Power Play (Book 2)

Chapter 18: Livestream of Consciousness

Recap: After making it back to the Wanderer and breaking the news of Ryan's death to Tyler and Susan, Brandon learns that the world knows about super-powered beings, and his fight in Las Vegas has been seen around the world. The government has called Brandon a terrorist, and has shown off a few of their modified agents as heroes. The question now is what does the team do next...

Winning Choice: We share the truth with the world online. Let's see what happens when Donovan, Corrales, and their bosses can't control the information anymore. Let's give those fan sites something to cheer about.

I clear my throat, and really wish I'd brought some water. I'm nervous, really nervous. I've done a lot more dangerous stuff than this, right?

But there's always that little part of your brain that sits there and tells you everything that could go wrong with what you're about to do. Like how if I screw this up I could become a laughing stock, or get people arrested or killed, or start an international incident or something. See? Right there. That part of my brain. ARGH!

Maybe I really need some vodka instead of water.

I adjust the tablet again, making sure it won't slide down while I'm giving my talk. The teleprompter software on it has the speech we've written. It's propped up on a box right behind the wireless camera up here on the rooftop of a large office building.

We're pirating a wifi signal from the offices below, which will mean they're going to get an interesting visit in a few hours, but by the time things get sorted out I'll be long gone. The gear will be untraceable to us when they find it.

"Can you hear me okay?" I ask.

"Loud and clear," says Tyler in my earpiece. "You sound great on your headset, but the web stream is a little tinny. I knew we should have put a mic on you."

"You want to rent a whole TV studio for this?" Susan asks him. "We could really get those production values up." Susan's normal snark-factor has been operating at an all time high for the past few days, but then we've all been on edge. Cooped up in the Wanderer the past few days while we relocated it was not exactly a staycation at the spa.

"Five of the fan sites responded to the email," he says, ignoring Susan. "That should be plenty. They'll tweet and share out the stream, then download it as soon as it's done and spread it around. I'm sure Agent Corrales will order it taken offline, but it'll be too late."

"The internet never forgets," says Susan.

No, it sure doesn't. I lick my lips, and adjust my mask. I'm supposed to fly away at the end of my talk to prove it's really me, that car-catching guy from Las Vegas. It's also for drama, but I think we'll have enough of that by the time this stunt is done.

Though I doubt any drama could match what went into trying to write this little speech. Susan wanted us to "Tell them we're coming for them, and they can't hide. No person should be a slave, in body or mind, to another. We will take the government down."

As mad as I am at Agent Corrales, Sideburns, and everyone else, that's a bit more than I'm comfortable with.

Tyler's take was to "Challenge them to come forward and fight us. They can't win. People will rise up and stop it."

As much as I want this madness to stop, I can't see it being that easy. Tyler sees the world in black and white, in bad guys and good guys, and things are so much muddier than that.

As for me, I'm still not sure what I want to say. We debated back and forth and finally cobbled together the speech that's on the tablet in front of me. It's a compromise that's part rant, part mission statement, part threat, and part challenge. It just doesn't feel right for some reason, but maybe that's the mark of a good compromise.