November 3, 2020
All the workstations and the video booths were running at full capacity at Gary's shop. The battleground states were the focus today. Spark anger, sow doubt about the legitimacy of the elections. Today start the contingency plan is Williams somehow lost.
“I just got done voting. I was the second one at my polling place,” on the of his agents was saying. The area around the agent was a green screen, but Gary knew the viewers were seeing a polling place in rural Pennsylvania as the person talked into they iPhone. “Look at all the people lined up to vote! They are all wearing Red hats and Williams's shirts. This is going to be a landslide!” he said and finished the video, posting it to his timeline and also on Twitter. Each video was posted on multiple social media platforms.
There was a line for each of the video booths and each person had a different script and background. They were starting with Pennsylvania, that was going to the key state. The zoom video calls were also running constantly. The agents were complaining to their “friends” they'd made over the past several months. That misinformation would spread continue to be spread by others until it became fact.
He already had thirty interviews with “people” who'd gone to vote, but they were turned away because a mail-in ballot was already cast. He'd start releasing those at 10 AM. By the time polls closed, he'd have over three hundred such interviews from people or local news stations from all over the country. Most would be from the corrupt battleground states, but there were a few from the truly red and blue states as well, in case the whole election process needed to be overthrown.
Matt drove past his poling place, even at 6:30 AM, the line was already at least an hour. He's vote after he got back from Fort Meade. The news stations were well into their analysis about how this was a historic election and how important it was. The exit polls were just starting to come in as he drove around the beltway and got on 95 North.
The NSA and CIA had difference cultures, but both took security extremely seriously. Matt had to provide his agency badge and driver's license to get through the security gate. Then at the main desk, he had to provide both ids again, sign in and wait for Tim to come down and escort him. They stopped by unmanned cafeteria and got coffee.
“You all set for your meetings?” Matt asked as Tim added cream and sugar to his coffee.
“For the most part. We've on top of it for several years. It's mainly a formality so there's a paper trail that we did our due diligence.”
Matt nodded, knowing he wasn't going to get more than these broad strokes. “Let's get this done with so I can let you get back to your routine.
“There's a SCIF on the third floor that we can use to read you in,” Tim said, referring to the Sensitive Compartment Information Facility all secure location maintain to control access to secure information. “Your neighbor post anything good on Facebook? I need to know if I should change my status. I also have to do a ton of paperwork here.”
“I didn't look. But I'll invite her to the wedding.”
The compartmental reading in only took a few minutes and Matt was allowed to access what needed from the NSA databases.
Like most of the people in line, Matt kept looking at his watch. The line to vote was full of the lunch voters, even though it was after 1 PM. He'd figured after the trip back from Maryland it was late enough.
There already some protesters, just far enough away to gather without police interference, with signs about mail-in ballots and rigged elections. Once he saw there was a line of uniformed police between them and the polling place, he ignored and continued his wait with everyone else.
Quince was on his fifth stop of the day to stump for Williams. Each interview or rally had the established talking points. He was finally feeling rejuvenated after the second. It was exhilarating hearing all the people cheer his every word and every jab at the opposition. The talking points were all lies and had been debunked multiple times, but that didn't stop him from repeating them or, most importantly, the faithful crowds from roaring their blind devotion.
Between on of the rallies, Lev called him. “Make it quick, I'm about to get on another plane. No idea where I'm going anymore though,” Quince said, letting some of the good humor fill his voice.
“We've got people mobilized. The turnout looks promising for Williams. Do you want us to start releasing the voter fraud information?”
“What are the numbers?” Quince asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine, right now. Our pollsters have them running pretty even, as expected. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are lower that predicted for Williams.”
“Keep running the stories on people being turned away due to mail-in ballots. That will goad some of the stay-at-homes to get out and vote. Also keep the mail-in ballot fraud trending. Keep the base agitated, but not over the edge. We don't want any violence or riots yet. That'll spur the left to get out and vote.”
“Yes, Sir,” Lev answered.
“I'll call you back before the polls close. Have all your assets in position. We'll utilize them over night if we need to.”
“Fucking waste of time,” Matt muttered after he was finally in his vault. Two hours of standing in line to finally take five minutes to vote. He could see why the mail-in ballots were so appealing now.
He logged into his computer and checked to make sure he could access the NSA files from Tim. He took a few minutes to figure out how to query the NSA system and find the information he was looking for. Then he had to tie the data back to what he was working on. He started with Quince, and worked from there. He used facial recognition to get records of who he'd met with over the past month more that three times, then he cross referenced those with Gyeong-Hui Kim and Farridh Hashem. The search would access nearly all the law enforcement databases. For now, he could only wait. He added a tag to the search to text him when it was completed running.
Matt turned on his TV and grabbed a beer from his fridge. While the news ran in the back ground, he put grabbed a carton of eggs and turned on a burner. He could hear the summary of poll results. Polls closed on the East coast an hour ago and some counties were already reporting in. He sliced a tomato while he sipped his beer and waited for the skillet.
He expected that most of the beltway citizens were like him and would spend the evening watching the election results. Nothing would be decided tonight, but there would be trends. He cracked two eggs into the skillet and spread mustard and Mayonnaise on the bread and laid out three slices of tomato.
He sat on his couch with his fried egg sandwich and beer to settle in for a long, hopefully boring evening.