FLAG Today: When the Law is Above the Law

Chapter three: The Southern Belle Senator

Things are going quite well with KELI and Bonnie, her team and KITT report that after her little run-through with Devie's young thieves (his company decided to donate all the useable scrap they generate to the school instead of pressing charges), she was ready for her first real assignment. What I had waiting for them wasn't terribly unusual; advanced technology was rumored to be falling into hands it didn't belong anywhere near. What was unusual was that it was some highly classified files about the technology that was in the hands of the U.S. Senate's Ways and Means Committee and it appeared to have been altered. The Ways and Means Committee is involved in negotiating and approving payments for a wide variety of government projects, including all sorts of things from road-building to navy ship-building. It's a very prestigious and powerful committee, therefore. Any senator or staff member who has anything to do with it is dealing with a LOT of money. And there are staff members from a large number of U.S. agencies who have dealings with the committee, so in order not to foul-up the investigation, it was not going to be handled by the FBI. That's how it landed on my desk.

Along with the basic dossier on the case, I received a very, very large appendix which held the biographies of anyone who had any dealings with the Ways and Means Committee. I started to have a migraine just looking at all the binders. Not for the first time I wondered if the Foundation would let me switch places with KITT on this assignment. He would be able to digest all this information in the digital blink of an eye, and I'd take KELI and we'd sweet talk the information needed out of whoever.

Actually, KITT, Bonnie and KELI were a great help in organizing and analyzing all that data. We ranked all the different individuals by who would have the ability to access the classified project files and alter them. That removed a fair number of names from the list. We continued the process of eliminating the unlikely until we were down to less than a half-dozen names. This had taken us the better part of two long days since KITT and KELI accessed more and more information as we looked for reasons to make the documentary changes, the ways they could be done and who could benefit in what ways from peddling the information.

In our gunsights were an employee of the committee who was a computer programmer with a gambling problem, a liaison from the CIA who seemed to be a very gung-ho personality and whose psych profile indicated that he was very interested in making sure that "his" agency had control over such groundbreaking technology, a senate staffer who had voiced significant concerns about the ecological impacts of this particular tech, and a Senator who, although she had not had any objections to the project on record, did seem to live a lifestyle beyond what she could afford.

Over the next week, we determined that the computer programmer was attending Gambler's Anonymous meetings religiously and his sponsor was quite sure that he wasn't gambling. In fact, he was repaying his gambling debts at a pace which was consistent with his family's income and we took him off our Highest Priority list. We found out that the staffer didn't have the level of computer competence to hack into the file and we also heard from the CIA that they were aware of their agent's attitudes and were keeping a close watch on him so that he wouldn't get himself, or the agency, into trouble.

That left the Senator, Aldean Sylvester. Ms. Sylvester was originally from the South and had been the typical "southern belle" in her time as well as runner up in a major beauty pageant. However, she was a smart lady and went to law school where she did very well. She eventually moved west and got involved in politics. She had been a Congressional Representative for a few terms and then got elected as her state's junior senator. Now she was in her late 60's, looked much younger thanks to good genetics and first-class plastic surgery, had long ago become the senior senator for her state and was on many important Senate Committees, and in fact, was the Majority member of the Ways and Means Committee. Verrrrry interesting, as they used to say.

She had been married for a while to a handsome older actor and they had made a photogenic couple. However, the marriage didn't last very long, and they parted ways relatively amicably. There were no children, which made the split easier, but Senator Sylvester did receive a lump-sum alimony payment. With it she bought herself a nice Beverly Hills mansion, complete with swimming pool, tennis court and a garage that had similar footage to a middle-class home. She does a lot of fundraising there and of course she also has a home in the Washington D.C. area and has to travel extensively both for Senate matters and for campaigning. She is typically on the annual best-dressed lists and has a very ample jewelry collection. She is rumored to have thoughts of a presidential bid in the next election cycle, too. All of this requires a large income, and while her senatorial salary and perks aren't exactly chopped liver, her lifestyle should require more than she makes. It certainly makes me want to take a closer look at her.

Next we took a look at the alterations to the documents. Besides inflating the prices of the technology, the alterations added more funding for a larger technical and administrative staff and spelled out in greater detail the basis and design of the technology. Bonnie and the Ais quickly understood what this was (a weapons system), how it functioned (something about some miniature collider), its transportability (easily transported in a large SUV) and how lethal it was (on a scale of 1:10, it was at least a 15). This was a very hot potato.

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Thanks to the team's diligent research we had a good idea who the senator's closest friends and associates were. Right at the top of the list was Passionata Edinia who was born in the United Republic of Denislova. Passionata had come to the United States with her parents when she was a young teen and settled in Los Angeles. After finishing high school, she put herself through college by modelling. After a few years, when she had completed her degree in Fashion and Design, she opened a small atelier and boutique. She's become really famous and is tabloid fodder due to her climb into high society; she pals around with the richest and most well-known Europeans and has thumbed her nose at the big fashion houses and top designers. This produces top headlines for her in the trade and fashion magazines as well as the celebrity tabloids and TV shows. Like Aldean, she lives in a world so rich it's unimaginable for mere mortals like you and me. It is said that her Italian villa would make the Foundation's mansion look like an old, worn-out 6-room motel.

Through Passionata, Aldean had been introduced to Bernardino Koravalinkov, the 80- year-old "President for Life" of Denislova and later to his 58-year-old son, Baldor. Baldor is supposed to be a chip off the old block and looking forward to his reign as president, just as soon as Dad kicks the bucket. I've heard some rumors that Baldor is getting a little anxious for that to happen. The question is, anxious enough to help the process along? Should I mention that Passionata and Bernardino have been lovers for decades and they are rumored to have had a son together?

Naturally enough in their world, Aldean and Baldor have also been described on and off as having a "relationship", a "close friendship" or more simply and crudely as "sometimes shacking up". The "May-December" aspect of their relationship hasn't escaped attention, either and some have called Aldean "America's Most Beautiful Cougar."

Also on the list of Aldean's closest and most personal friends is none other than James Connaught, Vice President of the United States, and a member of the same party as Aldean. If they had entered into an across-the-aisle affair, that would be a scandal. Apparently, in power politics things like cheating on your wife doesn't cause a ripple if you don't make a big thing out of it. And one thing we learned about the V.P. and the Senator, is that both of them know how to play the Washington game to perfection. Since Connaught also has presidential ambitions, this could be a very interesting little love-triangle.

The last person in her inner circle is someone who really shouldn't be there at all. His name is Toby Anselmo, and he is a late-40's/early 50's advisor to Aldean. He seems to be on her priority call list, often travels with her on senate junkets and seems to have more access to her than his boss. Bonnie and I both agree; it's hard to imagine that their relationship is physical, unless Anselmo has his eye on her money. He seems to have come out of nowhere. He is reportedly handsome and intelligent, but still. Yeah, yeah, I know. Women do it all the time, and all that, but if he's playing that game, then I think that either Aldean is not as smart as I thought or he's extraordinary in bed. I really, really don't want to know about this aspect of her life. I am most definitely going to leave that to KITT and KELI.