“Shut the door.”
Dan Issa closed it and settled into the oversized chair. An elongated nose dripped off his elongated face.
“How’d the meeting go last week?” Dan asked. The cocky grin he wore everywhere flattened into a sneer.
“Great for the most part,” Charles Ahab said. “Except for an idiot Jehoiakim invited to the meeting.”
“Who?”
“Some guy. Ben. Ahikam, I think.”
“What was he doing there?”
Ahab shrugged. “Apparently, Jeremiah suggested he show up. Why Jehoiakim listened to the suggestion, I couldn’t tell you.”
Dan exhaled his disgust. “What a piece of … did you catch him at the National Cathedral?” He caught himself. “Of course. You were there.”
“If I had got my hands on him, I would have strangled him in front of the cameras. Or stuffed something down his throat to make him shut up.”
Dan laughed at the reference. “I bet he would’ve loved it.”
“Yeah.” Ahab didn’t find the humor in it and pivoted back to his earlier remark. “Clearly, that Ben guy is connected to Jeremiah in some way. I don’t know how, though.”
“You think Ben’s going to be a problem?”
“He’s too low-level,” Ahab said. “Got to make sure he stays that way.”
“What if he has more influence than you think?” Dan said.
“If he starts to be a problem, I’ll squash him.” His hands went behind his neck, fingers interlaced like a tightly woven net. A yawn slid out.
“Late night?” Dan asked, a shred of jealousy creeping into his chest.
“I got in around one.”
“Working, I suppose.”
Ahab grinned. “I guess you could call it that.”
The jealousy expanded upwards. Dan turned his face to the side to hide his expression. When he had composed himself, he turned back to Ahab. “The meeting,” he said. “You were saying how it went.”
“Right. It went pretty well.”
“You got everything you asked for?” His eyes shined in excitement.
Ahab gave a slight shake of his head. “Small steps, Dan.”
“What does that mean?”
“You can’t expect to get everything you ask for on the first try. That’s not how the game is played.”
“We’ve been waiting for over a decade, Charles. How long does this game take?”
“Patience, Dan. We just got Josiah out the door.”
Frustration showed on Dan’s face. “Things should’ve changed immediately when Jehoiakim came in. That’s why we supported his nomination.”
Ahab let out a small laugh, signifying something between resignation and irony. “He proved a little more headstrong than we imagined. Decided that he was in charge after all. It’s taking a rather pronounced effort to disabuse him of that notion.”
“I thought he was on board with our platform from the beginning.”
“We didn’t exactly spell it out for him,” Ahab said. “If we had, he would’ve balked. He just wasn’t ready for it.”
“Is he ready now?”
“He’s close. It’ll take a little while longer.”
“How much?”
“Patience, Dan. It’ll happen.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard that song and dance before.”
Dan bit his lip and pulled off a strip of dead skin. A drop of blood rose to the surface. He grabbed a tissue from Ahab’s desk and wiped his mouth. A crimson smear appeared on the white tissue.
Ahab stared from under his thick eyebrows. “Trust me, Dan. I’ve got this covered.”
“Excuse me if I’m not sharing your confidence,” Dan said as the tissue went into the trash. “It’s not like we’re seeing any results.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. I called Ma’chele over at the Register. She agreed to run our story and to share it with her friend at the Daily. The rest of the papers will pick it up once they see it in the other two.”
“She did?”
Dan’s surprised reaction in turn surprised Ahab. “Of course. She’s on our side. I thought you knew.”
“First I’m hearing about it,” Dan said. “You wouldn’t mind sharing her number with me, would you?”
“I’ll have my assistant send it to you.”
Dan waited for Ahab to finish the conversation with his assistant. They talked longer than Dan expected, Ahab mostly listening. After ten minutes, Dan’s patience began to wane. Ahab noticed it and hung up the phone.
“Lily sent the information to your office in a confidential email,” Ahab said.
“It took that long to get it. You might want another assistant.”
“Actually, she was giving me some good news.”
“Oh?”
Ahab’s head bobbed up and down. “It seems the story they ran on the Alexandria riots was well received. According to their polling, a plurality of the readers believes Josiah’s policies were responsible.”
“There’s no way that’s correct.”
“Apparently, it is.”
“How’s that possible? Even a year after Josiah’s death, his favorability numbers were through the roof. Over seventy percent, if I remember correctly. No one, well, barely anyone, blamed him for the situation in the country. How’d their opinion change so quickly? A single article couldn’t do that. Heck, a few articles couldn’t do that.”
“One or two with well-placed photographs and other incriminating evidence could,” Ahab said.
“I don’t follow.”
Ahab turned his computer around. “Take a look. This is the afternoon edition of the Register. They ran a special one just for the situation.”
