Read Online Death of Secrets by Bowen Greenwood - Free Book Online

with only half an ear. He couldn’t
keep his mind on business; it kept coming back to the girl. One moment he’d
smile, remembering sitting at his kitchen table with her, drinking coffee and
talking about the drive. But then he thought of the awful trouble she was in,
and the bottom fell out of his stomach. Then he started daydreaming about how
things might go after this whole crazy cloak and dagger business got over with,
which made him wonder whether his reelection odds would be helped by getting
married, or hurt by the fact that his bride was a cocktail waitress.
    But once he started thinking along those lines, it reminded him
of the night before, and that drove him crazy with worry about the whole
business of the thumb drive. Why were people trying so hard to get it? How
could they make them stop? And would Kathy have to travel to Indonesia?
    The Chairman gaveled the meeting to a close, and Vincent shook
his head to clear it before rising and gathering his things. On his way out the
door, D.W. Tilman wrapped an arm around his shoulder and walked out with him.
    At 23, just out of college, Michael Vincent had been
volunteering on a race for U.S. Senate when the campaign scheduler made an
incredible error that sent the candidate to the complete opposite end of the
state from the trade association convention he was supposed to address. The
very next day Mike found himself with his own desk, a much harder schedule, and
the meager paycheck of a campaign staffer.
    His boss, the campaign manager, was a political professional
from Washington DC who’d been hired to come out and win that Senate seat. His
name was D.W. Tilman.
    Mike’s memory drifted back to the days when Tilman had been
explaining how money, power, and skill fused together in politics. He had
learned volumes in that one campaign. The elder man had gone on to other
campaigns in later years, while young Michael Vincent stayed on with the newly
elected Senator, moving up from scheduler to Legislative Assistant to Press
Secretary and eventually to a campaign of his own.
    His old mentor never abandoned him. Tilman kept in close touch
with Vincent, watching his career, making important introductions, and passing
on lessons about how to make the levers of power move. Eventually, though,
Tilman left politics.
    While Vincent was on the path to elected office of his own,
Tilman was the perpetual insider. He moved from managing Senate campaigns to
working for the party’s national organization, and eventually he found himself
managing a primary campaign for the Presidency of the United States.
    He should have gone on to a staff job at the White House, or
perhaps even a seat in the President’s Cabinet. But instead his candidate
encountered a serious scandal, and needed someone to blame. Tilman found
himself fired and his reputation blackened. He never managed another campaign.
He left the trenches behind and founded Electron Guidewire.
    Tilman knew a bit about electronics, but that wasn’t his real
area of expertise. His real specialty had always been making the political
system work. The company he founded made most of its money selling gadgets to
the federal government, and that was where Tilman excelled. His contacts from
the political days proved to be his most valuable asset as one after another he
found the right ear to bend in order to make a sale.
    Because it was so valuable to him, Tilman never entirely left
politics behind. He gave generously to candidates, he maintained his contacts
with old campaigners, and he consulted regularly with politicians who needed
advice, whether about his old experience in the arena or his new expertise in
electronics.
    It brought a grim smile to his face as well. The bastards who’d
sold him out were now making him rich. Every time a Congressional subcommittee
authorized the purchase of one of his products, it felt like payback.
    He’d been there when Vincent ran his first race for public
office – a seat in the State Senate,