The Tree of Knowledge by Daniel Miller (room on the broom read aloud .txt) 📕

mother. By the age of seventeen, she was a major force in the movement, leading the development and mass adoption of the ‘Red Army.’ Under her leadership, the organization built schools in every major state in the country and raised an annual budget of nearly five billion dollars—exceeding that of the United Way and Salvation Army. The organization is particularly prominent in California, with over one hundred schools.”

“Ahhhh, your girlfriend is a philanthropist,” said Ying, elbowing Albert in the ribs.

Albert simply shook his head and maintained his focus on Gabe.

“Her success in RED led her to leave Princeton prior to finishing her doctoral program to begin an apprenticeship with her mother at Fix Industries. Under Cristina Culebra’s leadership, growth at Fix Industries has exploded. At the time of Calvin’s death, the company was a sleepy defense contractor, but now Fix Industries makes everything from advanced weapons systems to artificial intelligence, to paper plates and is worth over one hundred billion dollars, making Culebra the richest woman in the world.”

Gabe changed the slide to a picture of Cristina Culebra smiling and shaking hands in a rope line overflowing with fans.

“With her wealth and position atop the business elite secured, Ms. Culebra has now turned her attention to politics. Under the newly created RED Party, she has successfully launched a campaign for governor of California and currently leads in all polls by over twenty points. I’ve included a list of links to her speeches on page five of your packet. She’s really quite impressive.”

“I told you that Cristina Culebra was good,” said Ying, pointing at Professor Turner.

“I never said she wasn’t impressive, Ms. Koh, I said she was dangerous.”

Ignoring the interruption, Gabe continued, showing clippings of headlines concerning Eva. “During this period, Eva has continued to work at the company and lead the Red Army. She has held several roles within Fix Industries over the last ten years. Currently, she is the company’s chief security officer, handling all security issues, ranging from industrial espionage to proprietary government contracting. However, it is widely assumed that this is merely a holding position for her while she is groomed to take over for Ms. Culebra.”

Gabe paused and pointed. “Ariel, I think you would be best suited to go over her psychological profile.”

The wiry blonde woman rose from her chair and calmly took command of the presentation, flipping the slides to a close-up shot of Eva in a full suit wearing her trademark fedora.

God, she’s stunning, thought Albert.

“Eva’s psychological profile states that she is of a very specific personality type commonly known as ‘generals.’ Generals like Ms. Fix consistently focus on the most efficient and organized means of performing a task in everything they do. She is a superior leader who is both realistic and visionary in implementing a long-term plan. She tends to be fiercely independent in her decision-making, which has often created clashes with her mother, who is also a general. Eva analyzes and always structures the world around her in a logical and rational way, which makes it difficult for her to consider subjective or emotional influences. This can result in questionable moral judgments and actions.”

“Like framing her friends?” said Albert.

Ariel smiled. “Exactly. To that point, Eva Fix is widely thought of as an extremely dynamic problem solver with an abnormally high degree of confidence in her own abilities. This is both a strength and a weakness. Throughout her career, she has consistently shown an arrogant impatience that has led to mistakes. Her errors in robbing the bank were a classic example. The force of her personality exacerbates this problem because she can so easily cow others into doing what she wants, whether or not it is the right course of action.

“In both her business and charitable activities, Eva has been hugely successful and receives unquestioning devotion and respect from her employees and volunteers. However, she is almost universally seen as unsympathetic and intolerant of failure. She leads through a combination of fear and devotion, but not intimacy. As a result, her personal life is essentially nonexistent. She has no real friends and has not had any discernible romantic relationship since . . . well . . . you, Puddles.”

Albert felt the familiar flush in his face. She had been fourteen. He’d been friendly to a lonely kid, that was all.

Gabe resumed the presentation. “Now we get to the scary stuff. In her post as chief security officer, Eva has used her not-trivial talents to steadily build a deep network of leaders in the defense, law enforcement, and security sectors.”

“This is why I said you guys were in trouble,” said Brick, rising from his chair and tapping the screen.

Gabe continued, “Indeed. Eva Fix commands the fealty of nearly every major military and law enforcement official in California and the US. She is on a first-name basis with the head of the FBI, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, commander of the National Guard, the head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the LA County sheriff, and on down. These relationships are so numerous and cover such a range of influence that multiple independent watchdog groups have investigated for evidence of corruption. To date, no hard evidence has been found, but in talking with folks in the industry, we’ve discovered a widely held belief that there is a steady money stream coming from her office.”

“Jesus,” said Albert. “What does this all mean for us?”

“Big trouble,” said Ying.

“Indeed. In my opinion, in not weeks but days, we will have the full weight of law enforcement bearing down on us.”

Chapter 21

Ying’s heavy eyes scanned the screen of the ancient computer in Albert’s room while she worked her way through one of the Ring Pops that had been part of her peacocking arsenal from earlier that evening. Video after video on YouTube showed friends playing pranks on one another, families celebrating birthdays, lovers kissing. The moments that make life. In one day, those moments had been snatched from her and put on hold. Under