Bridge Call

"But," Frank added, "I would advise you to listen more than speak."

Astra said, "Of course. If he is scared of something, my silence might scare him into giving better terms, or letting something slip."

Astra had an idea that they were going to walk out to a bridge between her estate and Ralph's, as a sort of symbolicly neutral territory. Instead, she never left the building. There was a large room with a long, polished wood table with glass over the top. The table was surrounded with black leather chairs with high backs. On the table there was a little object that looked like the remains of a small campfire. It was black, and roughly in the shape of a triangle. There was a set of numbers on one side of it, along with other buttons with words that made little sense - "conf", "hold", "mute", and so forth. Astra concluded that the wizards that had run amock in this world used some form of numerology to effect their spells.

Seated at the table were Frank, Belboz, Fred, Velus, Belinda, the doctor, and two men that Astra did not recognize. Guarding the doors were a couple of men in blue uniforms that were less fancy than Belinda's, but who had revolvers in their belts. Astra's conclusion about numerology seemed to have been confirmed when one of the men at the table pressed a series of numbers, and a little song of about 10 notes was played. Astra thought that this was very much like a seance that the seers from Aqualaria might perform, although the details of this were different. After the song was played, a woman's voice, that sounded like a spirit of the dead, asked for something called a passcode - and more numbers were pressed and another short song was played. Then a man's voice replied, "This is Ralph Rutland, joining the call."

Frank said, "OK, Ralph, we have myself, the governor, Mr. Belboz, the governor's political operative, Mr. Honormann, who you know is the press secretary, Lt. Governor Velus, Dr. Bainbridge, the governor's physician, Lt. Belinda Thessemar, the governor's sister, Mr. Breslau, the speaker of the assembly, and Mr. van der Linden, an attorney.

The voice of Ralph said, "Why are we bringing in Mr. van der Linden?"

The attorney spoke up, "My speciality is contract law, and I have been brought in to advise on the I-46 tollway contract. If you feel that you cannot speak freely about certain matters with me in the room, then I will leave until I am needed."

The voice said, "No offense, but yes, you probably should leave the room."

Mr. van der Linden got up and left the room. It seemed odd to Astra that Ralph seemed to know who was in the room. When the attorney had left, the voice continued, "I am glad to see that the governor is recovering from last night. Frank, on our end, you have Dr. Archambault, a researcher at Molenari Pharmaceuticals, and Mr. Saint-Leger, my personal attorney."

The chief of staff replied, "Personal attorney, eh? I think I understand. I could play hardball and ask him to leave, but for now, let him stay." Astra noticed that Frank was looking at the odd picture screen she saw earlier. Maybe it was some sort of 'crystal ball' where he could see Ralph - and Ralph had its twin, so the he could see her.

The voice said, "Good. First of all, what happened yesterday was not what my client wanted. He wanted a fair hearing on Bill 2008- 46, and I was supposed to make the case. That was all that was supposed to happen."

Belboz replied, "It appears that something more may have happened."

Ralph cleared his throat, and replied, "Yes, Belboz, quite a bit more happened. This is where I am getting into shaky legal ground. In order to explain what went on, I need immunity. I don't know that I broke any laws, but am sure that this will at least be very embarrassing to my client. What I say does not go beyond this room."

Frank said, "Our lawyers are fixing that up. If you don't trust us, we can just investigate this ourselves."

There was a silence on the other end. Speaker Breslau said, "I will bet that Ralph is talking with his lawyer."

Belboz said, "Yeah, I know Ralph. He was a frat brother of mine at the state university. He was pretty clever, and careful. But he doesn't sound as cocky as he usually does."

Belboz replied, "Naturally. We all use good food and liquor to keep our clients happy. Are you suggesting that Astra was drunk, and did the barrel ride on her own?"

Ralph replied, "Ah, no. We did some research on her, even though she has not been receptive to our ideas. We know that, sometimes, after a difficult session, she goes to the Capitol Athletic Club and swims for a hour. Our spies told us that she is not far off her state championship form from around fifteen years ago. Anyway, at the bar, governor, you order a Seven and Seven - 4 ounces of Seagram's whiskey and 4 ounces of Seven- up. It took us some time, but we arranged for one of our representatives to meet you. In that cocktail we put in about 7 milligrams of QRM."

Everyone looked toward Dr. Bainbridge, who shook his head.

Frank said, "OK, what is QRM?"

Another voice said, "Dr. Archambault here. QRM is a medicine that is produced by Molenari Pharmacuticals, but is not publicly distributed. It is very subtle when properly administered. In the right doses, the person taking QRM is very receptive to suggestion. The beauty of QRM is that the effects of the suggestion tend to be permanent, and the subject comes up with his or her own rationale for the suggestion, and firmly believes in it."

"Holy moley," said Belboz. "You are trying to play with a marked deck, Ralph."

"I don't use it very often, Belboz. But you are just too damned good, and the governor was very headstrong. I had to find a way to make her at least listen with an open mind."

Belinda cut in, "So how did my sister end up in those videos, if all you were supposed to be interested in was changing her mind on one bill?"

"Bill Price screwed things up. Badly. Lord Castellan has made him pay for it."

The other voice, that of Dr. Archambault, said, "You will see it in the obituaries in the Capitol Courier tomorrow morning."

1. Ralph added, "Two car accident - Bill Price and a family of four, at an intersection just outside Marion. It is involving that other family, who didn't have anything to do with all this, that really bothers me."

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