December 17th, 2267. 10:35 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
John started to chuckle as he stood up and walked over to the liquor stand. Elias’ Puritan views shone through in telling his portion of this tale. Still, it pleased John that the apartment, of all things, caused so much angst and annoyance within Elias.
A dodgy stance to take given his goaler was armed and did say he wanted to kill him. After all, John was responsible for murdering, in Elias’ eyes, his fiancé. From the tale he’d heard thus far, she sounded like a horrible human being and more trouble than she was worth, yet Elias still loved her. John really struggled to find a reason why Elias could love such a vial woman.
“You think this is funny.”
John turned to Elias and nodded, “I do actually. Apologies, by the way, I am rather reluctant to use ice in whisky, it tightens the tannins in the spirit and dampens its nose. But this little botty is a beast and a half.”
“You knew about the apartment.”
John nodded, “I knew about that apartment yes, the kids found it for me a few days before all that jazz you were talking about occurred. I was damn tempted to go and off the first couple that I saw.”
Elias leaned forward in his seat, “What stopped your hand? You don’t come off as necessarily careful.”
“I’m a bit insulted by that statement,” John turned and watched Elias cough, “There’s a pitcher of water to your right. You needn’t worry, I’m not going to try and escape or overpower you.”
“What game are you playing?”
“None, my friendlies aren’t going to arrive until after that big gate is activated. I’m guessing you have a fleet waiting on the other side waiting for it to fire up, right?”
“I’m not privy to our war plans but that is a reasonable expectation.”
“So what good is it going to do for me if I kill you? You’ll just capture me eventually,” John said dismissively, “At least this way I can enjoy a few drinks and find out the full story of how you fucks pulled the wool over my eyes so fully.”
“You killed half of my team; you don’t think that was an achievement.”
“Fuck no, you built that big-ass gate thingy under my eyes. That contraption gives y’all the win.”
John turned back and poured his drink. A locally made whisky that was aged in a single barrel and aged just over five years. It came in at a barn burning sixty-eight percent alcohol content. He sniffed the feisty young spirit and eyed it a bit worryingly. The flavors were truly amazing, but they had an aftertaste that made you think you drank napalm. With a smile, John took a sip.
“Oof, fucking hell this still is only good in small quantities,” John said as he reached to drop another ice cube into his drink, “Anyways, that apartment ultimately led me back to your main base of operations. Now I could’ve just gone in and murdered y’all, but I still didn’t know what in the hell you were trying to do.”
“Besides the election,” Elias said as he set his gun on the table and poured himself some water.
“Correct. I still had no idea where you were from or what your end game was. And until I did, I had to play the long game, but as you are keenly aware that gave you ample time to move forward with your projects.”
“Did you know our roles?”
John shook his head, “I surmised you were the leader of this mission. Constantine was the leader of the group that spent the least amount of time in your facility. Following his people was truly a pain in the ass, they did a reasonably good job of blending in, and absolutely excelled at getting lost in crowds.”
“You observed us in our facility?”
“I had limited abilities to observe you in that facility. Do you remember those windows on the second floor above the stairway? They gave me a direct line of sight into the living room on the first floor. After those conversations, you were enemy numero uno for your team.”
“We swept that building multiple times, and we never detected any electronic devices.”
John smiled, “Well, you swept that building once when I was in there.”
“That is impossible they would have detected you.”
John looked over at Elias and gave off a creepy smile, “I can assure you that I was there. In fact, I was there installing my camera to look into your facility.”
“We would have detected the signals…”
“No, you would not have. Naval Intelligence has both the means and the tech to avoid detection. I won’t be getting into how we can,” John turned back to watch the shuttle head towards the ring, “That is reinforced by how I had a live feed into your building, limited as it was, whenever I wanted to view it.”
Elias scowled as he looked at John. The realization that they had been outplayed at every turn was setting in. No wonder John was able to decimate their operations so thoroughly. He had to learn everything he could from John.
This enemy agent was a monster. The lack of morals and ethics disgusted Elias. His orders, as horrific as they sounded, and he couldn’t help but believe they were true, were unlike anything he had ever heard before in his life.
