"I had a meeting with some people" " and they think I should quit." " And?" " Run for mayor." " Against?" "Are you out of your fucking mind?" " Kane's talking about stepping down." " This is gonna hurt." "Send a set of each to Mrs. Zajac and Alderman Ross." "If you're lucky, he may just let you still run for governor." "Am I still in the race?" "I want names." "Who did you tell?" "Meredith." "The time has come for some fresh blood at the helm." "As long as I kill the story on Kane." "Did you find her yet?" "The nurse?" "Not yet." "We will though, soon." "I can't afford to wait." "Not now." "Was it you who advised the mayor to play hardball like this?" " What deal?" " They offered a 12-hour window to settle the suit out of court." " To whom?" " Kitty." "If you have anything, it's now or never." "My own daughter was found on the wrong side of the law." "My soul is in tatters." "* Satan, your kingdom must come down *" "* Satan, your kingdom must come down *" "* I heard the voice of Jesus Christ *" "* Satan, your kingdom must come down. *" "You tell me." "What would you have done?" "Kitty, Zajac, the council," "Cullen." "I've got no place else to go." "Neither do you." "Everyone knew Zajac was coming after you but you." " I had to find out who else was involved since..." " Since what?" "!" "You were blind." "You lost all control." " Keep talking." " You let things get way out of hand." "If you knew, if you were aware of it all, why didn't you stop it before it became anything?" " The file." " Answer me." "The original leaks." "The dump order!" "I've already told you." "They all came from your father's stash!" "I had nothing to do with it." "The keys to the kingdom..." "I kept them in your hands." "For what?" "Love?" "Sex?" "Respect?" "For your loyalty." "We had a bond, remember, a pact?" "And you broke it." "You betrayed me." "The truth?" "You've never, not once ever" " come close to speaking it to me." " Now's the time, 'cause if we don't, there's nothing left." "I swear I'll tear it all down, all that we have." "Do not question my resolve." "I got in the middle of it because you didn't," " to find out who was after you..." " No!" "The truth!" "You're right." "It's enough." "It's time, for both our sakes." "Are you sick?" "Tom?" "Yes." "What is it?" "You'll know soon enough." "But today it doesn't matter, because today I'm not going anywhere." "By the time this day ends, every person who has plotted against me will feel the force of my wrath." "No one will be left unscathed." "No one." "And you will have to choose where you stand:" "Either you believe I have what it takes to stay where I am or you believe that I'm done..." "And dead." "But know this:" "If you stay with me, it will be up to you to prove your commitment." "Now..." "The truth." "I went to Zajac and offered him my help." "I took him to McGantry for money to run against you." " Anything else?" " I pulled Kitty into it." "But the whole thing was already in play before I got involved." "That's it." "How little there is to say when we finally arrive at it." "When the time comes..." "You will have to show me where you stand." "When?" "Everything happens today." "He has a press conference, then he doesn't." "I don't know." "I'm sure Treasurer Zajac is handling things as he sees fit, but playing footsie with the press shouldn't be what this is all about." "I would ask everyone to focus on the fundamentals." "I've run a campaign that tried to bring real debate to some pressing issues for our state and I look forward to the results tonight." " Thank you, everyone." " Send Mac back!" " Send Mac back!" " Thank you." "Yeah!" " Send Mac back!" "Send Mac back!" " Yeah." " Send Mac back!" " What do we have?" "Still nothing, sir." "He's gone completely quiet." "And as things stand, he's still on the ballot." " Anything from Ross?" " Nothing." "What the fuck is going on?" "Where are the numbers?" "Too tight to tell." "Where's my wife?" "Traveling." "She'll be here for the rally." "Good." "Good." "Your lock on the nomination is guaranteed." "So today when the boys duke it out, you act the statesman and let them tear each other down." "I still need a jab though." "Something to really stick 'em with so they're damned even in winning." "That's Kane... the stunt he pulled last night, the drug raid, his daughter's involvement..." "It was a hit." "It swung public emotion toward him." "But as a story it has minimal legs at best." "It'll cover him for today, maybe even through to the weekend, but once it subsides, he's back to being radioactive." " Got it." " Senator Walsh, your thoughts on the primary?" "Everyone, thank you all for