Just the Truth

by Gen LaGreca

  Zack whined like a wayward pupil, saying, "I don't have time for idle academics."

  "I read it," said Laura. "The last chapter is where she condones any lengths to achieve her end. I don't think she meant that as idle academics."

  "We step over the norms. We create new norms for ourselves," Darcy said proudly. "There's been a change in plans, Zack. You need to come to grips with that and meet the challenge."

  "What the hell are you talking about?"

  "We're at war, and they're the enemy. You need to end the threat right here and now."

  "Then, why doesn't she kill us?" Reed posed his question to Zack. "It's her cause, too. Why doesn't she get her hands dirty for it?"

  "Yeah, why not?" Zack wanted to know.

  "You're the assistant to Ken and me," Darcy said, sneering at Zack. "You take care of it. Dispense with them—now!"

  "What!" Zack exclaimed in utter disbelief. "I write hit pieces. That's it."

  "If you think this is just about word play, man, you're a piker," Reed said, taunting him.

  Zack fidgeted. His sweat dripped on the gun.

  Bulged eyes and a crazed smile dominated Darcy's face. "We'll stage it," she cried. "A double-murder committed by Reed Miller, and then, his own suicide."

  Reed, the sisters, and even Zack gaped at Darcy. Everyone could tell she was becoming deranged.

  "You'll do the talking points, Zack." Darcy continued, engrossed with her scheme. "We'll say that Reed was a lover to both sisters. They found out. They confronted him. He decided to kill them both, then himself!"

  "I thought I was having an affair with the senator," said Laura.

  "That was last week," Darcy insisted. Her eyes looked glassy, and her face looked dazed, unreachable. "This week we need a new spin, Zack. You'll put together a new narrative."

  "Are you crazy?" Zack whispered, almost to himself.

  "The truth is like clay, and we're the sculptors. We knead it. We work it. We mold it. We massage it to suit our ends. You're the expert at that, Zack."

  "I can't massage three murders, Darcy."

  "We'll use their gun and put it in his hands. That's the gun you're holding," Darcy continued in her delusion.

  "Of course, it's the gun you're holding that does the job, Zack." Reed jibed. "Darcy never intended to kill us. That was the Neanderthal's job. Now that he's gone, it's your job."

  "Go on, Zack. Do it!" Darcy's face lit up with a diabolical excitement for impending violence.

  Zack hesitated as he held the gun on Kate, Laura, and Reed.

  "Our ends are noble. We mustn't be timid," said Darcy.

  "What's the noble end for Zack in this endeavor? A jail cell for the rest of his life?" Kate asked Darcy.

  "I have news for you, Zack," Reed added. "The end isn't noble. It's depraved. The end is nothing more than feeding the raw lust for power of your handlers, a lust that totally breaks their ties to reality."

  "You're a coward, Zack," Darcy said, disgusted. "You don't have the courage for what needs to be done."

  "But Darcy," Zack pleaded, "remember when you, me, and Ken were labeled by the media as the heart, the fist, and the mouth of the presidency? You liked that. You said that fit in with the theories in your book. You're supposed to be the heart. Remember?"

  "You're supposed to be the fist. Some fist you are!" Darcy complained.

  "Some heart you are," said Zack.

  Darcy sneered. Now, her gun wavered—first, pointing at Reed and the women, then pointing at Zack.

  "Where's the heart?" Zack persisted. "We're supposed to have a heart and use non-violent means, like in a democracy, right?"

  "Ironic from the man who was rigging an election," Laura mumbled to her companions.

  "Democracy!" Darcy scoffed. "Such a sweet-sounding word, such a giddy fantasy. You want to ride the white horse, but you never want to see the underbelly of the beast." Darcy looked entranced by an inner vision, beyond the reach of any argument or plea. "You're like all the other self-fashioned devotees of great movements, Zack. When things out of your comfort zone have to be done, you recoil." Enraged, Darcy pointed her gun at Zack.

