A New Day, Part 3

Kuro was carefully cleaning his assault rifle. He had neglected proper maintenance since the Rhodes incident, but now that Alice was running around, he felt it was prudent to make sure it was in proper working order.

Kuro’s rifle was an experimental model known as the Type Zero. As far as he knew, it was the only one in existence. How he got it was a long story, but it was his most prized possession.

It was a beautiful gun, although it had certainly seen better days. Matte black, but roughed up, it gave off an aura of danger that couldn’t be matched by the mass produced off the shelf stuff. It even came with a scope which Kuro had put to good use many times in the past.

Once he finally finished, he carefully placed it down on his desk as he looked out the window and up at the moon.

He could only pray that Alice would quickly exit his life without incident.

***

“To put it bluntly, the election was rigged,” Roberta said, her face serious.

“What?” Alice was taken aback by the directness.

“Believe me or don’t, but it’s the truth.” Roberta weakly threw up her hands.

“If that’s true then how did they rig the election? And why haven’t you said anything?”

“The voting machines.” Roberta pulled out her phone filled with notes. “This was the first election where electronic voting was used, so Columbia purchased the latest voting machines from a company called Poulos Systems.” She brought up a picture of one of the voting machines in question, the JS-1.

“But electronic voting is used all over Academia. Where’s your proof that these ones were tampered with?”

“The JS-1 was produced right before the election and was discontinued right afterwards, being replaced with the JS-2. In fact, Poulos Systems did something incredibly abnormal, a buyback of Columbia’s already purchased and used JS-1 machines without any official declaration of abnormalities.”

“Well, that is suspicious, but…”

“And!” Roberta pointed upwards to emphasize her point. “Director Davison just recently became a large shareholder in Poulos Systems.”

While awfully suspect, Alice couldn’t officially accept this as any more than a string of coincidences. Especially since…

“If you really were cheated,” Alice began, “then why didn’t you contest the election? Surely you could have demanded some kind of investigation, right?”

“I thought about it, but by the time the puzzle pieces started falling together for me, it was already too late. And if I didn’t concede without a rock solid reason, I would’ve looked like a sore loser at best and a lunatic at worst. I thought it’d be better to just forget about it and use my clout to fight for change from outside the system rather than to tarnish my reputation in a hopeless pursuit.” Roberta took a few steps away. “Not to mention, if word got out that the elections are being rigged…then people would start losing faith in the system itself, and if people don’t have faith in the system then they start to lose their own agency.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do I put it…” Roberta scratched her head. “The founding principle of Columbia is freedom and choice. The average student doesn’t have any control over how their school is run, but they have a choice on who will make those decisions. Even if an individual’s control is ultimately quite limited, it feels like they have a real hand in the decisions.”

“But is it really right for them to believe in what’s become a lie?”

“Maybe, but I truly do believe in Columbia and the desire to give students more freedom and power within their own school. If the students of Columbia no longer feel free, then they might forget that promise entirely and settle for a system like Zhongguo’s where there aren’t any elections at all. Perhaps that’s better in some ways, but it certainly wouldn’t be Columbia anymore.”

“I see…”

“Well, anyway. Now that you’re here, things are different, right? As long as we can stop the Board Security Force from being established then everything will be fine.”

Alice’s gaze fell. She had gone down this road, but what should she really do? Stopping the constitutional crisis was her goal, but could she really let such an injustice stand? Even if the one wronged didn’t seem to mind? Of course, this was assuming there really was election fraud, how much time could she potentially waste if made that decision?

Plus, she still had Kuro to worry about.

Solemnly, Alice raised her head. “Thank you for your time, Roberta. This really is a difficult situation…” In a flash, her demeanor shifted, her face now completely shedding the seriousness and becoming cutesy. “So how about I get back to you tomorrow?”

“Ah.” Roberta looked disappointed. “Well, it can’t be helped.” She adjusted her hood, preparing to disappear into the night. As she was leaving, she looked over her shoulder one last time. “Just so you know, we’re planning our biggest protest yet for tomorrow. Thousands of students are gathering at the Central Building.”

“Thousands?” Alice gasped. That was practically a small army.

“Yeah.” Roberta looked forward and started walking away. “See you around…”

***

It was late at night, but Director Davison’s office, which overlooked the glimmering lights of the academy, was illuminated by the soft glow of a fancy lamp.

“There’s going to be a massive protest tomorrow,” Felicia said, her hand on the window.

“So I’ve heard.” Davison leaned back in his chair nonchalantly.

Tightening her fist, Felicia whipped around. “Aren’t you worried about that?”

Davison crossed his legs. “Why are you so concerned about a few protests?”

“It’s more than just a few protests at this point!” Felicia yelled, stepping closer. “Have you forgotten about that IIC teacher too? What we’re doing is legally dubious at best, and the students are not letting that go! What are we supposed to do if they decide to take things even farther!?”

Davison laughed. “That teacher may still be a problem, but the students? Haven’t you realized yet that allowing them to go too far is the plan?”

“What?” Felicia said, her mouth remaining agape.

“You really are so simple sometimes, Felicia.” Davison sat up straight. “The more vitriolic these protests get, the more likely it is that they lash out violently, and once that happens, we have all the justification we need to crackdown.”

Felicia gulped. “Was that really your plan this whole time?”

“Of course. But unfortunately Roberta has done a better than expected job at keeping her dogs leashed.” Davison put his fingertips together. “I believe we’re overdue to give them a little push.”