“Because you are a politician, that’s why. The only thing politicians care about is getting elected, then re-elected. You have stood up to me and made your point. It’s now time for us to get together and make a deal. I’m not going to live forever, you know...” “That’s the best news I have heard yet!” He ignored me and pressed on.
“My geriatric shots aren’t having the same effect that they used to. I may have to retire one of these days. So I’m thinking of bringing someone along to take my place. And that person is you. How’s that for an offer?” He started to cough and had to grope in his pocket for a pill. It was a great offer. On his terms it was incredible indeed. He had built a political machine and had taken over the planet completely. And he was offering me a share in it-and a future of controlling it. It was a magnificent offer. “And what will I have to trade off for this job?” “Don’t be stupid. You lose the election. You take a dive. And after that you stay in politics in opposition to me. Everyone thinks that you are the greatest thing since they invented sex, so all the bleeding-heart liberals flock to your cause. You organize them and see that they don’t do any harm. Of course you let us know who the real revolutionaries are so we can dispose of them. This system will last a thousand years. It’s a deal, right?” “Wrong. And I know that I am going to have a job explaining to you exactly why. You see I believe in the one man one vote system...” “Ha, ha!” “Equality before the law... “ “Come off it!” “Free speech, habeas corpus, no taxation without representation ...” “Do you have a fever, Harapo? Just what the hell are you talking about?” “I said that you wouldn’t understand. So let me put it on your terms. I want all the loot and I want it now. I want all the money, all the power, all the women. I intend to kill anyone who gets in my way. Do you understand?” Zapilote sighed and nodded . his head and snuffled. “I’m an old man and I get emotional when I hear talk like that. Reminds me of me at your age. I need you on my team, Harapo. Say you’ll join me!” “I’ll kill you first.” “Really wonderful. Just what I would have done.” He turned and climbed slowly back into the car. Before he closed the door he looked at me again, sighed and shook his head. “I can’t wish you good luck. But I can say that meeting you has been a great emotional experience. I know that after I go my work will be carried on by someone who understands me, who thinks like I do.” The door slammed and I signaled for the return of the other two men. I watched as they climbed in, then drove away.
“What was all that about?” Bolivar asked.
“He offered me the world. A partnership now, and the whole works after he was dead.” “You said yes?” “My dear son! I may be a crook but I’m not a criminal. It’s the Zapilotes in this universe who have to go. The little men with the big contempt for mankind. I may rob a man of his wealth but I would never take away his life or his freedom. In fact I don’t rob people of their wealth. I rob corporations, companies, those bloated and insensate creatures that lock up nllT. ~UPll~ “Dad-I’ve heard the lecture.” “Right. Let’s get back to the castle. I want to wash my hands and get a drink. I don’t like the company I have just been keeping.”
Chapter 31
I was up at the crack of dawn on election day, breathing deeply of the morning air just as the sun popped over the horizon.
“Aren’t we being energetic so early?” Angelina said, opening one eye to look at the clock, and not liking what she saw.
“This is not the time for slugabeds! History is being made today-and I’m the one who is making it.” “I can’t face all that ego so early in the morning.” She pulled the blankets over her head. “Go away,” she muffled.
I hummed happily to myself as I trotted down the stairs. The marqu6z was breaking his fast on the patio and I joined him there.
“History is being made today,” he said.
“I just said the same thing myself.” We raised our coffee cups and drank a toast to victory. Bolivar and James soon joined us, and by the time the polls opened at nine we were already in contact with our teams in the field.
Within three minutes we had a dozen cries for help. Our poll watchers were being beaten up, two of them had been shot, and four fake voting registers had been discovered. I had expected no less. We did what we could, but our forces were small and thinly spread. And the decision had already been taken to concentrate our strength on the large cities. Our most important weapon was the oflworld newsmen. When word of the canceled and fraudulent election had gone out to the planets, great interest had been aroused. A few of the big planetary networks had sent their reporters, but most of them had not had the time to make the arrangements. Therefore most of the newsmen were freelancers, forty-three of them in all.
