A Question of Faith (Harlem's Deck 9)

by Paul Smith

  *

  In the face of it the events surrounding Jay's election to the seat of Mayor were fairly simple. An fresh faced candidate, battling against two far more experienced and popular opponents, he'd struggled through his campaign from the beginning despite herculean efforts. Bad press over his recently collapsed engagement and denigration of his (admittedly pedestrian) policies hampering his natural statesmanship.

  Then, in the final days, an almost miraculous change of fortune occurred.

  A rift developed between him and his mistress of the time, the infamous Ishra Demontaire. But the ensuing scandal was suddenly overshadowed in the press by revelations surrounding the race favourite Rutherford, following the leak of certain incriminating photos. The man was arrested and later charged, though all that occurred after the fact.

  For the time being, the election was wide open again, though the second favourite Jones made much of the fact it was now very much a one horse race.

  He could not have been more wrong.

  Fired by the scandal, Jaret did an abrupt re-write of his promises. A task that saw both him and Wilson pull an all-nighter, with a tired Elliot rousted from his place on the office couch in the wee hours of the morning to get the relevant flash drive of documents to the headquarters of the Ntimes before the first edition went to press.

  The people loved it, and Jones was suddenly looking at a fight he hadn't counted on. Ever the blue blood, he took it on the chin, coming out swinging with talk about the likely substance of promises fabricated overnight.

  Jaret responded with a hefty donation to the St Catherine's children's trust.

  That was when Annalise walked back in.

  And suddenly that chair at the head of the city assembly, which had seemed anybody's for the taking, was filled in everyone's mind by one man.

  Elliot still had no idea how she'd found out about the donation, or the surprise visit to the hospital's kids ward Wilson and Jaret had cooked up to hand it over. The stunt was intended to be a slow burner, filtering out through social media that evening before hitting flash point the next morning in the papers when journalists (they hoped) picked it up. It was a gamble though: for the gesture to work they couldn't be seen to promote themselves. They needed other people to push the uptake, give it traction on the social networks.

  Jaret's former fiancée marched onto the ward just as the cheque was changing hands with a small army of reporters in tow and blew the whole thing wide open.

  Her support of charitable causes was well known. Even before Jaret stepped onto the political stage she'd been a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the realm of children's medicine, which aligned so closely with her work. By not only tipping the press off, but placing herself there as well, she gave Jaret's actions a legitimacy they'd never have carried on their own. One that brought his policies alive in the hearts and minds of voters across the city state.

  Much of course was made of their reconciliation, with that tearful shot making every news show that night as well as being plastered over the NTime's front page the following morning.

  By the next evening Neppon had a dashing new young Mayor, and Jay had a second chance at happiness.

  Over the coming months the city hung on their every word, before Jaret finally popped the question (Elliot remembered the occasionally explosive arguments between him and Wilson over the timing of that particular 'date' with a wry smile. They had been one of the few instances of the two men going at it head to head).

  The happy couple married the following spring, surrounded by the kind of impromptu street celebrations the city hadn't seen since its founding days.

  Whenever Elliot looked back on those early days, it was always with a slight sense of bewilderment. That, and deep misgivings over the second, hidden layer of events that had accompanied the public fairytale. It was this that Jaret feared coming to light, and rightly so. If it did it could be the end of him, nobody this side of the Gulf would even touch him. Regardless of whether or not he had done a deal, he'd had contact with one of the Infernal. In many people's mind that would be enough to damn him.

  So Elliot did the only thing he could do: he made preparations, and he prayed.