C.: Well, d.c. got called in to work unexpectedly, and I’m really tired. As a result, I’m just going to do what he asked me to do while he was gone and run the first chapter of THE MAGRUDER MYSTERIES A FULL PARDON: A GRAYING OF THE LAW today. Maybe things will be back to normal tomorrow (or sometime in the near or distant future…. or, most likely never. What does that word mean anyway?)
CHAPTER ONE: THE POLITICIANS
'Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.-George Orwell
Orchard, Texas; May 25, 2035; Dandridge Ranch; 2300 hours:
Taylor settled into his hiding spot in one of the few strands of trees left in the Greater Houston, Texas area. He cleaned the blood off his trench knife and then pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and dialed the number of his cleaner. He was a fastidious person, and dead bodies make such a mess.
Taylor then turned his attention to the illuminated scope on his sniper rifle that was trained on his opponent’s window, waiting for the right opportunity to influence his chief rival to concede.
***
“Jones, I know that I dismissed you for the night, but as the head of my security detail, you to check out something for me. I hope it’s just the media, and not someone who wants me off the campaign trail. I’ve already had my life threatened more than once if I didn’t quit, and I’m not armed or protected right now. Either I’m becoming paranoid from the stress this presidential campaign is causing me, or someone really is following me; or both. I thought that I would shake the paparazzi by coming here, but I guess I didn’t. There’s a light in the distance and it looks like I’m being watched. It would put my mind at ease if you could check that out for me. I’m sure that I won’t be asleep anytime soon, so call me when you find out what’s going on in the woods.” Mark Joliet then had a disturbing thought as he turned on the television to dull his mind.
“Since I’m wide awake, I might as well watch the rerun of the ten o’clock news on this local channel. They rerun it every hour. The way my schedule has been lately, I won’t be able to fall asleep anyway. Especially not since I’m worrying about that distant light. Hmm… it’s my least favorite person in the world, that political commentator, what was his name?”
Hi, I’m Ben McLemore, with an update on the presidential election campaign. It appears that the acting governor and former Attorney General of Texas is conceding the presidential election. Even though his opponent is only two percentage points ahead of him in the race according to most popular polls, Mark Joliet has disappeared. He claims to be going to the funeral of a close friend in the small Southeast Texas town of Orchard, but I suspect that he’s waving the white flag. Josh McCafferty is one of the most powerful politicians in the country already, and he now wants to be the most powerful person in the United States, if not the world. He’s a hard man to compete with, so this reporter believes that he may run unopposed in the next presidential election; if Mark Joliet has, indeed, given up. Common sense says that he has.
This has been political expert Ben McLemore, with one man’s (correct) opinion.
“Well, I’ll never sleep now. The funeral is tomorrow, and I’m supposed to give part of the eulogy. (ding) Why is my phone dinging? Oh, Jay just sent me an email with a long attachment. How would he be able to do that? Oh, I see, it’s from Alicia. She must have used Jay’s email address. My phone wouldn’t let an unrecognized email address through, so she sent it via one that would get through to me.
“Alicia says that she and I are the only two people on the face of the earth who can open this attachment. That’s what my old buddy from our FBI days would have wanted, I guess. Jay had a lot of secrets, but he trusted his oldest child, and me, apparently. Maybe this long attachment to this email will help me get some sleep if I read it. It is a little long, but what the hell. I won’t sleep anyway with that political commentator and the distant light on my mind. My sleep schedule is so messed up, I won’t sleep well, anyway; not in a strange bed. I might as well read this long attachment.
from: THE MAGRUDER MYSTERIES A FULL PARDON: A GRAYING OF THE LAW
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