Respected in his community of Paris, Texas as a faith leader, Jim Balmer had first decided to run for office out of a desire to ensure that Christian family values continued to be represented in his community on the local town council. Running on a platform of 'Faith and Family First', Jim comfortably won election to the town council and during his tenure played a leadership role in getting various laws passed, his proudest being the law that barred girls at school from wearing skirts that ended above the knee. His work got the attention of state party officials, who approached him with the idea of running as a primary opponent against a member of the state senate who was considered to be not conservative enough. Jim declined the offer, saying that he had his hands full with his council work, raising his family and running his ministry.

Jim genuinely had no ambitions of a political career, that is until he arrived at his office one morning and found an unmarked envelope on his desk. Inside the envelope was a DVD and directions to a meeting place. Jim locked the door to his office and inserted the DVD into his computer. There was one file on the DVD, a video recording of Jim having sex with his family's maid Consuela in the basement of their home. The recording, were it ever to come out, would mean the end of everything for Jim. In addition to being unapologetically pro-faith and family, illegal immigration had become a key issue for him. He knew that he was being blackmailed and he didn't care. Whatever the person that had sent him the video wanted he was just going to give it to them and put the whole episode behind him, he had come too far to have all that he had worked for to be taken away from him because of a careless indiscretion. Granted, he and Consuela had been sleeping together for five years and in all of that time he had been secretly garnishing her wages, but he had always felt guilty about it and had, from the first time it had happened, wanted to put a stop to it, he just couldn't bring himself to do it because the truth was that he had fallen in love with the woman. She embodied more fully the family values that he preached about with her willingness to do whatever she had to do for her family than his materialistic wife and children did. And her body was nothing but curves. And the sex was amazing. Paying Consuela for sex wasn't something that they had agreed on. Consuela told him about how she worked three jobs to support her four children and Jim felt so bad for her that he felt compelled to help her so that she could spend more time with her children. Consuela was so grateful to Jim that the next time they were alone in the house together she snuck up behind him and put her hand down the front of his pants, and thus their affair had begun.

Jim removed the DVD from his PC and immediately got in his car and set off for the meeting place that was in the letter. The location was an empty parking lot behind a storage facility downtown. When he arrived and saw nobody there, Jim thought that somebody was playing him for a fool. He stood around in the parking lot waiting, completely alone except for a black bird that was perched on a dumpster and staring at him curiously. As he waited he grew more and more agitated by the bird staring at him until he couldn't take it anymore.

"What are you staring at?" He marched over to the bird and asked irrationally.

"Why you of course."

Jim fell to the floor upon hearing words exiting the birds beak. A black bird that could talk could talk could only be the work of the devil, sent to him as punishment for his affair with Consuela.

"What the hell are you?"

"I am an agent of change Mr Balmer, and I am here to present you with an opportunity."

"I have no interest in making a deal with the devil."

"I can assure you Mr Balmer I am not quite as connected as that. I've come here to discuss a small political matter, that is all."

"What interest do you have in political matters?"

"All in due time Mr Balmer. For now I have come simply to give you a message: You are to run in the primary election for the state senate seat, and if you do your indiscretion with your housekeeper won't become public knowledge."

"This is blackmail!"

"Yes, but as you'll soon find Mr Balmer, in pursuit of my goals there are no tools that I am not prepared to utilize."