Jacob snickered and shook his head. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“One hundred percent.”
“I think you’ve been reading too many conspiracy theories. Why is it that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts?”
The young man was speechless. The carousel began to move, and luggage appeared. Passengers crowded the carousel, many with robotic baggage carriers in tow.
Before the man left, he said, “I hope you rot in hell. Fucking murderer.”
Jacob simply turned, grabbed two of his bags from the carousel, and placed them on the robotic baggage carrier.
On the way home from the airport, Jacob sat in the front passenger seat of their autonomous Mercedes, and his family sat in back. His phone chimed. Jacob raised the privacy window that separated the back seat from the front.
He answered his phone and said, “Eric.”
“You back yet?” Eric asked.
“I’m in the car on the way back from the airport.”
“Can Rebecca and the kids hear?”
“The privacy window’s up. What is it?”
“We have a situation. Zoe Benson was arrested.”
“My receptionist?”
“Apparently, she videoed your meeting with Naomi Sutton.”
Jacob’s entire body tensed. “Videoed? How the hell did that happen?”
“According to the FBI, a nanocamera and a mike.”
“The FBI?” Jacob’s mind flashed back to the meeting with the congresswoman. Did I say anything illegal?
“Don’t worry. They don’t have the video.”
“Then how do they know it exists or what’s on it?”
“They were monitoring Zoe Benson and her brother, Mark, and they talked about the recording. After their arrest, Mark Benson claimed that he destroyed the only copy.”
“Do you believe that?”
“The FBI does.”
“How could they possibly know that?”
“They’re pretty good at extracting information from people.”
Jacob rubbed the stubble on his chin. “If there is a copy, I could be indicted for bribery.”
“Even if they find a copy, which is doubtful, the FBI’s not interested in investigating you. They’re aware of our influence. They’re not looking to bite the hand that feeds them. They’re more concerned about the general public getting ahold of it.”
“I’ll need to be better about security.”
“That’s the reason for my call. We’re implementing regular scanning for recording devices and more thorough background checks for Roth Holdings’ employees. I suggest you do the same at Housing Trust.”
51
Summer and Treason
In the morning, they’d taken blood samples, saliva samples, checked her vitals, and even did a brain scan as part of the psychopath test, although they called it the APT. Summer knew that stood for antisocial personality test. While they’d poked and prodded Summer like a lab rat, she’d had contractions, but they’d been far apart.
The army nurse had raised her eyebrows when she’d checked Summer’s heart rate and said, “Your resting heart rate is very slow.”
Summer knew that was one of the APT markers. She had replied, “I’m a runner.”
“Not in your condition,” the nurse had said, one side of her mouth raised in contempt.
Now, Summer sat in a tiny square room, her hands bound in front of her, sitting at the table across from an FBI agent. A cotton ball was attached to her arm with a strip of medical tape. Her back ached from the metal chair. Her side ached from the body slam she’d endured at her apartment building the evening before. Thankfully, her hip and not her pregnant belly took the brunt of the impact.
“We know you’re involved with The Resistance,” Agent Curry said.
“This is ridiculous,” Summer replied. “First of all, I wasn’t involved, and, even if I was, who cares? The Resistance is just what they call themselves. They didn’t do anything. They just sat around and talked about conspiracies. It’s not a crime.”
Agent Curry was a dark-skinned man with an athletic build and close-cropped curly hair. “But that’s not true, is it?”
Summer looked away.
“Javier Munoz. Mark and Zoe Benson. And even your fiancé, Connor Pierce. They’ve all confessed.”
Summer glared at the agent with glassy eyes. “I don’t believe you. There’s nothing to confess.”
Agent Curry opened one of the file folders in front of him and made a show of scanning the contents. “Let’s see here. We have evidence of violating federal wiretapping law by audio and video recording a congresswoman and a CEO of a GSE without their knowledge.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Agent Curry nodded, nonplussed. “Then why were you and Connor leaving town?”
“We weren’t. We were going to visit his parents.”
“Then why did Connor run?” Agent Curry glanced at Summer’s swollen belly. “I know why you didn’t run.”
Pain radiated through Summer’s lower abdomen and upper thighs. She grunted as the pain peaked.
“Where is your father, Patrick?” The agent paused, watching Summer grimace in pain. “Ms. Fitzgerald?”
Summer exhaled as the pain dissipated. “I don’t know. What does he have to do with this?”
“I’ll ask the questions. We know your father’s involved.”
“I haven’t seen him since December.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s not involved. Where is he?”
“I don’t know!”
“Wrong answer.”
“I need to go to the hospital. My contractions are getting closer.”
Agent Curry’s face was blank. “Tell me the truth, and we’ll take you to the hospital. Or we can sit here all night. I don’t give a shit if you give birth on this floor.”
“You can’t do that. I have rights.” Summer sounded whiny. Her eyes were glassy.
Curry opened another file folder and slid it across the desk. “You’ve been classified as an Unlawful Enemy Combatant. In the interest of national security, you have no rights. I can recommend that this classification be revoked, but I won’t do it without a full confession. I have to be certain you’re not a threat to national security.”
“Look at me. I’m not a threat to anyone.”
“You wouldn’t be the first pregnant woman to commit a crime against the United States.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Is there a copy of the video?”
“I already told you. I don’t know anything about any video.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what Zoe and Mark Benson told us. They said it was your idea.”
“That’s not true!” Summer’s heart raced.
“The wiretapping violation isn’t your main problem. If you’d just videoed some guy in his house, the max sentence is only five years in prison. With a first offense, chances are you wouldn’t even do time. The problem for you and your comrades is we have a very strong case for treason. To prove treason, the act does not have to be a crime itself. The important thing is whether you took the action with the intent to carry out treason. We have mountains of antigovernment rhetoric posted by your comrades giving us treasonous intent, coupled with the fact that you were recording a high-ranking government official. If not for the purpose of sedition against the US government, what other reason could you have for the video?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Then you do know about the video.”
“I don’t know anything. I swear.”