Chapter 20: Election
"A hard-right fascist authoritarian-"
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"A fuckin' commie-"
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"More gangoon than serious politician-"
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"A corpo shill-"
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"A goddamn cult leader-"
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"Will you turn that down? It's getting annoying."
Panam sighed a deep sigh as she flipped through the channels, the monitor now on mute, "They really don't like you, huh? You're the boogeyman of the week, apparently."
I shrugged my shoulders from behind my desk, utterly unconcerned, "When did they ever?"
"Every single show. Talking heads and pundits and news anchors - the lot of them," she said in disbelief. "Surely something else newsworthy must have happened somewhere in the world in the past week - Arasaka's still a mess! Why aren't they talking about that?"
I offered her a knowing smile, "Ol' Yori owns half the networks. If he doesn't want something heard, it won't be."
She quirked an eyebrow, "And the other half?"
"I'm assuming Militech want leverage of some variety - they own the other half. Meredith still hasn't announced yet - she's likely waiting on the election results. If I don't win, she doesn't have to follow through on her end."
Panam frowned, "Aren't you worried they'll rig it?"
A silence hung in the air. The smile slipped off my face just as it slipped off hers, "Oh, shit."
Panam balked at me, "You didn't consider that?"
I broke out into laughter as my facade slipped, "Ha! Of course I considered it. Who do you take me for?"
"And?" she asked. "You got a plan for that?"
"The city is a democratic mayoralty," I explained. "Votes are cast via a Data Term using IdentiCard registration software, and a simple plurality is all you need to win the vote. Votes are cast on a live feed, so everyone can keep an eye on the count as it happens. The software is about as airtight as it gets, and there's not much in the way of room for human error. Any sudden jumps in the count would immediately prompt suspicion. Makes it surprisingly hard to rig."
Panam frowned, "You got it?" I nodded and pulled out my phone and went to the city website, where the count was being shown in real-time. Bit by bit, the numbers came in for all the candidates, the bars crawling slowly higher and higher up the screen as the day progressed. Panam looked at the screen with naked fascination in her eyes, "How do you know this stuff?"
"I did my research," I answered. "The city might not advertise it, for rather obvious reasons, but it is freely available. Where do you think all the medias get their numbers from?"
She shrugged her shoulders as she handed me back my phone, "Guess I never thought about it."
"I can tell."
Panam scowled, "None of the measures would stop them meddling if they really wanted to, y'know?"
I smiled, "The system is managed by many of the city corporations. Zetatech, Petrochem, Biotechnica, not to mention Night Corp. Not even Arasaka, with all their money and power, have been able to corrupt that balance of power. If someone's really determined enough and clever enough to mess with that, than I think I'll leave it alone. I'm brave, not suicidal."
"Thought you wanted to help people?" Panam questioned, her eyebrow quirked.
"Can do that fine enough without sticking my head in a meat grinder. Plenty of good to be done in the private sector."
"Hmm."
I glanced again at my watch, rubbing my eyes as I watched the hands slowly tick their way around the face. The voting would close in a little bit, and the results would finally be revealed. I was a ball of nervous energy. My leg bounced under the desk, shoe-heel tapping gently on thick carpet. I tapped the surface of the table with my nail, and Panam eyed my finger with a look of annoyance.
"Come," she said. "Your people are waiting for you outside. Don't keep them waiting any more."
"I've been keeping them waiting all day," I shot back. "They can wait a little longer."
"You're avoiding them," she deduced.
I looked her in the eyes, opening myself just a crack for the first time in a long time, "They're all volunteers, the lot of them. All pinning their hopes on me."
Panam offered me a pitying look, "There's always the next term."
I took a swig of whiskey and downed it with a gulp, "I know. It's just the fuckin' disappointment of it all. I just... don't want to let them all down."
Panam gave me a peck on the lips and a rough pat on the back, "I know how hard you worked for this. They do as well. That hasn't changed."
I stood from my chair with a huff, and made for the door, "Guess not."
Out in the bullpen, a party looked to be brewing. The women on the staff had let down their hair, at least those of them that had hair long enough to let down. The first few buttons on everyone's shirts was undone. More bare skin than usual, and an awful lot of tattoos were showing. There was no music, just a quiet, anticipatory hum of chatter. Off in a nook in the corner, a couple kissed and seemed to want to take things further, hands slowly drifting down.
I let them have their moment. They had all worked hard, and there was not much else to be done today. They had earned a little revelry.
The booze had already started flowing. Wine and beer for now, no need to jinx it by breaking out the champagne early. And I had a firm-wide no hard-liquor in the office policy. Still, the mood was cheerful. We put in the time, put in the money. We'd all made sacrifices.
It was a done deal, right?
Right.
There was a round of slightly drunken cheers as the employees saw me emerge. "Speech!" one man shouted. The others took up his chant. Someone else thrust a glass of synth-wine into my hands.
"Okay, okay!" I raised my voice over the gathering. "Speech."
There was a hush, and eager eyes stared up at me. Some looked bored, others tired, but they were all listening.
"I started this campaign," I began after a long moment, "not because I saw what was wrong with this city, but because what I saw was right. Amidst the corruption, the gangoons fightin' and killin' on the streets, the corporate espionage and exploitation, the smell of industrial effluent and rotting corpses, I found people like all of you. People with hearts and hopes and dreams of more. People who deserved better. Now, I'm not going to stand here and tell you that I'm the magic bullet to your problems, cause I'm not. But the least ya'll deserve is someone who'll try. Earnestly, properly, honest-to-god try.
"You are all here today because you saw what I saw, and believed in better. You gave me your all. You tried. And so, win or lose, I'm here to tell you all that I appreciate it. And I suppose, I'm also here to tell you the fight is not over." I smiled over the crowd. "Because, no matter what, I'm not gonna give up. We deserve better, and we know it. I will keep fighting, and I hope you all will too. Thank you."
There was a round of light applause and even some cheers. Some smiling. I could have gone on longer, but they didn't need to sit through that. Short and sweet.
Off in the corner, the monitor mounted to the wall was on silent. On the bottom ticker the vote numbers were shown. As I mixed and mingled, out of the side of my eye I kept watch. The evening dragged on, and the percentages climbed higher.
And then it happened.
"Turn it up!" I half-shouted, as I saw the notice flash across the screen.
"...calling this race, with a victory for mayoral candidate Arthur-"
Instantly, a loud and boisterous round of cheering broke out. Someone produced the champagne from the fridge, and thrust the bottle into my hands. I popped the cork and sent it flying, and then started pouring.
"-has already attained a majority, with more than fifty-percent of the available votes cast to him, but with the election day still not over, the size of his mandate has yet to be determined."
Someone pressed the mute button, and the feed cut out.
"Hey!" I whirled around. "I was watching that!"
Panam shot me a look. "You won," she said. "That's enough. You need to relax."
I sighed heavily. "I guess I have been a little stressy lately."
"A little?" Panam half-snorted. "You were acting like a gonk."
"You gonna help me relax, then?" I teased.
Panam rolled her eyes at me and smiled.
I smiled back. This wasn't over, not even close, but Panam was right. Tonight I could afford to relax.
Because we won.
Well, I'm back!
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think!
Hope you all enjoy!
P.S. May be subject to a rewrite in future
