The Media Candidate (15 page)

Sherwood placed the ROM-card in his pocket and
mated again with his pipe. “Thank you, Professor Newton.” They
shook hands, and Professor Newton’s eyes captured Sherwood’s until
he aborted the spell.

Sherwood began reading as soon as he got home.
The book was entitled
The Evolution of Media Politics
by
Lisa J. Rutherford. In Chapter Seven, the following paragraphs
caught his attention:

The political process began to be a burden on the
electorate during the last half of the century. People became
disenchanted because they always had to choose between two
unacceptable candidates. No matter what the promises or who was
chosen, the economic and social climate slowly deteriorated.

Vietnam was a turning point. Before Vietnam, the
standard of living of the middle class rose noticeably each year.
People felt that the political process was, at least, not working
against them. After Vietnam, the standard of living slipped into
neutral. Advancing productivity was matched by advancing taxes and
inflation.

The electorate felt their choices were less
meaningful than they used to be. The party platforms converged on
the politically safe territory of government growth, and the social
and government debt situations never seemed to improve no matter
whom they voted for.

The revolution in politics over the last thirty
years has relieved much of the stress of voting. Modern voters are
assured that future events are totally decoupled from their votes.
Thus, they can vote for trivia, hype, or sex with no effect on the
future. The modern political process has taken the risk, and thus
the responsibility, out of voting. Voters can now choose the most
whimsical candidates with no social impact and thus no guilt. We
have developed a stress-free paradise for irresponsibility, and
voters are participating as never before in history.

Finally, Sherwood thought he’d found an attempt
at truth that, at least, veered refreshingly from the standard
answers. For this, he and his cynicism were grateful.

He applied every ounce of his intelligence, his
rigor, his skepticism, and even his paranoia to the course work at
the COPE Institute. He unexpectedly found this latest phase of his
education to be even more exciting than the wonders of servo
control theory had been in engineering school. It even compared
with the lessons he’d learned in his endless excursions through
Detective’s Life
and
Double Agent
, although that
early exposure to the world of espionage could never be supplanted
by engineering or politics, or even money or sex. His attachment to
the world of spooks and counter spooks nurtured his paranoia.

“What would COPE do,” he asked one day in class,
“if a candidate for Congress were to file a suit against COPE
seeking relief from the requirement to submit to a full personal
and financial investigation before he could campaign?”

“That’s quite easy,” came the quick reply. “The
Supreme Court has already ruled that candidates for political
office are in violation of the public trust by refusing to
cooperate with COPE. We would discontinue funding his
campaign.”

“But suppose he funded his own campaign or just
continued to speak out against COPE?”

“We couldn’t allow that,” the professor
continued.

“But what would COPE do?” Sherwood pressed.

“COPE has a history of tolerance for opposing
viewpoints, however we’re also dedicated to the elimination of
anarchy for the good of our citizens. We have a legal office that
handles these matters on a case-by-case basis. I’m not concerned
with such operational details. I’m a strategist. Now let’s continue
our discussion of the organization of modern political
parties.”

It seemed to him that the professors had spent
so many years in the cloister of the COPE Institute that they
didn’t care about many of the real world issues that Sherwood
aired.

The research resources available through The
Institute were, however, outstanding. One class that each student
took was Individual Research, which culminated in a research paper.
All the students were COPE employees so most papers related to the
position of the student in the organization. Most of them dealt
with financial practices and accounting standards, candidate
disclosures, voter preferences, multi-media technology, and legal
issues.

Sherwood devoured the few COPE reports dealing
with clandestine activities. These reports were old and discussed
such things as the early requirements for covert data to assure
COPE’s published information. One report outlined covert data
requirements and the creation of an in-house staff to collect the
data. He concluded that COPE no longer wrote about its clandestine
activities in unclassified reports.

He knew there must be a sea of highly classified
documents. He’d been involved in such a program and knew there were
others, but his lack of a “need-to-know” precluded classified
investigation.

He turned to a more accessible research area—the
twentieth century political climate that encouraged the
transformation that had occurred. Contemporary politics was neither
a natural nor a predictable consequence of the twentieth century,
but he began to see the elements mandating change and the
influences directing that change. The specific direction the change
took might not have been predictable, but it was understandable in
retrospect. The evolution gave Sherwood a frightening insight into
the mind of the American citizen and the motivations behind
political coalitions, past and present.

He drew some innovative conclusions about the
roles of political empires, government spending and debt, and
Washington arrogance in the development of a hype-class electorate.
He appreciated the modern explicit role of entertainment in
politics compared to its similar, but veiled, role a century
earlier. The political heroes of the twenty-first century were a
direct consequence of the flourishing infotainment industry of that
era. He began to understand why voters embraced the glitter of the
new politics, why it satisfied basic needs, and that it provided
relief to no longer have to pretend to make political decisions
based on substance. Voters could now indulge in political fantasies
as they had always desired to do. The difference was that now it
was totally guilt free with no troublesome consequences for
fanciful choices.

He entitled his research paper “The Triumph of
Arrogance over Apathy—an analysis of the evolution of political
parties from the Great Society to the Great Collapse.” He received
a C for the effort, which was better than he’d expected.

Whether a C or an A, he was now one step closer
to his field assignment.

Sex was mechanical for Sherwood and Jenner. They
enjoyed it, but they didn’t enjoy each other. Sex was a thing they
did to sometimes help them through life, or around life. Life was
centered about their things, their concepts, and their activities.
They tolerated relationships with people as an athlete tolerates
gravity. They both knew they soared above people by shear force of
their intellects. But Sherwood went one step further than Jenner.
He was superior by his very nature. His knowledge simply provided
him the tools to manifest that superiority.

