The Shadow File

by AC Fuller

  I stand directly in front of his monitor, so he can't see me, as I read his nameplate. Malcolm Rozier. I'm trying to think of something witty to say about the fact that we have the same initials when Malcolm slides his chair around and says, "Can I help you, Ms. Rhodes?"

  "It's Mia."

  He smiles. "Can I help you, Mia?"

  "I was just wondering, will they have a USB-C connector for my MacBook? In the presentation hall, I mean?"

  He looks at me like he's not sure if I'm serious, then a wave of recognition passes over his face. "You didn't get the email?"

  "Ummm…I…"

  I pride myself on being prepared. Some say I over-prepare. Back at my day job running the Seattle offices of the online magazine, The Barker, my coworkers tell me I'm “a bit of a Monica." But I see from the way he looks at me, his dark brown eyes full of concern, that I've missed something.

  "I emailed all presenters this morning." Malcolm's voice is deep and soothing, but his message isn't. "No PowerPoint presentations. The judges have reviewed your materials, including the PowerPoint, so they're limiting the final round to a five-minute opening statement followed by a ten-minute Q and A."

  No PowerPoint? I stare at him, trying to play it cool, but inside, I'm panicking.

  Stalling, I tap the Willie Nelson sticker on the back of his monitor and say, "Now he's a candidate we can all get behind."

  Malcolm stands and leans forward across the counter, turning his head to see the sticker. "Oh yeah, that."

  "Country music fan?"

  "Sort of. I love Willie, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, DeFord Bailey. All the old Americana. Not so much with the modern, 'Bro Country' stuff."

  I'm vaguely familiar with all those names, but my country music knowledge doesn't extend much beyond early Taylor Swift.

  Malcolm is tall, almost a foot taller than me, and I have to lean back a little to meet his eyes. I run my hand across the curved back of the monitor. "And what are these other stickers?"

  "Equipment companies. I DJ in the evenings and on weekends, so…" He glances around the waiting area, then digs a business card out of the inner pocket of his blue blazer. "I'm on YouTube."

  The card lists a website, a YouTube channel, and the name Rozier Productions.

  "Cool," I manage, smiling despite the sinking realization that I'm about to bomb my presentation.

  Malcolm cocks his head and squints. "You didn't get the email, did you?"

  "I try not to check my email when I have a big event, which is, like, never. Too much stuff from work, too many things to…throw me off my game." I say the last part like a total dork, and immediately regret it.

  "Shouldn't be more than a few minutes. Can I get you another water, or some coffee, or anything?"

  "Nah, I'm just gonna go and try to memorize a few things."

  "I'm sure you'll do fine in there."

  "Sure," I say, disagreeing in my head as I walk back toward my seat.

  "You know, I follow your website," he calls after me.

  I turn on the low heels of my cream and black T-straps, and shoot him a look. He's got a shy smile on his face, nerdy but handsome. It puts me at ease.

  "Thanks." I'm genuinely surprised he's taken the time to research my site.

  "What you're doing is awesome," he continues. "We need viable third-party candidates and independent candidates. I hope you win the money."

  Ten minutes later, Malcolm leads me into the presentation room, which looks like a luxury movie theater—six rows of seats angled slightly so the rows in the back are higher than the ones in the front.

  Malcolm walks down the light blue carpet and up the four steps to the stage in the front of the room. I follow and he gestures to a silver podium, puts a hand on my forearm, and says, "You're gonna kill it, Mia."

  When he turns to leave, I lurch forward and grab his bicep, pulling him in closely. He smells like seaspray, like a male mermaid, and because I sometimes say ridiculous things when I'm nervous, I whisper, "Do you really think Willie Nelson could win?"

  He pulls away slightly, like he's trying to decide whether I'm fun-crazy or stalker-crazy, then winks and strolls out of the hall.