“I remember y’all coming out to meet with me. Was that around the time your group was imploding?”
“Close, that was under two weeks afterward. There was the third debate in between this whole mess.”
“Oh yeah, that did happen first. Your boy put on a better show. How did y’all react to that.”
July 17th, 2267. 21:45 Elias’ Office
Elias was scrolling through the chat logs of the citizens who were engaged in the online debate. He was perplexed at how well-received Dale was in this debate, but it didn’t result in a sufficient gain in likely voters. Well, they did take some votes from William, but only one percent.
“This is vexing…” Elias said.
“With respect sir, the voters remember how Dale is a smooth talker. It makes sense that he didn’t gain much,” Alberic said, “The bigger issue from my perspective is how we can find a more genuine means of selling his position to the voters.”
Kaius said, “His follow-up to William’s purchase of land in the blighted district generated roughly what we presumed. It also spurred on six more super-wealthy residents here to do the same. On the plus side, sixteen square blocks are being torn down and rebuilt.”
Marion then spoke up, “A new precinct, fire hall, and medical center are being constructed too. I think the trick to this is to double down on his plan…”
“Except it wasn’t his plan, it was William who first laid out specifics on how to fix the area,” Elias said, “Dale didn’t flesh out his statements to suggest that what is happening is what he wanted. We are stuck in a pickle.”
“Did we find anything on William to use?” Kaius asked.
Castor rather sheepishly spoke up, “The short answer is now. I wouldn’t touch on his divorces at all.”
Elias looked dismissively at his young protégé and asked, “And why is that?”
“His first marriage lasted all of three whole months when he was twenty-one. It ended in an annulment on Earth due to his wife cheating. The second marriage ended when the couple landed in this world. She cheated on him because he wasn’t giving her the quality of life she expected. The third, and final one, was just disgusting.”
“On his part?” Kaius asked.
“No, on hers. There was a forged prenuptial agreement, cheating on her part, and parental alienation. The children are grown and don’t speak to their mother at all. And the mother served time in jail for numerous counts of fraud and attempted fraud related to their divorce hearings.”
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“And from a business standpoint?” Elias asked, “Have we uncovered anything on that front?”
“No. He’s considered to be an excellent boss and owner. He pays his people more than the average salary and every position has benefits. On more than one occasion he’s gone out of his way, at his corporation’s expense, to improve the quality of life of his employees.”
“He’s not a boy scout, but there’s nothing here to use,” Kaius said as he skimmed his data slate, “Worse than that, if we go dirty and William responds in kind we will be destroyed.”
Alberic then piped up, “I think we need to avoid that at all costs. He is all but guaranteed a seat in the cabinet should Dale lose. If this goes dirty, we lose our asset for good.”
“And we just gave him the ability to make a fortune at small expense on his end,” Elias looked down at the floor as he shook his head, “I have nothing else to share. You all are dismissed. Please continue with your work.”
Alberic stood up as he looked at a data slate but then spoke up, “Who are we getting the polling data from?”
“Uhm,” Kaius said as he tinkered with his terminal, “The Warhol Institute and the Fair Voters Alliance, why?”
“Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck,” Alberic cursed under his breath, “We have fifty-six percent of the expected vote with a margin of error of five percent.”
“And?” Elias looked puzzled, “What’s the issue?”
“Both of these groups are oversampling Dale’s voter base.”
“Uhm,” Kaius said, “You know this how?”
“It’s buried in their assumptions statement at the end of both polling summaries. Two-thirds of the voters are of the same party during their initial output. Today’s output the oversample is roughly sixty percent.”
Elias pointed at Castor, “Adjust the numbers, what does that mean for the numbers.”
“Checking,” Castor said as he worked on his data slate.
Silence reigned over the room, and it was anything but comfortable. The sudden realization that all of their work could have been for nothing was not lost on anyone present. Elias was sick to his stomach, they needed to win this election. It was far too late in the game for such a glaringly obvious thing to strike them.
Ten minutes later Castor spoke up, “This isn’t certain, but we’re somewhere between forty-six and forty-nine percent.”
