http://campaignscape.com

“He could be useful,” Milly said after Brendan left with his coffee.

“In what way?” Andreas asked.

“His friends, knowledge of what moves the police, what they care about and ignore.”

Andreas stared at the ceiling. What twaddle, he thought. “Here’s what I understand,” he said. “You find a car outside your house with a dead body in it. You take down the licence plate. Your friends in the Governor’s office search the plate, and the rental company supplies the name of Gabriel Daloux with a Paris address. Meanwhile the car disappears with the body inside. You’re curious. You tell your friend Carrie, who asks me, and I find that Daloux has protection. I have business on this side of the Atlantic, and you invite me to these charming surroundings.” He waved his hand at the Diner. Read Episode

Governor Albert T. Brull’s campaign to become President of the United States shifted into high gear. The tempo of events accelerated. Even conversation speeded up. There were meetings, coffees, drinks, updates in corridors, lectures, memos, notes and summaries. There were summaries of summaries and diagrams of the diagrams of summaries. Nobody had enough time. Proof-reading speeches occupied a special niche that required experts to review each nuance. Even shredding had its own analysis and rules. Decisions were planned a year ahead. Charts filled every inch of wall space. Deadlines hurtled towards the team then receded at an alarming rate into history, forgotten in the swarm of new demands. Committees formed to review the formation of committees, then disbanded. Milly made a decision, Fred chose an option, Albert Brull himself moved to the right or left, and everyone together plunged towards their goal like a single multi-celled organism. The atmosphere thrummed with electricity. Adrenalin surged. The prospect of power intoxicated those close to it, as responsibility devolved down the chain of command and at the same time collected into fewer fists at the top, preserving the philosophical unity of the campaign.

Read Episode

While Milly plotted revenge against Pam, Andreas tracked the person who’d sent Pam the bomb. Neither task was easy. Neither made sense.

Pam was rich. She could shower gold into Milly’s lap. Why irritate Pam? Worse, why kill her? As Milly considered how to slay Pam, its fundamental logic escaped her. From the right thing to do, Pam’s death became an idiotic blunder. This without adding the factor of political influence. Pam held the Governor in the palm of her hand. Milly, as Pam’s confidante and partner, could hope for a senior desk in the White House if not a corner office at an agency reining in career bureaucrats. She’d be on the fast track to a six-figure pension with retirement in a few years to the tropics. And Pam knew plenty of those construction workers who Milly liked to hire for nameless, violent purposes related to discipline in the drug underground, psychopaths, experts in human relations that had kept Pam’s largest building projects on schedule. Pam dealt easily with these men. She could turn them against Milly. A war with Pam was irrational, Milly understood, as she planned the kill. Together they were a force to reckon with. At daggers drawn they’d self-destruct. And Pam was Milly’s only potential friend. Pam was motivated by the same forces: a subterranean urge to succeed, the desire for power, the necessity at all costs not to understand why she did things. By making Pam a target, Milly confirmed that her only community was the company of dolls. Reviewing the rows of impassive faces, like the contemplative rosy cheeks of a Church choir, Milly consoled herself. A break with Pam was inevitable. It would come to death in the end. Best to embark at her own pace for the tragedy that is life and love’s necessary terminus. Only her dolls would never leave. They were the faithful. Pam would betray Milly, if not today then tomorrow. Milly wouldn’t and couldn’t trust her.

Read Episode

Milly gave Lin a ride in her Porsche. They drove on the highway with the wind heaving the car sideways every few minutes. Then they took the smaller routes toward Altamont and Knox. It was a challenge to keep on the road and Milly drove like a demon. She loved the danger. This was a side of Milly Lin hadn’t seen. He loved it.

“Hit Pam hard and fast and get out,” Milly said. “I work alone.”

“With inanimate creatures. Dolls, I hear.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“I’ve tested Pam’s defences.” He stretched. “They’re good. Pam has a friend in town from France, someone with lots of experience. I’ve dealt with him before. It makes my job easier.”

Read Episode

During the flight from Paris, Andreas had plenty of time to think. The Elysee and the Quai know, thought Andreas. Antoine has told his masters about Immortality. They know he’s pumping it into the American illicit drug scene and they want to use it to elevate France’s influence. Now, if that were true, what would the devious minds that govern France do? Andreas already had part of the answer, personal and incomplete; they required Andreas to visit Albany.

Andreas regarded Pam as a quintessential American success story. Ironically, she was also Antoine’s conduit into the U.S. drug market. The juxtaposition satisfied common sense, however, because many American fortunes had blossomed during Prohibition. They took advantage of bootlegging as they did any profitable enterprise. The legal status of the business didn’t matter, and it therefore wasn’t absurd that a major construction boss would profit from surreptitious forms of enterprise. Indeed, it was sanctioned by historical precedent.

Read Episode

Lin called Milly a few days after he’d shot at her. “You have a stalker,” he said.

Fred, Milly thought. “A secret admirer,” she said.

That’s the spirit, Lin thought. “Someone who carries a detective’s badge,” he said.

They’re on my trail, thought Milly. “A training run for someone else,” she said.

“We should talk.”

“We’re talking.” It was the crack of dawn. Milly took her phone to the dolls’ room.

“Where no one can overhear us. Wireless phones aren’t secure.”

“Neither are we.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

Read Episode

Shortly after Milly delivered her negative answer to Lin, he parked down the road from Pam’s home and, for the hundredth time, considered his approach. He couldn’t fault it. Curiosity rather than hesitation governed his spirit. Milly’s attitude affected his calculations further into the contest, but not at present. They certainly didn’t dominate. Lin was more concerned with understanding Milly and taking her motives into account than following her advice. For Lin, it had always made sense to eliminate Pam and lay a faint trail, as though accidental, to Milly’s door. He worked best alone, and sweeping the drug market of its two most powerful personalities would create the turmoil he needed to take control. At the same time, Milly and Pam could accelerate his legitimate rise to power through the Governor’s committees and friendship. The question was which prevailed for Lin: politics or the drug trade, the open or secret path. One led to life for Milly and Pam, the other death and ruin. Lin had spent too long in covert fields to have a preference. The evidence he would drop from a plastic envelope lay to hand. His rifle was sighted.

Lin wasn’t foolish enough to ring the doorbell at the gate. He’d paid a pizza delivery boy to do it for him then run away. And Pam wasn’t foolish enough to open the door herself. But she did, to Lin’s astonishment. The self-confidence, no, hauteur of this self-made millionaire amazed him. Did she think she was invulnerable? Apparently so. Lin saw the red dot from his rifle wander across her face, contradicting her. He squeezed the trigger and the bullet raced to its target, as Pam bent down to pet her dog. The shot crashed into the door. Pam dived inside the house and Lin didn’t try another shot. He drove quietly away at a safe speed, just another wealthy businessman who couldn’t sleep, a New York sales rep returning from a late meeting. The choice was made for him, Lin thought. He’d chase the legitimate prize for a time. Then reconsider.

Read Episode