The Candidate ✓ (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty One

The view from the jet as it as it takes off- surrounded by smaller defense planes, is dull. Like today's events, it reflects my current mood. I've been slipping away longer than I care to admit. Soon, I'm afraid- I might turn into a President Williams.

He was only ever motivated by political gain- and as a result the relationship with his very small famous suffered. His wife left him as soon as his term was over- and the son, though he's an ass too- stopped talking to him completely. I want to laugh at- and would kill him if he weren't already dead for trying to kill Kyle and my baby, but a feeling in the pit of my stomach feels too familiar.

It's the same one I had after I almost shot my deputy director and when I got Nessa's number. At some point I'm just going to have to accept a simple fact: Politicians are corrupt, even the good ones. I can only hope that I'll be one of the good ones once I'm elected- like Kyle, so everything balances out.

  I stand up and uncomfortably pace across the jet when one of the pilots gives an all clear. Normally, there are at least five people- excluding secret service, in here with me. Right now it's just me and them, so it feels unnaturally silent. I could make conversation- but when they're on duty, their not supposed to talk to protectees except to answer or ask direct security related questions- so the conversations would be pretty one sided. Ella's a bit different- being our security coordinator, she has more leniency. She's become a family friend over the years too, so she's more causal about the way she speaks.

  I take a seat again. If I don't use this time to go over or add to my scripted responses, Lolita's definitely going to yell at me. Oh well- it would've been worse if I decided not to show up at all. The effect that would have on polls- crap I'm doing it again.

  Despite catching myself in my thoughts, I call her. She picks up immediately.

  "Okay- did I hear that right from Ella? You're still coming?"She asks so quickly I barely catch it.

  "Yeah-"

  "Oh thank god-" I hear her release a deep breath on the other end. "I was gonna fly over there and drag you by your ears if I had to."

"Well...that won't be necessary."

"No shit- go over your responses. I don't want to see a single deviation unless a question or one of the open discussion prompts hasn't been discussed yet." She hangs up, and she's right. There's almost nothing David or I can say on the debate stage that voters haven't already heard. What we can do is continue with our "We agree with the current Green party's message but not the way they plan on executing policies" narrative. It seems to be working, with us steadily- albeit slowly moving up in the polls. Right now, we're just point one percent behind. All we need now is a hundred and fifty thousand more votes.

On paper- it sounds like a lot, but in comparison to the voting age population of the United States- it's nothing. The only thing that worries me is how little time we have left- just a few months until Election Day. In certain states, people have already started mailing in absentee ballots.

They have every right to do so- of course. Voting's part of our democracy and anybody that tries to restrict it in any way is no better than President Williams. It just gives us less people to work with- less people we have a chance at bringing over so late in.

Fucking democracy. Ugh.

I don't bother with looking over the responses again like Lolita told me. I have some memorized, and they'll be right in front of my face anyways. What's the point?

For the hours it takes the get to New York- the location of the third and final debate, I read a book instead. When the plane starts it's descent, I grip onto my armrest. After being on planes countless times in my life- that's the one thing I haven't been able to get used to.