  Alone on the stage, I stand at the podium and look down at the seating area, which is lit with dark red LED lighting. Only eight of the seats are full, and I know all eight of my judges. Well, I don't know any of them, but I did my research on the flight down from Seattle. Five are board members of Project X, three men and two women. They don't carry much weight on the judging panel, so I'm not surprised that all five are seated in the second row.

  About five feet below me, the three members of my real audience stare at me from the front row. To my left sits Alvin Chang, Chief Operating Officer of Colton Industries and co-founder of Project X. A tall, lean man, with short black hair, Chang wears round Harry Potter glasses and a bored look on his face, like he's seen one too many presentations today. Eleanor Ruff, an older woman with spiky, silver-grey hair and a piercing glare, sits to my right. She's the Executive Director of Project X and a well-known badass around Silicon Valley.

  Directly in front of me, between Chang and Ruff, is Peter Colton himself. The boy wonder. Silicon Valley's most eligible bachelor and the man voted "Most Likely to Win an Antonio Banderas Look-alike Contest." Okay, I made the last part up, but he does look a bit like the actor with his shoulder-length black hair, olive skin, and custom-tailored black suit.

  It's not his looks that make him such a rockstar of the tech and philanthropic worlds, though. Colton made his first billion dollars back in 2007 when he sold his cloud computing company to some other cloud computing company when he was just twenty-nine years old. In the years since, he's been the kind of billionaire we all tell ourselves we'll be when we finally become billionaires. He bought a soccer team, learned how to pilot his own private jet, summited Kilimanjaro, invested in revolutionary solar technology, and dated movie stars.

  He also founded—and funded—Project X, a program that chooses ten non-profits per year and gives each one $150,000 to support its mission. Each non-profit also gets access to Project X's network of entrepreneurs and tech gurus. And that's why I used a personal day to fly a thousand miles south. That's why I'm staring down at Peter Colton.

  He stares back, his dark eyes fixed on mine, his smile both warm and serious, like he's concealing a secret I desperately want to know. On any other day, his look would have left me flustered. But today I'm locked in, ready to go.

  After all, I'm trying to save democracy.

  I wiggle my toes and rest my hands on the podium, not sure if I should speak first.

  Thankfully, Chang breaks the silence. "Hello, Ms. Rhodes. I'm Alvin Chang. To my left, Peter Colton. To his left, Eleanor Ruff. Behind us, well, the other judges of Project X." He gestures toward the board members, but clearly doesn't want to take the time to introduce them. "We apologize for the late change to the structure of the presentation."

  "No problem," I lie.

  "You have five minutes," Chang continues, "followed by ten minutes of questions. We've reviewed your materials, so our goal is to get to know Mia Rhodes, your passions, and your reasons for applying to Project X."

  This is the moment I've been waiting for. I stand as tall as I can at five foot two, throw my head back to get one of my misbehaving auburn curls out of my eye, roll up the sleeves of my white button-down, try in vain to smooth the creases on my black slacks, and say, as boldly as possible, "American democracy is broken."

  I pause for effect, scanning the eyes of my three primary judges and casting occasional glances at the five judges behind them. "When we're young, we're taught that the American political system is a meritocracy, that the cream rises to the top, that our leaders and representatives are the best among us.

  "That's a lie. What we saw in the last presidential election—and to varying degrees in state and even local elections—was a perverted popularity contest. The barriers to entry are so high that entrenched political power can
and does retain its position. The state of campaign finance means that we live in a fundamentally corrupt democracy, where both parties are under enormous pressure to favor business interests over those of the people. We reward the best media manipulator, the biggest celebrity, or the candidate with the biggest ad buys, rather than the smartest, bravest, or kindest among us. Furthermore, technology is now moving at a rate at which politics and media cannot keep up.

  "Barriers to entry. Perverse financial incentives. A broken media system ruled by technology it can't understand, let alone control. As these trends continue to affect our elections, America will careen down a path toward becoming a failed democracy. A failed state."

