“Walker is probably busy preparing his apology,” Godfrey said. “I imagine he’s getting ready to follow the age-old American pattern of “deny, deny, apologise, resume” — you know, the same pattern they adopt when they get caught torturing their own citizens or indiscriminately spying on whoever they feel like. But the American public will never believe another word Walker says, so he’s no longer relevant. Slater, though…”
Godfrey paused for effect, relishing the global spotlight.
“With Slater, it seems like the American press is already softening to her. Now, I’m a big enough man to stand here and tell you that I got it wrong when I accused her of being in on Richard Walker’s dirty little secret. Forgive me for expecting the elected leader of the most powerful country in the world to know what was going on under her nose. But surely this is even worse than if she had been in on it? I touched on this before — that her position would be untenable whether she was complicit or complacent — but part of me didn’t really think this level of incompetence was possible.”
John Cole’s face beamed with pride; he had written most of this. Cole was nothing if not adaptable and now understood the importance of differentiating an attack on the American President from an attack on the American people. The next few lines in Godfrey’s speech served that purpose.
“And I can’t imagine how I would feel if I was an American taxpayer,” Godfrey said, shaking his head. “After all, their hard-earned tax dollars pay Walker’s wages and have funded this cover-up for decades. I understand that some patriotic Americans took my words the wrong way a few weeks ago, and I don’t hold that against them; things were said in the heat of the moment that I won’t be saying again. We move on. And this must be a particularly hard day for those patriots, forced to watch on as the world blames their country for the actions of one man and the incompetence of one woman. Those patriots must feel betrayed, like the mother who insisted her son was a good boy, deep down. Because when that boy is proven guilty beyond doubt, is the mother’s disappointment not greater than the victim’s anger?”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Clark asked.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Emma said. “I don’t, but he does.”
Godfrey turned his notes over to the final side and continued: “Valerie Slater and the entire machinery of her government has been exposed as unfit for purpose. That much is clear. But I want to reassure the American public right now that they should feel no more foolish for having had the wool pulled over their eyes than I do; indeed, no more foolish than any of the world’s governments who have endured the same thing. No. The only people who should feel foolish today are Slater and her cronies — the people who have signed Walker’s cheques and shaken his hand with no idea what he was doing, right under their noses. No one else is at fault here. No one.”
Godfrey raised his hand to the reporters in his unique but familiar half-thanks-half-dismissal. No one shouted out any questions or comments. As Godfrey turned back towards his door, John Cole surprised everyone by staying put.
“John,” Godfrey said under his breath.
Cole held up a finger to Godfrey in a brave call for patience. “Slater and her cronies can’t expect to take the lead on this,” he announced into the microphone.
Godfrey walked towards him. “John,” he muttered again, this time much more forcefully.
“Since 1945,” Cole said, rushing to say his piece before Godfrey reached him, “the American government has behaved like a fat child with the biggest stick in the playground. Well let me tell them this: those days are gone.”
Godfrey smiled like a mildly embarrassed dog-owner and tried to pull Cole away from the podium without causing a bigger scene. But Cole, a much heavier man, wouldn’t budge until he was finished.
Cole leaned down to the microphone. “This lie has done a lot of things,” he said, setting himself up for the punch line. “But more than anything else, it has snapped that stick in half.”
D plus 4
McCarthy Residence
Birchwood, Colorado
“If he wasn’t supposed to say it, he wouldn’t have said it,” Emma insisted. While Dan and Clark bought into the spontaneity of John Cole’s rank-breaking outburst, she had been in PR long enough to see through it. “Godfrey just wanted that to be said but didn’t want to say it. He’s like a ventriloquist who calls a woman in the front row fat then blames the dummy when she gets offended. That’s why Cole was there: he’s Godfrey’s dummy.”
“But why does Godfrey want rid of Slater, anyway?” Dan asked. “I get that he wants to take the lead post-Disclosure, but won’t that be easier for him if the President is someone with no credibility? If he keeps attacking Slater and she leaves office, he might end up with a new rival who is credible.”
Emma shook her head. “Slater is going nowhere. There’s too much uncertainty. People might think they want change but deep down they need stability. Wars and disasters are a struggling president’s best friends, and I guess aliens are, too.”
Later in the morning, Blitz News had a retail analyst in the studio to talk about the immediate economic effects of Disclosure. Computerised sales-tracking and stock-management systems meant that illuminating data was already available, with no need to wait several days as had once been the case.
The analyst started by saying that overnight sales of staple foods and batteries were up by hundreds of percent on what would normally be expected for a Friday night. Shelves did empty, she said, but they had since been restocked; with no measurable increase in highway traffic, there had been no major strain on just-in-time delivery networks.
Ammo sales had skyrocketed, she said, breaking yet more records. She described Friday evening’s announcement as “a super tornado of truth” which had already dwarfed any natural disaster in terms of sales impact.
When the Blitz News anchor asked about the possibility of a bank run or freeze, the guest shook her head. “Cash withdrawals were not significantly higher than a typical Friday night, and I think it’s pretty clear that a bank freeze would do more harm than good. If the government wanted to make people panic, the quickest way to do it would be to tell them they can’t access their money.”
