?Didn?t think so, but a girl has to try.? Buffy sat down on the edge of my bed, still beaming. ?I got clean footage from half a dozen cameras all the way through both attacks. No voice reports, since someone went and volunteered to help with cleanup??
?Not that going through decon without helping would have left me able to record,? I said dryly, retreating back toward the phone. Incredible ratings or not, I needed to kill this headache before it got fully established, and that meant I needed something caffeinated to wash down the painkillers. ?You know that wipes me out.?
?Details,? said Buffy. ?I spliced together three basic narrative tracks?one following the outbreak at the gate as closely as possible, one following the perimeter, and one that followed the two of you.?
I glanced in her direction as I waited for room service to pick up. ?How much of our dialogue did you get??
Buffy beamed. ?All of it.?
?That explains some of the jump,? Shaun said dryly. ?We always get a point spike when you say you hate me in a published report.?
?Only because it?s true,? I said, quashing the urge to groan. It was my own fault for leaving Buffy alone with the unedited footage. She had to put something up. A news blackout doesn?t heighten suspense; it just loses readers.
Shaun snorted. ?Right. So you had three tracks, and???
?I tossed them up in their raw form, tapped some beta Newsies to throw down narrative tracks, got straight bio files on the confirmed casualties, and wrote a new poem about how fast everything can fall apart.? Buffy cast an anxious glance my way, smile slipping. ?Did I do it right??
Room service confirmed that the assorted drinks were en route, along with an order of dry wheat toast. I hung up the phone. ?Which betas??
?Um, Mahir for the gate, Alaric for the perimeter, and Becks for the attack on the two of you.?
?Ah.? I adjusted my sunglasses. ?I?m going to want to review their reports.? It was a formality, and from the look on her face, Buffy knew it; she?d selected the same betas I would have chosen. Mahir is located in London, England, and he?s great for dry, factual reporting that neither pretties things up nor dumbs them down. If I have a second in command, it?s Mahir. Alaric can build suspense almost as well as an Irwin, fitting his narration and description into the natural blank spots in a recording. And Becks would have been a horror movie director if we weren?t all practically living in a horror movie these days. Her sense of timing is impeccable, and her cut shots are even better. Of the betas we?ve acquired, I count my Newsies as the best of the bunch. They?re good. They?re hoping to ride our success to alpha positions of their own, and that makes them ambitious. Ambition is worth more than practically anything else in this business, even talent.
?Of course you will,? Buffy said, clearly waiting for me to break down and say the words.
I smiled, faintly, and said them: ?You did good.?
Buffy punched the air. ?She shoots, she scores!?
?Just don?t get cocky,? I said. There was a knock at the door. This hotel must have the fastest room service in the Midwest. ?Remember, one successful set of executive decisions does not prepare you to take my??
I opened the door to reveal Steve and Carlos. They were impeccably dressed, matching black suits so crisply pressed that you?d never have guessed they?d been in the field incinerating the bodies of their fallen comrades less than eight hours previous. I stood there in my slept-in clothes, with my uncombed hair sticking up in all directions, and stared at them.
?Miss Mason,? said Steve. His tone was flat, even more formal than it was on our first encounter. Dipping a hand into his pocket, he produced the familiar shape of a handheld blood testing unit. ?If you and your associates would care to come with us, a debriefing has been scheduled in the boardroom.?
?Couldn?t you have called first?? I asked.
He raised his eyebrows. ?We did.?
Shaun and I really had been sleeping like the unrisen dead. I pressed my lips into a thin line, and said, ?My brother and I have only been awake for a few minutes. Can we have time to make ourselves presentable??
Steve looked past me into the room, where Shaun?still clad only in his boxers?offered a sardonic wave. Steve looked back to me. I smiled. ?Unless you?d prefer we came as we are??
?You have ten minutes,? Steve said, and shut the door.
?Good morning, Georgia,? I muttered. ?Right. Buffy, get out. We?ll see you in the boardroom. Shaun, put clothes on.? I raked a hand through my hair. ?I?m going to wash up.? One good thing about going to bed straight from a cleanup operation: Even after six hours of sleeping and sweating into my clothes, they were still cleaner than they?d been when I bought them. After you?ve been sterilized seven times for live virus particles, dirt doesn?t stand much of a chance.
?Georgia?? Buffy began.