waiting." "I want to wish Governor Cullen and Treasurer Zajac the best in today's primary." "I've been through a few knock-down-drag-outs myself so I know the sort of toll they can take..." "Especially the fratricidal kind." "That's brother against brother, Robby." "And when all this is over, I look forward to engaging the winner on the issues." "And perhaps once they've gotten their marching orders from Chicago, they'll be able to respond, even if only to tell us what's on Mayor Kane's mind." "Thank you all very much." "That's all for now." "Thank you, senator." "Perfect, ma'am." "I don't know." "How can I do anything if I don't know what he's gonna do?" "Because you have no choice." "I'm sorry, Maggie." "I've ruined everything." "No, not now." "We don't get to talk about that now." "Kane... no one knows what he'll do." "And as things are, he needs you to win just as much as we do." "Win what, huh?" "His lever in Springfield forever?" " To be pulled at his will?" " Yes." "Where do you think anyone ever gets their start?" "Listen to me." "You're gonna get out there and you are going to hide what's in your heart and put on the best show a campaign has ever seen." "This election will be won by small numbers and today of all days will make the difference." "Don't falter at the final hurdle." "You have a talent..." "To be in public, to sound interested, sound concerned, sound real and make people believe." "Use it." "That's a tough thing he did..." "His own daughter." "I'm not saying he's squeaky clean as a mayor, you know, but he does what's needed." " And your thoughts on Tom Kane?" " I don't like him." "Never voted for him, but I hope he and his family are okay." "In recent days the mayor has publicly shifted his political weight away from the incumbent governor and toward State Treasurer Zajac." "Now it seems today's primary results could be as much..." "Everyone, let's go." "Pitches!" " Pitches, sir?" " Come on, cough them up." "The primary... race is too tight again to tell a front runner at the 11th hour, so I'm looking at how accurate exit polls are in elections." "History of primaries..." "What are they?" "Who selects the candidates?" "How far they have to tack back to their base before swinging center." "Wives..." "Comparing them:" "education, interests, mothering skills, how they carry a dress for the life section." "Spotlighting life in Springfield..." "If Zajac goes on to beat Walsh, he'll be one of the youngest governors in recent memory." " Where will his kids go to school..." " All right, stop." "Honestly, sincerely, who gives a fuck about this election?" "Nothing is changing here." "Not the people running, not the way they do business and not our stories." "Here's what we're going to do:" "From now on, I am directing this paper's resources..." "That's you..." "No more business as usual." "No more dusting off old stories, switching around an adverb here and a comma there, handing it in and going home." "No, we are going to change things." "And our first target..." "Is Tom Kane." "I want your work to reveal things about him that I don't already know, and I know a lot about him." "We're going to take the long view here." "I'm talking about a battle of slow attrition." "Day in, day out, we are going to hammer at him with everything that we've got." "Slow, steady, unrelenting." "Nothing sensationalist or salacious, just real investigative reporting until the picture that we have painted of him is the right one." "Here the truth will no longer be damned." "Okay, thank you." "We've received our court date..." "Four weeks from today on the third." "We'll be announcing that later today." "Everyone here deserves to be compensated for their pain, so that we can finally give some meaning to that pain by making sure that this never happens again." "But for that, we need to win." "Now the burden of proof is on us." "The other side is gonna try to convince the jury that we're using junk science, that the cancers can be attributed to other sources..." "Carcinogens in the environment or in food." "But trichloroethylene's not like asbestos where exposure causes a signature cancer like mesothelioma." "We could be accused of using association rather than causation." "So our best bet is to present three bellwether cases..." "Cases that no medical expert can refute." " Which cases?" " We picked two renal carcinoma cases..." "Extremely rare in children..." "And one infantile choriocarcinoma of the liver..." "Also very rare..." "That's a tumor that starts in the placenta and then spreads to the fetus." "And the rest of us?" "When they find in favor of these cases, the court deems