The times after their encounters were normally
filled with marijuana, Mozart, and then silence, punctuated by
vignettes of their recent technical efforts. The smoke would fill
Sherwood’s apartment, drifting from room to room in rippling
layers, being recycled by them innumerable times before finding
freedom through some small crack or being imprisoned on a curtain
or a bookcase. It blended with the darkness and the shadows as a
wave merges with the sea. It made their company tolerable.

“Maxwell, was all over the Asp today,” Jenner
said. “They had another ‘incorrect target’ yesterday. Some poor
woman got wiped out by accident, and she happened to have
connections. Too bad it couldn’t have been Maxwell. Anyway, the
cover story they leaked didn’t make much sense, and I guess there’s
a big flap over it. I sure don’t understand how all that cover-up
stuff works.”

“COPE leaks the story to the media,” Sherwood
said. “The media will buy any credible story because of its
alliance with COPE and its dependence on the current administration
for favors and access to the so-called news. Organized crime
accepts the fall for many of the murders in silence rather than
risk that the FBI might turn up the heat on their operations. The
FBI is in lock step with COPE because COPE has the ears of Congress
and controls the FBI budget. It is a nicely packaged arrangement
with COPE and the media at the focus. The FBI, organized crime,
Congress, and the Executive Branch all crowded around this focus,
careful not to make shadows, but understanding their roles and
their rewards.”

Jenner looked in amazement at Sherwood. “Is that
what they teach you at the Institute?”

“They teach swill. Garden-variety swill for
garden-variety apostles. But they do have some very good research
facilities.”

“How’s your class work coming along?” she
said.

“I am nearly finished there, about two weeks to
go. How is Monocle progressing?”

“Well, I’ve found a way to statistically analyze
the error function from the centroid track file in real time.
That’ll help discriminate the object parameters,” Jenner
replied.

“Have you figured out how to integrate that
analysis with the edge data, or have you given up real-time merging
of the data sets?”

“I haven’t given up, but the convolved function
creates such an enormous data file that I can’t process it before
the next data string wipes it out.”

“How about doing the convolutions at only 50
Hertz?” he said.

“That may be a way out, but I still haven’t
analyzed how that effects the probability of breaking lock.”

“Sounds like a tough problem. Can you finish on
schedule?”

“Not a chance. Already told the Asp I need more
time or more help.” She paused. “What would you think of joining
Monocle for a while when you’re finished at the Institute? You
already have the tickets and your spin up time would be zero.” She
hesitated. “You’d be perfect for the job.”

Sherwood lay there for some time thinking about
the attractive offer. He was sure Jenner didn’t know what actually
made it so attractive to him. “I am anticipating my field
assignment after graduation.”

“Okay, so forget it,” came the quick reply.

“There is, however, a possibility. … There is a
four-week follow-up course that I would like to take before my
assignment. Maybe there is a possibility.”

“What do you mean, what’s it going to cost me?”
she replied.

“There are two problems with my taking this
course. The first is that there is a two-month period between when
I finish my present studies and when the second course starts. The
second is that I have to be nominated by the Institute staff for
the course because it is limited to a select few.”

“I wouldn’t have any trouble covering you for
two months, but there’s not much I can do about your selection.
You’ve probably already burned those bridges with your cheery
personality.”

“Maybe you can help. I believe my selection is
quite unlikely because I have been somewhat outspoken to the staff.
They are so arrogant they cannot see anything but what they saw
last year and the year before. We do not seem to get along
well.”

“I can relate to that.”

“And I upset a certain professor, and she seems
to have more clout than I had anticipated.”

“Not the engaging Sherwood. She catch you
peeping in her bedroom window?”

“Nearly so. I simply planted a bug in a book I
returned to her on a ROM-card. I recorded an interesting event on
her office floor between herself and an overzealous student. I did
not expect her to ever read the ROM-card, but she did and
discovered the bug.”

“And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure
out who bugged it.”

An unseen grin was born in Sherwood’s eyes,
quickly radiated over his face, and as quickly died, far short of a
smile. “The Institute staff nominates students for the second
course by a secret ballot. The ballot box is in the COPE computer
and—”

“And you thought I might be able to break into
the ballot box and throw the election for you.”

“Do you still have system-manager privileges?”
Sherwood asked.

“And if I get you into this course, you’ll work
on Monocle in the interim.” Jenner paused, then sat up in bed, her
milk-chocolate brown body just visible through the haze. “If this
course teaches you anything about blackmail, I’d say you could
probably teach it.”

“Actually, you are not that far off. The course
is called Leadership Training. I talked to a graduate, and he said
it gave him some effective techniques for getting his way in tough
environments with powerful adversaries. Blackmail and intimidation
were two that he claims have helped him.”

“Sounds like Leadership Training—COPE Style. I
think you’ll fit right in. You have to promise not to practice any
more of it on me, though. But I guess you’ll probably cover
promises in your course, too.”

“I can help you look for the correct file. I
have learned the Institute jargon, which might help.”

“Forget it. One thing I don’t need is help with
that computer. I think I’m the only person on earth who understands
the damn thing.”

“Still making your nocturnal visits to the CPU?”
Sherwood asked.

“Yeah—except when I make nocturnal visits here,”
she chanced a smirk at Sherwood who gave no reaction. “I just
happened upon your personnel file the other day. You were one weird
kid.” She shot another glance at Sherwood who maintained his
attention on the ceiling.