“The United States Congress passed a bill removing automatic voting eligibility,” explained the Director as she sat on the checkout counter of the clothing store.  “Voting was no longer an inalienable right of all citizens, it was something that had to be obtained.” 

“You’re joking!” Leva exclaimed, astonished to hear of such a development. 

“Believe me, it was a controversial move,” the Director said, holding up a hand to stymie her incredulity.  “That’s not the point.  The point is that it was going to go into effect in the upcoming election.  Anybody who had not applied for and obtained their voting access would not be allowed to vote and turned away.  Big hoopla.”  Director Masrabi looked over at Colonel Garret who had stopped window shopping and was now simply listening.  “Remember this?” 

“A lot’s happened since then, but yes,” Garret nodded. 

“I took the test,” said the Director.  “I was living in Colorado at the time and Colorado passed a state law opening up the application to anybody who would be eighteen on Election Day.  So I took it when I was still seventeen.” 

“But yeah,” she recalled to Leva.  “Everybody was mad about it.  So a few Senators, they put together this Hail Mary bill to tally the ‘legal votes’ and the ‘authorized votes’.  Basically, everybody could still vote, but we’d see how the votes fell out, see if they were representative of the nation, all that jazz.  Craziness.  You know how politics is.  But it was a punt, just to…to get us passed the election so we could keep fighting and trying to figure it all out, you know?” 

Masrabi made a noncommittal shrug.  “Senate voted and the House voted on a concurrent bill, because it was already September.”  Masrabi again shrugged.  “Sixty-three senators and one hundred and forty-one House reps voted it down.  Most reps didn’t vote at all, because of the political backlash, I guess.” 

“I’ll bet,” said Leva, standing with her arms crossed, engrossed. 

The Director just nodded a few times.  She finally sighed, then told Leva.  “The day after the vote, every single person who voted against the bill was dead.” 

Leva waited for further details, but when none came, she looked over at Garret.  He was simply watching the exchange, stone-faced.  “Dead…how?  Like…like poisoned or…” 

“Dead, like a whole lot of soldiers from Middlesboro are dead today,” said Garret. 

Leva stiffened and stepped back, her arms uncrossing.  She looked from Garret to Masrabi, then away from the both.  “B-because they, they voted against…”  She closed her eyes, wincing as she tried to process it all.  “What?  Why?!” 

“Because she saw this as an obvious threat, I suppose,” Masrabi said.  “It was after that, Leva Dorm pretty much disappeared from our radar.  Of course that wasn’t hard,” said the Director with a sardonic smile.  “We didn’t have radar for much longer.”