“What’s the margin?” Kaius bluntly asked.
“A hint over two percent.”
Elias paced back and forth. Her nervousness was infectious to those in the room. While he fidgeted so did the rest of his team. He finally sat down at his desk, looked down at it, and rubbed his forehead with one arm. The awkward silence in the room continued.
“Castor, contact both polling companies and request a private review and confirm whether or not that has happened. I also want you to commission a private study using the correct ratios of voters along party lines,” Elias said, “Kaius, I need your team to look into the feasibility of manipulating the votes. In the absence of that working, I want you to come up with a plan to game the system somehow.”
With that, the team began to leave Elias’ cramped office. Dejection was felt across the board. Elias hoped that their newfound fears were overblown. No, he prayed for that. It was far too late in the game to be blindsided like this.
Elias stayed in his office for another four hours. He did little besides ruminate about his team’s current misfortune. Eventually, he gave up and returned to his quarters. Perhaps tomorrow he’d hear better news, but for now, his mood was not different from the rest of the team. Well, those that were out of home confinement that is.
July 18th, 2267. 07:50 Main Floor Living Room
Elias paused as walked down the stairs and observed a curious thing on the middle ramp. Linus just walked into the living room and sat down on the chair next to the couch. Castor was leaning forward on the couch eating his breakfast.
“You know you can’t eat meals here,” Linus said from the dining room table.
“I know, but the table is full, and I already dished up my food.”
“I ain’t going to bust your balls about that,” Linus said leaning over to him, “Hey, what the hell is with the mood here? It’s so damn mopey.”
“It’s possible that the polling companies have been conducting their polls under some hilariously bad biases.”
“Does that mean what I think that means?” Linus asked quietly.
Elias then spoke up, “Yes it does. Castor, either eat in the kitchen or the dining room, not here, please. Linus, your team will be briefed when we know more about what is actually going on.”
Linus shrugged and got up, “I’ve been up twenty hours. It’s long past time for me to turn in.”
Linus stood up and headed up to the dormitory. Castor sheepishly stood up and walked out of the living room and back towards the kitchen. Just then Kaius appeared from the dining room.
“Boss, I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“Wonderful,” Elias said as he finished walking down to the main level, “Bad news first.”
“There’s no hacking or manipulating vote counts. We’d need literal years to accomplish that feat.”
“Is that all?”
“No. Sending our own people to vote multiple times won’t work either. A biosignature is recorded and shared with all voting devices and polling locations through an unknown process.”
Elias shook his head as he placed his hands on his hips, “Fuck, one person, one vote.”
“Attempts to the contrary are known immediately. We can work around that though. We can organize a campaign for citizens who are eligible to vote but not planning to do so or have not registered. There’s nothing saying we can’t do that and it’s perfectly acceptable.”
“But no bribes for votes?”
“If everything is above board, sure, if it’s not then we could manipulate the numbers a bit.”
“By finding citizens who would vote for Dale but aren’t going to. Get working on that and let me know.”
Kaius then leaned on the back of the couch, “What if commissioned another poll but had the percentage appear in the high fifties to low sixties in favor of Dale?”
“What would that accomplishment be?” Elias looked confused.
“It’s a page out of the old Earth playbook. Disillusion the opponent’s side to make them think the election is not going in their favor. Make it look like their vote doesn’t count.”
Elias nodded, “I see, do some research on that and give me a full write-up. I think the combination of those two things could swing the election back in our favor.”
Alberic shouted from the dining room, “We need a two-week delay for the next debate too.”
“Why?” Elias asked loudly.
“I’ll tell you,” Kaius said as he gestured for the stairs, “Grab a bite to eat and bring it to your office. I’ve got something to discuss with you.”
Elias smirked, “It’s always like that with you, isn’t it? What’s it about?”
“I’ll meet you up there,” Kaius said as he slapped Elias’ shoulder.
A simple shrug was all that Elias could shrug. When Kaius was like that there was nothing that he could do to get whatever it was out of him. The man became an immovable object. Elias headed into the kitchen and quickly dished up his breakfast, a slice of egg-bake, and freshly cut vegetables. A cup of coffee rounded out the meal.
