December 14
"I'm sorry, but Senator Hastings has appointments all day today. If you're not on the docket, I don't see how he can squeeze you in. He's a very busy man."
John's car accelerated and merged onto the highway. "Well my name is Squanto, and it's important that I see the Senator today. I'm on my way over, and should arrive in about an hour. Please give him the message, because I think he'll want to see me."
"I'll give him the message, but I really think you should save yourself the trip. He won't be able to see you today."
"I understand." said John. "Just be sure and give him the message."
The speedcall list was still on the screen, so he touched work personnel.
"I'm feeling very ill, and I'm going to have to take the day off. Can you notify my department?"
"Certainly - who is your boss?"
"Carl Bruder, but he's away on business, so just let the department head know."
"Very good; I'll pass the word along. ... But if you have to stay home today, why does caller ID show you in a car?"
"Oh. Yes. I'm on my way to the doctor."
She checked her records and saw that John had missed only one day this year, so she didn't question it. "Well I hope you feel better soon."
"Thank you. I hope so too. I've got the weekend to recover, so I should be back on Monday."
John sat back in silence, rehearsing his lines, just in case he managed to get an audience with the Senator. When you play this game, you have to act like a king. That's something he learned from reading Shogun.
An hour later John found himself in a reception room outside Senator Hastings' office. The receptionist looked at him through thick glasses, her blonde hair tied back in a bun.
"I know the name, Squanto, and I'm sure you've been here before, but you don't look familiar." She tapped her pen on the desk and stared at John. "I thought you were a short woman with dark hair. Well I must be confused. So many people come through here."
"Quite all right." said John with a smile.
"You must be a good friend, because the Senator has cleared 20 minutes for you. I didn't think he would, but hey, what do I know? Have a seat and I'll tell him you're here."
John sat in an overstuffed chair and tried to relax. The receptionist picked up an intercom and keyed the mike. "Tony, Squanto is here."
"Fine." replied the small speaker in her hand. "Send her in."
The receptionist put the intercom down and stared at John through narrowed eyes. "Send her in? Look, I don't know who you are, but you're not Squanto, and if you're playing games with Senator Hastings, your probably going to wind up dead. Now you've got two choices. You can get the skat out of here and save your skin, or you can go in there and play Russian Roulette. Either way, I'm not involved."
John opened the door to the Senator's office and stepped inside.
"All right Squanto, what do you..." He looked up from his desk. "You're not Squanto! Now get the skat out of here." His hand moved towards a security button on his desk.
"Hold it!" The Senator's hand froze in mid air, stopped by the force of John's words. "You'll want to hear what I have to say."
"You've got five minutes." grumbled the Senator.
John closed the door and sat down across from Senator Hastings. "Squanto is dead." he began.
"I'm not surprised. I always thought she was a bit of an amateur. I also wouldn't be surprised if you were lying through your teeth."
"Well I'm not, and I have her money card to prove it."
"Ok, we'll get to that in a minute. How did she die?"
"I killed her."
The Senator sat up and took notice. "Really. ... Do I know you?"
"No, I'm the new kid on the block. John Farsee, from Power and Light."
"All right, let's see her money card."
John handed him the card.
The Senator typed some numbers into a console on his desk. "Yup, it's her name, and her public key. Looks like it's her card. Course you could have stolen it."
"Yes, but I also have her access code and her transaction code. We can't use the latter without her fingerprint, but we can use the former to look through her accounts. But before we do that, there's something you should know. She was holding out on you. She gave you ten thousand leppas here and twenty thousand there, but she actually had millions."
The Senator frowned. "I didn't think she was that good. I may have underestimated her, and if that's the case, then I've underestimated you as well."
"Why was she paying you? Protection? Favors?"
"Oh a little of both. Now let's have the code."
John rattled off her access code from memory and the Senator typed it in. He called up her logs for the past year. "Wow, she's been busy, and you're right, she didn't send very much my way." He stepped through July, August, and September. "Where do you suppose she got all this money?"
"I can only tell you how she got my money. She promised me two tickets to Mars on the next transport. For my kids."
"Oh that." said the Senator. "She's not the only one running that scam. But it fits with the data. She collected between 5,000 and 10,000 leppas from dozens of people every month. I can tell you, she wasn't going to get all those folks on the next transport." He stepped through October, November, and December, and then looked up. "Wow! What the skat happened yesterday?"
"I cleaned her out just before I killed her."
"Most people would fight to the death before handing over that much cash."
"I made her believe she might escape, then she could get her money back and kill me later, so she played along."