the suit resolved." "So anyone not represented by these cases will have to settle for compensation through closed arbitration only." "Meaning no court date." "That is correct, yes." " And less compensation?" " That's a matter of negotiation." "It is through exposing these tragedies that all of our voices can be heard." "One day each of them will go to their mailbox and pick up a check, then all will be forgiven." "You just silenced most of them." "They're grieving." " Of course they are." " Announcing today, won't we get buried by election coverage?" "Buried?" "Kane's shadow looms all over this election." "I'm announcing today precisely because I want it out just as the first results come trickling in." "Bury him in the court of public opinion." "I need all the eyeballs I can get." "When else but tonight is the entire state watching TV?" "It's a political launching pad." "The press conference is set for tonight." " Yeah." "When?" " If I were doing it, I would time it to the evening news, first results." "He'll be announcing the suit and the court date." "He'll have a few families with him." "He'll be trying to reestablish Bensenville as a topic of conversation, wiping out the primary completely." " Where's Kitty?" " She hasn't come in." "All right." " The nurse." " Yeah?" "We got a lead." "We're working on it." "We're close." "Good." "The kid was going to drop out of the race, take me on next year." "Can you believe it?" "Ross, Cullen," "Mata," "Kohler, Solomou, a bunch of other vermin..." "Kitty..." "All of them in on it, right under our noses." "Boy..." "When you stop being able to see the angles, fuck." "Something this big." "Making it from one day to the next isn't clean or pretty, it's messy." "But if you've survived the day, then you've survived..." "That's it." "It's all that matters." "And today?" " The primary." " Yeah?" "The ward bosses can be swung around." "They see what you've done and how it's playing." "The public's outright animosity has been diverted..." "If only temporarily." "It's not that they think of you as a good guy, but they do see you as a father in pain." "They sympathize, and that's the mother lode in terms of connecting with voters." "What you did was..." "It worked." "Painful, but..." "Politically it worked." "They relate to you out there." " Zajac." " Yeah." "Translate the credit you've created with the public into a win for the kid." "You do that and you regain your strategic footing and continue to swing the pendulum of opinion in your favor." "Wins beget wins and give capital." "I need to work today." "You broke the law." "I want to understand, but I can't on my own." "These matters you've brought upon yourself and the church, they're serious." "The clinic will no doubt close now, for good." "Is that what you wanted?" "There is little chance for redemption in earthly matters..." "Your job, your relationships." "You dealt drugs illegally from the clinic, did so under the cover of the church, brought disrepute and irreparable damage." "All that remains" " is what you have left with God." " It was right!" "What I did was right and I won't apologize for it." " What you did was illegal." " They don't have anything." "They come to the clinic because they can't afford anything else." "I broke rules?" "What I did was try and find a way to help people who have nothing." " It doesn't work that way." " What, you want me to heal my relationship with God?" "He let me down." "I did what was right." "Where is he?" "What are you saying?" "That somehow you are owed something?" "That you can strike some kind of deal with God?" "You don't follow rules so that God will provide you with a safety net." "The real test is when you don't hear anything at all from him and you still follow him." "He didn't let you down because he doesn't owe you anything." "If you never saw the transcendent in all of this, if the church was just some form of self-imposed stricture to keep you sober, how did you expect it to work?" "You can't trick it, Emma." "That's not how it works." "You're not at an age where we have to worry, but I still recommend that you get screened." "Amnio's a little dated." "We're having much better results from nuchal translucency test." "It's a new procedure that combines blood testing with an ultrasound that measures accumulated fluid behind the fetal neck." "It's done in the first trimester, results in higher detection rates and it's noninvasive." "We'd have to schedule you soon." "After 20 weeks we'd have to go back to amnio." "And what if I choose not to have it?" " Oh, nuchal translucency is so safe..." " The baby." "As long as you're in the