The Whole Truth (A. Shaw 1)

Frank glanced at Shaw before answering. “Lucky guess.”

Before Royce could say anything Frank’s phone buzzed. He listened for about five minutes without saying anything other than curse words. He clicked off and tossed his phone on the floor.

“I take it that it’s not good news,” Royce said.

“They hit Pender amp; Associates.”

“And?” Shaw said.

“And they got squat. Place was cleaned out.”

“There has to be employees they can talk to.”

“Oh sure. But after what happened to Pender, I doubt many of them will be real excited about talking.”

Royce said, “But they have to interrogate them.”

“They will, only don’t hold your breath.”

“I doubt anyone other than Pender knows the name of the third party,” said Shaw.

“How do you reckon that?” Royce asked.

“Because he’s dead,” Shaw said bluntly. “What’d you find out about Pender amp; Associates?”

“FBI did a quick and dirty on them,” said Frank. “They’re sort of a specialized PR firm.”

“No, they’re a lot more than that. They’re a PM firm,” Katie suddenly exclaimed. “That’s where I knew the name.”

Everyone looked at her.

“What the hell is a PM firm?” Frank exclaimed.

“That’s what we call our prime minister,” Royce added helpfully.

Katie said, “Well, this PM stands for perception management. It’s the way to manufacture the truth, on a large scale. The Department of Defense has it more precisely defined in some manual or other. The military really got into PM in a big way after the Vietnam War. There are a number of firms around the world that specialize in it. I did a story years ago on the subject. Or at least tried to do a story. A few people were speculating that PM firms were behind some of what happened in Persian Gulfs One and Two. WMDs, embedded reporters buying the company line, stuff like that. They have all sorts of methods and devices to do it. The best PM firms have taken it to a high art.”

Frank snapped, “So if they specialize in this crap why didn’t anyone suspect them of being behind the damn Red Menace?”

“Most people, including a lot of government leaders, have no idea they even exist. And like I said, I tried to do a story on them, but got nowhere. There’s not much information on them. They keep a low profile and don’t talk in public about what they do. The firms I did manage to ferret out, including Pender amp; Associates, wouldn’t talk to me. All shrouded in secrecy.”

“And besides, the Russians are an easy ‘bad guy’ target,” Shaw noted. “They’re like North Korea. People will believe anything bad about them, and usually with good reason.”

“Which is undoubtedly why they were selected,” added Royce.

Katie said slowly, “So Pender amp; Associates might have also been hired to make the Chinese appear to be behind the Red Menace.”

“You mean they killed twenty-eight people in London and blamed that on the Russians,” Shaw added fiercely.

“But that’s crazy. Why would anyone do that?” Frank said.

“Russia and China are just about to go to war. The rest of the world is rearming,” Katie said.

“Okay, but who would want that?”

Shaw said, “Countries are all of a sudden spending hundreds of billions on weapons. And that money’s going somewhere.”

Frank scowled at him. “What, you’re saying defense contractors are behind this? I really doubt Northrop Grumman, Ares Corp, or Lockheed are involved in this crap. They have boards of directors and shareholders and all that. There’s no way they could keep that secret. And from what I can tell, they’re all making plenty of bucks anyway.”