Netcast: Zero (5 page)

From Arielle: Don’t do it!

“Mere coincidence,” Doctor Benarro insisted, becoming more agitated. He looked at Arielle. “I was told that this interview was for a legitimate news agency…”

“It is, Doctor, I assure you,” Arielle replied. “Miss Bohl is just exploring all possibilities…”

“I don’t see how there is anything wrong with asking a few questions, Doctor Benarro,” Hanna interrupted. “That’s how we learn, right? By asking questions?”

From Arielle: You can’t badger this one, Hanna,
Arielle’s message flashed across Hanna’s visual space,
and batting your eyelashes and playing coy isn’t going to work either! Just drop it and move on!

“Are we still recording?” Doctor Benarro demanded to know. “Stop recording, please. I insist.”

Graham looked at Arielle, who nodded. “As you wish,” he replied. He pressed a button on his controller, and the little red lights on all the orbs changed from red to flashing orange. “Recording is paused.”

Doctor Benarro looked at Hanna, his expression turning more serious. “This line of questioning was not agreed upon…”

“I was told that you would answer all questions regarding the Klaria virus,” Hanna responded, cutting him off.

“All reasonable questions,” the doctor replied.

Hanna noticed that Arielle was no longer sending her messages to stop, which meant that her friend knew there was no turning back, and that if she continued the line of questioning Hanna might be able to work her way out of the corner she had just painted herself into. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time. “All questions that help to clarify the nature of a deadly virus that has killed thousands of people should be considered reasonable,” Hanna insisted. “After all, the public has access to the same information that I do, and I’m sure many of them have come to the same conclusions and are wondering the same thing. Is it possible that Klaria and Twister are somehow related?”

“I’m not going to respond to conspiracy theories from the lunatic fringes of society,” the doctor warned.

“I’m not asking you to do so, Doctor,” Hanna explained as diplomatically as possible. “I’m only asking you to explain why such a connection is possible, or impossible.”
Message; Arielle: Why is this guy getting so unhinged?

Arielle’s answer was immediate.
Reply: Because it’s a stupid, and potentially irresponsible question, and you know it. You’re just going for a ratings grab, and it’s going to end up costing us a paycheck!

“Such theories only feed public panic,” Doctor Benarro insisted. “They waste the time of those of us who are seeking truths, as you should be. They are unfounded claims, reckless theories… nothing more. Furthermore, both the Global Disease Control Organization and the International Center for Network Security looked into the possibility of a link between the two…”

“Then my question is not so unreasonable, is it?” Hanna interrupted.

“It is in that the theory has already been disproven beyond a shadow of a doubt, Miss Bohl. Attempting to bring it into public attention again is nothing more than a reckless, irresponsible attempt to stir up controversy, I suspect for your own gain, and I will not be a party to it.” Doctor Benarro rose from his seat. “This interview is over,” he said firmly, after which he headed for the exit. “Pack up you gear and get out,” he added as he left.

Arielle sighed in frustration. “Are you happy now, Hanna?”

* * *

“You do realize we aren’t going to get paid?” Arielle said as she stormed across the spacious lobby on their way to the main entrance of the medical building.

“You don’t know that,” Hanna replied as she followed her friend out the doors.

“I do know that, Hanna. I’m the producer. I’m the business manager. Standard con
tracts clearly state that if we don’t produce usable material, we don’t get paid.”

“Well, who defines usable?”

“The client, of course! Jesus, Hanna! Are you really going to argue with me about this?”

“It was a reasonable question, Ari.”

“It was sensationalism, Hanna, and you know it.”

“I was looking for clarification. If anything, I was hoping to assure people that there was not a connection between Klaria and Twister. You yourself said that the idea was already ruled out by the GDCO, so the idea wasn’t crazy. You also said that if I could make the connection then most likely anyone could. Anyone includes our viewers.”

Arielle stopped as she reached the bottom of the steps, turning back to Hanna and Graham. “The facts are, Hanna, that we were hired by the client to ask a specific line of questions. You knew what those questions were, but you chose to go off on a tangent in the hopes of stirring something up, something that might boost your numbers so that you could land your dream job before you’re too old to be considered.”

“I thought it was our dream job,” Hanna reminded her.

“I’m starting to think they aren’t the same thing.”

“What do you mean, Ari?”

