Page 289 of Incisive

When I finish, Jordan or Leo, not sure which, takes the glass from me and I flop over onto my side again with my head in Jordan’s lap.

Right now, I just…can’t. I can’t doanything. Not for a few minutes, at the very least. Leo parks his wheelchair in front of the couch and his fingers thread through my hair, gently scratching my scalp again.

“Breathe, pet,” Leo softly reminds me. “Jordan and I arerighthere. We’re not going anywhere.”

Casey-Marie walks over. “We’re heading downstairs,” she tells Jordan and Leo. “We need to get in front of this now. Stella mentioned Belyaevskin in the info she posted with her video, sothatshitstorm will explode any minute. I’ll handle the briefing personally. I’m in contact with the PIO from the county sheriff’s office and the local FBI office. We’ve got a Secret Service supervisor en route to the scene, too. I’ll go down to the SitRoom and check in to find out the latest about the situation in Argentina.”

“Thank you,” Leo tells her.

She reaches in and cups my cheek. “Leanon us, Elliot,” she says. “Let us carry you for now. We’vegotyou. You’ll be on your feet soon enough. You need to process this, though. All right?”

I numbly nod.

Once it’s just the three of us I remember the rest. “Show me the video. The one Stella posted. I want to see the whole thing.”

Leo looks grim but he pulls out the burner he took from Jordan earlier, thumbs into it, and holds it up so all three of us can watch when he hitsplay.

It shows Stella wearing the same blouse she had on when I spoke to her on the phone. Except she’s not crying in this one and her makeup’s perfect, even though her expression and tone are that of a nervous woman.

“My name is Stella Woodley, sister to president Elliot Woodley. My husband is former US congressman Ellis McMurtry. The world needs to know what happened. I took this video footage less than 48 hours before the attacks on our country.”

Now comes the manufactured tears, the fake distressed tone I know so damned well.“I swear, I didn’t know they were planning any of this. I have to escape my husband. He threatened to kill me if I said anything, and I believe him! This morning was the first opportunity I’ve had to be away from him long enough to post it. I fear for my life from not just him but the whole group of them. That’s why I’m posting this for the world to see before I leave my home and go to law enforcement, to protect me. My family doesn’t know any of this, or that my husband’s been abusive and threatening me throughout our whole marriage. I was too ashamed to tell them, and I was too scared to go to law enforcement about that because he threatened to kill me if I did. Ellis has basically kept me hostage ever since he lost his re-election. He refused to let me have Secret Service protection and insisted his ‘private security’ would watch us. But all they’ve done is enable his abuse.”

Based on her tone that’s pretty much all bullshit. Except for the part where my parents and I didn’t know anything.

The image changes, likely cell phone footage. It looks like Stella maybe had it in her purse, because the angle is slightly skewed yet the phone’s not moving, like it’s in her hand.

The picture clearly shows Ellis and four other men—another GOP House rep, a man I believe is high up in the Florida GOP state org, and two other men I don’t recognize. I don’t think it’s their Palm Beach house because it looks like a hotel suite living room.

“That’s Ron Borens, Kevin Gretz, Marty Ingalls, and current US House Rep. Eric Fargo,” Jordan grimly notes. “Fargo was evacuated to Site R. Raven Rock,” he adds. “He’s one of the assholes who tried to file articles of impeachment. Gretz and Borens were among those on the yacht with Stella and Ellis in the Bahamas after the attack. Marty Ingalls is running for the US House. Gretz is running his campaign, and Ron Borens has a PAC to make a run at the US Senate in two years.”

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked that Jordan knows who they all are, or even where Fargo was sent during the crisis, because that’s one of Jordan’s superpowers. Still, I’m impressed.

Apparently even Leo’s a little surprised Jordan knows all of that, because he glances Jordan’s way before his focus returns to the video.

“We’re certain there’s no way any of this’ll come back on us, right?”Ellis asks.“I’m not doing all this just to become some damned martyr to a bunch of fucking batshit crazy Q-natics.”

Borens shakes his head.“The Russian washed that money cleaner than a virgin nun’s cooch. Those dumbasses who got themselves jammed up that other time years ago all posted their shit on social media and showed their faceswhilethey were doing it. They left a glowing neon trail for law enforcement to follow. We deliberately kept every cell small and self-contained. Nobody can ID us.”

“What about the geeks who ran the online part?”Ellis asks.“How are we keeping them quiet once this goes down? How do we know they won’t snitch?”

“Dead men tell no tales,”Borens says with a grin.“The Russian’s handling that, too. Says the entire shop will be nothing but a pile of ash by tomorrow morning. Unfortunate electrical fire. Never cook meth in a crypto mining center. That man has really earned his money. He’s had them under his thumb since the beginning.”

“But none of that can be tracked back to us, right?”Ellis asks again.“The Russian can ID us, can’t he?”

Gretz laughs.“Our benefactors in Russia assured us they’ll take care of that and him once the big day happens. They want to make sure we get the job done first.”

“And the only thing we have in common between us,”Ingalls adds, waving his finger to indicate all of them,“is our ‘prayer group.’”

Yes, he actually uses finger quotes. They all laugh.

“Bunch of people havethatin common,”Gretz says.“We’re safe. Nothing they can tie to us. We’ll have too many law enforcement departments jammed up for them to apprehend everyone involved in the operations. No one who knew anything about us is going down.”

Ellis frowns.“Until the Feds start connecting the dots.”

“There aren’t any dotstoconnect,”Fargo insists.“We were too careful. Our benefactors in Russia are ready to start churning out disinfo from their server farms as soon as it goes down. Woodley’s poll numbers will sink and he’ll look like he’s chasing his tail. I’ll insist on filing an impeachment against him, and—”

“Even if we could get it passed,”Ellis argues,“which I keep telling you we can’t—because we don’t have the numbers to do it, or the numbers in the Senate to convict him—that just puts Bardales in office.”