The man in the hoodie brooded alone in his office, a drab concrete bunker lit only by the flickering screen of the television as he distractedly clicked through the channels. It had come down to one final game, and all the preparations had been made, all the pieces had fallen into place, everything was just as it should be, save one. Motivation. Where was the bulletin board material? Where was the us-versus-them spark he had used the entire season? The Giants were refusing to play ball, and nothing controversial was coming from their interviews. Had the well run dry? On the brink of history, was his single greatest trump going to go missing? Suddenly, his hand hesitated on the remote as the senator from Pennsylvania began speaking.

The man in the hoodie smiled.