first trimester, it's a viable option." "Of course the sooner you decide, the better you're gonna be..." "Physically, emotionally." "Perhaps you should take some time." "It's not a decision you should have to make on your own." "Is there someone you can talk to?" "Yeah." "Well, if you do choose to terminate, we should have a discussion about harvesting your eggs." "But as it stand now, everything is looking good and there's no reason why you shouldn't have a perfectly healthy pregnancy." "The numbers are small." "It's a primary so margins can be played more easily." "Cook County can be swung with a mere few hundred votes per ward." "We hit key wards in the north, northwest and west side." "If they go our way, relationships and allegiances across the rest of the 50 will ensure they go our way too, where they can." " Alan." " Tom." "I'm not gonna keep you." "I'm not going anywhere." "My back's against the wall." "You know it." "I know it." "So from where I stand, I'm only hitting back." "I will survive today, I will survive tomorrow and the next day, one day at a time." "Where do you want to be when I do?" "What we've built, we did together." "Our web stretches across the 50." "We're entrenched, symbiotic, our interests aligned." "We work together, dispensing and managing it for the good of all within." "Rebuilding the web is dangerous, difficult and costly." "It will cause upheaval and disruption of the expected streams of return on investment." "It's easier not to shake things up." "It's easier to let things keep ticking along as always." "Now the illusion of change on the other hand, is a good thing." "It gives the people a jolt of hope." "It makes them believe in the possibility of things." "Putting Zajac above Cullen does both." "It gives us the illusion of change on the surface, continuity beneath..." "With me." "This isn't personal." "I'm not defending anything that doesn't already belong to all of us together." "I'm defending the status quo." "Tell me I'm wrong." "Tell me that what we have together isn't the most efficient, indispensable, undisplaceable mechanism to get things done." "Doubt that, you doubt the reality of this city." "You doubt that and there's nothing left to believe in." "What do you need?" "This late, the margin is governed by the supposed "undecideds" at the center of the spectrum." "The smaller their number, the greater our ability to bend that number in our direction." "How much bending?" "We're asking you to point your operations on the ground to strategically-targeted precincts." " Which ones?" " 40% to 60% in wards 23 through 29, low teen digits in Irving Park, Portage Park, Dunning, Montclare," "Belmont Cragin." "No more than 5 to 10 points from West Ridge to all six parks." "Democracy." "Anything, at all, from his campaign?" "No." "What am I supposed to do?" "Call Zajac HQ." "And ask the idiot at the desk if the candidate is still interested in plotting against Tom Kane?" "He's a no-show at yesterday's planned press conference." "As things stand, he hasn't dropped out of the race." "And no one in Cullen's inner circle knows if the kid's really running or not." "What if it was all Kane all along?" "What if Zajac was a just a means to flush us out?" "Sit back." "This isn't the 15th century and we're not in fucking Florence." "Kane's been doing the rounds today in the friendly wards, personally canvassing for Zajac to win the primary." "What the fuck do you imagine that means?" "Where the hell is Ross?" "How long do we intend to stay like this?" "I don't know what else we can say." "It happened." "It meant nothing." "It's not something that will ever happen again." "Bill?" " Where are you going?" " I need some water." "Sit." "Mayor Kane." "Mrs. Kane, do you mind telling us who you voted for?" "You?" "Yes." "Tom... no." "Ask me later." "If you want to get back in the fold, I need something." "McGantry's kid is planning on going public with the announcement of the class-action suit tonight." "I'd like it to go away." "I'd like a settlement." "Unusual attention the primary race for governor is getting in the state of Illinois..." "He said he went to this restaurant in town and ordered" " a filet of rattlesnake. - ..." "O ver toxic waste dumping..." " He's kidding, right?" " ..." "And a cover-up to hide the medical fallout." "The Windy City's mayor has been plagued by allegations..." "What do you think it tastes like?" " Mom?" " Oh, baby, don't play with your food, okay?" "You've reached Sam Miller of "The Chicago Sentinel."" "Please leave your name, the subject of your call, your number, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." "Thank