Evading the Truth

“It all began towards the start of my career. Back then, it was a lot harder to find work and paying the bills was incredibly difficult. Stable employment evaded me for a long time and even when I did find it, it wouldn’t last long, sending me back to the world of freelancing. No matter how much an employer might have praised my talents, offering me a steady job seemed like too big an ask for any of them.

“That all changed with my big break when I was asked to do an article extolling the virtues of a real estate mogul by the name of Lee Adams. I knew of his reputation and didn’t particularly like the man, but I needed the money and knew I was more than up to the challenge. I don’t even know why he asked me to do it; I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just searching for the cheapest writer for hire on the internet and landed on me after seeing that I was adequately qualified.

“After writing the article, I was hired by a variety of people for a myriad of publications to do similar pieces to Adams’ own for reasons not too dissimilar to his. It didn’t surprise me that the rich and powerful often needed their less favorable actions hidden; I was more surprised that I’d be the man asked to do it. This, however, isn’t the thing that I believe made me a prime candidate for Galligher’s game. It is to blame for my reputation on the internet and the people who tried to attack me last night, though.

“You see, my dilemma began last year when I was struck by an issue which is all too common in the field of writing. Despite my success, despite the fact that my bills were paid, and despite the fact that I had provided my family with a better life than I could have imagined, I was dissatisfied with my work. I didn’t enjoy what I wrote. The words which came from my keyboard didn’t feel like they truly belonged to me and I was nearly tempted to quit the profession entirely. When I discussed this with Abel LeMasson, one of the few people I had met over the course of my career that I genuinely considered a friend, he gave me a suggestion: write something different.

“That simple piece of advice nestled itself into the crevices of my brain, refusing to leave until I found something different from my usual dribble worth writing. Then it hit me: I’d investigate someone’s deepest, darkest secrets and expose them to the world under the pretense that I was doing another puff piece. Of course, it would have to be someone whose secrets were worth exposing, someone truly evil and despicable whose power and influence had been used as a shield against any retribution for their crimes. Thankfully, I knew just the person from the events I’d attended since my big break: Mishka Gomez. After securing a publisher for the article who’d be willing to sponsor me (and who knew my plan ahead of time), I was all set.

“The rest, I suppose, is history. The article went to print and the tide of public favor turned against Gomez, finally allowing him to serve some more substantial jail time compared to any previous attempts to put the man behind bars. The major issue I hadn’t foreseen was that the man had influence that couldn’t be stopped by mere prison bars. One day, while I was taking a walk in the hopes that the fresh air might get my creative juices flowing, I couldn’t help but notice men following me. Thinking it was just nerves, I went quickly went home and drank some water, but this became a recurring problem day after day, whether I was alone or with my family.

“Someone was out to get me and wanted me to know that they could strike at any moment. They wanted me to see that they didn’t care if my loved ones were present or not. With a terror in my heart I’d never felt before, I began to formulate a plan. Using the same pretenses as before, I did another investigation of the same kind, this time on someone similarly powerful who I knew had secrets just as bad as Gomez’s. Someone who I knew could protect me and my family in the event Gomez decided to do something.

“I showed up with clear and provable evidence alongside the Pulitzer I’d won from my article on Gomez. My reputation preceded me enough that I was able to make my target cower in the same type of fear which had covered my own heart. He promised he would protect me and my family, even negotiate with Gomez’s people so that they wouldn’t do anything, so long as I didn’t share his information. I got ever so slightly cocky in that moment and added a little extra promise to the deal. I did, after all, have the greater amount of power in that situation. I could have ended the career of the man who stood in front of me. I made him promise that he would cease his illegitimate activities, even knowing that it would render anything I held over him worthless in the end.

“With that deal made, I began to make a habit out of doing similar “research projects,” seeking out those with dealings in the underworld that I could theoretically expose in an article. My agreements with them were much the same: protect my family and cease illegal activities or else I publish my article on them. I also added an extra caveat to each of my additional victims: if they tried to kill me or any of my family members, the article would be set to publish posthumously. If they didn’t agree, then it would also go to print. No matter what, they were in a no-win situation, which meant that most ended up agreeing to my terms. Those who didn’t had their articles published, which kept my career and reputation steady. It certainly didn’t hurt that it kept the others fearful that I could do something to them, too.

“With the agreements in place, I had a great many people keeping Gomez from doing anything too brash. This left him with only one option: at every event, he would be as petty as humanly possible, acting like the high society equivalent of a school bully. I grit my teeth and bore it, no matter how embarrassing things got, simply because I knew that it could be much, much worse.

“Even then, I’m not stupid. Those who kept me safe simply got better at hiding their work. I didn’t bother looking into any of them a second time to make sure that they had, indeed, stopped. In a way, I became complicit in their crimes. That’s what I’ve done; what made me a prime candidate to participate in Gallagher’s game of death.”