  I step out from behind the podium and walk the stage, imagining that I'm the star of my own TED Talk. "America needs a new system for choosing a president. That's why I created Ameritocracy2020.org."

  "Yes," Ruff interjects, "we've read the materials, but what, exactly, is it? Some sort of website?"

  Her question throws me off, both because I'm only two minutes into my speech and because she says "website" like it's some newfangled fad. But Ruff is a technological wizard, so I assume she's speaking disdainfully about my concept, not the technology I'm using to bring it into the world.

  "Ameritocracy2020.org—or just Ameritocracy—is a web-based platform designed to find the best independent presidential candidate in the country, and to fund that candidate to compete against the Democrats and Republicans in the 2020 election. If the presidential election is going to be a reality show, I want to create the fairest, most transparent reality show in history. If our political system is going to be ruled by money, I want independent candidates to be funded as well as the established parties. If—"

  "Tell us how it works," Chang says, crossing his arms.

  The interrogation has begun, but I'm gaining confidence, so I walk a little circle around the podium, my heels tapping loudly on the wooden stage.

  "Think of Facebook," I reply. "Anyone can start a profile, write posts or upload photos or videos. Ameritocracy is like that. Any U.S. citizen can set up a profile on the site, as long as he or she will be thirty-five years of age by November 3, 2020—election day—and meets the other basic requirements to run for president. We have a brief form to fill out—name, background, and so on. Once you set up your profile, you are a candidate for president in 2020. From there, you can upload your issue platform, videos of yourself making your case to the voters, photos of yourself shaking hands and kissing babies, whatever. Essentially, it's a site on which anyone can run for president of the United States."

  "How will your winner be chosen?" Chang asks.

  "The final day to register is February 1, 2020. From there, we will have multiple elimination rounds, just like on The Voice or most other reality shows. Right now, we're using ranked-candidate voting. Registered users can rank their top ten candidates, and the votes are combined with a proprietary algorithm to determine our leaderboard. I've tied the key elimination rounds to the major party primaries. So, on Super Tuesday in March of 2020, we'll cut the field to twenty-five candidates. The Republican and Democratic fields will be narrowing around this time—and media attention will be at its peak—so we'll narrow the field to allow our voters to focus.

  "Through the spring and early summer of 2020, we'll have a series of debates and eliminations. Twenty five candidates to twenty, twenty to fifteen, and so on. On July 4, 2020, around the time of the Republican and Democratic Conventions, there will be a final debate, live on our website, featuring the final six candidates. We will then open the voting for twenty-four hours, and, at the end of that time, the top vote-getter wins our competition and all the money we've raised. At that point, we hope he or she will be in a position to compete in the general election against the Democratic and Republican nominees."

  "How many candidates do you have right now?" Chang asks, a hint of condescension in his voice.

  I planned for this question. Ever since I started the website in an espresso-fueled rage shortly after the 2016 election, Ameritocracy has floundered. Now, two and a half years later, I only have a few dozen candidates, and, frankly, most of them are too far outside the mainstream to have any chance of getting elected. I have no PR, no money, and no way to make the site seem credible. That's where I hope Project X will come in.

  "Only a handful, at this point," I say, "but interest in the 2020 election is picking up and—"

  "From the numbers you submitted," Ruff interrupts, "it appears no one is using the site."

  "We've grown slowly so far, yes."

  "We?" Ruff asks.

  "Just me, actually. I plan to staff up if I'm selected as a Project X winner."

  "When you crown a winner, they'll run as a third party candidate?" Chang asks.

  "As an independent. One of the rules about entering is that you cannot be an elected office holder from the Democratic or Republican party."

  "A third party candidate is the future," Ruff says, smirking. "And always will be."

  She and Chang laugh, and I glare at them. I've heard the joke before, and don't especially like being made fun of.

  "So, are there other rules?" Ruff asks, still chuckling.

  "Very few. We accept candidates of all backgrounds and political persuasions."

  "What about hacking?" Chang asks.

