Page 112 of Not the Plan

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The next day Peter and Julian cackled in the outer office around nine thirty. Karim was stuck on the subject of his boss. He wanted to kill him for destroying things with Isadora, but he was also the key to fixing them. Julian could harm Daniel, and that would harm Isadora. Karim’s only hope for redemption in her eyes was to stop that from happening. He’d keep biding his time, keep sending her messages about what was going on, until one of them figured out what Julian planned to do and how to stop it from happening. She hadn’t responded to any of his messages the previous days, but he hadn’t expected her to.She didn’t tell me to stop sending them. Maybe her silence isn’t so bad.As soon as he’d finished his thought, his boss’s sidekick was at his door.

“Hey, Julian’s got something he wants to show you,” Peter said.

Karim followed him into Julian’s office, surprised when Julian asked him to close the door. His self-aggrandizement wouldn’t echo down the hall with the door closed. He motioned for Karim to join him behind his desk, all three of them facing Julian’s laptop.

“Show him—”

“Nope. No clues, Peter. Let’s see if our straight-laced attorney can figure things out on his own.”

Julian double-clicked, and a video opened. It was black and white, the edges of everything blurred. It came from a security camera. A door opened on the other side of the room and a smiling woman entered, followed by an older man. Karim glanced at Peter, who was grinning like an idiot.Seriously, guys? You brought me in here to watch a hidden-camera sex tape?

“So, tell me, Rex…or do you prefer Rexie?” the woman asked, out of the frame.

Okay, so there’s audio too. Awesome. I am not sitting here watching amateur porn—

“Whatever Mistress prefers,” the man replied, also off camera. Karim’s blood went cold as he recognized Senator Rex Roberson’s voice.

“Kneel,” the woman said, the camera panning to the right.

And there, in the middle of the screen, knelt Senator Roberson, naked except for a dog collar and his underpants, putting a gag in his mouth. Julian and Peter exploded with laughter at Karim’s slack-jawed shock.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“You didn’t wonder why Rex switched sides on the insurance bill?” Julian asked, pausing the video. He pointed at the screen. “That’s why.”

“But how—”

“Wait, Karim, we’re just getting started,” Peter said.

Julian clicked on another file, video from a different room, another senator enjoying the charms of another young woman.

“That’s not his wife,” Peter whispered in Karim’s ear. Karim jerked back; Peter’s breath was too close to his skin. He stepped away from the desk.

“Julian? What’s going on? How did you get—” Then he remembered. One of the many times he’d been stuck in Julian’s office, he’d heard him say that a new security system was being installed at Ike’s.

“You bugged Ike’s?” Karim asked.

Julian smiled. “Very good, young Padawan,” he said. “Figuredout ‘where’ much quicker than I’d anticipated. ButIdid not bug Ike’s. Ike’s updated its cameras and has simply been kind enough tosharethe information they collect with me. A real treasure trove, don’t you think?” Julian turned his laptop toward Karim, to show him the folder the videos had come from. There were six files, three with Roberson’s name and three named after three other senators.

Karim’s mind reeled. He tried to process the legal ramifications. “Julian…you can’t. You…just from a privacy perspective…”

“You aren’t a fan of Ike’s,” Julian said. “Which is too bad, because I have to wonder what we might have learned about you. Mr. Goody Two-shoes must need an outlet. I bet you’re far kinkier than any of us could imagine.”

Karim’s face began to ache from the pressure of holding his lips together.

“But if you had swung by lately,” Julian continued, “you would have seen that the security policy has changed. It is posted that filming takes place on the premises. So no, you don’t have to worry.”

“Idon’t have to worry? This has nothing to do with me,” Karim said.

“But of course it does. You aremyaide. Who would believe that you weren’t in on this from the beginning?”

A blinding cloud of rage blocked Karim’s vision. There was a small question, hovering in the cloud, and he chose to focus on it, in the hope of not going to jail for assaulting his boss.

“Why, Julian?” he asked.

“Why what?” His attention remained on the screen, clicking open another file and grinning.

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