"Sounds pretty elaborate. It must have been months in the planning."
"Yes." said John.
The Senator passed the card back across the table. "It's worthless now; no money in any of those accounts." John put the card back in his pocket. "So - you came to see me for a reason. What do you want?"
John was just as direct in his response. "Four tickets to Mars on the next transport."
"Your joking." chuckled the Senator. "Even I cant scare up four tickets this late in the game."
"I think you can." John leaned back in his chair and pretended to be in command. It was time to act like a king. "There are two things to consider. First of all, I work in the power industry, and my software controls the grid. Now I'm sure you remember the brown out last year in your district. Not far from your family's home as I recall. That was an accident of course, but accidents can sometimes be coordinated months in advance."
The Senator looked a little pale as he thought about his family roasting in a house without power. John waited for 15 seconds, and that was as long as he dared. He put his stick away and pulled out the carrot. "Well I don't want to think about that, and neither do you. Here is the reason I came today. All of Squanto's money is in my account, and I'm going to give almost all of it to you, right now. I think that would guarantee your reelection next year, wouldn't you say?"
The Senator's eyes opened wide, and he almost drooled at the prospect.
"Right now." repeated John, "in exchange for four tickets to Mars."
"I'll have to check this out." said the Senator. "I mean, I think I can get four tickets, but I'm going to need to do some research on you. That you are who you say you are, and you work for the power company etc." He knew the carrot was valid; he wanted to see if John's stick was real too.
John pulled out two articles from scientific journals and passed them across the desk. "You can keep these. They are scientific papers that I co-authored. I made major improvements to our generators, as much as 15%. In fact I just got back from a conference in Siberia, where I presented this information to our international partners. Mention my name to anyone in the power industry, and they'll know who I am."
The Senator flipped through the articles. "Other than John C. Farsee, I don't think I'm going to understand anything in these pages." He typed the name of the journal into the search engine and found its website in short order. Then he clicked archives, and located the same article online. "It's here," he confirmed, "and it looks like you're the lead author." He bookmarked the site and put the paper articles in his desk drawer. "Tell you what," he continued, "if everything checks out, you'll receive your tickets in the mail within a week. If it doesn't check out, you're in a world of hurt."
"Everything is just as I said. I lied to your receptionist to get in here, but I haven't lied to you."
"Fair enough." said the Senator as he reached across to shake John's hand. "My word is my bond, and so is yours. Now let's see the blue."
John pulled out his money card and called up his private account. He authorized a transfer of 85% of the balance and slid the card across the desk.
The Senator stared at the blue number and smiled. "I just want to look at it for a minute, if you don't mind. This doesn't happen every day."
John waited patiently. Finally the Senator typed in his account number, and the money flew at the speed of light. "It's a shame you're going to Mars. I think we could work well together. I like your style. I might even be able to get you a seat in the senate."
"I'll take that as a complement, but you know I have other plans."
"I understand." said the Senator as he handed the card back to John. "Well, good luck with your venture. You should see your tickets in about a week." Both men stood up and shook hands again. they left the office, and the Senator turned to his receptionist. "Kelly, this is John Farsee. Please make a note. If he ever wants to talk to me, or see me, put him through right away."
"Yes sir." she replied, as she typed John's name into her computer for future reference.
John called for a one person car and checked his watch. 10:36 in the morning. Where could he go? He couldn't go home, and he couldn't go back to work either. A car pulled up and John climbed aboard. He sat for several minutes, letting the fans drive the hot air out of the cab. Finally he decided he would go home after all, and tell Maggie everything. Why not? He had won! They were on their way to Mars. Not just the children, but all four of them.
"Home."
"Please identify occupant." replied the car. For a moment John was dumfounded. He always called for a car from home, or from work, and the traffic network forwarded his identity to the car, so it pulled up pre-programmed. Today he left a public building without identifying himself, and the car had no idea who he was.
"John Farsee." he said as he placed his hand on the scanner.
"Occupant identified. Heading for home."
John took the chair across from Maggie instead of sitting next to her on the couch, and she knew something was wrong.
"I've lied to you many times over the past few months, and I don't want to do it any more." She thought he was going to describe an act of infidelity, perhaps at the conference. She knew he was attracted to Julie. So Maggie sat quietly and waited for the worst.
"I've got good news and bad. Let me start with the good news first. I'm pretty sure we're going to Mars in April."
"We?" asked Maggie.
"All of us, four tickets, if you still want me to come with you."
Maggie ran across the room and gave John a big hug and a kiss. "I don't have to send my children away? I can be with them all the time? I don't believe it!" She gave him another kiss, and another and another. "How did you do it?"
