much money on makeup or fast food or video rentals in a year’s time
than we do on feeding starving children in third world countries in a
decade. We could wipe out a dozen serious childhood diseases in
undeveloped countries around the world with less money than we spend on
Beanie Babies.”
“You’re naive, Faith. You and Buchanan are probably just filling the
lining of some dictator’s pockets.”
“No! That’s an easy excuse, and one that I’m so sick of. The money we
do manage to get goes directly to legitimate humanitarian relief
organizations, and never to the government directly. I’ve personally
seen enough health ministers in African countries wearing Armani and
driving a Mercedes while babies starve at their feet.”
“And there aren’t starving children in this country?”
“They get a lot of aid, and rightfully so. All I’m saying is that
Danny and I had our agenda, and ours involved the foreign poor. Human
beings are dying, Lee, by the millions. Children all over the world
are perishing for no reason other than neglect. Every day, every hour,
every minute.”
“And do you really expect me to believe you two did this out of the
goodness of your hearts?” He looked around the house. “This isn’t
exactly a soup kitchen, Faith.”
“The first five years I worked with Danny I did my job, represented the
big clients and I made a lot of money. A lot of money. I’ll be the
first to admit I’m one materialistic hardass. I like the money, and I
loved what the money could buy.”
“And then what happened? You found God?”
“No, he found me.” Lee looked bewildered, and Faith quickly continued.
“Danny had begun lobbying on behalf of the foreign poor. He was
getting nowhere. No one cared, he kept telling me. The other partners
at our firm were getting tired of Danny’s charitable endeavors. They
wanted to represent IBM and Philip Morris, not Sudan’s starving masses.
Danny came to my office one day, said he was forming his own firm and
wanted me to go with him. We weren’t taking any clients, but Danny
told me not to worry, that he’d take care of me.”
Lee appeared mollified. “That much I can believe: You didn’t know he
was bribing people, or at least planning to.”
“Of course I knew about it! He told me everything. He wanted me to go
into this with eyes wide open. That’s how he is. He’s not some
crook.”
“Faith, do you know what you’re saying? You went along, even though
you knew you’d be breaking the law?”
She fixed a cold gaze upon him. “If I could fix it so that cigarette
companies could keep selling cancer on a stick to anybody with a fresh
set of lungs and gun manufacturers could roll out machine guns to
anyone with a heartbeat, I guess I felt nothing was beneath me. And
the goal here was something I could actually be proud of.”
“Materialistic hardass goes soft?” Lee said with contempt.
“It’s been known to happen,” she shot back.
“How did you two work it?” Lee said in a baiting tone.
“I was Mister Outside, working all the people we didn’t have in our
back pocket. I was also good at getting celebrities to appear at some
events, even travel to some of the countries. Photo ops,
meet-and-greets with members.” She sipped her wine. “Danny was Mister
Inside. He worked all the people on the take while I pushed from the
outside.”
“And you kept this up for ten years?”
Faith nodded. “About a year ago Danny started running out of money. A
lot of our lobbying expenses he paid out of his own pocket. It wasn’t
like our clients could afford to pay us anything. And he had to invest
a lot of his own money into these ‘trust’ funds, as he called them, for
the members we were bribing. Danny took that part very seriously. He
was their trustee. Every cent he promised would be there.”
“Honor among thieves.”
Faith ignored the barb. “That’s when he told me to concentrate on
paying clients while he carried the torch on the other matters. I
offered to sell my house, and this house, to help raise money. He