The Gambit (59 page)

I was the gambit—just a pawn in their grand plan.

My chest heaved up and down rapidly, with realization of what I was about to do. Images of my journey flashed through my mind, and looking back, it felt much longer than a week and a half. So much had changed in such a small amount of time. My breath shuddered as I prepared my hands to push the double doors open, and my heartbeat was so rapid I could feel it pulsing in my throat.
They
thought I would go down without a fight, but they were so far from being right. I was raised to stand up for myself, and today was that day. I had to fight to regain what I had lost. My party had the chance to save this country from the destiny Veronica fought so hard to make everlasting. I would not go down in history as a terrorist. I would not go down in history as a coward. They had used the media to destroy my influence, and now, it was time to give them a dose of their own medicine.

The words of Laura came back to my mind suddenly.

‘What they say on the news. That is shallow water. If someone were to shine a light, they would see under the surface is lies. Their water not deep enough to hide truth for long.’

Veronica hid her lies in shallow water, and now, it was time for me to shine a
light
.

I held the remote and began flipping through the channels. I was glad Mom let me skip karate practice. All I had to do was act like my cough was worse and rub my forehead to make it warm. I hated how on Saturdays I missed my favorite shows.

None of my friends took karate. They liked to skateboard, and I did too.

I thought that my mom just wanted me to be involved in something. She thought I liked it, but I really didn’t. I just didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“Brody!” my mom called from the kitchen. “I heated up some chicken soup. Come get it!”

“I’m coming,” I answered but didn’t move. I wasn’t even really sick, so I didn’t want chicken soup. If she ever left the kitchen I could have just thrown something in the microwave. I kept flipping through the channels.

“I am innocent!” a voice screamed from the TV. My face scrunched up as the image faded in. My mouth dropped—it was that guy they were all looking for. Owen, I think his name was. He was the one who created the party, and then he bombed the debate and ruined everything. At least, that was what my friends said about him.

“My name is Owen Lee Marina, and I am innocent!” His face was beet red, and his chest heaved up and down from screaming so loud.

“Holy crap!” I shouted. “Mom, come look at this! Owen Marina is on the news!”

“What was that, honey? The faucet is running, I can’t hear you! I’ll be there in a second.”

“Come on, Mom!”

If the news cut off, no one would believe me. I pulled out my cell phone and opened the camera app. I switched it to video and hit record.

“I, Owen Lee Marina was framed for the bombs at Georgetown University. This was all orchestrated by
our
federal government! The bombs on Black Monday, the Confinement, the bombs at the debate—it was
all
planned!”

My face went blank. I could feel my stomach flopping around.

The Confinement was
planned?
It almost made me want to cry, thinking about that. Those were the worst three months of my entire life, and I was only thirteen. Why would our government have done that? It just didn’t make sense.

Owen’s black hair was dripping with sweat, and there was something in his eyes that was frightening. Maybe what he knew was so scary that it made him look that way. Was he telling the truth? Was he really innocent?

“Viktor Ivankov is innocent! He was chosen, just like I was, to keep their plan alive! There is evidence! Loads of evidence, which proves exactly what I am saying! The evidence we have been given is false! They
lied
to us! Do not fall for their trap, America! Wake up before it’s too late! Do not let them stay in power! If you vote democratic or republican, your freedom will
die!
It’ll be gone forever!” His voice was becoming hoarse from all the shouting.

“Mom, hurry up!” I yelled. “Come look at this!”

“Coming!” she replied.

I heard other voices besides Owen’s in the background of the news.

“…Shut it off!” a woman’s voice said. It sounded like she was behind the scenes or something.

“…I can’t! Our system is completely frozen. It just keeps rolling. Go for the main power!” a man yelled.

“…No!” another voice called. “Screw ‘em, our ratings are sky high. Call security instead...”

Owen was still center screen. These side conversations were distracting.

