Alien in the House

noted the many missing seats in the House and is trying to forestall bad legislation passing or good legislation failing. But more than that, I think he’s trying to avoid having legislation pass with the House down significantly so that no one can say anything shady happened. One less thing to protest, in that sense. In part because one of these bills, the one from Transportation, is openly anti-alien in the extreme, and I’m sure the President knows of its existence.”
    “Okay,” Tito said. “Let’s say you’re right. Why does killing people help whoever’s behind this?”
    “Because the Mastermind, whoever he or she is, knows that this bill is around, and therefore knows that the President is going to want to do whatever he can to ensure that this one bill fails. We’re sitting precariously, as far as anyone in government knows, because the entire Alpha Centauri system, minimum, is watching. So if anti-alien legislation passes, it had damn well better pass with everyone’s consent. Only, it won’t. But this anti-alien bill is not the problem.”
    “It’s the other bills,” Jeff said. “Right? We’re about to have twenty new reps sworn in the day after Christmas. They’ll have one week to read these bills before they vote on them. Some of them will read them fully, but some won’t, per the civics lesson you two gave me.”
    “The House will normally have something of an even split for bills like these,” Dad said. “Not a hundred percent of the time, but bills pass or fail in part because of all that political maneuvering we talked about. It has to be worth it for a rep to vote yea or nay, and what’s worth it to one isn’t the same as another. Some will support a party-endorsed bill no matter what. Some will always vote no when a bill from, say, the Foreign Affairs committee comes through. So those two dozen votes can make the difference.”
    “And it’s safe to assume they’ll be making the difference coming up, or else all those people wouldn’t be dead.”
    “We still have no proof that anyone other than Santiago was murdered,” Jeff said. “And besides, so what if they pass through the House? They have to pass through the Senate, too, right?”
    “Right. So, what if the President knows or has a good guess that the Senate’s already going to be on board with these bills, at least some of them? The government wants to control the A-Cs. These bills are giving them carte blanche to do it.” Sent a text to Caroline, asking her if I could get five minutes with McMillan on the phone and, if I couldn’t, if I could get those five minutes with her.
    “I still don’t see how anyone could know the President would start appointing people,” Jeff said. Tito nodded. Nurse Carter and Dad didn’t seem convinced one way or the other.
    “I can see it because I believe Colonel Hamlin was right—we have a Mastermind. And a Mastermind is going to be thinking of all of these things like a chess game. In chess you anticipate your opponent’s moves, and you do it based on the first move. The better the player, the more potential moves you can see.”
    “It’s always a chess game, at least according to you and Reynolds,” Jeff said.
    “It always is,” Nurse Carter agreed. “Chess is a game based on war, on strategy, and on politics.” She looked at me. “I can see how the President’s actions could be expected, if they were based on long-term observations of his character and earlier decisions.” Dad nodded.
    “And I’m sure they were. If we have a Mastermind, not just for what’s going on right now but for literally everything that’s gone on, then that person has been around a long time and knows everyone.”
    “Maybe.” Tito looked thoughtful.
    “What do you mean?” Jeff asked.
    “Maybe there’s more than one. I know Colonel Hamlin told you he thought there was one person involved, but what if he’s wrong? He didn’t have a lot of time to research before he had to run, right? So what if it’s a small group, just a handful of people?”
    “The more people you have, the more people who can betray you,” Nurse Carter said.
    “Good point. Look at the Cabal of Evil. They’re shifting their allegiances right now. Armstrong, Vance, the Brewers—they’re all suddenly much more aligned with us than with the others. And that means that they can give away each other’s secrets.”
    “Yes,” Nurse Carter agreed. “So I wouldn’t think the Mastermind would want a lot