“I mean you’ve pulled this kind of stunt three times now in the last two months…”

“And you didn’t get this mad the other times…”

“That’s because we were chasing our own leads at the time, not working for a client. It still didn’t make it right, but at least you weren’t damaging our reputation with the booking agent and costing us money!”

“We have savings…”

“For crying out loud, Hanna, it isn’t about the money!” Arielle exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “It’s about our integrity! It’s about our reputation with the booking agents. It takes both to land a job with one of the major networks, but you just don’t seem to get that, and I’m not going to let you ruin it for me.”

“It’s easier for you, Ari,” Hanna reminded her. “You’re not on camera. Your employable life span is longer. I’ve only got another ten years or so left to make my nest egg. If I don’t reach critical mass by then, I’ll either be stuck living in the lower levels for the rest of my life or, worse yet, have to move to one of those ag-towns.”

“Then stop sabotaging our reputation with your wild stunts!” Arielle insisted.

“I would if you’d get us something more interesting than interviews with disease docs and computer geeks!” Hanna defended.

“After today, that may not be possible, Hanna. It will take months of taking every assignment that comes our way, no matter how boring, to repair the damage you just did in five minutes!” Arielle took a deep breath, pausing to regain her composure, then stepped closer and looked Hanna in the eyes. “I’m only saying this one time, Hanna. Pull something like that again, and I’m gone.”

Hanna was shocked. “You don’t mean that…”

“Try me.”

Hanna’s eyes were locked on Arielle’s for what seemed an eternity. Finally, she acquiesced. “All right.”

“All right what?”

“I promise not to pull another stunt like that.”

Arielle relaxed, breaking her gaze with Hanna. “Thank you.”

“Uh, might I suggest that we upload the footage that we have?” Graham suggested. “There might be something the client can use.”

“Good idea,” Arielle agreed. “At least we might get partial payment.”

“I can maybe even make it look like the doc had limited time… Maybe even edit out that last bit?”

“No, the contract was for raw footage,” Arielle explained. “They get to edit.”

“Huh. I didn’t know anyone still took those types of assignments,” Graham said.

Arielle sighed. “We do, when we have to.”

“Do you have the client’s upload codes?”

“They didn’t give us any,” Arielle replied. “Just send it over the public net.”

“Are you sure? Pub-net means any snot-nosed wannabe hacker can intercept the data stream, you know.”

“It’s a boring interview with a disease doc that nobody knows and nobody cares about,” Hanna chimed in.

Arielle flashed a disdainful glance toward Hanna as she spoke. “Client’s choice. Send it through the pub-net.”

“You got it,” Graham said. “I’ll head back to my hotel and make it happen. Any idea where we’re headed next?”

“I didn’t get a chance to book anything yet,” Arielle replied. “I’ll let you know,” she added as she departed by herself.

Both Hanna and Graham stood there, watching Arielle walk away angry.

“Well, she’s right about one thing,” Graham said. “That was a pretty wild tangent you went off on.” Graham looked at Hanna. “Mind telling me why you did it?”

“I don’t know,” Hanna admitted. “When his viewer didn’t work, and then he started talking about Twister… I guess my mind just ran with it.” She looked at Graham. “Isn’t that what a reporter is supposed to do? Follow hunches?”

“Yes, if you’re investigating something. But Ari was right. You were doing an interview for a client. Wrong time to play investigative reporter. She’s also right about it taking both numbers and rep to make it to the major networks. Part of your rep has to be that you can always be trusted to do your job, even when that job is to interview some stuffed shirt in a fancy office about something you don’t care about. It’s called being professional.”

Hanna looked at Graham. “But what if I had been right?”

“Then you’d have your big story, that’s for sure.” Graham turned and started walking toward the escalator to the monorail platform. “Of course, we’d all be dead.”

* * *

Message; Arielle: I found it.
Hanna took her seat in the middle of the press room. There were more than fifty reporters gathered at the Montreal office of the Global Disease Control Organization for the press conference, where they expected confirmation that the recent outbreak in nearby Sorel was indeed the Klaria virus.

Hanna looked about the room, spotting several
familiar faces. As usual, indies such as herself sat in the back half of the room, while reporters working for the major news networks sat in the front half.

Reply: Looks like all the usuals are here, even your favorite, Constance Gerard.

Hanna frowned.
Message: I hate that bitch.

