Chapter 496 - 231: Wailing Wall
He walked out the doors of the White House West Wing.
The Washington sun was blinding, and Murphy instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes.
He felt as if he had just surfaced from a deep-sea dive. His ears were still ringing, his brain was starved for oxygen, and he was unsteady on his feet.
He glanced back at the white building.
Just moments ago, he and Leo Wallace had pulled off an act of political blackmail, right in front of the White House Chief of Staff.
And they had succeeded.
The image of Sterling’s ashen face and his final, hissed words, "We will reassess the situation," were still seared into his mind.
’This feels like some kind of absurd dream.’
"Leo."
Murphy’s voice traveled over the phone to Pittsburgh.
"Did we... really do it?" Murphy’s voice was faint, almost adrift.
"We did."
There wasn’t a trace of excitement in Leo’s voice.
"They’re scared."
"They’re scared of losing the White House, scared of losing to the Republican Party. Most importantly, they’re scared because we can actually follow through on our threat."
Murphy took a deep breath, the exhilarating rush of having survived an ordeal finally washing over him.
But then, another question surfaced in his mind.
"Since we already had a knife to their throats, since Stern has already caved..."
Murphy lowered his voice.
"Why didn’t we take it further?"
"We could have asked for more. We could have demanded the President issue a direct order for the Department of Justice to drop all charges against Luigi. We could have even gotten the President to use his power to pardon."
"If we’d done that, Luigi would be completely free, and that damned trial wouldn’t have to happen."
"We have the leverage now, don’t we?"
Leo replied, "John, you still don’t see who our opponent is."
"You think our enemy is the White House? The Department of Justice? The bureaucrats sitting in their offices?"
"Wrong."
"Our enemies are the insurance companies."
"The healthcare giants."
"The behemoths that control a tenth of this country’s GDP."
"The White House compromised because they’re afraid of losing the election. That’s a political calculation."
"But the insurance companies aren’t afraid of elections. They’re only afraid of losing profits."
"If we had forced the President to pardon Luigi just now, what would that have meant?"
"It would have meant the government openly siding with a murderer, challenging the existing legal order and the rules of business."
"What do you think those insurance giants would do?"
Leo gave a cold laugh.
"They would immediately band together and use all their resources, all their money, and all their media power to launch an all-out war against the White House."
"They’d pull all their political donations. They’d have their TV stations broadcast footage of Luigi’s crime 24/7. They would paint the President as a madman who supports terrorism."
"Faced with that level of backlash, do you think Stern would still compromise?"
From Pittsburgh, Leo shook his head.
"He would turn on us in a heartbeat. He’d rather lose Pennsylvania than his core base."
"You can’t take on too many opponents at once, John."
"Our threat was effective because we kept the scope of our attack precisely contained."
"We only targeted the party and those bureaucrats."
"We didn’t touch that most sensitive red line."
"If we had tried to use political means to forcefully erase a business-motivated murder, that would be declaring war on the entire capitalist system."
"At that point, our threat would become useless. Because when faced with an existential crisis, capitalists will be ten thousand times more ruthless than we are."
"You have to understand, in this country, the wrath of Wall Street can sometimes be more terrifying than the White House’s nuclear button."
Leo paused.
"Presidents can be replaced, congressmen can be elected, but the logic of capital is eternal."
"Right now, we can’t afford an all-out war with them. Just being able to contend with the health insurance industry is the absolute limit of what we can do."
"So... the trial still has to go on?" Murphy asked. "Luigi still has to sit in the defendant’s chair?"
"It must."
Leo’s reply was decisive.
"Not only must it go on, we have to make it bigger."
"I’m going to turn this trial into a reality show broadcast live across the nation."
"I want Luigi to stand up there, in front of the whole world, and strip those insurance companies bare."
"Only in a court of law, under the weight of an irrefutable moral judgment, can we truly defeat those giants."
"A pardon can only save one person."
"But a trial can save millions."
"And besides, I already have a complete plan."
...
「Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Philadelphia Circuit Court.」
The stately building was now engulfed by a cacophony of noise.
At seven in the morning, the sky was a repressive, grayish-blue.
A damp wind blew in from the Delaware River, sweeping across the plaza in front of the courthouse.
There was no longer any room to stand.
A dense forest of satellite antennas from broadcast vans pointed at the sky. Thick black cables snaked across the ground, connecting generators to expensive camera equipment.
The logos of every major American media outlet were everywhere.
Reporters clutched cups of coffee, adjusting their microphones for the camera in the cold wind.
This was the opening of what was being hailed as the "trial of the century."
In the defendant’s chair sat Luigi Randall, the assassin who had killed an insurance company CEO.
Although the plaintiff’s side was officially represented by District Attorney Eric Hart, everyone knew he was merely a proxy for the entire United States healthcare insurance system.
This was a case about murder, but it was also a case about the system.