  "If you're so comfortable with murder, then why don't you do it?" Zack asked combatively.

  "I've shown my commitment to our great movement, our power, our place in history. If you want a share in that power, you need to do something bold to earn our respect."

  The gun in Zack's hand was poised to do the job, if she could persuade him.

  "After Ken and me, it'll be you, Zack. You'll be the third most powerful person in the world!" Consumed with an open, shameless, irrepressible craving for the power she desired, Darcy's eyes flashed excitedly.

  Zack hesitated. He nervously shifted his weight from one leg to the other, the cuffs of his pants brushing the ground. The fate of the nation now rested on the man with the droopy pants.

  "Shoot! That's an order!" Darcy charged, her gun now pointed at Zack's chest.

  Zack's gun still pointed at Reed and the sisters, his finger on the trigger.

  The victims had moved closer together. Laura and Kate held each other close. Reed stepped in front of them, his arms extended out to his sides to shield the sisters. Laura bent her head. Kate closed her eyes.

  Then, suddenly, Zack looked as if a fog had finally lifted. His eyes widened in understanding and his body pivoted as he realized the answer to his own question. "There is no heart."

  With a blast, Zack's gun fired. But the three captives remained standing. Darcy staggered. With a bullet wound to her chest, she struggled to raise her gun and aim it at Zack's heart. She pulled the trigger, but flinching in pain, she hit his midsection instead. They both hit the ground, and a shower of blood darkened the pavement.

  Reed retrieved his gun, pushed Darcy's gun out of their reach, and then lingered for a moment over the conscious casualties. "You're not the last word on the human race!" He gestured to himself and the sisters, and he declared triumphantly, "We are!"

  Laura felt tears pouring down her face, in relief, in elation, in admiration. This was the Reed she knew—a full-throated, tireless fighter for the ideas and values he ardently held. She knew that he had not lost any of his fire for the precious things in his life, including her. The tension of the afternoon and of his year-long ordeal suddenly drained from his face. The boyish grin that had charmed her in their glorious year together now returned. He flashed it at Laura.

  Chapter 32

  Reed drove away from Meadowlark Gardens.

  In the car, the sisters recounted the story of the kidnapping and attempted murder to Sean, who was now untied and traveling with them. With Sean having played a pivotal role in foiling the scheme of his superiors and now repudiating them, the others welcomed him to join their group, and he decided to do so.

  Reed called his pilot to report that three additional passengers were traveling with him. He made quick stops for them to get their passports, then he proceeded to the small airport where his private jet was waiting.

  Reed spoke on the phone with the principals of the security firm he had hired to tail Laura. He related the story of what had just transpired at Meadowlark Gardens. The firm arranged for an ambulance to pick up Darcy Egan and Zack Walker, who were soon hospitalized and placed under police guard.

  When the party arrived at the airport and boarded the plane, Reed transmitted the video of the entire courtyard scene recorded by the camera in his glasses to the security firm. The company would provide the police with Reed's video along with its own report and pictures of Kate's abduction so that Darcy, Zack, and Denim could be charged with a host of crimes, including election fraud, kidnapping, and the murder of James Spenser. Reed indicated that more evidence would be forthcoming at five o'clock—unassailable proof that Ken Martin, himself, along with his top two aides were engaged in massive election fraud.

  Soon after the plane took off and cleared American airspace, it was time for Reed's five o'clock broadcast to begin. The travelers moved to the
plane's lounge, where they could view the address on a large monitor. Sean sat next to Laura, but when Reed entered the cabin, he rose with a friendly smile.

  "Perhaps you'd like to sit here, Reed," he said. Sean knew he had to accept what he could not change.

  Reed bowed his head in a silent thank you, and the feud between them was buried.

  With the plane headed for a small offshore island where Reed owned a villa, the four travelers watched intently as their host appeared on the screen. He sat at a desk in an unadorned studio with a blue backdrop, his sandy blond hair, solemn face, and pale shirt catching the light.