“And what can we expect in terms of the stock market on Monday?” the anchor asked.
“Oh, down,” the analyst replied.
“Down?”
She nodded and widened her eyes. “Whatever the plaques say… down. Because there’s one thing that no market likes, and that’s uncertainty.”
As the segment ended, Dan couldn’t help but think that Blitz were making quite a stretch in having a self-described “retail analyst” talk as the authority on broad economic issues.
The nature of sensationalised 24-hour news normally made it difficult for anyone who viewed for more than an hour to tell whether the topics being pored over from every possible angle were worthy of such attention, since every little triviality was presented as a must-know story. But today, for once, it really was different.
Dan thought about the millions of families around the world, all huddled around their TVs in anticipation of the next development. He imagined what it would have been like if Disclosure had come even one year earlier, when his father was still there and still himself.
To Dan’s delight, the next interviewee on Blitz News was none other than Billy Kendrick, live from Myrtle Beach. Billy stood onstage, bathed by the morning sun in front of thousands upon thousands of revellers. The big wheel in the distance highlighted just how much Billy had been inspired by the European music festivals he had run parallel events alongside during the previous summer. To Dan, the scene was surreal.
After some brief small talk and a few light-hearted remarks from Billy about being surprised that Blitz invited him back, his old sparring partner Sarah Curtis asked for his views on President’s Slater’s culpability in failing to uncover Richard Walker’s lie.
“Walker can call himself a scientist all he wants,” Billy s
hrugged, “but we all know he’s a politician. And a politician who tells lies and keeps secrets is a politician doing his job. But is it not supposed to be the journalists’ and the reporters’ jobs to expose lying politicians? Obviously Slater has questions to answer, but it’s not like monitoring Richard Walker was the main part of her job. Exposing giant lies and secrets is supposed to be your job at Blitz, so maybe you should be careful about pointing the finger.”
“Uh, be that as it may,” the anchor evaded, “and, uh, speaking of scientists… how do you think scientists will react to this news given that it challenges so many of our basic assumptions?”
Exasperated by the attempt to paint a picture using such broad strokes, Billy blew air from his lips until they vibrated. “Scientists aren’t a single group,” he said. “Even within disciplines, there are polar opposite views. It would be like saying that scientists would be suicidal if they learned that man-made global warming wasn’t real. Sure, a lot of them would, because their careers are so invested in the narrative. But others have built their whole careers on promoting the counter-narrative, so those scientists would feel as vindicated as I do right now.”
“You must feel pretty vindicated,” the now sycophantic anchor said.
“Well, I always knew the establishment’s monopoly on the truth would die. But even though I knew there was a chance it might not be on their preferred terms, I’d be lying if I said I ever truly saw this coming. I never really imagined that the establishment would be forced to bow before us with its tail between its legs, humbled by its own deceit.”
Sarah Curtis nodded and smiled, listening to the instructions coming through her earpiece to end the interview now that Blitz had enough soundbites and snippets to fill the cycle for the next few hours. “I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got time for, Mr Kendrick. A final word?”
“Yesterday’s discovery proved two things,” Billy said. “One: competing nations can cooperate when they have to. And two: interstellar travel is scientifically possible. I don’t know if these people agree with me,” he said, holding his arms out to play to his crowd, “but I think it’s high time we stop fighting and start exploring.”
Rapturous cheers followed Billy’s closing line. He grinned from ear to ear, even more gleefully than he had on the afternoon of the initial leak.
The roar of the crowd made Dan wish he was there. During the drive home from the airport he had raised the possibility of making an appearance on Sunday but Emma said no, firmly insisting that he should lie low for a few days.
After Billy, Blitz News returned to a replay of the retail analyst’s appearance. “Seen this,” Dan said. “Switch to ACN.”
The remote was on Clark’s knee. He switched to ACN and was as surprised as anyone to see a written statement from Diane Logan.
Clark and most other Americans had heard the name Diane Logan on precisely one previous occasion, when President Slater mentioned talking to her about the lack of support Godfrey enjoyed within his own party. Logan, for her part, hadn’t spoken publicly since two days after the initial leak when she took exception to Godfrey’s successful attempt to turn a memorial event into an opportunity to score political points. She had since been unceremoniously kicked out of Godfrey’s cabinet, with the appointment of John Cole to her former position as Deputy Prime Minister only adding insult to injury.
Now, long after the horse had bolted, Logan’s informal online post revealed that Godfrey didn’t initially believe Dan’s story and explicitly suggested commenting on the leak to deflect attention away from the protest march and embarrassing blood-drone pictures which threatened to undermine his leadership. She also revealed that she was the only cabinet member to openly question Godfrey’s idea and that John Cole was the only one sycophantic enough to vocally support it. This, she claimed, was why Cole had since replaced her as Godfrey’s Deputy PM.
“She must know how bitter that sounds,” Emma said.
“Sour grapes for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Clark agreed.