“Veronica Hall, Chairwoman of the Democratic Party, is behind this!
She
is singlehandedly destroying this country. Don’t let her! Don’t let the government turn this great country into a nightmare!”

Who is Veronica? Hmm…

“Our ancestors fought for this land in the Revolutionary War, and now we have to fight too! If we don’t, we are going to lose everything! We will wake up one day and we will find ourselves in a Confinement that never ends!”

“
What
did he just say?” my mother asked with wide eyes. She stood underneath the archway to the dining room.

“He said he was framed. Don’t worry, I filmed it all.”

His words made me nauseous. I honestly would rather die than be in Confinement forever. Now, when I went to the zoo, I looked at the animals in the cages differently. The zoo wasn’t fun to me anymore. I felt like those animals in the cages, during the Confinement. I still had nightmares about it. I prayed that my little sister was too young to remember what happened inside. Maybe I could ask her when she got a little older.

“Good,” my mother said. “What he is saying sounds very important.”

She was right. It did sound important. The energy he put into his words was overwhelming. It scared me to wonder if they were really true. I was going to have to put this on my YouTube channel.

“He said
my name
…” The words slipped out of my mouth and were met with silence. The entire control room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. I stared at the projected video of the newscast, streaming live on CNN. I was numb. I felt all the eyes in the room on me, but I didn’t want to turn around and face them—not yet.

“Rewind it back thirty seconds,” I instructed.

It played again.

“Veronica Hall, Chairwoman of the Democratic Party is behind this! She is singlehandedly destroying this country. Don’t let her! Don’t let the government turn this great country into a nightmare!”

The video stopped. I pressed my lips together, and my heart began to pound in my chest. The intensity in Owen’s face was disturbing, and it made me even angrier than I already was. I tried to control my breathing. I didn’t want anyone to see how this affected me. The reality of what had just happened, hit me. Owen just exposed my involvement on national TV. Everything he mentioned was kept so tightly under wraps, that if I didn’t eliminate him and all he had done to threaten the existing establishment, it would be me that paid the ultimate price.

For the first time in ages, I felt
embarrassed
.

My eye began to twitch, and as I breathed I felt my nostrils flare. I harnessed all the fear and embarrassment I felt and turned it into anger. Pure, undiluted anger. I would be damned if I let a sniveling little shit half my age ruin my career and everything I have worked for in my life. I let out a small chuckle, and I admit, it sounded like I was going crazy. It brought me so much pleasure to imagine the moment we won. Owen was the most talked-about political figure of the twenty-first century, but he wouldn’t go down in history as the victor. He would be famous, but not for anything good. His label as a terrorist would stick. We had enough false evidence to brainwash the millions of people who were glued to their TVs. He might have leaked the real truth, but with every spill, there were always people willing to clean it up.

We had plenty of people to clean it up. Our guys would erase this so quickly people wouldn’t even have the chance to let it sink it. Owen would have just wasted his breath, and in the end, still be remembered as the terrorist who helped kill innocent people.
That
was what we wanted, and
that
was what we would get. Nothing would change. This was in actuality less of a ruckus than what happened in Miami. We didn’t have him in handcuffs, but he was in the CNN building. He couldn’t go far this time.

I turned around and felt the rage bubbling up within me.

“I want
every
FBI agent and police officer in a ten-mile radius to converge on that building! If we have to fucking shut down Atlanta, then that’s what we will do! Now!”

The man who I was looking at stared back at me with a glare in his eyes that was disturbing. I could sense in his expression that he didn’t want to listen. After hearing what Owen said, he wanted to rebel.

“Did I fucking
stutter
?!” I shouted. “Now!”

He glowered at me with such disgust. “Yes, ma’am.”

I turned back around to the screen.

“Today is the day that Owen Marina goes down!”

The maniacal high I felt was addicting. My power extended over everyone in this room, and I would use it to finish what I started. Owen might have thought this was like David and Goliath, but he would soon find out his rebellion was futile. He was but an insect to us, and he would be squashed like one
very
soon.