you." "Majority leader and I think that's something we can work out." "We've had a very good working relationship in the past." " Yes?" " Service!" "Not today." "Service!" "No thank you." "Not today." "Zajac may have something up his sleeve." "He's a very clever young man." " Service!" " As you were saying, when first he has a press conference, then he doesn't." "I don't know." "I'm sure Treasurer Zajac is..." "Oh God." "No no!" "I, for one, am looking forward to the results tonight." "Thank you, everyone!" "Service." "Send Mac back!" "Send Mac back!" "Send Mac back!" "Everyone has left..." "The rest of the office got the rest of the day off to go out and vote." "But the mayor and Mr. Stone are on their way back in." "Okay." "What would you like me to do?" "Miss O'Neil?" "Go home." "You sure you don't want me to come in with you?" "You take the follow car." "I'll see you at the office." "This may not take too long." " Okay, Tom?" " Yeah." "The captain's an old friend." "He gave me a call, knowing I could reach you." "He felt it best that you see her down here in private." "She's not in a good state." "They found her in her cell." "She'd inhaled a bottle of computer duster." "The chemicals, they've done a number on her." "She should be transferred to the hospital." "But out of deference, the captain wanted your permission to do so first, since the news would get out once the transfer happens." "Wait here." "Emma?" "Emma." "Dad." "Are you... are you here to interrogate me?" "No." "Jesus, I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "Tommy." "Tommy!" "You can stay as long as you like, but there's something else the guys here told me about, something I thought you might want to know." "About an hour ago, they found a former employee of yours, a Debra Whitehead." "Where?" "At a motel on the city outskirts, beaten to within an inch of her life." "You need me to do anything, Tom?" "No." " Where is she now?" " St. Thaddeus ECU." "All right, come on." "No." "You don't even know what I'm going to say." "Well, you could mean, "come on" as in "snap out of it,"" "in which case the answer is no." "Or you could mean" ""come on!" as in "let's go somewhere," which again, no." "Or you could mean "come on,"" "as in "talk to me"" "which is also a no." "You are so beyond redemption, man." "You have no idea." "Well, I actually meant all of those things." " No." " The Zajac rally?" "I prefer it here in the peanut gallery." "You can either come with me willingly, or you can fire me for dragging your ass over there." "Either way, I suggest you get off it..." "Your ass that is, so that you can write a proper editorial for the morning edition about what it was like on the ground and in the air on election day." "It was shitty..." "On the ground and in the air." "Not bad for a first draft, but I think you need more." "Whether you like it or not, actual history is happening in the city tonight." "Elections are matters of record, part of the life of the city and of its people." "And it's our job" " to record it so..." " "Come on"?" "Yes." "Come on!" "Her condition is very fragile." "Can she talk?" "Her windpipe was bruised, even her lungs were damaged from the beating she took." "And she's in and out of consciousness." " It's very touch and go." " Can she talk?" "She needs rest." "May I have a moment with her?" "Debra." "Can you hear me?" "Who did this to you?" "Who did this?" "She didn't die." "Chicago PD." "Found her." "Did she know what the files were?" "The ones you leaked to Miller?" "No." "Why did you do it?" "Because it was no longer tenable." "I could no longer abide by the idea of keeping you, keeping us, here in this position." "Why?" "Because it became clear that you were no longer ruling for the good of the city." "I've done..." "We have done too many terrible things in the course of running matters." "But I've always known why." "It was always in the end because..." "It mattered that we ran the city because we were best equipped to provide that which was good for its people." "And if elements got in our way, elements that needed to be torn down," "I could justify even the most ruthless of measures in how we dealt with them, because I knew we were preserving what was good for the city by preserving this." "If I could justify the end to myself, my conscience, I could pursue it by any mean." " What changed?" " You." "You got sick..." "Your judgments wavering, your decisions no longer justifiable." "You began to act out of a sense of pure personal preservation..." "Stay in place at any cost." "I could no longer see the end justifying our means, because the only end that matters