The Voting Machine

Speed Dealing

We drove over to David's house. He was going through one of his bouts of illness again for the past week, weakened by the cancer he didn't want to acknowledge.

"I want to make sure David knows what we're doing. He's leading this campaign."

"I remember Mr. Stone," Luke said. "He was my teacher before I dropped out. He tried to talk some sense into me but it didn't make a difference."

We reached David's house to find a Nissan Pathfinder in his driveway.

"That's Pam's car. What's she doing here?"

"She didn't tell you she was coming here?"

"Hell, no. Course she don't tell me nothin'."

"She's close to David?"

"Not that I know of. She asked him for advice now and then after graduation. He helped her get her Associate's degree before going to dealer college. She needed a trade after her husband killed himself and David helped her figure that out."

"I don't want to bother them in there," I said. "Let's go. I'll tell David some other time."

We turned around and drove south on Jones, toward the campaign office.

"Is your sister OK, Luke? What was Zeke Junior talking about in the tunnels last night? He said she had to get out of the Babylonian, she was playing with her life."

"That guy's so paranoid. It must be from whatever happened over in Iraq. He sees this massive conspiracy everywhere he looks. That why he stays down there in the tunnel. I've got to pry him out of there, get him back into reality."

"But why your sister and the Babylonian?"

"The games she works are supposed to be secret. They're for VIPs. That's why they need her 'cause she's the fastest dealer. She's not allowed to tell any details. Nobody even knows where they run them. It's supposed to be some hidden room in the lower levels of the hotel."

"So why would Zeke Junior care about that?"

"He won't say exactly. I am guessing they're tied to the mob somehow. Zeke said he heard about them in Iraq. Somehow it related to what he was doing in the war," Luke said. "I don't know what to make of it. I can't figure out whose crazy and who's sane anymore."

Luke dropped me at the campaign office. I spent the afternoon doing database entry, copying details of our latest voter contacts into the system.

I walked home from the office that night, reflecting on everything that had happened in the campaign. The election was a few weeks away. Our side would win or we would lose and then I'd be on to the next chapter in my life.

It was dusk when I reached my motel room. Someone had been inside my room, searching through my bags and closet. They set a small statue on my dresser, a woman skeleton wearing the hooded robe of a nun, holding a scythe and a globe of the world in her hands.

Santa Muerte.

The goddess of death.

She holds the world in her hand because death can reach you anywhere.

My cell phone rang.

"Who is this?"

"I think you already know that." I recognized the voice from my night in the Twin Towers.