  At the bottom of the screen, a graphic appeared: A Special Report from Reed Miller. Then Reed began his message.

  "Good evening, fellow Americans. On the eve of this Election Day, I have information to share with you of grave concern. When the Martin administration launched a major campaign to turn voting over to the federal government and almost all of the national media backed it, the public was too quick to accept it. Hardly anyone objected to the unprecedented step of taking control over elections out of the hands of the states and giving it to the federal government, starting with this year's presidential contest. Now, one central program, SafeVote, governs that election for all voters in all states. Under the pretense of stopping voter fraud, SafeVote has opened the door to voter fraud on a massive, nationwide scale. Controlling the voting process is the dream of every dictator, and it was the dream of President Ken Martin to join their ranks.

  "SafeVote gave Martin a tool to use when his programs failed and public opinion turned against him. When his chances to win a second term were in jeopardy, he and his top two aides enlisted me to rig the election for them in a secret project called Operation Topcoat. . . . "

  Reed described the background he had that qualified him to do the job, the strong-arm tactics against his business that the administration had used to pressure him to do it, and the sting operation he had devised in order to catch them. He explained who had been involved with the scheme, their code names, and the places where he'd met with them. Most shocking of all, he showed videos of the conversations he had had with Darcy and Zack in which he explained the programming he would use to rig the voting in favor of Ken Martin—with their full approval. He also showed footage of his meetings with Ted Burns, the director of technology at the Bureau of Elections, who was also in on the scheme. Reed's series of videos culminated with a clip of his conversation with Ken Martin during a cocktail party at the People's Manor in which the president showed his awareness and approval of Operation Topcoat.

  "As I speak to you now, my rigged program is being uninstalled, and the original, legitimate SafeVote program that had been in place before I touched it is being reinstalled. I can assure you, there will be a free and fair election tomorrow.

  "This year, I made sure that the presidential election would have a fair vote. But in the future, we cannot allow the central authority—the federal government—to control voting. This is extremely dangerous. It gives the Feds too much power and makes elections vulnerable to corruption on a grand scale.

  "I have set aside the money I accepted to do this work—$400 million that your government paid me to deny free elections to you. I am returning it to the government with the strong recommendation that SafeVote be repealed. I want this money to be used in disbanding SafeVote and returning all elections to the state and local authorities, as was originally intended by our laws.

  "The Martin administration tried to break up my company because Miller News Network challenged its ideas and policies. Top officials in the Martin administration accused my network of being a danger to the public. But they are the ones who hold the power of force over all of us. They are the actual danger. The real reason they wanted to shut Miller News down was that we saw the truth about their growing power and our shrinking liberty, and we spoke out. Their real enemy is the truth we reveal when we expose their power grabs. That's what they know they have to destroy.

  "When the media is on their side, dangerous public officials know they can get away with their power grabs. Regarding SafeVote, only one journalist had the integrity to probe into it. Only one journalist suspected wrongdoing and had the courage to investigate the matter. Only one journalist overcame all obstacles to uncover much of their scheme, and she never quit speaking out. She was vilified, her family's businesses were harmed, her sister was expelled from college, and she was fired—but she never gave up her quest for the truth. I'm here to tell you Laura Taninger was right."

  In the plane, Laura's companions turned to smile at her with admiration. Reed squeezed her hand affectionately. Then, they turned back to the screen, where Reed's message continued.

  "I embarked on my sting operation not just to protect my company, or even to protect the voting process. There is much more at stake here. Voting is intended to elect officials that will safeguard all of our liberties. If we elect the wrong people, we stand to lose everything. When politicians are brazen enough to try to rig an election, their power-lust is on full display. It's a confession that they're a threat not only to a fair vote, but to all of the underlying freedoms that they're entrusted to protect. That's the real danger they pose—to the gamut of our constitutional rights."

