Thrust amongst a circle of corruption and crime, a man has no room to take anything for granted.
Failure and success can not exist within the same sphere.
One has to supersede the other.
And knowledge is like a flashlight amidst a world of darkness...
It allows a man to establish some semblance of direction, not recalibrate his past, or change a decision.
Swaylo listened as Nathan Briggs continued to explain how he had gotten involved in the murder of a U.S. Senator.
His face was a mask of expressionless anger, but there was too much at stake to allow his emotions to cloud his judgment.
"You've got to understand," Briggs pleaded.
"Melissa... Senator Weatherby had amassed some very damaging secrets about a few powerful politicians. She had convinced her husband to make a prearranged ruling on a case where billions of dollars were on the line." Nathan Briggs took a deep breath and continued to talk.
His eyes remained fixated on the gun, afraid that a bullet would emerge from its barrel, to excavate his skull.
According to the story that Nathan Briggs told him, federal district court judge Johnathan Weatherby had taken a five million dollar payoff; to undermine an environmental protection suit.
Less than eighteen months prior, judge Weatherby had been the presiding judge over an Augusta case, in which Briggs had been hired to lobby for the passage of a bill that would give the state the power to pass a law that would allow his employers to secure the rights to build a nuclear waste storage facility.
Nathan Briggs explained to him how the Department of Energy had developed a projected plan to reclassify residual sludge, from nuclear waste in tanks at the Savannah River Site.
Several states across the country were vying to secure the contract, but the facility in Augusta was more equipped to handle the project.
The law stipulated the terms in which governed how companies could classify nuclear sludge, from high-level radioactive waste to low-level waste, under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
Nathan Briggs explained how the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act required all nuclear facilities to route their high-level waste to permanent storage facilities at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada.
Johnathan Weatherby's initial ruling had created a very complicated problem for the corporate investors.
The storage facilities that had been approved by Congress had not been completed, due to insufficient funds from the State Department.
The Department of Energy had been tasked with establishing an operable mandate for the removal of strontium-90, plutonium, uranium, and other high-level radioactive substances from the tanks that had held nuclear waste at various test sites for nearly five decades.
From the days of the Cold War, the Department of Energy had been given a budget of over sixteen billion to handle the expense of cleanup costs; resulting from nuclear weapons research.
Through a planned cleanup proposal that was supposed to shorten the time span, at the Savannah River Site, by an estimated twenty-two years, the corporate investors were able to gain government approval for the project.
But no one could just change the terms of the Bill, Briggs told him.
The only way for them to proceed with the plan, they had to get the courts to approve of the renewed plans, for the nuclear waste to be treated at the site.
That was how Johnathan Weatherby had become involved.
He had been assigned to preside over the case when a couple of tree-huggers had brought a legal suit to subvert the proposal.
Their position was that the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act prohibited the high-level radioactive sludge from being reclassified to 'low-level' waste.
It required a judge to adjudicate the issue and define how federal lawmakers intended the Act to be implemented under such conditions.
According to what Nathan Briggs had told him, their corporate investors had a political advantage, due to the D.O.E.'s economic downsizing agenda.
The timeframe for the court date, and the window in which they had to submit their proposal for the remodification of the Bill, were weeks apart.
At that point, they had secured the necessary votes to get it approved, but if Weatherby ruled against them, that would have set them back hundreds of millions of dollars, and years of hard work.
The D.O.E. needed at least six weeks before the Bill could be brought to the table for remodification.
They had lieutenant governor Anthony Miller backing their proposal. He was their initial go-between with Melissa Weatherby, who at that point was only a lowly councilwoman that he had had an extramarital affair.
Lieutenant governor Anthony Miller had assured them that he could have their proposal pushed through a state defense Bill that he and another senator had gotten passed the year before.
It was intertwined with a policy referendum that had been passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The policy referendum allowed the D.O.E. to have the radioactive sludge that lined the sides and bottom of the tanks to be diluted with grout.
This process allowed prior 'high level' waste to be reclassified as 'low level' waste.
With her cooperation, they were able to get her husband to rule in their favor.
She played her part and was rewarded with a Senate seat assignment after Senator Thomas had succumbed to cancer, two years before the conclusion of his term.
The way Briggs explained it, Melissa Weatherby used her husband to be the recipient of the five million dollar payoff, then built up her political clout through what had become known as the B.R.A.C. issue.
That was what had given her the push that she needed to remain in office.
When Briggs explained how B.R.A.C. (an acronym for Base Realignment And Closure process) had been created, to recommend the closure of twenty percent of the nation's training bases, it became clear how they had manipulated the public.
Once Melissa Weatherby had taken up the torch to keep Fort Gordon from being classified as a training installation, to prevent it from undergoing closure, a lot of military personnel and residents within Augusta supported her.
She began blackmailing some very powerful people, including her husband, to push her agenda.
At that point, she was untouchable.
No one could risk taking her down, for fear of what type of dirt she would expose.
Her affair with Anthony Miller was driving Johnathan Weatherby insane.
Divorce was initiated, but Melissa did not want to taint her political image, Briggs told him.
"She actually forced her husband to leave Augusta, or go to prison," Briggs stated, his eyes pleading for Swaylo to understand.
"That's how he got transferred to Fulton county's federal district," he added.
With a somber nod, Swaylo pulled the pistol from Briggs' face, as if all had been forgiven.
It was a lot to process, he thought with a sigh.
A federal district court judge had hired him to murder his wife, who happened to be a U.S.Senator, to prevent him and his cohorts from being sent to prison for corruption.
They had set him up, to avoid having investigators ask too many questions about a scheme that had been implemented to payoff political leaders and a judge.
A glance about the parking garage let Swaylo know that they were still alone.
"So let me get this straight," he stated. "A federal district court judge, Johnathan Weatherby, wanted to
assassinate his wife, Melissa Weatherby, who happened
to be a sitting U.S. Senator, to avoid being exposed for having taken a five million dollar payoff for making a favorable ruling for a group of corporate investors?
Does that sum up why you guys tried to set me up?"
Nathan Briggs swallowed hard, unsure of how his response would be received.
He did not want to say anything to compel Swaylo to strike him or shoot him.
"It wasn't my idea. I was just paid to do a job, the same as you... Please, don't hurt me."
"Okay. I can respect a man for doing what he feels is necessary to survive. Self-preservation is what inspires a person to stay alive, right..."
The distant sound of pedestrian chatter and mid-afternoon traffic came to them as background noises, but the parking garage was as deserted as an Arizona desert.
"Yeah. I guess." Briggs stuttered in fear.
"Okay. How many people knew of my involvement?"
"Just Johnathan Weatherby and myself. It was decided that the fewer people with that information, the less chance we had of having someone try to blackmail us later."
"Don't lie to me." Swaylo spat.
"I'm not. I sware. That's why I used an alias to post your bond... So nothing could be traced back to me."
"If that's true, then why risk you knowing the secret when you can trade me off to save yourself?"
A puzzled expression came across his face, as Nathan Briggs tried to process what Swaylo said.
"I wouldn't say a word, I promise you."
Swaylo stepped out of the vehicle as if to leave.
"Yeah. I know,"
The sudden report of the gunshot resounded through the parking garage.
Swaylo tucked his pistol into his waist, gathered up his trash bag, and walked away with the obscurity of a faceless vagrant.
With the only link to him severed, Swaylo could feel the weight of devastation lift from his shoulders.
The feeling of freedom had him excited.
There was nothing like glancing at the landscape of a dismal future and seeing a world of wealth and prosperity.