The Voting Machine

The Corporate Structure

We arrived at a curve in the tunnel and our only option was to turn left into complete darkness.

"Feel the sides of the drain," I told them. "Sooner or later there's got to be a ladder leading up to manhole." The tunnel widened and we walked side-by-side through curtains of cobwebs. Our hands were linked together. Abdul and I were on the far ends, scraping the side walls with our hands, with Teresa in the middle.

"We can't change what we did in the past," Abdul said. "The important thing now is to share what we know. We all know something that threatens Shiro. We'll have to pool our information to defeat it. I've told you about my part. I was involved in the financing, I worked with a friend named Jamaal Ali who lives in Southern California. Our money went directly to the Operations group. Shiro was structured like a corporation. There was a group for Client Relations, a group for Strategy. Every unit was disconnected and working in virtual secrecy. It was designed this way to prevent anyone from knowing the full size and scope of the organization. The most carefully guarded secret was the management team. People inside Shiro would refer to the Chairman but no one knew who he or she actually was."

"How about you, Teresa," I asked. "How did you get involved with Shiro?"

"It was back in Los Angeles when we were still at Passion. You know I was doing all kind of work back then. After the Identity Theft case, I lost my moonlighting jobs. Then after Marcus was indicted for securities fraud, I worried about my future at Passion. The call center job was the last thing I had and it seemed pretty clear that was not going to last once Chet Castle took over as CEO. Chet wasn't sentimental like Marcus. He would move all the jobs offshore to cut costs. So I was looking for new opportunities. My son has a condition and his therapies cost a lot of money. If I am going to heal him there's a limited amount of time. After that the window will close. Then in the midst of all this, the FBI and the Justice Department approached me about testifying against Marcus. They were looking for Passion insiders who had access to the corporate data, like the financial reporting systems and the customer database. They had already contacted J.P. Breton. He had resigned and agreed to testify against Marcus."

"J.P. was the one who got me the job working as a courier. Harvey introduced us to a client from China who wanted access. I performed a simple task for the client. I just did what J.P. told me to do for the client. Like Abdul says Shiro is organized so everyone only knows a piece of how the system works. That limits risk on both sides.

"My job was in the Client Relations group. I was assigned to show up and bet on the card games in the basement of the Babylonian. Before every game, I'd receive a list of email accounts with passwords. I used each email account one time only. One message per account. Each time I logged into a new account there was already a drafted mail waiting for me. The first draft would be a message with details of the next game. Then I'd log in to the next email account and there'd be a draft message listing a P.O. Box in Las Vegas where I could receive the special poker chips. They used the chips to restrict access. Then I'd log into a final email account where a draft message would have specific directions on how to bet in the games. For each hand, I was told how much to bet, how much to raise, when to fold. I had to memorize everything."

"So you weren't playing the games to win or lose?"

"No. I wished they'd let me just play my hand the way I wanted because I could've won many more rounds than I did. But that's not the purpose of the games."

"What is the purpose?"

"They never told me."

"David was researching the games," I said. "He must've understood the meaning of them. He had a map of the Babylonian. He was interviewing the dealer. Luke and I were trying to make it to the casino so we could talk to her."

"I heard the Special-Agent-in-Charge talking with Harvey and Chang about her at the station last night," Teresa said. "Stevens wanted to interview her. He believed she was somewhere inside the casino. He wanted to raid the Babylonian but someone pretty high up the food chain was blocking the warrant. Perlson gives millions to judges, congressmen and Nevada state officials."

I remembered what Luke said. Big shots always get a free pass.

"Let's try to go there," I said. "If the FBI can't enter that might be our safest bet."

"It is," she agreed. "There's a dragnet around the city to make sure we can't leave. They have Homeland Security at the airport and cops checking I-15 and all the other choke points out of Clark County. But if we can get to the Babylonian, we might have a chance."

"You want to expose this, I have connections we can use," Abdul said. "I know lawyers and journalists through my charities. They specialize in civil liberties cases: renditions, warrantless surveillance, detention without trial. They can help publicize any information we have about Shiro. I am not afraid of what they can do to me as long as I can find a way to keep my daughter safe. She can't suffer for my mistakes."