The Voting Machine

Enemy of the State

The room was silent. Now I had a better understanding of why the FBI was involved and why they wanted to keep the details secret. This was very different from an ordinary killing. This was the work of a person or group that was very sophisticated and resourceful.

"There's only one famous case of someone getting murdered with ricin," Stevens said. "It happened during the Cold War, when America was fighting the communists.

"There was a famous political dissident named Georgi Markov. Markov defected from Bulgaria and escaped to England. He was living in London when Soviet agents tracked him down. Markov was on a bridge waiting for the bus to take him to work. A Soviet spy walked by and shot Markov in the leg with a ricin pellet, fired out of the tip of an umbrella.

"Markov felt a sting in his leg and died a few days later. The killers were never found but they'd sent a chilling message to other defectors. They showed the dissidents who escaped from Communist countries that they could find them and kill them anywhere, using imaginative methods that no one would ever suspect."

"Zeke and David suffered didn't they?" I said. It was a dumb thing to even ask about.

"Ricin makes it difficult to breath. It causes fluid build-up in the lungs and ultimately leads to respiratory failure. The only fortunate part for Stone and Legend was that they died within an hour due to the high concentration. Otherwise, it might have taken much longer."

"So you say the only other killing was in Europe when America was fighting the Russians. So you think this was the Russians? Or some other foreign group?"

'We think this could have been done by enemies of this country, enemies who would be motivated to sabotage our political process. If you hate our government, what better way to hit us then to undermine elections?"

"What are you talking about? Terrorists? Is that what this is about?"

Stevens was stone-faced as he spoke. "We know that terrorists are developing ricin. They found it in bin Laden's caves in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda cells in Yemen tried to get stockpiles of castor beans so they could set up ricin laboratories. A few years ago, we stopped an Al Qaeda plot to pack ricin around small explosives and set off poison bombs in public places like shopping malls."

"So you think Al Qaeda did this to start a panic?"

"Well, we don't have proof. But it would make sense. Think about it. What if you wanted to scare Americans about voting in elections? First of all, you'd want to show the public that you had the means to carry out some kind of attack. You'd want to prove that you could infiltrate our process, which is run by state and local governments around the country. Then you might want to stage an attack in advance of the general election, in a place like Nevada that has early voting laws where people can vote throughout the month of October.

"As a terrorist, this would give you enough time to take credit for the initial killings and make threats about larger scale attacks for the general election. That would give you enough time to maximize media coverage and create paranoia on a national scale. This would be a huge crisis for our country. It would undermine confidence in our system of governing. What better way to humiliate America than to make its citizens afraid to vote? It would be an incredible victory for terrorists or any enemy of the United States. It would be a historical first, because no foreign power has ever been able to undermine our elections."

"This is why you closed down all the polling centers this morning. You need to check how many other machines might be booby trapped with ricin."

"That's right. We suspended voting across Clark County this morning. We blamed it on a technical malfunction. We know we're going to have to come clean about what really happened but we just want a few more hours. Once the public finds out what happened, then everything's going to become much harder. We're going to have to mobilize resources like we've never done before to protect voting while we search for the killers in parallel."

I took a deep breath. I was getting pulled into something way over my head, something a million times more complex than the murder at Passion Financial last year. The Employee of the Year investigation taught me it's always important to be aware when you're in over your head. That way you remember to hold your breath so you don't drown.

Growing up I never thought about service for my country. I knew guys I grew up with who joined the military service and came back talking Sempre Fi with a flag flapping in their front lawn. But my experience was different.

I saw the world in terms of people, not in terms of countries, flags, and passports. They told me back in high school that America was the best country in the world, but how could I honestly say that when I'd never been anywhere else?

Working in the Senate campaign in Nevada gave me a different perspective. I cared about David and the other volunteers who were trying to make this country a better place for its people.

I clenched my fists and felt tears welling up. Anyone who was an enemy of elections became my enemy. Anyone who murdered my friend would have to pay.

"I lost so much this past year. This election was the only thing I had left. I can't let them get away with this."

"We know you want to help," Stevens said. "That's why you're going to stay here and tell us everything you know." The Special Agent in Charge informed me he had to leave to handle other parts of the investigation. He left the room, flanked by Polk and Decatur, the local Las Vegas agents who'd brought me in.

Teresa stayed with me, accompanied by the two Los Angeles agents. They huddled in a corner whispering. Then Teresa left the room as well.