Author Description

Everyone knows Kingsley Ernest Krock is going to be the presidential nominee of the Constitutional Order Patriots Party (COPP) for the third time. He won the first election eight years ago but lost his bid for a second term. He insists the second election was stolen from him and now evaluates loyalty by how ardently party members echo that opinion. With the help of rightwing media echoing his falsehoods 24/7, Krock has an iron grip on the COPP. He campaigns on an apocalyptic distortion of social and economic conditions and promises to purge the nation of internal enemies, meaning all who oppose him. A few moderately minded resisters remain in the COPP, particularly in Utah, headquarters of the Deseret Church of Jesus Christ of End Times Believers. The church's secretive ruling council, keen to counter the influence of Christian extremists who regard their church as a cult, recruits two wealthy members to oversee an intelligence-gathering operation at the party's nominating convention in Milwaukee. They, in turn, recruit a former church member and ex-CIA counter terrorism vet to run the op. He puts in place an AI-assisted intel system that, in the end, helps him document the bizarre sequence of calamitous events that spurs Krock to come up with a way to raise money he sorely needs and induce the media to make his Veepstakes, for a brief season, the word's most loathed and most followed daily news.