“Yeah,” Dan added, “but she probably just had to get it off her chest.” Dan had never been under any illusions that Godfrey was on his side for anything but the most selfish of reasons, so it didn’t surprise him to finally get some evidence. Emma and Clark’s point about it sounding like sour grapes was definitely true, though, so Dan didn’t think Logan’s words would have any kind of effect on Godfrey’s attempts to position himself as leader of Team Earth. “Godfrey is a snake,” he thought out loud.
“I’d rather have him than Slater,” Clark said.
Dan didn’t say anything.
* * *
Back on Blitz News, Ben Gold stood on his doorstep at home, begging the cameras to leave him alone. Ben, almost crying, responded to accusations of complicity by blubbering that he knew less than the news networks and offering to take “any kind of test” on the spot. “Lie detectors, brain scans, hypnosis, anything you want.”
The Blitz footage then cut and resumed a few minutes later, by which time Ben had composed himself and offered to give further comment if they promised not to air the footage of him crying. They made the promise but included it anyway, along with his request for it to be cut.
The crux of Ben’s comments was that he couldn’t believe that Richard had been able to lie so convincingly to his face. Hiding the truth for whatever reasons he might have had was one thing, Ben said, but outright denying it after the leak was indefensible.
Ben said he was pleased that his long-held confidence in the probability of extraterrestrial life existing in a feasibly reachable location had been proven well founded but admitted that the “deep personal betrayal” more than cancelled this happiness out.
“I’ve spent my career searching for evidence,” he said, a broken kind of sorrow in his voice, “and the man I considered my best friend and closest colleague was hiding it from me the whole time, right there in the next room.”
After Ben, Richard’s trusted security guard Raúl was also hounded for comment by the media and eventually relented in an effort to get them to leave his family alone. Also speaking from his doorstep, Raúl said he had known both men for many years and that while Richard’s decision to hide the evidence surprised him, his success in doing so didn’t. “The man is a force of nature,” Raúl said. “No one comes close.”
When pushed for his views of Ben Gold, Raúl insisted that there was no way Ben was in on it. “Mr Gold couldn’t keep a secret like this,” he said matter-of-factly. “He couldn’t lie like this. He wouldn’t, but even if he would, he couldn’t.”
One of the reporters standing outside Raúl’s family home then asked if he had noticed any unusual behaviour from either Richard or Ben over the last two weeks. Raúl mentioned Richard’s head-butt on a Now Movement protestor and also part of a conversation he accidentally overheard between Richard and Ben. Explaining that Richard’s words had stuck with him, Raúl quoted verbatim: “There are things you don’t know, Benjamin; things you don’t need to know.”
Raúl’s testimony — he effectively spoke as both an eyewitness and a character witness for Ben — satisfied those in the media who weren’t already sure that Ben Gold truly had been as out of the loop as everyone else. Dan had known this all along, as had Jack Neal; because if there was one person hit even harder by the lie than Valerie Slater, it was without doubt Ben Gold.
* * *
Over dinner, which was eaten in front of the TV in case any news came out about the plaques, Dan asked Emma something she had been trying not to think about: “After we’ve laid low for a few days, what’s the plan?”
“I don’t have a plan,” Emma said after a moment’s pause. “We’ve met our goal. When that happens, I usually move on to the next client.”
“So… when are you planning on going home?” Clark asked. He quickly continued: “I don’t mean that like… hurry up and go. I just mean…”
“No,” she said, “I know what you meant.” She paused for a few seconds, much longer
than last time. “I don’t know.”
“Do you own your place in New York?” Clark asked.
She shook her head.
“So you rent it?”
“The firm cover it. Well, covered it.”
Dan interjected: “What about all your stuff?”
She shrugged, then sighed. “They won’t throw it on the street. It’s not like they hate me, they just had to be seen to act because they didn’t want any kind of public association with you.” Emma’s frown suddenly turned into a smile. “How hard must they be kicking themselves now, right?”
“Yeah,” Clark said, laughing. “You’d think executives at a PR firm, of all people, would have known which way the wind was blowing.”
“They didn’t know what we knew,” Dan said. “They didn’t know about the letter or anything.”
“Neither did I,” Emma replied. “Not when they fired me.”
“Yeah, but you’d been around me enough by then to know that I wasn’t lying.”
“I told them that, though. I said on the Monday that I thought you believed yourself, at the very least, but they told me not to get sucked in. Not to get too close.”
“I wouldn’t say you got too close,” Clark said. “I mean, it’s not like you’re living in his house two weeks later or anything.”
Emma laughed. “It’s weird. Jack used to always tell me I had to make a client feel like it was me and them against the world and that they needed me in their corner, but this time I was the one who felt like we were up against it and the client was the one who was sure it would work out. As soon as I came here it was so different. So… personal.”
“You can stay as long as you want,” Clark said.
“At least until Dad gets home,” Dan qualified.
Emma’s eyes flicked between them. “Is that a serious offer?”
“It’s the least we can do,” Clark said. “You’ve kept this idiot out of trouble for long enough, and you aren’t even getting paid for it anymore.”
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