“Where are the state police?” he snapped back.
“I can’t reach any of them. There are also US Marshals parked in the front.”
“Thank you, Brenda. Let them in,” Governor Christian said into the intercom, then sat.
He was looking for the light on his more obvious camera to turn on, and it did as the two agents stepped inside the office. His assistant was recording this from the other room. They had planned for this eventuality. The governor was slightly amused that the farm that had started all this turmoil in his state would be the inspiration he’d needed to protect himself. The cameras that Dr. Mallory and the farm had employed to great success had kept any charges from being leveled against them.
The agents walked to him and noted him sitting behind his desk, his hands out of sight. They were uncomfortable with that. One stepped to the desk, his hand extended.
“No thank you,” Governor Christian said. “Gentlemen, please sit.”
They shared a look, and then both sat. “I’m Special Agent Black, this is Special Agent White.”
Governor Christian fought down the sudden urge to laugh out loud. He’d heard the same line in one of his favorite Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith movies. It’d sounded fake then, and it sounded fake now.
“Gentlemen, what can I do for you?”
“We’re here to get your version of the facts on the events that led up to General Rodgers’ death,” Agent Black told him calmly.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the footage,” Governor Christian told him.
“We’ve seen edited video, not the raw footage. We do believe context was cut out of it. Until we do, we’re asking for your version of events.”
“Well, my version is the only one available, isn’t it? Besides, if this is a formal interview, then there is an investigation. If there’s an investigation, you believe it’s a criminal matter. I’d like to contact the state's attorney, as well as my personal attorney before we continue.”
“It’s not that much of a formal interview,” Agent White told him. “Do you have copies of the raw video?”
“I do, and I’ve sent it, raw and unedited, to many hundreds of people, even put it up as a torrent on the pirate bay.”
“People don’t believe what they were looking at was authentic,” Agent Black said simply.
“Many of the people who downloaded that video ended up with viruses that wiped out their hard drives. People are angry,” Agent White added.
“How about this then?” Governor Christian said, his hand coming out from under the desk.
Both agents flinched, but in his hand was a remote. He turned the TV on behind them. It blasted static for a moment, and then he hit play. The Blu-ray zoomed up to speed, and then the raw unedited video footage started playing. The agents turned to watch the video footage and the governor turned up the volume. Dropping the remote on the desk, he put his hands back underneath.
He peeled the backing off the double-sided tape, and affixed it to the top of an identical disk. Sliding his pen drawer forward a few inches, he was able to attach it to the bottom of his desk without the agents noticing, and move the drawer back into place. Open or closed, the disk was now out of sight. On the right side of his desk, affixed to a magnetic holder, was the governor's backup pistol, an old Beretta 92F. It was ready to rock and roll. He studied the agents as they watched the video, taking notes in small notebooks they had kept in their jacket pockets.
Wondering if these two were real agents, he watched them watch him gun down General Rodgers after he made specific threats to the governor, and implicated himself in an assassination against a sitting elected sheriff. When it was done, they grunted and turned back to him.
“So, you claim this is the unedited footage?” agent Black asked.
“It is, you even heard the conversation with my assistant before I turned off the video.”
“We of course will need copies of that,” Agent White told him.
“Go ahead, that blue ray disk was burned from the raw footage we took.”
“And the raw footage, it’s on a local computer here?” agent White’s question came with a smirk.
Governor Christian matched it. “Yes, and it’s also been uploaded to the cloud.”
“That’s the thing. Computers, viruses, untrustworthy people. Apparently when we tried to find the raw footage through a subpoena, it appears that hackers, or maybe somebody inside the office here, had made the files unrecoverable. We were unable to get any of the files you claim to have. Raw and unedited.”
“My assistant can help you with that. She’s quite computer savvy,” Governor Christian said, his sneer fading as he realized what they were saying.
“I’m sure she can; as we speak, US Marshals and agents with our cyber crimes division are arresting her, and seizing the equipment. I’m surprised that our ruse of talking to you kept you from noticing that your cameras are no longer recording.”
The governor looked for the light on his camera in the bookshelf. It was now dark. A bead of sweat rolled down his face.
“I was recording and broadcasting this live to social media,” he told them simply. “How is that for raw footage?”
“We’ve already been in contact with them. Any live video feed from the governor’s office would be made private and taken offline. You know they have been feeding our intelligence agencies information for years now, right?” Agent Black’s tone was condescending.
“Yeah, who would have thought the CIA’s little investment in a startup social media company would pay off so well. It did though, and they work for us. They always have.” Agent White was matter of fact in his delivery.
“You can’t do this. I have other cameras recording to an offside cloud and DVR. You can’t possibly—”
“Can, have, and did,” Agent Black interrupted. “Your brother in law’s garage server was removed three hours ago.”
The dawning realization that he was about to disappear and never to be heard from
