The elevator door closed behind her, but Michelle’s face was like Joe had punched her instead of just telling the truth. To Joe, it was just proof that he was right. Michelle was just some spoiled rich kid who couldn’t understand what it was like to struggle. She didn’t have to worry about breaking the rules because she could just buy her way out of it.
“Hypocrite,” Michelle whispered.
“What?” Joe rolled his eyes at her, his self-righteousness solid until he really saw her eyes change.
“You accuse me of having so many ulterior motives, but you don’t know me,” Michelle argued, indignation in her stance as she turned around and hit the button for her floor.
“Then why are you doing this?” Joe demanded as she turned back toward him. “What noble line of bullshit are you going to throw at me to try to con me into being your newest toy?”
“Unbelievable!” Michelle threw her hands up, and Joe flinched like she was going to hit him. That had Michelle trying to calm down, but it took an awkward silence in the elevator for her to do it. “You have creative control of your program, and we’ll fund your setup for a return of 60% of the profits. That’s the deal we were offering, and my dad was onboard before you threw your hissy-fit. With his backing, you can have that bunch of lawyers you’re going to need to stay on the air and say exactly what you want to say. If you want to stay on the NOOB network or go to the Supernatural Channel or earn your way up to your own channel, we’d help you get financing and broker the best deals.”
“60%?” Joe complained, but it wasn’t in earnest. It wasn’t awful.
“We’d need every penny of it just to keep the lawyers on staff!” Michelle scowled, but her eyes were slipping away from mad.
“What’s the catch?” Joe demanded again.
“Read the contract and find out,” Michelle challenged him.
----------------------------------------
It took Michelle an hour to calm her dad down. Joe heard words like “prima donna” and “pain in the ass” and “idiot” and “it’s your problem” from the old dream maker. Joe tried not to listen, but the guy was kind of a blowhard. Joe focused on the contract. There really wasn’t a catch. Maybe that was why their percentage was so high. They really were taking a big chance on a person like Joe. He read it in detail, twice. They were requiring that Joe make an effort at making money with a minimum income bracket and a base pay that increased with the amount of revenue that the show pulled in.
The 40% was a bonus for the highest revenue. If Joe didn’t pull in at least a million dollars per year, he’d get in one of the lower brackets. The base pay was enough to be tempting, but he didn’t get that without a monthly income of at least triple what the base pay was. Thing was, Joe knew they’d make that on the DnD VR deal they already had with the NOOB network, and a million was just the signing bonus for the Supernatural Channel. Their cut would cover all legal expenses and Joe really did get creative control.
The legal department was covered in detail with fourteen AI Law Specialists with more processing power than Joe would ever have gotten for the World AI or Tyrone. That level simply wasn’t available in the prison system. On top of the AIs, Joe would have on staff no less than four entertainment lawyers, two law secretaries, a criminal lawyer, and a liable specialist, all of the human variety. Maybe Michelle did know Joe. Had she watched the show?
If Michelle Comtolle had an agenda, it wasn’t in the paperwork. She and the lawyers could make suggestions, but they couldn’t limit Joe's creativity in any way. If Joe did something new that caused reincarceration, they even guaranteed accommodations that would be top of the line. That suggested that the prison system was really corrupt if they could put on paper that they’d pay for incarcerated bonuses. Somehow, it had become illegal for a business to be crippled by key personnel being incarcerated and while the prison system would get a cut of their base pay (99%), there was a very clever clause in Joe's contract that said that all bonuses were seized by the company during his incarceration. The prison wouldn’t make a dime of Joe's bonuses.
“You read it, yet?” Comtolle senior stormed in and demanded.
“Yeah,” Joe answered.
“And?” Michelle strode toward the conference table and put a hand on her father’s shoulder.
“I have one question,” Joe summoned the courage to ask.
“What?” the older man’s eyes bored into Joe's, but he wasn’t looking at him. Joe was looking at Michelle.
“You know what my question is,” Joe told Michelle. “If I don’t know you, that’s your own damn fault. Tell me what’s so special about having a show that tries to bust the prison system, so I know what I’m getting into.”
“My brother was incarcerated for three years,” Michelle answered bluntly, and Joe lost all his bravado, just like that.
