bewray
********************************
There was something wrong with the staff. They looked at Sen. Adams with nervous eyes and spoke in hushed tones. He could only assume they knew something he didn’t. He knew he should ask one of them, but he did not converse with the hired help. He had people who did that for him. Besides, Sheila would know. He could always could on her for things like that.
“Hello, sir.” Sheila said as he approached. She was there before him, like always. It was one of the many reasons she was the only person qualified to be his secretary.
“Good morning, Sheila. Any news for me?”
She shuffled in her seat and avoided eye contact. That was odd. She had worked for him for his entire political career, and she had never once looked nervous around him.
“You…might want to check the news sites when you sit down, sir. It’s bad.”
“How bad?”
“Bad.”
Well, if she did not want to tell him, then it could not be as bad as she seemed to want him to believe. It was probably just a few blurry photos of his more clandestine meetings. He could easily deal with those. He had dealt with worse.
A few minutes later and he was shaking. He had not dealt with something this much worse. This was indeed catastrophic for his career. Maybe even his life. Somehow every single one of his dealings had been posted on the internet. Every receipt, every recording, every document. He was, in effect, ruined.
He hit his intercom, calling for the only person he could trust to keep him afloat.
“What’s the backlash?” He asked.
“So far? Not too much.” Sheila said. “But it’s still early, and every minute more people are finding out about the leaks. My best guess is the only way out is for you to resign.”
He groaned and rubbed his face into his hands. How could this have happened? He was careful. He never put any of his secrets online, just so this kind of thing did not happen. There was only one explanation.
“How? How could this happen? How could I have been betrayed like this?”
“Sir?”
“It’s obvious, Sheila. The only way a leak of this degree could’ve been made is if there’s a traitor here. A traitor in my staff, of all places!” he let out a heavy sigh. “I just need to find out who.”
“I’ll go through the employee roster, sir.” She said.
Sen. Adams looked at his secretary. She was calm. Very calm. Her livelihood was tied with his, how could she be so steady? He knew she was good at hiding her inner emotions, but not that good. And there were a lot of leaked documents. Documents that only two people had access to.
“Don’t bother.” He said. “I think I know who the traitor is.”
Now she hesitated. It was a slight thing. Most people would have overlooked her slight tell. But he knew her well enough to spot it, provided he was looking close enough.
“Who is it, sir?” She asked.
“You know who. You knew even before I mentioned the possibility, didn’t you?” Her silence was all the confession he need. “Why? Why did you do this to me? How could you betray me after everything we’ve been through? I thought you of all people were loyal.”
“Sir…no, I guess I should just call you Henry now, shouldn’t I? Well, Henry, it’s because it needed to be done.” She said, facing him dead in the eye. “You needed to be stopped. If this had gone on any longer, you would’ve turned this country into a dictatorship. A fascist regime that serves only to crush your opponents. I couldn’t work for someone with goals like that anymore.”
“That…you know why I have to do that. You know why—”
“No, Henry. You only think that. You’re arrogance and megalomania tell you you’re the only person fit to lead. That’s the problem. You can’t even see why it’s a catastrophically bad idea.”
Henry clenched his teeth and fists. An image of her face caved in flashed in his mind. He could do it. There was no shortage of blunt objects in the office he could use to kill the traitorous secretary. Before he could, she spoke again.
“Just be glad I didn’t call any authorities on you. Yet. I’ll be going now. My last act as your secretary was to schedule a press conference. It’s in three hours, right outside the office. Every major news group will be there. I won’t be helping you with them. Good luck.”
With that, she turned and left the office. He slumped back in his chair. His heart beat like a drum and he could feel a cold sweat start to form. His mind raced. He needed to come up with something, anything, to save himself and his career. And he had three hours to do it. He hunched over his desk and got to work.
************************
If only this sort of thing happened more often in real life. There's quite a few politicians out there who could do with a little airing out.
No comments:
Post a Comment