Chapter Thirty-One

The phone rang twice before Assange put up his laptop and answered. “Hello?”

“Mr. Assange?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Paula Broadwell.” She let the words sink in.

“Well…to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“To the fact you’re the one guy who can’t get in anymore trouble than you already are.” She waited.

“This line is probably tapped.”

“It doesn’t matter. Anyone listening would know what I know anyways,” said Broadwell. “You got a pen and a few minutes?”

That’s what she said, Assange thought. “Let me check my schedule…yes, I have the time.”

“You need to be aware of some big things going down, and if any of this is considered whistle blower material, please print it as soon as possible.”

“You’re in the media,” Assange replied, “why not take the credit yourself?”

“I’m still military, regardless of what stage,” said Broadwell, “and I’m not trying to become the next Bradley Manning.”

“This won’t be traceable to you?” asked Assange.

“I’ve got links that some careless higher-ups have left open to the public,” Broadwell continued, “but let me sum it up: Karl Rove has been a very bad boy.”

Assange smiled. “Do tell.”

“First, the Benghazi charade all stems back to him. General Petraeus was used by Rove to get the goods on resources in the middle east. Second, the internal struggles going on within the Ecuador government and military are a result of Rove using his influence to force those sympathetic to you out. Third, Rove attempted to use his ORCA network during the election to affect vote tallies on a national scale, but he was thwarted by associates of Anonymous.”

Assange’s smile widened. “Really? I thought my peeps would’ve bragged to me about that one by now.”

“It went unverified until an hour ago,” Broadwell replied, “apparently, they got scared when Rove found out. They put up a firewall around his network on election day. He tried over a hundred times to hack the national voting database, and he would’ve too, but thanks to a handful of do-gooders, the tallies went untainted…at least from Rove’s end. Did you get to see him on election night? He was freaking out. He kept commenting that the election ‘wasn’t over yet.’ FOX News was certainly waiting for him to pull a rabbit out of the hat.”

“A $300 million dollar one at that.” Assange paused, “thanks for the links. Should I assume your relationship with Petraeus is all subterfuge?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out…but keep in mind, I’ll be watched closely from now on, so I doubt I will be able to communicate with you again. Good luck sir, you are an inspiration to the rest of us.” She hung up.

Assange sighed. Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.