Forgotten Witness by Rebecca Forster

and the ignominious fall of those powerful men who had since gone to their rest. Now he was in power and he would do things differently. The paper was ash, so Ambrose packed away the memories, flicked away the speck of guilt that had landed on his shoulder, and went upstairs. This time the outcome would be very different.
    This time no one would get hurt.
     
    ***
     
    Woodrow Calister dialed Ambrose’s private number but disconnected the call before it rang through. His chest expanded as he took a deep breath, but he made no sound as he let it out again. He felt like an old man after one of these evenings with Ambrose. The senior senator, the party’s pick for president, was a rare individual to be sure. To have Ambrose’s energy, to believe so surely in one’s own destiny, was a gift. Or a curse. Or just plain stupidity. Woodrow couldn’t decide which it was. Still, he admired Ambrose greatly and was honored to stand beside him. They would make a good team when it was the two of them running the country.
    His eyes wandered from the view of a city he had long ago stopped admiring. It was all show, every last bit of it. A great show to be sure. Still, to those who knew it well, there was no comfort to be found in it.
    “Matthew?”
    His driver indicated that he was listening by the merest motion of his head as he made a clean and sweeping curve through an intersection at a light that was questionably more red than yellow.
    “Did you ever see that movie Westworld ? You know, Yul Brenner is some kind of robot and people go to this place for vacation and they can live in any time period they want for a week. The robots act like roman slaves or Greek gods. Yul Brenner is a gunslinger robot in the old west and he goes berserk and then all the robots go berserk and kill everyone. You know the movie?”
    “Sorry, Senator. I don’t think I’ve seen that one,” he answered.
    “Too bad. Good movie. Mindless people doing outrageous things to please themselves because the robots can’t feel anything. Of course, all the robots look like people and they are all beautiful. Anyway, it was a statement. Eventually the things you abuse or try to control will turn on you. At least that’s how I took it.” Woodrow spoke to the back of Matthew’s head, longing for a bit of conversation, and hoping to coax it out of the man whose job it was to see and hear nothing.
    “Wish I could help you, sir,” Matthew said. “I’m not sure I know who Yul Brenner is, sir.”
    “ The King and I ? The Ten Commandments ? Yul Brenner.”
    Delighted that the chauffer was interested, Woodrow was ready with a bio of the great actor but just then the car passed under a streetlight. Woodrow saw that Matthew was smiling and it wasn’t a good smile. It was the kind Woodrow’s kids gave him when he was showing his age. It was the smile his wife gave him before she had enough of the political life and left him. Those smiles never bothered him, but this one did. This was his chauffer humoring him and that just ticked Woodrow Calister – distinguished leader of the Armed Services Committee, respected senator, soon to be vice-presidential candidate – off in the worst way. It angered him so much his eyes burned with it but he stayed silent. In the grand scheme of things Matthew was nothing. Woodrow wasted no energy on him. Instead, he dialed Jerry.
    “It’s me. I was just wondering, do you think Hyashi’s really on board here?”
    Jerry assured Woodrow that he had no doubt Mark Hyashi was one hundred percent Patriota’s man.
    “Look, I’m only a few blocks away. Let’s have a nightcap. Something happened with Medusa today. It’s been on my mind.”
    “Not a good time, buddy,” Jerry said. “I’m not exactly at home.”
    Woodrow heard a woman giggle and his heart went cold. He didn’t care who Jerry Norn screwed, but he hated that Jerry Norn didn’t either. They were, after all, senators. Woodrow hung up knowing Jerry wouldn’t give a