Congratulations, Jorick. I really enjoy the lived-in feel your dialogue lends to what is a fictional-but-real-feeling political landscape. Very ripped-from-the-headlines kind of stuff. RutulianJoe, Slade, thank you for your votes. Brovo, thank you for your analysis. I agree on all points. An interesting note: when I started this month's story, my home was not underwater. As you can probably guess, this is no longer the case. Thanks, Sandy!

Seriously, though, it was a nice distraction from the mess here on the east coast. Thanks for reading.