The Perfect Veil by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blake Pierce
Published: 2021-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jessie couldn’t find a back door.

After almost an hour of searching for an indirect way to approach Sterling Shepherd, one that might prove as effective as just shell-shocking him with what they knew, they’d come up empty. Karen took a break and went to look for a snack. Jessie stood up to stretch as best as she could in the small confines of the research department. Jamil, who rarely seemed to need food, drink, or rest, continued to type away.

“Maybe we’re wasting our time,” Jessie said, as much to herself as to the dogged researcher. “After all these years, with the help of his lawyers and his DRA minions, it wouldn’t be stunning if Sterling had found a way to patch all his vulnerabilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his opposition research people doing work on him, just to keep ahead of any allegations that might come his way.”

“You’re right,” Jamil said.

“I am?” Jessie said, surprised that the kid was willing to give up. Jamil never gave up.

“Not about wasting our time,” he said. “But I think you’re right that he’s had so long to cover up all his transgressions that it may impossible for us to untangle them now—but maybe not for everyone.”

“What do you mean?” Jessie asked.

She recognized the inflection in Jamil’s voice. It was the one he got when he thought he had a good idea but didn’t want to say so outright in case he’d misjudged.

“I think we’re coming to this too late,” he told her. “But I keep coming across someone who’s been investigating the Eleventh Realm since the very beginning, before anyone else started looking into them. He may have found some incriminating stuff before they could bury it.”

“Who?” Jessie asked, perking up.

“Huell Valcheck,” Jamil said enthusiastically.

Jessie’s own enthusiasm faded as fast as it had arrived.

“That guy?” she said skeptically. “I read some of his stuff in the research, and some of the stuff about him. Frankly, he struck me as a kind of nut job conspiracy theorist.”

“Ms. Hunt,” Jamil said, turning around in his chair. “Who do you think paid for and circulated those stories about him, the ones that undermined his credibility?”

Jessie thought about it and was briefly embarrassed that the source of the stories about him hadn’t occurred to her. She still wasn’t as adept as she’d like at comprehending just how far the Realm’s tentacles stretched.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked.

“I have detailed records,” he told her. “A bunch of these articles were commissioned by Realm-friendly publications and then aggregated like crazy so that now it’s hard to discern the original sources. But the more I dig, the more I find that every hit piece on him comes from a writer or outlet with connections to the group.”

“But wasn’t the guy institutionalized?” she asked.

“Briefly,” Jamil said. “I haven’t been able to find out what that was about. Listen, I’m not saying this guy is Bob Woodward, but you’ve got to wonder: If Valchek was already such

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