Sixty days and counting - Kim Stanley Robinson [52]
“You wouldn’t have to worry about blackouts,” Charlie remarked.
Later, when the boys were asleep, Frank hunkered down by the fire, holding his hands to it and staring into the flames.
“Charlie,” he said hesitantly, “has anyone on Chase’s staff been looking into the election, and that talk that went around about irregularities in some of the votes?”
“No one I know of.”
“I’m surprised.”
“Well, it’s kind of a Satchel Paige moment.”
“What does that mean?” Anna said.
“Don’t look back—something might be gaining on you.”
Frank nodded. “But what if something is gaining on you?”
“I think that was Satchel’s point. But what do you mean?”
“What if there was a group that tried to fix the election, but failed?”
Charlie was surprised. “Then good.”
“But what if they’re still out there?”
“I’m sure they are. It’s a spooky world these days.”
Frank glanced quickly at Charlie, then nodded, the corners of his mouth tight. “A spooky world indeed.”
“You mean spooks,” Anna clarified.
Frank nodded, eyes still on the fire. “There’s seventeen intelligence agencies in the federal government now. And some of them are not fully under anyone’s control anymore.”
“Whoah. How do you mean?”
“You know. Black agencies. Black agencies so black they’ve disappeared, like black holes.”
“Disappeared?” Charlie said.
“No oversight. No connections. I don’t think even the president knows about them. I don’t think anyone knows about them, except the people in them.”
“But how would they get funding?”
Anna laughed at that, but Frank frowned. “I don’t know. I suppose they have access to some kind of slush fund.”
“So, whoever was responsible for those funds would know.”
“They might only know…maybe they’re being run by people who have discretionary funds, so those people know, but they’re in the groups, or leading them. Forming them…I don’t know. You know more about that kind of stuff than I do. But surely there’s money sloshing around that certain people have access to? Especially in intelligence?”
Charlie nodded. “Forty billion per year on intelligence. Black program money could get subdivided. I’ve heard of that happening before.”
“Well…” Frank paused, as if weighing his words carefully. “They are a danger to the republic.”
“Whoah.” Charlie had never heard Frank say such a thing.
Frank shrugged. “Sorry, but it’s true. If we mean to be a constitutional government, then we’re going to have to root some of these groups out. Because they are a danger to democracy and open government as we’re used to thinking of it. They’re trying to move all the important stuff into the shadows.”
“And so…”
“So I’m wondering if you could direct Chase’s attention to them. Make him aware of them, and urge him to root them out.”
“Do you think he could?”
“I should hope so!” Frank looked disturbed at the question. “I mean, if he followed the money, made his secretaries and agency heads account for all of it fully—maybe sicced the OMB on all the black money to find out who was using it, and for what…couldn’t you?”
“I’m not sure,” Charlie admitted. “Maybe you could.”
“The Pentagon can’t account for its outlays,” Anna pointed out grimly, knitting like one of the women under the guillotine, click click click! “They have a percentage gone missing that is bigger than NSF’s entire budget.”
“Gone missing?”
“Unaccounted for. Unaccountable. I call that gone missing.” Anna’s disapproval was like dry ice, smoking with cold. Freeze all the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into one big cake of dry ice and drape it around Anna’s shoulders, in the few moments when she was professionally contemptuous.
“But if it were done by a competent team,” Frank persisted, “without any turned people on it, and presidential backing to look into everything?”
Charlie still was dubious, but he said, “In theory that would work. Legally it should work.”
“But?”
“Well, but the government, you know. It’s big. It has lots of nooks and crannies. Like what you’re talking about—black programs that have been fire-walled so many times,