to you now is you, your personal survival." "I can't abide by that." "I can't do what I need to do for you to stay where you are." "When did you decide this?" "Your handling of Cullen;" "your denial of his request for another term." "It was a bad decision." "It was personal, emotional, disproportionate." "Why didn't you come to me?" "I tried." "You shut it down." "It was at that point that I realized that you were..." "No longer in control." "I..." "Leaked the O'Hare dump documents, and watched you prove with every turn you took in handling the fallout that, sadly, I was right." "Your handling of the sick kids of Bensenville, your smearing of Dr. Reyes..." "Your use of your daughter." "Was I not right to think that you would stop at nothing to spare yourself above everything and everyone else?" "Why not resign?" "Why try to take me out of the picture instead of yourself?" "Because men like you never leave." "The system isn't designed to cleanse itself of a Tom Kane." "You stay and hold onto power beyond when you should, and in so doing, bring corruption to everything while you remain." "You need to be pushed." "I did the pushing." "I'm dying." "I know." "The question is, given where you sit, does that make you more dangerous or less?" "What now?" "For 30 years you've advised me on the appropriate course of action in the worst of situations." "What would you advise I do now, given I know what you've done?" "You don't have a choice." "The punishment should always be commensurate to the crime." "It should be proportionate and visible." "A punishment is not only an act of retribution, it's also a signal." "It needs to be seen and understood by anyone else who might have flirted with the notion of committing the same transgression." "Tom isn't going anywhere." "His grip is firm and steady." "I believe it, and frankly I'm relieved about it." " And the kid?" " Treasurer Zajac is on board." "There is no run on the mayoralty next year." "Today's primary vote will make it all clear to everyone, wipe all the confusion clean." "Tom is staying." "What can I do?" "One problem still stands:" "the class-action lawsuit that Elliot is taking to court against Tom." "It's to be announced tonight at the close of voting." "Yes?" "If it were to be dropped, things could return to the usual in no time..." "Continuity, status quo, interests preserved." "You're his father, babe." "Isn't there anything you can do to steer him in a different direction?" "What do I get out of it?" "And it's a signal that no one is exempt from the consequences of betrayal." "Exit polls suggest a tight race that's stayed tight until the very end." "Incumbent Governor McCall Cullen holding sway in rural areas and smaller municipalities, with Treasurer Zajac showing strongly in Aurora, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville," "Peoria and, of course, Cook County." "With 65% of the precincts reporting," "Treasurer Zajac has opened up a 6-point lead." "With most of the votes still to be counted coming from urban areas, it looks like it could be a difficult night for incumbent Governor Cullen." "All eyes now are on Chicago." "If you think Kane hasn't sewn up Cook County for him, you don't know the man." "This is over." "We're done." "Where the fuck is Ross?" "Now that we're all sitting here on a train to fucking Siberia." " Yes, ma'am." " You're holding for Alderman Claussen?" " No, Alderman Ross." " Who, sir?" " Ross." "I'd like to speak to him, please." " I'm sorry, sir." "Nobody's answering his extension, sir." " Sir?" " Well, can you tell him that I called?" " Yes, what was your name?" " Moco Ruiz." " You know..." " Yes, I know it's after hours." "All right, sir." " Alberto Ruiz?" " Yes." "We'd like you to come with us, sir." "What's this about?" "Just a few a questions about the disappearance of Alderman Lalo Mata." "Can't we just do this here?" "No, we can't." "We had a saying when I was in the boy scouts whenever we entered a camp," ""Take pictures, leave footprints."" "But now more than ever, you must do neither." "With 75% of precincts reporting, we are close to declaring a winner in the gubernatorial primary." "Okay, we are now projecting a win for Ben Zajac." "Yes, now we count 75%..." " No, that's 80% of precincts reporting..." " We won?" " ..." "That Treasurer Ben Zajac..." " We won!" "Has defeated Governor McCall Cullen in the gubernatorial primary." "Do you forgive me?" "No." "If I did, I'd have to leave you." "Zajac, Zajac..." " Are you ready?" " Can't wait." "All right, come on, guys." "Let's go." "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac," "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac." "Now