HOMELAND: Falling Down (Part 1 of the HOMELAND Series) Read Free Page A

of thugs eyed him from across the street. He’d seen the look before. Cold, merciless, predatory. They watched him closely, deciding whether or not he was worth the effort. He knew better than to turn back or run.
    Luckily, Eduardo looked more like an unshaven ragamuffin than a news anchor. He stopped and opened his backpack, wishing it contained a pistol. He pulled out a tattered New York Jets ball cap and an old Middle Eastern kufiyah scarf, hoping to show that he carried nothing of value. Both went everywhere he did. A dust cloud engulfed him as he shook them out and put them on.
    It worked well enough. He carefully made his way to Sixth Avenue and entered network headquarters. It took a minute to convince security that he worked there, but was finally allowed to pass.
    He found Angie hard at work in her office. She simultaneously talked on the phone, typed on her laptop, and barked orders to staffers as they scurried in and out.
    He stood in the door a long while before Angie happened to look up at him.
    “It’s about time you got here,” she said.
    “Traffic.” He smiled. “Busy day I see.”
    She gave him a look, not sure if he was yanking her chain. “You haven’t heard?”
    “Let me guess. Big foot is real and he’s running for President.”
    “Not the time, Eddie. A computer glitch hit the financial infrastructure this morning. Billions of dollars have disappeared.”
    “Whose money was it?”
    “Personal checking accounts. State retirement funds. Even Wall Street was hit. The money just evaporated. Gone. Deleted.”
    “Deleted by whom?”
    “Nobody knows. And if they do, they’re not saying.”
    “So that’s what he was talking about.”
    “Who?”
    “Just somebody I met on the bridge.”
    “The panic is limited to the government and financial sectors for now. When John and Jane Q. Public realize they’ve been cleaned out with nothing left but the cash in their wallets, it will be chaos.”
    “C’mon, Angie. Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid. It’s never as bad as it seems. It’s just our job to make it look that way. Like you said, this is probably just a computer bug. Even if it’s not, all private accounts are insured by the FED and the government can cover the banks. Smarter people than us are working on this.”
    A staffer poked his head in the office and said, “The President just halted all stock trading and shut down the banks until they can figure out what happened.”
    Eduardo smiled. “See? It’s all going to be fine. Between this and the election next week, our ratings will be through the roof. Then the crisis will pass and we’ll be back to reporting celebrity gossip by Thanksgiving. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and have a late hurricane to keep things interesting.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    “Of course I am. And, by the way,” He pointed to the window. “What the hell is going on out there? I was almost mugged on the way in. I know that didn’t have anything to do with a computer glitch.”
    “It’s the economy. Unemployment hit twenty percent. Prices on everything from gas to groceries have tripled in the last six months. The news about the default made it even worse.”
    “Sounds awful.” Eduardo flashed his signature grin. “Now let’s talk about me.”
    “Your first broadcast from the anchor’s desk will be election night.”
    “Ah, yes. My coming out party.”
    “That’s only four days from now. Lots to do and little time.”
    “I’ll be ready. Just make sure all the behind-the-scenes stuff is squared away.”
    Angie plopped a hefty binder onto the desk in front of him. “Damn right you’ll be ready. You’re going to learn this from front to back.”
    He poked at the file’s sizable mass. “What is it?”
    “It’s a breakdown of the electoral map. It covers all candidates, parties, and demographics broken down to the county level in every state…including D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.”
    “Anybody ever tell you you’re a real