Connected, Inc.

Chapter Five

Again, as I say, there was much more happening at Moynacorp beyond the car accident.

In that respect, all we did for the next few days was divert questions while we compiled data. We cooperated with Jefferson Parish as well as state and federal regulators regarding the safety of our cars. We wanted to be certain that the Bienville CV had not been at fault, and that everyone was aware of it.

There were complications.

The public at large had already made their decision. It turned out that Maria Robert, the woman who had lost her life in the crash, was the only daughter of Esposito del Castillo, a renowned educator in the New Orleans school systems. That man was a champion of equality and standards across the board for all New Orleans schools, and considering the state of our schools, he was very highly regarded by the community. Maria Robert had been following her father's lead. A teacher in the public school system, she was apparently beloved by everyone who knew her. By all accounts, she was a lovely young woman who, with her husband, was raising two small children and expecting another. She had... well, according to the autopsy, her death had not been painless. Granted, the same reports placed the blame on a driverless car with no human ability to make personal decisions.

The Moynacorp public relations team and media liaison handled it well, knowing intuitively the manner in which I wanted to approach it while also keeping it at a distance from me. Meanwhile, I went to Washington.

The tech industry had become very political of late. It was a necessity. A survival tactic, both for us and for the way of life Americans enjoyed. Most of us loathed having to deal with Washington. But we were willing to at least try to come to some sort of arrangement on the topics that affected us the most--not only directly, such as net neutrality and autonomous driving guidelines, but also regarding antitrust laws and social justice measures.

I do not typically accept invitations from Eric McGwion. That louse had thrown me under the bus once already, and once is enough. But with Moynacorp's reputation on the line, I couldn't afford to not be seen there, as socially petty as that is.

The gathering was a summit on the roles of technology in government and society. At the forefront then was net neutrality, which in this sense is a different way of talking about data and privacy. As far as digital rights activists are concerned, net neutrality refers to the practice of not favoring or disfavoring one Internet service over the other, and the barriers to entry and competition that would go along with deregulating internet service providers. Lawmakers, on the other hand, latch onto the term as a way of saying "we are totally in touch with the new digital climate" in general. So you can probably guess there's a decent-sized rift there.

I did not travel alone. Also representing the Moynahan Corporation was Drew Moynahan, who is somewhat related to me. We're half-cousins or something. He serves as Moynacorp's official government liaison. We're cool, but I was more happy about having most of my friends with me as well.

My friends are all involved in business in some way, and we are all based in that bastion of entrepreneurship, New Orleans. At the time we'd been in the news pretty often for reasons that I'll explain in a bit, if I remember to. The media had taken to grouping us together as "the Eccentrics." The name irritated us at first, but it's stuck.

We flew from New Orleans to Washington, business class on a commercial liner. Prrivate jet was an option, but we decided against it for appearances' sake. We spent the first few minutes after takeoff with fellow business travelers who wanted selfies.

"An airplane," Reynardo said wistfully. "For once I feel as though I am actually traveling."

He's easily impressed.