Reply: You hate all of them.

Hanna straightened her blazer and fluffed her short, black hair, just as she always did before the cameras lit up.
Message: Not all of them. Just the ones that have the job I want.

Reply: That
is
all of them.

Hanna looked around, noticing several sets of orbs deployed in the most common fashion. With so many in attendance, a single group of FI camera orbs had to be shared by all.
Message: You guys set back there?
she wondered
.

Reply: Took Graham about a minute to bring the shared feed and calibrate your POV coordinates. The guy may be an ass, but he is good at what he does, I’ll give him that.

Message: He doesn’t complain about boring assignments, either, I noticed. He didn’t say a word about doing a press conference with a shared feed.

Reply: We were lucky to get this gig,
Arielle messaged.
I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he was bored. I thought we’d lose him to another gig after the first few days sitting around Boston.

Hanna sighed.
Message: I believe I’ve apologized for that enough now.

The murmur in the room began to fade as several representatives from the GDCO entered the room. A mixture of epidemiologists and bureaucrats, both male and female took the stage, totaling eight people in all. Hanna’s heart sank a little. If every one of them were going to speak, it was going to be a long press conference. I guess I’m getting what I deserve, she thought.

A message from Arielle appeared in her personal space.

From Arielle: Third from the right. Isn’t that Dr. Benarro?
Hanna’s spirits fell even further still.

Hanna’s eyes returned to the stage, spotting Doctor Benarro.
Reply: Crap, now I’ll never get picked for a question.

From; Arielle: Relax, you’re six rows back, and the majors are all present. You’d never have gotten picked anyway. Of course, if you hadn’t alienated Doctor Benarro…

Reply: Not helping,
Hanna thought.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” the man at the podium called over the loudspeakers, “if you’ll take your seats, we’ll get started momentarily.”

Message; Arielle: I don’t even know why we’re here,
Hanna thought.

Reply: You know how it works, Hanna,
Arielle’s answer read across Hanna’s visual space.
An agency has to have a reporter present, or they don’t get to jack into the feed. It’s been that way since the virtual presence reform act of twenty-four thirty.

Message: I know
why
,
Hanna thought,
I’m just saying it’s a stupid rule.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m Doctor Donovan Mesnard, Senior Press Officer for the GDCO here in the Americas.”

Reply: Stop whining and pay attention.

Message: Hey, isn’t that the guy that Constance interviewed on NCN:World the other night?
Hanna thought as the speaker introduced the rest of the people on the stage.

Reply: Yes, it is. It was a good interview. Really good.

Hanna scowled slightly.
Message: Yes, it was good. I still hate her, though.

“At this time, the GDCO regrets to report that all eight hundred and fourteen suspected cases of Klaria reported in the city of Sorel have been confirmed. Not only is this another Klaria outbreak, but it is also one of the fastest moving outbreaks of the Klaria virus we have seen since the first case was reported just over eleven months ago.”

Hands began to shoot up in the air, as reporters from dozens of news agencies, both big and small began shouting for attention as they vied for a chance to ask questions. As expected, Constance Gerard was the first called.

“Constance Gerard, Netcast News World,” she began as she stood.

Message; Arielle: Hanna thought. God, she always looks perfect, doesn’t she? She probably rolls out of bed looking that well put together.

Reply: She’s got wardrobe and makeup specialists following her around twenty-four-seven, Hanna,
Arielle answered.
She probably looks like Graham when she rolls out of bed.

Hanna fought back a laugh.

“How many lives has the Sorel outbreak of Klaria claimed, and has there been any change noted in the transmission method?”

“The Sorel outbreak of Klaria has claimed the lives of six hundred and thirty-seven people as of this morning. That is over an eight day period, which is remarkably fast, even for Klaria. As for the second part of your question, I’ll save that for Doctor Benarro to answer later in the conference.”

Hanna watched as Constance Gerard nodded politely and sat back down. Another message appeared in her personal visual space.

From; Unknown: Ask the question again.

Hanna’s eyes squinted in thought. Then she responded.
Reply: Arielle? Is that you? Your ID tag didn’t come through.

Hanna waited for a response while another reporter asked a question of Doctor Mesnard. After a minute passed, she messaged Arielle directly.
Message; Arielle: Did you just message me?

Reply: No. Something wrong?

Message: Nothing. Wrong number I guess.