Election Gambit

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. The fluorescent lights of the Capitol basement hummed with an electric intensity that matched Sarah Chen's racing heartbeat. As the lead cybersecurity analyst for the Federal Election Commission, she had seen her share of late nights, but nothing quite like this. The timestamp on her computer screen read 11:47 PM, and the coffee cup beside her keyboard had long since grown cold. "Another anomaly," she whispered to herself, her fingers dancing across the keyboard as she pulled up the latest batch of voter registration data from three swing states. The patterns were subtle, almost imperceptible to the untrained eye, but Sarah's expertise in data analysis made the irregularities stand out like neon signs in the darkness. The door to her office creaked open, and she looked up to see Marcus Williams, her supervisor and longtime mentor, standing in the doorway. His usually pristine appearance was disheveled, his tie loosened and his shirt wrinkled from what had clearly been another eighteen-hour day. "Still here, Sarah?" Marcus asked, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer. "You've been burning the midnight oil for three weeks straight. Maybe it's time to call it a night." Sarah turned her monitor toward him, pointing at the scrolling columns of data. "Marcus, you need to see this. The registration patterns in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are showing statistical impossibilities. Look at these demographic clusters." Marcus stepped closer, squinting at the screen through his wire-rimmed glasses. As a twenty-year veteran of election security, he had developed an instinct for spotting trouble, and the furrow in his brow deepened as he processed what Sarah was showing him.