“It’s working,” Bolivar said, as he finished a call on the radio. “That was the tenth precinct in Primoroso. We caught them packing the ballot box. One of the newsmen got it all on 173 tape and there is going to be a recount. We’re really lucky that so many newsmen came for this election.” “Luck, my son, is never a matter of chance.” I humbly averted my eyes. “There are forty-three freelance newsmen here because that was the most I could hire at short notice. Their fares have been paid, they are enjoying their holidayand anything they may make by selling their material is found money.” “I should have known,” he said. “If there is any crooked way of getting a thing done my dad will think of it!” I slapped him on the shoulder and turned away, too filled with emotion to speak. Praise like this is more precious than pearls. ~ By midaftemoon the fat was really in the fire. We were fighting a rear-guard action and barely holding our own. In some of the smaller towns we knew that we had lost since Zapilote’s supporters had simply closed the polls at gunpoint and substituted their own stuffed boxes. We had to let them get away with it. It was the big population centers that counted and we were still managing to hold our own there. With any luck it might be a fairly honest ballot, with a final vote that represented the will of the people.
As the reports came in the marquez began to grow more and more depressed. He cracked his knuckles pensively and shook his head in anger.
“This is no way to go about it! We do nothing on our own! Our people just sit around looking at the wall until it is too late. Only after the illegal acts have been committed do they go into action. We can never win unless we hit them first and hit them hard. Why don’t we just shoot all the Zapilote supporters?” “My dear marquez, we have to win in the way we are doing it now. Otherwise it would not be a democratic election.” “I’m beginning not to like this democracy of yours. It is too much work. It is much easier to tell the peasants what to do. They like it that way. We know that you will make a better president than that piece of filth Zapilote. So let’s just make you president and let it go that.” I sighed deeply. Gonzales de Torres, the Marquez de la Rosa, had an attitude towards the world that went with his name. He would never understand the reality of democracy. I had to count upon his kindness and personal code of values to get his cooperation.
“I’ll explain some other time. Meanwhile we have to set up the automatic ballot box stuffers.” “The what?” “The machines that will return whatever vote we like in the districts we chose.” “You can do this? And if you can do it-why aren’t you doing it for all the districts and save a lot of time and effort?” “Because we must have what at least appears to be an honest election. If our new world starts corruptly it is going to go on being corrupt. However if we have to give it a little corrupt help I intend to keep that a secret from the electors. We want them to think that democracy works-and it will work after the election. So what we are doing is keeping track of every ballot box that has been rigged, stuffed or falsified in any way. And we are not interfering with the boxes themselves. “ “Then we will lose.” “No we will win. That ~uaranteed in each of those districts. Because it is not tne boxes that will be interfered with-but the information about those boxes.” “You have lost me,” he said, then poured some ron into a glass. “This is said to help the mental processes.” “Well help mine too, thank you. It is really very simple. We are attaching one of these devices to the phone lines of each of the vote-counting officers in each of the affected districts. “ I held up a compact metal box with wires coming from it. He looked at it dubiously. “A miracle of microcircuitry and applied chip technology. With this we monitor all calls to a selected number. Eventually the ballots will be counted and a phone call made. The official will then read out the results. As he does this his call will be intercepted and relayed to your big computer here on another phone line. The computer will take the image of the speaker and his voice, break them down into bits, restructure them so the speaker will then give the results we want-and send the corrected image back down the telephone line. This process will take a small amount of time.” “How small? The deception will be detected... “ “Not in four milliseconds, four-thousandths of a second, which is all it will take. You have a good computer.” “We should do it for all the ballot results?” “No, that would be immoral. What we are doing is moral but illegal. It is a fine point upon which I base my entire existence, which I will attempt to explain to you some day when we have more time. Just a drop more ron-fine, thank you-then back to work.” The results of the ballot would be declared in the Primoroso Opera House, a giant ball that been designed for this occasion. Every four years it was packed with Zapilote’s followers, who would do no more than greet the rigged vote with wild applause, then hail victory just one more time. This year there would be two candidates on the platform and the results, hopefully, would be a lot different. We kept working and put off leaving as long as possible, until Angelina and the marqueza forcefully dragged us outto the waiting copter.