Falling for My Dirty Uncle

"I'd do all that, but in this instance, we're not here suffering as a city because of our values and morality, folks," I say into the phone and boom out of the speaker. The news helicopters are flying and the tv crews are filming this. I've gone international.

The eyes of the world are on New York City again. To see what we say. What we do.

"When Susan came to me several hours ago, she was concerned," I say. "She sti

ll didn't agree with the fact that I was working with Amy and sleeping with her too, but she saw the press conference and was willing to make peace with everything that she was initially disagreeing with. I asked her why, because I was curious how she could change her mind. And she played this for me."

I look to Susan.

Susan holds up a tape recorder. One of those old school micro tape recorders with the small cassette. Something totally non-digital. That would never get picked up by a digital bug sniffer.

She presses a button.

At first it's hard to make out, but Susan holds it near the microphone and then all of a sudden you hear Susan and Kate.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Governor?" Kate asks and you can hear her clearly.

But not as clearly as you can hear Kate.

"I've been looking for a way to bring down that damned Parker ever since I left him," you hear her say. "And put my brat daughter in her place. Make her understand who the boss is in this family. She's never learned that there are consequences to her decisions and someone needs to teach her that there's consequences in going against me and opening that business of hers."

I can see the resolve of the National Guard waver. They're starting to put down their guns.

"I've got Judge McGill in my pocket, and what Amy didn't know was that I sent her over to Parker to spy on him ready to bring out obscenity charges and paint the two of them as colluding and whip the public into a frenzy," you can hear Kate say. "But they seem to have done that just fine on their own. And you're going to start leaking this shit all over to the media, Susan."

You can hear Susan take a gasp.

"I don't know if I'm comfortable doing that, Governor," she says. "I came to you because I don't agree with how Parker is conducting his campaign. But I'm not going to start throwing mud."

"You will if you don't want the last five years of your tax troubles and the installment payments you're making going out anonymously to the press," Kate says.

Another gasp. Most likely coming from Susan. "That's right," you hear Kate say. "I did some digging. Looks like you're paying off some back taxes that you should have paid. How embarrassing is that going to be when it comes out? How badly will it affect your career."

"Bitch!" someone from the crowd yells to Kate. People cheer.

"By the time I'm done with Parker Trask, his career will be dead, my daughter will never question me again, and his precious city will be nothing but a slum," Kate's voice booms out.

I swear to God, it's like a fucking tinderbox.

"Get the fuck out of our city!" I hear someone say.

"Fuck off, lady!" I hear someone else.

"Recall Kate Meelios!" I hear another chant.

"Recall the Governor! Get the fuck out of New York!" more people yell.

Remember, this shit is captured on live television. New Yorkers are watching. They're getting fucking upset. And they're taking to the streets.

Coming here.

You already see them from every direction. On the horizon.

"Guardsman, shoot that man!" Kate says, flailing her arms at me. I look down. The red dot on my chest is gone.

"I'm giving you a command!" Kate yells.

It take a long moment.