Day 237 – Writing Exercise

…

While I loved the idea of pulling off the impossible, something I had managed with pure blind luck three out of five times in the past, the latest invitation, printed in Gothic lettering on a parchment card with gold trimmings, arrived via a secure link on my notepad computer at 3.33am.

“Table 7. Seven subjects. Zero truth. Secure the Accord. 7 pm today.”

Just because I took a job that mediated compulsive liars, pathological diplomats, and corporate executives that couldn’t spell ‘ethics’, the employers asked me back again.

And again.

And then today, in a private back room in The Brass Lantern. 7 pm. Seven compulsive liars, seven people chosen to tell me exactly what I wanted to hear, seven subjects that were going to promise the impossible. They all wanted the contract, to sign that Accord.

None of them realised the most untrustworthy person in that room was me.

…

Each of the seven were already at the table, having left the one chair at the top of the table for me. I did not bring anything other than a dummy folder with blank paper in it, and a single piece of paper, the Accord. Each of the seven watched me pull the eighth chair, look at it, then remain standing.

It was a reflex thing, an instant decision based on the nervous twitch on the fellow at the end of the table.

My mouth was dry, my heart beating faster, as I looked at each one in turn;

To my left was Dr Aris Thorne, a disgraced geneticist whose hands shook; whether it was too much caffeine or the rumoured Parkinson’s was debatable; he had promised once that he could cure cancer in a month, given the resources. He had the lab and the knowledge to do good rather than manufacture street-grade drugs for the cartel.

Next to him was Mara, a neon-haired syndicate courier who bragged that she could smuggle a blue whale across the Sahara in a briefcase; albeit under the influence of several snorts of cocaine. She had a worldwide distribution network second to none.

Beside her was an ex-politician, Louis Betmead, defending indecency charges, who leapt from the fire into the corporate world. He still held a lot of sway with his former colleagues.

Next was Andrea Wills, computer programmer selling rogue code on the dark web, and lately an AI Ethicist reportedly worshipping silicon gods. Or the other way around, no one was quite sure. She could create the program that could make or break the system.

On the other side of the table, making me nervous, was an arms dealer, Francisco Antonelli, who reputedly had a heart of gold, or that was what he told everyone who would listen. He transacted all of his deals in gold bullion. His soldiers could enforce peace rather than create havoc.

Next to him was Simone, one name only, a mystic selling enlightenment in half-gram doses to a never-ending supply of fools. She had a sales network more sophisticated than any legitimate business.

And, last but not least, Dan the journalist, a man who had seen more action in war zones than any soldier alive, and had told me once he had not slept since the Berlin Wall fell. I believed him. He looked as though he had taken some of Simone’s enlightenment. He could write the story that saved the world rather than report on it burning down.

They were all an unwitting link in a chain we needed to make the Accord happen.

I had met each and every one of them once or twice over the past seven years, memories I wanted to forget.

“We were just talking about you,” Dr Thorne said when my eyes came back to him. “We all agreed. You are the only one with the vision to see the big picture. Whatever you need from me, it’s yours.”

“I can write an expose that will bring down the Domino cartel by morning,” the journalist said. It was clear he was as high as the proverbial kite.

I had no doubt every single one of them was reading my micro expressions, practised for hours in front of a mirror, tailoring their pitch to offer me the moon on a silver platter.

The thing is, each and every one of them was connected in a way that could give me the global ceasefire, but I could not ask them for it because they would offer me a utopia they couldn’t deliver.

I didn’t sit down; I pulled out a cigarette lighter and set fire to the dummy file and held it until the fire caught, then dropped it into the rubbish bin behind me.

The table went dead silent; the smiles froze.

“What are you doing?” The politician was the first out of his torpor.

“I’m burning the agenda,” I said, mt voice flat and cold, and entirely devoid of hope. “Which is good because I hate all of you. Every single one of you is a fraud, a hack, or a liability. Thorne, your genome therapy is a parlour trick; Mara, you couldn’t smuggle a cold in a blizzard; and Dan, your article will be pulped before it hits the printing presses.

I looked back at the last flames consuming the paper before dying down to embers.

“I don’t want your promises; I don’t want your lies. I want you to look at the ashes of that agenda and then tell me the one thing you are incapable of doing, because if you offer me the impossible, I’m walking out that door, and letting the whole world burn with it.”

For five agonising seconds I could see each one of them re-evaluating their position. I’m sure their bosses said to promise the world, but not what they could really do unless pushed to the absolute limit.

The doctor muttered, “I can’t guarantee the lab won’t explode or let loose a pandemic virus.”

Mara: “My couriers are compromised.” She crossed her arms defensively, dropping the smooth-talking persona. “Half of them are working for Interpol, and the other half I can’t trust as far as I could kick them.”

“My editors are cowards,” the journalist muttered, staring at his hands. “They’ll kill the story the moment the advertisers call to boycott them if it’s published.”

One by one, the impossible promises were rescinded, replaced with an ugly, fragile truth: the fact that they all relied on the others, without actually saying it out loud. They confessed their weaknesses, their failures, the logistical nightmares, and their limitations. Just not their dependence.

When the last member’s voice stopped, the room felt light. No one was trying to outdo the others.

It was a start.

I pulled that single sheet of paper out of my pocket, a bare-bones, brutally realistic draft of an Accord that factored in human error, market corruption, and political cowardice.

I held it up. “Good. Now we’ve established what we can’t do; let’s sign the only thing we can do.”

Each one wrote what they could do, then signed.

Thorne promised to create the antidote to reverse the effect of the pandemic he had unwittingly caused

Wills would lend her AI farm to help create a lasting antidote, and digitise the sales and distribution channels

Simone would lend her sales network as the top level of the distribution chain

Mara would repurpose her couriers to link with Simone’s sales network, and distribute the product

Antonelli would lend his army of mercenaries to protect everyone involved in manufacture and distribution

Bitmead would get his political colleagues to create the necessary legislation to make it legal, and use diplomatic channels to get the rest of the world onside.

Dan would not write about the world burning down, but to inform the world that a solution will be found and distributed as soon as possible.

Each one had a vital part in the Accord. Each one depended on the other.

Each one needed to show that they were cooperating because if there had been no Accord, they would have been arrested and thrown into a dark hole. They just didn’t know that was the last resort, though I knew at least three of them were at the top of a ‘most wanted’ list. It may have been hinted to them that signing the Accord was an incentive to have their names moved down quite a few places.

Whatever the motivation, it was a start.

Whether it lasted, whether I would have to step back into this room and start again, that remained to be seen. And if they did cooperate and work for the betterment of mankind rather than line their own pockets – and that was a big if – no one would be more surprised than me.

But…

I did what they wanted. One piece of paper, seven signatures. A signed Accord. And finally, hope.

…

©  Charles Heath  2026