Dan examined the front page of the Register. Under the main banner, a photo of two people holding signs appeared. On each sign was a picture of President Josiah with the bold words, ‘No More Corruption’ beneath.
“That’s an interesting photo,” Dan said. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
“I may have sent a couple operatives down there with the signs,” Ahab replied.
Dan’s cocky grin returned.
“That’s not all,” Ahab continued. “Read on.”
Dan scrolled down the page. In slightly smaller print, the words, ‘Josiah Administration Scandal Deepens.’
“I was unaware of a scandal,” Dan said. “What gives?”
“The GAO did an audit and found Josiah sent billions to the Chinese off the records. The Chinese threatened to expose Josiah if he didn’t back them against the Russians. For some unknown reason, this caused him to attack the Chinese, ostensibly in an attempt to silence them.”
Disbelief wrinkled Dan’s face. “First of all, that doesn’t make sense. Why would he attack the Chinese? Wouldn’t that make them more likely to expose him? Second, where did the Register get the information?”
“It doesn’t have to make sense,” Ahab said, “not with the evidence coming from so many sources. Or one particular source with a bunch of different names,” he added, a touch of sarcasm gracing his smile. “My favorite anonymous one.”
“You sent it in,” Dan said. His smirk widened. “Did that actually happen? Josiah sending the money, that is?”
“It certainly seems that way.” Ahab said. “Regardless, the seed has been planted and has, apparently, taken root.”
“Our sponsors will be glad to hear that.”
“It gets better,” Ahab said.
“I’m all ears,” Dan said.
“President Jehoiakim agreed to sign a modified version of the Federal Anti-Inequality Regulations you proposed. It doesn’t give you much of what you wanted, but it does decriminalize sexual behavior between two consenting adults. At the federal level anyway.”
“Did he consider the equality in marriage portion?”
“Not seriously.”
“Did he, at least, keep the provision making it illegal to publicly speak out against people in same-sex relationships?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Anything else make it through?” Dan asked.
“No,” Ahab said. “Just what I told you.”
“I have to say I’m a little disappointed,” Dan said. “Seeing as how we expected more. I’d hate to report back to our sponsors that you’re having difficulties.” A subtle hint of an implied threat made it into his words.
“There was too much opposition to the rest of it,” Ahab said, ignoring the insinuation.
“From Immerson?”
“Yes, but he’s all show. Ten senators, the Speaker, even Shemaiah came out against it.”
Again, Dan scrunched his face. Ahab read his emotions.
“It’s politically inconvenient for them,” Ahab said. “The Christian community is still the largest voting and economic block. It’s not that the senators and the Speaker are against it. The timing’s not right. They have to appear that they’re against it for now.”
Dan shook his head repetitively. He grinded his teeth to prevent his mouth from unleashing the curses inside.
“Come on, Dan. You know the process. Decriminalization, tolerance, acceptance, normalization, promotion, celebration, prosecution of those who don’t agree. It takes a while. We just started. Have patience.”
“Yeah.” Dan rubbed his neck and let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, I know you’re right. Just ….” He paused. “Isn’t there a way to speed up the process?”
“You have to break the power of the Christians.”
“How? It’s too strong according to you.”
“Most of them are nominal Christians,” Ahab said. “I don’t think it’ll be as difficult as you think. We’ll start in the more liberal denominations, get the preachers to promote tolerance. Maybe start with Bishop Rosen. He’s well respected. If we can just get him to come out and show you how to be a homosexual and a good Christian, people will come around.”
“I don’t think that’ll work.”
“Remember what happened when Jehoiakim signed no-fault divorce into law?” Ahab said. “After the requisite pearl clutching and hand wringing, the churches came around. This will work too. Besides, we have other legislation in the pipeline. I’d be surprised if we didn’t have most of what you wanted codified into law by the end of the summer.”
“Really? That quickly?”
“Yep. We’re not that far off. Trust the plan.”
“We still have a major issue, though,” Dan said.
“Jeremiah?”
“Jeremiah. Do you have a plan for him?”
Ahab’s mouth twitched. A groan crawled out his throat. “You had to bring him back up.”
“He’s a problem you need to solve. The people respect him or, at least, fear him.”
“True. But they don’t really like him. I don’t see why we can’t just ignore him.”
“You won’t make any headway until you clear him out of the public eye,” Dan said.
“You’ve got a point.” Ahab pushed back in his chair and let his body slouch. “We could isolate and shame him then cut off his support. It’s been effective against all the rest.”
“Jeremiah’s a different sort. He won’t back down, although, for the life of me I can’t figure out why.”
“Maybe, we haven’t gone hard enough against him.” A twinkle appeared in Ahab’s eyes.
“It looks like you have might something in mind.”
Ahab smiled. “An idea or two.”
“What?” “Patience,” Ahab said. “When it happens, you’ll know.”