Page 25 - Just Deserts

The Decimator

into my possession. My company is in the business of restoring old
movie film for sale to interested parties: documentary makers,
archivists, advertising agencies. As a result we have contacts among
many different enterprises involved in the production and
distribution of cinematic material. One of these lines of
communication is with the media consulting firm handling Crag
Sunderbar’s campaign.”
The woman glanced involuntarily at her telephones, frowning.
Kenostaphos smiled. “You are perhaps wondering if this is some
kind of set-up by the opposition? Let me assure you that nothing I
will say within these four walls involves illegal practices.” He opened
his jacket. “As you can see, I am not wired for sound.”
The gesture was so comical and disingenuous that Connie laughed
out loud. “Excuse me. Your demonstration of innocence is wasted
on me. I am both technologically naive and criminologically
insensitive: you could have planted half the heroin in Hong Kong
here since you came in and I would never know it. If I don’t like
what you have to offer, I will ask you to leave. But you must
acknowledge that your appearance here is rather out of the ordinary.
I did not expect a leak from the security-conscious bastion of
Iconoplast.”
He smiled again, this time flashing a set of small but perfectly-
matched teeth. The ice was broken.
“Good. Then we understand each other. Some of what I say can
be easily checked. You will find that an Iconoplast employee named
Cyril Keller was fired last week. The circumstances were unpleasant,
and he left with a copy of what he had been responsible for creating:
Crag Sunderbar’s campaign strategy. He did not, however, steal that
material; it is available in your neighborhood video rental shop.”
“Strategy?” Connie shook her head. “I don’t get it. Sunderbar’s
strategy thus far has been to stay out of sight and let his proxies
smear my candidate. But he has a tremendous war chest; we know
that he will launch some kind of massive campaign blitz when the
election gets closer. But we don’t know what it is, so we can’t even
begin to figure out how to counter it.”
Kenostaphos got up and began unloading some expensive-looking
video playback machines. As he hunted for an electrical outlet under
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