Reed loosened his arms around Laura and raised his head. "Don't mangle my back the way you mangle the news."
"Reed!" Sean gasped in utter disbelief.
In a surprise move, Laura grabbed Reed's gun, stepped away from the men, and pointed the weapon at both of them.
"Drop the knife, Sean, and step back. You, too, Reed, step back."
The men looked astonished.
"Drop it, Sean!"
The seriousness of her tone made Sean obey. He dropped the knife. The men stepped back. She moved forward to stand by the knife as if guarding it.
"So now we know who the Fox is," said Sean. "The biggest bastard in the country is none other than Reed Miller. He's rigging the election. He's selling out our country for a pile of cash! I should've guessed it, Laura. We need to call the police and turn him in, along with his two accomplices, right now!" Sean reached into a shirt pocket for his phone.
"Not so fast," said Laura.
She stood about eight feet from the men. They stood about four feet apart, watching her as the gun in her hand moved slightly, leaning first toward one man, then the other, leaving them wondering where it would ultimately point.
"He's conning you again, Laura," Sean warned. "Remember how he used you and crushed your feelings without a care in the world?"
Sean raised his phone to begin dialing. "I'm calling the cops."
"Put that phone away, now!" Laura demanded, her gun pointing at Sean's chest.
"Okay, Laura. Don't do anything crazy. You hear?" Sean slid the phone back into his pocket.
Laura looked at Reed. "You said I don't know your real role here. Just what would that be?"
"Knowing the truth puts both of your lives in danger, and mine, too," said Reed, shaking his head. "But here goes." He turned to Laura while she continued to hold them at gunpoint. "Did you really think I'd roll over and play dead? Did you think I'd let Ken Martin's goons transform my company from something that served my beliefs and values, and served my customers, into something that served them? And would I oversee the SafeVote programming for them, as they so delicately put it, in exchange for them not destroying my company? What kind of a deal is that? A deal with a thief not to empty your house?"
Laura listened soberly while Sean sneered.
Reed continued, "I had no army to defeat them. I had no movement, no groundswell to stage an uprising. I had only myself. So I figured I had to play along with them in order to destroy them and their evil scheme. My weapon was a new high-tech video camera hidden within these lenses and frame, right here." He pointed to his sunglasses. "This was how I got video recordings of the commander-in-chief and his inner circle engaging in systematic, deliberate, unequivocal election fraud. I would be an army of one to bring them down. That was my thinking."
He glanced at his watch nervously and looked around the grounds to check that no one was yet approaching.
"Go on, Reed. I want to hear all of it," Laura ordered.
"Yes, I rigged SafeVote in a project called Operation Topcoat. I devised a program that would steal votes that were cast for Martin's opponent in the districts and counties of swing states, and I would give those votes to him. It was all mathematically arranged to give Ken Martin ballot wins in areas where he otherwise would have lost by a slim margin. Everything would appear to be plausible and no results would be so outlandish as to raise suspicions of rigging. That's the job I did as they know it. But there's more. I did more programming that no one knows anything about. You two will be the only ones who know what I'm going to say next."
He turned to Sean. "I trust Laura to know this. But you?" He glared distrustfully at Sean. "You can't say anything about this until after five o'clock tonight. This is of the gravest importance!"
"Come off it, Reed. You're spinning us to make yourself look innocent," Sean said.
"Shut up, Sean." Laura ordered. "Reed, you have to tell both of us. That's the way it is."
Reed shrugged and continued, "At five o'clock tonight, unknown to anyone, I've arranged for the SafeVote system to revert to the original certified program that was in place before I began Operation Topcoat. Also, at five o'clock tonight, a telecast will air on Miller News and be transmitted to news outlets across the country and the world. A pre-recorded video will play in which I'll explain everything to the public. I'll explain how I rigged the system, and I'll also explain how the changes I made are being undone and the original, legitimate program is being put back in operation as I speak. I'll tell the people that when they go to the polls tomorrow, they can rest assured that their votes will be counted as cast.
"Then I'll reveal to the world the incredible proof of my sting operation. I'll show the videos of me meeting with Darcy and Zack, explaining the vote-rigging, and getting their approval. The videos will also reveal my meeting with Ken Martin in which he shows he's aware of Operation Topcoat and gives me the green light to do it.
"I arranged my life, so there would be nothing they could threaten me with. I lost interest in my business and passively complied with their broadcast requirements. I also freed myself from other . . . entanglements." He looked at Laura and his voice softened. "I had to write you out of my life, so they would never know you were important to me, so they would never use you to manipulate me. I was willing to risk my life. But not yours."
Laura listened poker-faced, keeping her emotions in check, weighing the incredible things he told them.
"When my video is broadcast at five o'clock tonight—when the program I rigged is erased and the legitimate original program is re-activated—I'll be on my private plane headed to a remote spot outside the country where no one will find me."
Laura could tell that he was searching for her reaction, wondering if she believed his story. But she continued to fight off her emotions, trying hard to be objective and show no sign of either accepting his story or rejecting it until she had heard it all.
Reed continued, "No one can stop the reversion to the legitimate voting program, except me. Neither Darcy nor Zack can stop it. Ken Martin can't stop it. The tech stooge at Elections that's in on the scheme can't stop it. Everything is password protected and encrypted. No one must discover what's about to happen or be able to force me to reverse it. The only thing that can stop me is if they somehow discover my plan and can get me to cancel it. I must have nothing here that they can use to force me! That means you, Laura. That's why you have to trust me and leave here now!" He finished speaking and glanced at his watch. "You have less than ten minutes before they arrive."
There was a pause as Laura and Sean absorbed the information.
Then, Sean broke the silence. "A one-man army! No one would ever do the crazy things you say you're doing."
"No one you know would," Reed replied.
