on the whiteboard, separating the space into two sections of different sizes, and wrote above the left space “Known” and above the right space “Unknown.”
“As you can see, we know very few things at this point. We know there’s this guy, Helms, keeping busy to set things up.” She wrote Helms’ name under the Known category. Then she pulled a file folder from her laptop bag and took out a sketched likeness of Helms and pinned it in the higher midsection of the corkboard. “Steve worked with Robert to get us this sketch. You have talent, Steve,” she complimented him, then went back to the whiteboard. “We know they were behind Melanie Wilton’s transplant. Facilitating it? Definitely. Causing the need for it? Unknown at this point. Do we know what happened to Melanie’s heart? Why did she need a transplant in the first place?”
“She had congestive heart failure,” Sam said. “I probed discreetly with Robert; I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that he might have been set up before we’re absolutely sure of it.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Tom agreed. Steve nodded his agreement. There was no need to add to the man’s internal anguish.
“He said that Melanie started developing heart failure a few months ago, maybe six or seven,” Sam continued. “At first she was more and more tired, unable to sustain the slightest physical effort. For a while she just rested, thinking it would eventually go away. Then they saw a cardiologist, who was able to manage it successfully with medication for three or four months. Then she started accumulating blood in her extremities, abdomen, and lungs. That only evolved a month or so before the transplant, so it was fairly new.”
“We need to start building a timeline,” Alex said and drew a long, horizontal line spanning across the entire lower section of the whiteboard. She marked the right extremity of it with an arrow and a “t,” for time. She marked “November” very close to the right end of the time axis. She marked January right about the middle and then went back in time, to the left of the board, and marked “June?” on the axis. Next to June, she drew a line at a sixty-degree angle and wrote on it “Heart failure starts.” Then she marked November of the previous year as “Congestive failure,” and in December she marked “Transplant.”
“OK, I’ll continue adding events as we go though the facts. Back to what we know.” She wrote “transplant facilitation” under the Known section and “heart disease cause” under the Unknown section.
“I think it’s fairly clear they did this,” Lou offered. “We could move that to the Knowns.”
“I think it’s very likely,” Alex replied, “but it’s not really known or proven yet. We will operate under the assumption that this scenario is very likely, but for now we don’t have enough data to confirm it.”
“That’s a very cautious way to look at things,” Brian confirmed. “The hypothesis that they caused Melanie’s heart failure is changing the timeline dramatically and turns this into a two-year long conspiracy.”
“As a side note,” Alex intervened, “I struggle with calling these people ‘they’ all the time. Can we call them something else? Until we figure out who ‘they’ are?”
“Let’s call them UNSUB,” Sam suggested. “Works for law enforcement really well, stands for unknown subject.”
“Yeah, I’d say that’s very applicable, thanks!” She wrote “UNSUB” on a sticky note and placed it above Helms’ sketched likeness on the corkboard. “It could be more than one UNSUB, you know.”
“UNSUB can be a person, a group, or an organization. Until you know for sure you cannot assume,” Sam clarified.
“Works for me,” she confirmed. “OK, so what else do we know? We know it’s about the presidential election somehow.” She wrote “Elections” under the Known category. “We don’t know how they, the UNSUB, are planning to hit the elections. But because it’s the elections that the UNSUB is targeting, we have a very valuable piece of information.”
She wrote “November 8” in the Known column. “We have a date. We know the when. We don’t know the what, the how, or the who, but we can say we’re fairly certain about the when, don’t you think?”
“I’d say it’s a safe assumption,” Tom said.
“I agree,” Brian said.
“Same here,” Lou confirmed.
“We might learn differently as we uncover more facts,” Steve said. “Election Day, this date we think we know could be one hell of a red herring, getting all eyes focused on the election process, while the UNSUB could be trying to blow something up elsewhere. The NSA is heavily involved in securing the election software and the actual election data during the voting process. How do we know it’s not an attack against the NSA, using the election software or hardware as a Trojan horse?”
> A few moments of silence took over the room.
“What a disturbing thought,” Alex said.
“Very,” Tom agreed.
“All right, let’s adapt our strategy, then. Let’s brainstorm and speculate on what the UNSUB could be planning. Mild to wild, lazy to crazy ideas, nothing is too much or too little. Let’s bring it.” She carved a space on the whiteboard by drawing a rectangle on it, taking from the ample space she had reserved for the Unknown.
“I’ll be eating crow now and bring back the idea of explosives in the hardware. All or some of the devices could be rigged,” Lou said, smiling shyly.
Alex wrote “Bomb(s) / hardware” in the rectangle. “No crow needed for your sustenance, Lou. Tom will share his steaks, you know.”
They all chuckled quietly and relaxed just a little bit.
“They could be targeting the NSA,” Steve reminded her of his red herring.
“Ah, yes.” She added it to the list. “How about if they want to plant a backdoor into the software, so they can hack the results?”
“And bypass the NSA security and firewalls?” Sam replied. “I seriously doubt it, but put it on the board.”
“What else? Could this be, after all, only about money and ego?” Alex asked, while adding “$” to the board.
“It’s farfetched, in my opinion,” Brian said, “but I guess it’s a possibility. They spend a few million getting the contract that’s worth hundreds of millions. Nice return on investment there.”
“Not just worth hundreds of millions, but it affirms this government’s commitment to sending work offshore,” Tom said, “which could have a political motive.”
“Political? For which country? For the States?” Alex asked in rapid fire.
“No, I was thinking for India. For the States, it wouldn’t make much of a difference, and although some voices are speaking loudly against globalization in general and outsourcing in particular, these voices remain strangely ineffective in the States. For us, outsourcing has become an accepted status quo, no matter how damaging. But for India it would mean a great deal of political capital to be able to say that even the most American of processes has been handed over to them. It’s like having the biggest and best reference or portfolio item in history; huge political capital asset for them.”