The Olympus Device: Book Two by Joe Nobody

Author:Joe Nobody [Nobody, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Fiction, Action & Adventure
Google: xdACBAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00KETY5WQ
Publisher: Kemah Bay Marketing LLC
Published: 2014-05-17T05:00:00+00:00

Agent Shultz wasn’t the only person analyzing the FBI director’s interview. In her living room, 600 miles away, Grace sat on her couch pondering what she had just watched.

Going to the press had always been the last straw. It was an irreversible act fraught with the potential of unintended consequences.

She fully understood the American political mind. No matter the subject, person or cause, one third of Americans would be on the positive side of the ledger, one-third on the negative. It was the uncommitted, middle-of-the road group that politicians, businesses, and marketers courted and cajoled.

Only rarely did these mathematical parameters vary. The list of exceptions included a very limited number of events where the population could be expected to behave outside this norm. Attacking U.S. citizens, or American soil, were sure ways to initiate public outcry by 90 percent of the general populace. Harming a child unified public opinion against the perpetrator at an even slightly higher percentage, but generally speaking, the country divided by the “one-third/one-third/one-third” paradigm.

Going public with Dusty’s story wouldn’t be one of the exceptions. She fully expected one-third to instantly demand his head on a pike, while the remainder of the population would fall somewhere between neutral and supportive.

The press had traditionally played the role of equalizer in the American story. Corruption, draconian policies, cover-ups, and graft had long been favorite objectives of the media. Of course, that news model had not been the norm for decades… not since the old days… when the broadcasts were about real journalism, more about searching for the truth and less about image surveys, target marketing, and ratings. She couldn’t count on the press digging into the facts and using the truth to bolster Dusty’s position.

“How would the average American view Dusty Weathers if I got on national TV and told his story?” she whispered in a hushed voice. “Would he become another terrorist like the men who bombed Oklahoma City? Or would he become a folk hero, swept into popularity like the lore of outlaws as recent as John Dillinger? Would he become a Paul Revere or a John Wilkes Booth?”

Switching off the television, she meandered to the kitchen and began heating water for tea. Given the turmoil in her world, a cup of the relaxing brew before turning in was now more important than ever.

As the burner’s flames licked around the edges of the teapot, her mind wandered again to the topic that had dominated her thoughts for weeks – Durham Weathers.

Before tonight’s broadcast, going public with their side of the story wasn’t an option. The one article published to date, the piece in the Houston Post, had been dismissed by the national media as hyperbole and conjecture.

The fact that she would be going up against a very skilled and powerful propaganda machine wasn’t to be sold short. Politicians, government officials, and law enforcement leaders were expert manipulators of public opinion. They routinely and deftly used the press as a promotional machine.

“The President of the United States versus Grace Kennedy, small town lawyer,” she mumbled as the pot began to whistle.

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