The Door to December

a dozen different organizations, and when Ernest Cooper invited her to play a major role in a libertarian political-action committee that he had formed, she was happy to volunteer her time. The problem was that Cooper clearly wanted her name in order to lend some legitimacy to his PAC, and he expected her to be manipulable. But manipulating Mary O'Hara would be about as easy as playing football with a live porcupine without getting hurt.'
     Dan was surprised and pleased to hear Laura's laughter. She had laughed so little in the past couple of days that he'd forgotten how deeply affected he could be by her delight.
     'She sounds tough,' Laura said.
     'And smart,' Earl said. 'She reminds me of you.'
     'Me? Tough?'
     'Tougher than you think you are,' Dan assured her, with the same admiration that Earl evidently felt.
     Outside, thunder rolled like great broken wheels of stone across the day. Driven by a gusty wind, rain pummeled the window harder than ever.
     Earl said, 'Mrs. O'Hara was there almost a year but, like several legit libertarians before her, she finally walked away from it, because she found out the organization wasn't doing what it was supposedly formed to do. It was taking in a lot of money, but it wasn't supporting a wide array of libertarian candidates or programs. In fact, most of the funds were going to a supposedly libertarian research project headed by Dylan McCaffrey.'
     'The gray room,' Dan said.
     Earl nodded.
     Laura said, 'But what was libertarian about that project?'
     'Probably nothing,' Earl said. 'The libertarian label was just a convenient cover. That's what Mary O'Hara finally decided.'
     'A cover for what?'
     'She didn't know.'
     The waitress returned with three cups of coffee and a Pepsi. 'Your lunch will be ready in a couple minutes,' she said. She considered Earl's battered face and the bandage on his head, glanced at the bruise and abrasion on Dan's forehead, and said, 'You guys in a wreck or something?'
     'Fell up some stairs,' Dan said.
     'Fell up ?' she asked.
     'Four flights,' Earl said.
     'Ah, you're kidding me.'
     They grinned at her.
     Smiling, she hurried away to take an order at another table.
     As Laura unwrapped the straw, put it in the Pepsi, and tried to get Melanie to drink, Dan said to Earl, 'Mrs. O'Hara sounds like the type who would've done more than just walk away from a situation like that. I would expect her to write the Federal Elections Commission and get that PAC closed down.'
     'She did write them,' Earl said. 'Twice.'
     'And?'
     'No reply.'
     Dan shifted uneasily in the booth. 'You're saying the people behind Freedom Now have a grip on the Federal Elections Commission?'
     'Let's just say they apparently have influence.'
     'Which means this is a secret government project,' Dan said. 'And we were smart to get out from under the FBI.'
     'Not necessarily.'
     'But only the government would be able to pinch off an inquiry by the elections commission, and even they would find it difficult.'
     'Patience,' Earl said, lifting his cup.
     'You know something,' Dan said.
     'I always know something,' Earl said, smiling, pausing to sip his coffee.
     Dan saw that Melanie had drunk some of her Pepsi, though not without difficulty. Laura had already used up one napkin, blotting spilled soda from the girl's chin.
     Earl said, 'First, let me back up and explain where Freedom Now gets its money. Mrs. O'Hara was only the secretary, but when she began to sense that something was rotten, she went behind Cooper's and Hoffritz's backs and checked the treasurer's records. Ninety-nine percent of the PAC's funds were received as grants from three other PACS: Honesty in Politics, Citizens for Enlightened Government, and the Twenty-second Century Group. Furthermore, when she looked into those groups, she discovered that Cooper and Hoffritz had roles in all of them and that all three of those PACs were primarily funded not, as you would expect, by contributions from ordinary citizens but by two other nonprofit organizations, two charitable foundations.'
     'Charitable foundations? Are they permitted to mix in politics?'
     Earl nodded. 'Yes, as long as they tread very carefully and if they're properly