FOR THOSE OF YOU kind enough to read JK’s Code, please keep in mind that this novel is pure fiction—meant to entertain, and to poke a little fun at our representatives in Washington, D.C. at the same time. Think Saturday Night Live and not the op-ed section of your favorite newspaper.

I’m a thriller novelist, and a courtroom trial lawyer, not a political scientist. I try to write timely and tense mysteries and suspense novels, with a bit of biting satire and humor thrown in. Timely means what is going on in the world around us today. Tense means readers will want to read just one more chapter before turning out their reading light, but maybe not their night light.

Can I lace tension with a modicum of humor—often at my own expense? I believe so.

Can I call upon my roots as a trial lawyer and as a political junkie following those who think they are running our country—without taking myself, or them, too seriously? At least not as seriously as our political “leaders” take themselves? I think I can. At least I try. Some go so far as to recognize that I am trying. Very trying.

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It had been years since he had used the code he’d devised to impress his older sister and that she’d christened after his own nickname—JK. He wondered whether she would still remember JK’s Code, and how it worked.

The first email had read:

DEAR SIS!
HOPE YOU’RE WELL. WE NEED TO CATCH UP.
HUGS,
JAKE

The second email had read:

BUKAR ABCIM U-

He had been forced to split the message in two parts. As it was, he hadn’t had time to finish the second email.

On its face, the beginning of the first email was perfectly innocent. His captors would not know it had a double meaning. He could only hope Leah would, and would apply JK’s Code to translate DEAR SIS! into DIRE SOS! To tell her that he was in trouble—serious trouble. Signing it with his formal name rather than his favored nickname was intended to signal something was amiss.

Jake hated having to send the two emails to her, having to be dependent on anyone, especially on his sister, who still treated him like he was a child instead of a twenty-year-old man. The last time he and Leah had spoken—three months earlier—he lost his temper and essentially told her to leave him alone. He didn’t think he needed anyone’s help. He was wrong.

And he was scared.

April 14, 2020, Three Days Later

FRANKLIN KELSEY WAS ONE of the country’s wealthiest arch conservatives. He supported any number of right-wing causes and organizations, both directly and as the founder of the companion Red Crier Magazine and Red Crier Online. He was one of President Baker’s five largest donors. Without any byline, the following identical “news” bulletin copy appeared in the April 14, 2020, weekly and daily issues of Red Crier Magazine and Red Crier Online:

IN AN EXCLUSIVE FROM AN ANONYMOUS SOURCE NOT AUTHORIZED TO SPEAK BECAUSE OF THE SENSITIVITY OF THE MATTER, IT WAS CONFIRMED TO RED CRIER TODAY THAT JAKE KLEIN, AN ACCOMPLISHED COMPUTER SCIENCES MAJOR AT SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY, HAS REPORTEDLY DEVELOPED SOPHISTICATED SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY THAT HE PLANS TO USE TO ALTER THE UPCOMING NOVEMBER ELECTION RESULTS IN FAVOR OF SEVERAL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, INCLUDING LOGAN SULLIVAN, EXPECTED TO SOON LOCK UP ENOUGH PRIMARY DELEGATES TO BECOME THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT. ONE OF KLEIN’S PROFESSORS AT SCSU, MATTHEW CARTER, WHO HAS CLOSELY MENTORED KLEIN AND IS KNOWN TO BE A LEADING PROGRESSIVE MEMBER OF SCSU, TOLD RED CRIER THAT KLEIN, WHOSE COMMAND OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY IS UNPARALLELED, IS SOMEWHAT OF A LONER, BUT HAS SHARED WITH CARTER HIS STRONG OPPOSITION TO THE REELECTION OF PRESIDENT BAKER. “IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT HE WOULD DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS,” CARTER SAID. THE OFFICE OF STUDENT AFFAIRS AT THE UNIVERSITY SAID THAT THE PRIVACY RIGHTS OF ITS STUDENTS PRECLUDE IT FROM COMMENTING ON A STORY LIKE THIS. KLEIN HIMSELF HAS REFUSED TO COMMENT.

The wire services declined to carry the unsubstantiated news bulletin. However, the story was trending on Twitter and Facebook, and comments were running two to one against Klein. Some of the comments against him were quite inflammatory, but were not removed by either of the social media platforms. Facebook explained that in the absence of clear and immediate threats of bodily injury, the right of free speech of all members must be respected.

When asked about the story in his press conference this afternoon, President Baker said, and shortly thereafter repeated on his Twitter account, “I know all about this guy. It’ll take a lot more than Jerky Jake to stop me from being reelected, but that doesn’t lessen the seriousness of his treacherous and treasonous conduct. Nothing is more important than the right of our citizens to know that the elections of our public officials are carried out with integrity and without fraudulent and undue influence.”