September 8, 2022 at 9:32 AM

Center City District, Philadelphia, PA

Fox Waters had expected there to be more people who had turned out for the press conference. Instead, he found the room almost empty as he strolled in. They were in a conference room on the third floor, one of the almost seven floors that the accounting firm took up. Fox stood to the back with a handful of other press but kept to himself. While they had their microphones, recorders, and other tools of the trade, Fox only had his phone and a notepad. He looked like he belonged here: he had the technology, his clothes were clean, and he'd shaved (mostly) and combed his hair. But inside, he felt like a fraud.

The conference room door opened as a reporter that Fox knew stepped into the room. Looking like he'd just walked off the football field, he was all classic American good looks, smile, and swagger. Spying Fox, he grinned and beelined for him. "Well, I'll be," he said in a southern accent, though Fox knew that he had been born far above the Mason-Dixon line.

"Michael James, as I live and breathe," Fox replied with an actual Georgian accent, putting out his hand in an attempt to be civil.

"I thought you were dead," Michael said, not taking his hand.

"The reports about my demise were greatly exaggerated."

James cocked his head to the side. "Maybe. But not the reports of your career's death."

Fox blinked for a moment. This was how the game was played. He had just been out of it for a while. "I'm still reporting--"

"For a blog--"

"--a blog that gets over a hundred thousand readers a month--"

"--that you publish."

Fox paused. "I'm still doing what I do."

"Are you still making up sources so that you can publish shit that people--"

"I never fabricated sources."

"You're former employers said otherwise."

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"My former employees had it wrong."

"That's what they all say," he told Fox with a wink that basically said, You're such a fake!

"Keep blogging, bro," he said with a laugh, punched Fox's shoulder lightly, and left his side to go stand with a few other reporters that came in.

Fox watched the man motion towards him, glance his way, and laugh. He did nothing. He just stood there, rooted in fear of doing anything that he might do or say would just put him in a worse position. If he was going to get his old job back at the newspaper, he had to learn to play nice with the other reporters. He had to play the game. A game created by jackals who wanted to rip open each other's throats. But this was the game.

"Don't pay them any attention," a small voice said beside him.

Standing next to Fox was a man a foot shorter, wiry to the point of emaciation, and with glasses so thick you could focus on planets on the other side of the galaxy. People called him the Mouse. Not Fox, though.

"Hi, Ralph," Fox said, turning with a smile.

Ralph studied the scene before him. "Fox, I missed you. There are too many wolves and not enough sheep in this business."

"I like to think I was a wolf," Fox said, watching the podium where people in suits were gathering.

Fox saw Ralph turn to him out of his periphery. "The man who used to write about morality in technology? No, my friend, you were a sheep wearing a wolf's skin."

Fox felt that to the core right now.

"That being said, why are you here? This doesn't seem to be something technology-related."

More Suits were following in and creating a wall at the podium. A unified front in the shitshow that was about to happen.

"I've stepped away from that as my focus. It's not like people ever heeded my warnings as new AIs were born left and right. I've been focusing on the growing unhoused in the city."

Fox motioned to the Suits. "They are about to lay off almost 90% of their workforce. This is the sixth company to do that in the past four months. I've met people who were part of the first and now find themselves living on the streets."

Ralph turned his head slightly. "It's the economy--"

"--cost of living, current hiring trends, housing prices, skilled labor force, everything." Fox finished for him. "I've heard it all. People are getting fired and finding that there's suddenly no safety net beneath them."

"This is nothing new," Ralph said with a shrug.

Fox glanced at the podium where one of the Suits was stepping up to. The man's shoulders were down-turned. He looked tired. Maybe he was a sheep in a wolf's suit, as well.

Fox glanced back at Ralph. "Just because it's not new doesn't mean someone shouldn't be shouting to the heavens about it."

"You always loved a crusade," Ralph said with a grin.

"Who doesn't?" Fox returned the grin.

"Thank you for coming here today," the man from the podium began. He put on a smile that, to Fox, looked forced. "Forge Systems is happy to announce that as of this morning, we have been acquired by Messier Catalog..."