Two in the morning. The prefab office.
Karen Miller had left.
Ethan Hawke had left.
The body double and the body language expert had also left.
Now, Leo was the only one left in the entire campaign headquarters.
He was still sitting behind the lectern in the mock studio. His shirt, once soaked with sweat, had dried, clinging stickily to his back.
Piled before him were the data cards Ethan had organized.
Pittsburgh's fiscal deficit curve.
Allegheny County's crime rate statistics.
Pennsylvania's legal statutes on the issuance of municipal bonds.
These dry numbers and statutes buzzed around his mind like a swarm of flies, battering his nerves.
Leo felt an unprecedented sense of exhaustion.
It was an exhaustion that was not just physical, but mental.
Karen and Ethan were trying to turn him into a precision debating machine.
They demanded he recall data in half a second, achieve perfect facial control in two, and make every gesture as precise as a scalpel.