  "We haven't had any problems with—"

  "What I mean is, if the site grows, what are the risks of hacking?"

  "We will be developing solid layers of security." It's the first time I find myself sounding like the obfuscating politicians I loathe, but the truth is that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to cyber security. I plan to hire experts if the site grows, but it's not something I can speak about with any authority.

  "Okay," Ruff sighs, looking at her watch. "But a presidential campaign requires the candidate to raise a couple hundred million dollars, and that's not counting support from the DNC, RNC, or Super PACs, which your winning candidate won't have. Assuming more people enter your competition and the site grows, and assuming you crown a winner by vote around July Fourth, why do you expect them to have any chance in the 2020 election?"

  "Two reasons," I say. "Celebrity and money. As Ameritocracy grows, we expect the leading candidates to become well known, to attract mainstream media attention and massive social media followings. Their best posts and videos will go viral. If American politics must be a reality show, we will at least create one with a level playing field and a higher purpose."

  I smile at Chang and Ruff, but they don't seem impressed. Peter Colton, who hasn't said a word, stares up at me with that mysterious smile, chin resting on his balled-up hands.

  "The second reason we'll have a chance is that we're raising money. Registered users can make donations, and the unique thing about our platform is that the donations aren't made to your favorite candidate, they're made to our organization. The understanding is that, after we pay operating costs, we'll give one hundred percent of the remaining funds to our winning candidate in July. No matter who wins."

  "Celebrity and money," Chang says. "Good thinking. How much have you raised so far?"

  "We're still in the beginning stages and—"

  "Seven thousand three hundred dollars and sixty-two cents," Ruff says, looking down at a stack of papers she seems to have pulled out of thin air.

  "So far, but—"

  "So, what you're really looking at is a long-term play here," Ruff interrupts. "You have no chance of impacting the 2020 election, even if we award you a Project X grant, so maybe 2024, 2028?"

  I know she's probably right. Even if I win the money, it could take years to gain traction, given how little attention we've gotten so far.

  Before I can respond, Chang says, "Tell me more about the candidates. You said there were a few dozen?"

  "Thirty-eight, to be exact, mostly from the fringes. Far right and far left, plus a couple total crackpots. The idea is that, as the site grows and more Americans beg
in to pay attention and vote, more serious candidates will join. And if the idea gets some traction, and more credible candidates enter, more donations will come in, which will make more candidates want to enter because the idea itself will begin to seem viable."

  We're running out of time and my audience is restless. Chang stares at his phone as Ruff puts papers into a briefcase on her lap. I wonder why Peter Colton hasn't spoken, but I prepped a closing statement, specifically geared toward Colton, so I may as well deliver it.

  "If you don't have any more questions, I'll finish with an analogy I heard recently." I lean forward and lock eyes with Colton. "For decades, very few people climbed Mount Everest. Only the best trained, most professional climbers dared make the trip. Recently, new technologies have allowed amateur climbers to reach the summit at amazing rates. Smaller and more efficient oxygen tanks, better routes, well-trained assistants, fixed ropes and ladders. Technology allows people to do what, just two decades ago, would have been impossible. Technology should do the same for democracy. It should give voice to the voiceless, challenge entrenched power, and allow the best ideas—and the best people—to rise to the top. With your help, I hope Ameritocracy will play a small part in that."

  There's a slight change in Colton's expression, something more like a regular smile. He stares right at me, and I hold his gaze, gathering all the courage I can muster. "I know this idea is just starting out. I know it may take some time. But I've spent the last six years managing the day-to-day operations of The Barker, an online magazine with seventy employees. If I'm lucky enough to win Project X, I know I can turn Ameritocracy into something that will make a dent in our broken political system. I hope you'll give me the opportunity to try."

  Despite the interrogation, I closed strong, and I'm proud of myself as I wash my hands in the palatial bathroom outside the meeting hall. Pressing my palms against my neck, I allow the cool to spread through my body, which calms me.