"That's the bad news. I had to kill to get those tickets."
"Oh come on John, it wasn't all that bad. Now tell me straight, what's the damages? You mortgaged the house I suppose."
"Actually it didn't cost us a thing. I was diverting the ira funds to buy tickets for the kids, but I've put all that money back. It's not about money at all. Listen to my words at look at my face. I had to kill to get the tickets."
Slowly, Maggie realized that John was serious. She backed away and sat down on the couch. "When?" she asked.
"Yesterday."
"Then you won't be coming with us, because you'll be in jail."
"I doubt it. She was with the underground, and they don't usually investigate murders in the underground. Even if they do, I don't think they can trace it to me."
"You killed someone." she repeated in a quiet voice.
"She had killed others in the past, and had stolen the life savings of thousands of people, selling nonexistent tickets to Mars."
Maggie stood up and became irate. "Ok, she was a monster, but who appointed you judge, jury, and executioner? Don't you believe in the rule of law any more?"
"There is no law in the underground." John was yelling too, trying to defend his position to Maggie and to himself. "She was never going to go to trial, never. You need to wake up and see how the world works."
"I know how the world works, but I didn't want to marry someone from the underground. That wasn't part of Better or Worse."
John realized he was getting nowhere, so he changed his approach. "I'm sorry." His voice was almost a whisper. "I just wanted to get the kids to Mars, and after I had given her my life savings, I realized it was all a scam. She was going to take me for more and more, every month, for the rest of my life. This was the only way out."
Maggie sat back down and was quiet for several minutes. "Tell me everything." she insisted.
John told her almost everything. He left out a few details, like threatening Squanto with a C clamp, but his recounting was, on the whole, accurate and complete. Maggie listened attentively, then reached the obvious conclusion.
"You're still in danger."
"And you are too I'm afraid. The kids may be as well. We won't really be safe until we set foot on Mars."
After several minutes Maggie spoke again, like a child who has learned that Santa Claus is a myth. "Is our government really that corrupt? Senators trade favors for cash, then use the money to buy public opinion?"
"Not all of them. There was only one senator on Squanto's payroll. I'd guess there are four or five who work with the underground for personal gain. And remember, one of the first sentences ever to be written down on paper, and one of the truest: The love of money is the root of all evil."
"Will it be any better on Mars?"
"I don't know."
"Never lie to me again, about anything. Ever. It gets in the way of us, of who we are. Perhaps that's why you haven't loved me in weeks."
"But you're wrong. I've always loved you; I just haven't showed you in weeks." He looked at the clock on the wall. "We have an hour before the kids come home from school."
It took Maggie a moment to respond. Just 24 hours ago, John was engaged in a premeditated murder, and now he wanted to love her. She wanted to back away, but she was drawn to him like a magnet. Her evolutionary past would not be denied. John was both her protector and her provider, the guarantor of her genetic future, and he had just turned a predator, a member of the underground, into prey, in the form of cash reserves and tickets to Mars. Modern concepts such as justice and the rule of law yielded to 1.5 billion years of genetic programming. Maggie didn't understand this at an intellectual level, though she would figure it out over the next few days. For now, she wanted to love and be loved by the man of her dreams.
Maggie came back across the room, quietly, took John's hand, and led him upstairs to their bedroom. They stood next to the bed like newly weds - not sure where to begin. Finally John removed his shirt, put his arms around her, and slipped his hands up under her clothing. He kissed her face and caressed her body for several minutes, then he pulled her shirt up over her head and tossed it on the floor. He kissed her neck, her shoulders, and her breasts, while she held him close. Finally he threw her onto the bed and stripped her naked. They melted into one; hearts beating together and lips pressed close. It seemed to last forever, and Maggie wanted it to last forever. She climbed higher and higher into the sky, like a weightless passenger thrilled by the ecstasy of a parabolic arc. Maggie screamed as she went over the top, then she coasted back down to Earth. They moved to their respective sides of the bed to rest and recover, pulse and respiration returning to normal. John stroked Maggie's short brown hair for 5 minutes, maybe 10, and then they had to get dressed; the kids would be coming home soon.
"We have to get away for an evening, or maybe a weekend." declared John. "We need more time together; just us."
"Maybe Elton and Martha could watch the kids." she replied. "Let's try to set something up."
John could picture them together in a nice restaurant, then a movie, and then a hotel. Just the two of them, all night long. But that would have to wait. The bus was pulling up to the house and Maggie went downstairs to greet the kids. John straightened his clothes in front of the mirror, then followed her down.