Netcast: Zero by Ryk Brown Read Free Book Online

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