  Reed paused, leaned forward, and with solemnity concluded. "You citizens have to be vigilant. You can't surrender your power to the government. The government isn't your friend. It's not your parent. It's not your helping hand. It's force, and that makes it a dangerous servant and a fearful master. When government takes more and more control away from our lives, it will eventually reach a point at which it will destroy the press. Journalism is the antidote to tyranny. Without it, the liberty we hold so dear will die."

  When the address had concluded, Laura glanced at her phone's news service. She found that Reed's message had already gone viral. His shocking revelation, dramatically broadcast on the eve of Election Day, knocked all other stories out of the headlines in news outlets throughout the country and abroad.

  By the end of the next day, the election results were in. Ken Martin had lost in a landslide.

  In the following days, more shock waves rocked the nation as Laura used her social media sites to publish the amazing story of their final courtyard meeting on the day before Election Day, along with Reed's video recording of the events. The press immediately picked up the scandalous account. Darcy and Zack, who had been released from the hospital after receiving treatment for their wounds, were arrested, as were Ted Burns from the Bureau of Elections and Denim. Shortly thereafter, ballistic tests showed that Denim's gun had fired the shot that killed James Spenser.

  The man at the head of the nefarious scheme, Ken Martin, who had tried never to get caught in an act of wrongdoing but instead let others take the fall, would also face criminal charges for authorizing Operation Topcoat and for his role in the other crimes committed. In current photos, his oversized smile and charismatic presence had vanished, and he looked hunched over, head down, disheveled, and grim.

  The company that had certified SafeVote before Operation Topcoat began was brought back. It performed a thorough study and verified that the original program was indeed the one that was used on Election Day, ensuring all Americans who had cast ballots of the integrity of the vote.

  The president-elect, who had defeated Ken Martin, commented publicly on the matter gripping the nation. He assured the offshore fugitives that once his administration took power, they would be welcomed back into the country as heroes. "This was a close call for America. We almost descended to a place from which we may not have been able to rise again. This incident shows that too much power has gone to the government, and my administration aims to begin a new epoch to reverse that dangerous trend. Our first priority will be the repeal of SafeVote." Reed and the others hoped he would follow-through with those plans.

  As the four fugitives sat around the pool of Reed's villa, still shocked by the events they had experienced and elated with the results
, Laura acknowledged the daring escapade of their host. "Reed waged a war, a kind of second revolution, for the same reason the first one was fought, and he won!"

  The others clapped, their faces bright with admiration.

  "All of you, it turned out, became soldiers in this war and played a vital role in its outcome!" Reed said as he smiled broadly. The past days had transformed him. He laughed easily and seemed more relaxed, light hearted, and happy.

  "Now that the ordeal is over, it's time to plan for the future," he said. "When we return home, I'd like to revamp Miller News into what it used to be—and even make it much better—now that I expect to be free from government interference." He turned to the woman smiling at him. "I want Laura to head it."

  Laura beamed, delighted with the idea. "Two years ago, you tried to lure me away from Taninger News, but I refused," she said. "Now, I'm ready to accept." Laura came alive. She looked like someone whose mind was firing ideas faster than she could express them. "We can make Miller News the premier place for in-depth news coverage, unsurpassed investigative journalism, and top-notch, trustworthy, objective reporting. We can also publish important commentary from our perspective as watchdogs of liberty."

  "We need that kind of news coverage for people my age," Kate added. "College students and young professionals need a source of valid information about the important issues of the day, and they need an analysis of the news from people who value our freedoms. I'd love to incorporate the Voice into Miller News as a media format for my generation."

  "I'd love to have you, honey," said Laura.

  "Great ideas! Write up a proposal, and we'll get going," said Reed, his face as excited as theirs.

  "Fabulous!" said Laura.

  "I'm ready," said Kate.

  Laura turned to their fourth companion, who had remained silent.

  "What about you, Sean?" Laura asked. "What will you do when we go back?"