Sebastian drummed his fingertips on the folding table and looked out over a sea of waving hands and flashing cameras. He nodded at the reporter he hated the least– September Fields, the daughter of January Fields, CEO of Goliath Industries– and waited for the noise to die down. Sebastian loved the attention, but when it came to press conferences and television interviews, you never knew what kind of nosy questions could be thrown at you. Sebastian didn’t want to talk about his dark past or his favorite cereal. He was skilled at evading questions, but even so, talking to the media always took longer than he would have liked.
September raised her hand with a question, and he focused on controlling the chaos in the room. Half the reporters fell silent. “Is it true you were kidnapped?” she asked.
Sebastian leaned back in his chair. “Kidnapped! I leave for one day, and this is what people are saying? What would Corver City do without me?”
The reporters doubled down on their notebooks and microphones, capturing Sebastian’s every word. One of the cameramen trained his screen so that the faces of Sebastian and the host of Corver City Daily were front and center. Sebastian couldn’t remember the host’s name, but it didn’t matter… he was the only one whose voice had any power in the room.
“So what happened yesterday?” someone yelled.
“One of my drones malfunctioned and crashed into the roof. The alarms went off and a cleanup crew confirmed my security measures weren’t compromised. I left for a business meeting with my dear friend Jack, and then I came back to a DISASTER.” He shook his head. “If you ask me, Bash Industries needs a hard reset on security leadership. Can we start the show?”
The host next to Sebastian jumped like he was just waking up from a nap. “Oh yes, we’re on in five if all the media correspondents would vacate the room.”
“Leave,” Sebastian dismissed everyone with a wave of his hand, and like magic the journalists and photographers packed up their notebooks and left. Only a few cameramen stayed behind, prepping to begin Corver City Evening after a commercial break.
A makeup artist dusted powder over Sebastian’s face, and then the interview began. He re-explained his cover story in a clipped tone, reassuring the audience that only ONE of his drones malfunctioned, and he would have an elite new security team selected by this afternoon. The interview moved at turtle-speed because the host insisted on talking about Bash Industries and the popularity of Sebastian’s Memory Maker.
Then the host did something unexpected. He played a video for Sebastian: surveillance footage from outside Heathrow Heights. It was an image of two people sprinting down the steps toward a police car in the street, with a man shooting at them from behind. A long tan coat and a flash of red hair– it was Chase and Agent X, pursued by Chief Damien Dart! Sebastian cursed under his breath.
“Do you know these fugitives?” the host asked expectantly.
Sebastian was now faced with an impossible choice. He could either publicly accuse Chase and Agent X of infiltrating his headquarters and chuck them in jail, OR he could exonerate his rescuers. After all, they had been the ones to free him from certain death. He’d been hoping to quietly throw Chase behind bars and get rid of him for good… but Agent X would figure out it was him, and she would never willingly answer his questions.
“Those are loyal members of my security team,” said Sebastian. “They were taking care of an emergency in Valentine Village. I’ll have a word with Chief Dart. If you ask me, he’s too trigger-happy, and the last thing Corver City needs is a corrupt cop running the show. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other matters to attend to.”
He stood up from the table and glided from the room, not even waiting for a commercial break. Time to give Janelle a piece of his mind.