Free Born to Run by John M. Green

you haven’t been involved for…”
    “Whatever. They saw Karim as my man. They see this as my problem. Even if you don’t, I do. You’re telling me that Karim was doing this for years, so it started on my
watch.”
    The chairman smiled into the speakerphone. “It’s over-generous but you’re probably right. And it’ll certainly go a long way to relieving the board in the other
room.”
    “Not the whole way?”
    “The market will still be worrying whether there’s more bad news to come.”
    “Same deal. If there’s anything I should’ve known, I’m good for that too.”
    There was more bad news, but when it broke Isabel could do little about it. The Islamic charity in Chicago that Karim had been syphoning off the funds to was a front for a terrorist enclave.
    Even though no one could seriously put that at Isabel’s feet, it would continue to haunt her campaign.

 
13
    I T TOOK OVER two years for authorities to capture Karim Ahmed and months after that for his trial to start, by this time smack in the middle of
Isabel’s tilt for the presidency. Each day of court proceedings aimed new shots at her campaign, but they were only flesh wounds so far, despite Bobby Foster’s team blowing up every
micro-development into a blunderbuss attack. Then one morning it stopped. The judge threw the case out on a technicality—evidence illegally obtained—and neither side of politics was
happy.
    The Republican presidential campaign was rocked today by a shock decision by Judge William Thomas to terminate the trial of Karim Ahmed, candidate Isabel Diaz’s
     former protégé… The disgraced chief financial officer of BBB Inc., the burger chain once owned by Ms Diaz, always protested his innocence and has now walked free.
    Ahmed had been charged with thirteen counts of financing terrorist groups on United States’ soil, as well as eight counts of corporate fraud.
    While Ahmed’s defence lawyer claims it is a victory for American justice, Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Foster rejects that. From his campaign bus in Wisconsin today, Mr
     Foster said:
    Isabel Diaz’s friend and confidant has walked, but not because he is innocent. That these grave charges were tossed out on a technicality leaves the American people troubled,
     with unanswered questions about Isabel Diaz’s judgment and her fitness to hold office.
    Only five months ago federal agencies ended Ahmed’s two years on the run. Authorities had been on the lookout for the Iraqi immigrant after Ms Diaz’s
     restaurant chain revealed a multi-million-dollar fraud three years ago, only weeks after she sold the entire firm to investors for upwards of $250 million, some of which is funding her
     current presidential campaign as well as her nationwide Triple-B charitable foundation. The original discovery of the fraud sparked an investigation that extended into six states and has so
     far resulted in eight arrests.
    We cross now to…

    ED Loane walked into Isabel’s mid-town Manhattan campaign headquarters, not far from his own office. Isabel and Gregory were hunched over a sheet of paper covered in
scrawled boxes and arrows, the latest adjustments to the campaign strategy, Ed presumed.
    “I just heard… Ahmed’s off the hook. Damn lawyers!” he grunted, glowering at Gregory, knowing he had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School after an
undergraduate politics degree in Australia. “The bullcrap streaming out of Foster’s mouth… And what about the freakin’ judge! That conniving Democrat bastard chose his
timing brilliantly, didn’t he? To inflict maximum damage on you... Here’s how it’ll go: ‘Ahmed’s free to walk the streets, but he’s not innocent… a threat
to all Americans.’ And he’s your man, Isabel. End of story. Damn it.”
    “That’s extreme,” Isabel said. “Judge Thomas doesn’t go for my politics but he’s not going to endanger the country for that. Besides, while I accept Karim
stole the money, I