Elias then took the back way up to the second floor and headed to his office. Kaius was there sitting in his normal spot on the couch. The holographic projector was already activated. He paused in the entryway.
“The hell is this?”
“Who the hell is this?” Kaius smiled, “Is what you meant to say.”
Elias walked over to his desk, sat down, and placed his plate on the small bit of desk that wasn’t full of paper and data slates. He took a bite of the eggs and then looked up.
“Who is he?”
“Well, it took a while, but the original immigration records say his name is Stephen Hurt,” Kaius shook his head, “With the letters P and H in his first name and a U in his last name.”
“Ok,” Elias said in a confused tone.
“And here is Steven Hart, with a V and A.”
Elias set his fork down on his plate and leaned forward, “That is very clearly the same person.”
“He’s a big ol’bastard. Military too,” Kaius added, “Well, ex-military technically.”
“Intelligence?”
“Logistics and command,” Kaius then shook his head, “This is a bit weird. The first immigration record was deleted by a senior immigration officer who happened to be a family friend.”
Elias cupped his hands together and leaned his chin on them, “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’ll make more sense in a moment. So, he had a fake passport and used that. He traveled here, then began using his legitimate identification here,” Kaius said as he switched the image to display both passports, “The Confederacy has a rather shocking and glaring gap in their identification process. During the immigration process of entering a new world, they scan for any arrest warrants declared in other worlds.”
“They don’t do a regular checking of that?”
“No, not unless they go to another world or apply for a government job or some colonial aid. Now each colony will check their citizen's identifications for local warrants, but it’s a rare event to scan the global warrant list for any colonial citizens. Until they try to leave the world.”
Kaius picked up his coffee cup and leaned back in his seat, “The fake identification implies he was running from something.”
“Exactly. A military tribunal, well more precisely, he’s running from serving the punishment that was doled out to him.”
“Why did he come here?”
Kaius smiled, “It’s the farthest colony from the home worlds. The military rarely sends any ships this far out. It’s a perfect place to escape from the prying eyes of the military. The colonial government is notoriously fickle with extradition requests as well.”
“What’s he running from?”
“Commander Steven Hart, Third Fleet, was convicted of unlawful usage of government property, theft of government property, accepting bribes, and multiple counts of dereliction of duty. He was sentenced to ten years of hard labor followed by ten more years at a minimum-security prison.”
“That doesn’t explain how he is here,” Elias took a sip of his coffee and set it down.
“He and his attorney got a stay after the conviction of four days allowing the disgraced officer to return home and put his affairs in order. Now, there’s no evidence that’s been found thus far, but the family patriarch is assumed to have used his influence to get his son off-world. By the time the military realized they had been duped, he was long gone.”
“Is he our hidden agent?”
“Doubtful, his background isn’t exactly consistent with an intelligence operative. The family patriarch was very fond of the outdoors. He taught his children how to hunt and live off the land. Steven had middling grades and was generally disinterested in academia. During the academy, he excelled in outdoor activities and practical tests.”
Elias nodded, “Doesn’t exactly match the background of an intelligence agent.”
“It doesn’t, but we should meet him. Maybe convince him to join us.”
“Where does he live?”
Kaius pointed at the map. It was two hours away from the colony. Elias was shocked that any homesteads were set up that far away from the colony.
“Find some time that works for our schedule. I don’t suppose you have his travel records?”
“I do but prepare to be disappointed. He hasn’t been on this side of the colony since he arrived here, which was on May 23rd.”
The map appeared and showed his location during the tracking events. Elias presumed he did a fair amount of hunting based on the movements near the homestead. He also made short trips, traveling recklessly quickly here, then he went to a general store on the outskirts of the colony. On only four trips he made it deeper into the sprawling metropolis.
He didn’t know what to make of this, but this was the first real lead on any Confederate movements against them. Though it could be nothing. This Steven was a military convict on the run from justice. It was unlikely that he would join them. But after staring at the pictures of this man, Elias needed to know where he stood.