"Why would Darcy and Zack trust you with this work?" Sean asked.
"I built a corporate empire on my own cutting-edge programming, so they knew I had the skill to do the job. With the lawsuit at the Bureau of Fair Trade to break up my company, they gave me the motive. They were holding my company hostage, and they thought I'd do what they wanted. Besides, they kicked in a hefty fee, figuring that would be an added inducement. They were right about my having the skill, but they didn't know that I don't pay ransom—and money-at-any-price is not what I'm after."
"You've been unreliable before, Reed," said Laura, the pain of the past resurfacing in her voice.
"You have to believe me, Laura. It's the reason I left you."
"How do I know you're telling the truth this time?" Laura asked.
"He's lying. Don't believe him," interjected Sean.
"You know, Sean, you don't have a good track record of grasping more than meets the eye and getting at the real truth," Reed said.
"There's one truth I know: You're a traitor!" Sean charged.
"You're the traitor. When you were in the news business, you betrayed your profession," said Reed, his voice heavy with contempt. "You know how much damage you've done with your clueless, sycophantic news stories that snow the public and perpetuate the power-grabbers? It's people like you who threw us to the wolves. And for what? So you wouldn't have to work too hard and verify the facts yourself, so you could swallow talking points somebody else fed you and go home for the day, so you could go along to get along and advance your career with a top job in the People's Manor? You're a bottom-feeder who got to the top!"
Laura tried to decide what to do. As her gun swayed from Reed to Sean, her feelings pulled her in one direction, but her mind nudged them back. She felt compelled to hear more, to stop her feelings from leading her in the wrong direction.
"Laura," Sean pleaded, "don't let him ramble on. He's not on your side. I am. I finally saw what you wanted me to see. When Darcy and Zack promoted that scandal about you and the senator, which I knew was false, I finally realized they had nothing resembling good intentions. I broke with them when they wanted me to spread vicious lies about you. But Reed knows about worse things that they're doing, and he's in bed with them. That's why you can count on me, not him. Now, I see the truth."
"Now you see the truth?" Reed remarked. "It's a little late—isn't it? I saw the truth from the time I could walk. I saw their types in school. They envy you when you get high grades. They resent your success. They hate when you do things better than they can. They're the ones who accomplish nothing and want to control everything. When they grow up, they gravitate to politics as their breeding grounds. They find useful stooges like you, who for whatever reason, help them along, who give them a moral sanction, which is the worst thing you can do."
"Laura," Sean pleaded, "he admits he rigged the election. You caught him. Now he's composing a wild lie to wiggle out of it." He turned to Reed. "Stop playing with her feelings. You don't deserve a hearing with her. You don't deserve her, period."
"You think you deserve her, man?" asked Reed. "When her family's businesses were being pummeled, you spit out the administration's moronic talking points. You said that they were only regulating business and not trying to influence Laura's speech. But if they control our property, they control everything else—what we say, what we do, our freedom—everything is theirs. So now, you finally wake up to what your bosses are really after. You're a little late to the party, Sean."
"That's enough! Both of you!" Laura said, still holding her gun on both men.
"Laura, we're out of time. You have to believe me," Reed said urgently.
"And be played again? Don't believe him, Laura!"
Sean and Reed stared at her, waiting. The gun pointed a little more toward Reed, then a little more toward Sean, then back and forth again.
"I've had enough of his lies." Sean reached for his phone. "I'm calling the cops."
"No, you're not!" Laura made her decision. She walked toward Sean and from close range aimed the revolver only at him.
Laura's move galvanized Reed. He picked up Sean's knife and lodged it in the back of his belt. He opened the bin in the playground and grabbed two jump ropes. Then, he pushed Sean down on the ground and went to tie his hands. Sean tried kicking and punching in protest, but Reed was too strong for him. He subdued Sean and managed to bind his hands behind him, then his ankles.
"Quit struggling, Sean," Laura said. "We don't have time for this."
Looking at Laura with defeat in his eyes, he stopped trying to break free. Reed trotted to the broken window and gingerly slipped his arm through to retrieve the roll of duct tape that had been left on the sill.
"Is that really necessary?" Sean asked, as Reed ripped a length of tape from the roll.
"It's to protect all of us, including you," Reed said, as he taped Sean's mouth with it.
Reed lifted Sean over his shoulder like a sack and lugged him to the front of the building where his car was parked. Laura followed. Reed opened the rear door of his sedan and laid Sean across the seat.
"You have to stay down, Sean. If you don't, we'll all be dead," Reed said. Then he turned to Laura.
"It's too late for you to run. They'll be here any minute. You have to hide here."
"Take this." She tried to give him back his gun.
"No! You keep it."
"You need it, Reed. I absolutely insist."
She held the gun out. He took it and dropped it in her purse.
"They play dirty, Laura. Nothing is beneath them. Use it if you have to."
He looked her over, drinking her in before embracing her.
"I'm supposed to give them the source code for Topcoat," he whispered into her hair as he held her. "It's reasonable for them to ask for a personal delivery of something that sensitive, so I have to comply. But I can't help thinking this could be a trap."
He pulled back and his face showed a grim resolve to accept the ultimate risk he was taking.
"If you see them leave, and I don't . . . come back. . . . If anything happens to me . . . hide until they're gone, then get out of here. Call in an anonymous tip to the cops to come and retrieve Sean but wait until after my video starts before you set him free."
"Reed, do you have to meet them? Can't you just leave the country now? Can't we go together?"
"You can't be part of this! If I don't show up, they'll suspect something. They could detain me before I'd ever get out of the private airport I use."
She pulled him close again. "Reed, be careful!" She kissed him passionately.
Their moment ended abruptly. They heard footsteps and voices nearby.
"Hide back here. Don't come any closer!" he whispered.
In a moment, he was gone.