they don't call me Governor Sullen, you know, so let's wipe the glum looks off all those faces out there." "Three terms in office..." "Not a bad run." "An Englishman..." "A man I don't agree with about pretty much anything..." "Once said," ""all political lives, unless they are cut off midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs." I've always wondered about that, about whether I would finally have to agree with him on this" "one point when it was all done." "Let me tell you," "I still don't agree with him about anything." "Because in this moment, I don't feel failure." "I feel gratitude to the people of Illinois for all that they are, to my staff and friends throughout the years for all that they have done, to those that I love for all that they have given." "I feel peace and I feel serenity." "I'll keep doing what I've done all along, though now perhaps in a different form." "I wish Treasurer..." "Er, Candidate Zajac the best moving forward." "Thank you all." "May God bless you." "There is a formal aspect to punishment, a ritual nature." "It has shape and body." "It's about consequence, accountability, actions having repercussions." "Thank you." " Zajac, Zajac, Zajac." " Thank you." "Thank you, thank you." "There are times when you are certain that words will fail you in fully expressing the truth of a moment." "And this is one of them." "I stand here before you filled with hope." "I'm bursting with praise and admiration for every single one of you, our beautiful city, this glorious state and this proud country, a place where we all have equal say in how our lives are ordered and how we live," "where the fair and equal practice of political self-determination is held paramount, where every vote has equal weight, where anyone can choose to seek to represent their fellow citizens, where our elections are competitive and informed." "They're fair and free, for the people and by the people." "Because no matter what you may think of our political system and how imperfect it may be, it is still the best of its kind conceived by mankind for the betterment of society, life and progress." "It gives us a chance to make things new, you know, to change course, to determine our own destiny as a people." "It is a picture of our deepest desires as human beings to determine who we are, what we stand for." "I stand right here, humbled and grateful." "Thank you, all of you, for all that you have done." "Yeah, what do you say, gang?" "I want to thank my staff, my family," "Maggie." "But I would like to reserve my sincerest and most heartfelt thanks for the help of one individual..." "Mayor Tom Kane..." "Because he believed in me, he inspires me and he pushes me every day to be a better public servant." "Thank you." "God bless you all and God bless the state of Illinois." "Miss O'Neil, Sam Miller, "Chicago Sentinel."" " I know." " Big night for him." " Yes." " The mayor too." " Zajac, Zajac, Zajac..." " Mr. Miller." "Nothing." "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac..." "Zajac..." "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac," "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac," "Zajac, Zajac, Zajac..." "Hello?" " Hello?" " Mr. Miller?" " Hello?" " It's Ella Harris." " Who?" " Dr. Ella Harris." " I treated Mayor Kane?" " Hold on." "Whoever this is, I can't hear you." " Hold on." " Zajac, Zajac, Zajac." "Thank you." "It's vital that the transgressors understand the rules they have broken." "It's okay." "Guess it wouldn't be Chicago politics without a little spilled blood, right?" "Your choice of punishment needs to be seen as fair, proportional and reciprocal." "But the nature can only be decided by the punisher himself..." "You." "You decide." "The boss." "Stoney." "It's about preservation, protecting the way things are." "We dropped the announcement and the court date." "Tomorrow we'll go to him with a deal." "I did as you asked." "But you're having trouble with it." " Yes." " I understand." "You want to build a reputation for yourself apart from the family's." "And that is a fine thing, a necessary thing." "But this family has been sailing a boat with city hall from the time the building itself went up." "The choice to remain with Kane is a choice of preservation." "You can pursue your own agenda, even at the expense of Kane, if you so desire, but not now." " When?" " The next round." "This particular case had to be let go." "Continuity at all costs..." "Leaving the landscape unchanged or changed in appearance only." "It is how we've gotten to where we are..." "And how we stay here for the future." "Tom?"