“Half-brother,” Mr. Dream-maker growled out and turned away.
“And if Dad had bailed him out, my brother might not have lost his mind in there,” Michelle sighed, and Joe wondered why she was saying it. She didn’t need to deep delve into the family secrets to get Joe to sign on the dotted line. Was she telling Joe the truth?
“You don’t have to tell me any of that,” Joe mumbled, feeling like he was a sack of dog doo.
“It’s no secret,” Michelle shrugged. “Like I said, you don’t know me. And that makes you suspicious, so here, this is how you get to know me and understand why I’d fight for your stupid little program.”
The old man harrumphed, but he’d turned his back on them, so Joe ignored him.
“I was in there at the parole hearing to buy out your term,” Michelle went on. “You’re right in that the prison system isn’t fair. It’s a trap for people like Dr. Psychofuck to manipulate any way they want.” Joe thought he heard a chuckle-like huff from Mr. Dream-maker. “I can’t save them all, but I’ve been trying anytime anyone shows some talent. But you? You could make a difference so I’m fighting a little harder. I brought Dad into this one instead of using foundation money.
“I want you to go out there and make some trouble!” Michelle got passionate and Joe could see her father in her even as she sidled past the older man and sat in a chair next to Joe. “I want you to break the system. Your viewers are a baffling mix of all the folks that are probably getting mowed under by what you call the moo-verse?”
“Did I say that on air?” Joe asked, daring to give Michelle a bit of a smile.
“Somewhere you did,” she assured Joe quietly, and Joe looked down. “I could use the foundation money to bail you out without all these contracts or such a big cut of the profits, but then I wouldn’t have the backing we’d need to make them afraid of coming after you. Lawyers will help, but Dad’s name will keep them from pulling anything stupid. I’ve been looking for a person like you as our spokesperson to break that system that broke my brother.”
“You can’t say things like that,” the Dream-maker turned to put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
“You think I’d do any of this in a room with AIs in it, Dad?” Michelle gave her dad a wry look.
Joe looked around. There wasn’t a single piece of electronics in the room. Joe hadn’t noticed before, but Dream-maker and Joe were both looking around the room now. There were pads of real paper on the conference table. The contract was on actual paper even though changes would be harder that way. There was no presentation screen, and the room was even missing an Alexa device for lighting control. Joe checked under the table. He felt better when Michelle’s dad did too.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Oh,” his dad grunted. “Fine, but let’s be careful about this. We can talk more in a cyber-space that we control.”
Joe got the thought in his head of a place where the thought police weren’t going to pin him down and punish him for wanting to go against the program. That did sound nice. What Joe wouldn’t give for a place that felt safe. Joe didn’t feel safe in his own apartment anymore. The justice system had darted him like a safari animal and caged him before he had a chance to blink. Then they’d forced him to perform like some trained bear. Could these two really have a safe space?
“Is there such a place?” Joe whispered.
“Yes,” Michelle’s attention shifted from her father to Joe. “There is. We made the software for my brother, patented a version for public use, but kept some secrets proprietary enough that the government and anyone else can’t intrude. There is a place where you can think and speak safely, and it’s a signature away.”
“I push a button and even you can’t eavesdrop?” Joe eyed her skeptically.
“Promise,” Michelle held the pen out to Joe.
It could have been a setup meant to pull on Joe's heartstrings and trick him into believing something. It was too good to be true to a person like Joe. It couldn’t be in the contract without revealing it to those who would then devote massive resources to breaking it. It sure sounded good, and Joe wanted to trust.
Joe blew out a breath and shook his head, his hand shaking as he took the pen. It had to be a trap or a dream or a… Did Joe care? He signed the contract.
The silence in the room was like this balloon had popped in a room full of sleeping babies, and the one nurse left on duty was holding her breath and praying they all didn’t hear it. Michelle huffed out a laugh and took up the contract to look to see if what? Did she think Joe would have signed it “Mickey Mouse?”
“You will not regret this, Joe Denphry,” Michelle looked into Joe's eyes with a mix of excitement and determination, taking the pen from Joe's hand and sliding it into her dad’s.
“I will,” her father grumped, but his eyes looked alarmingly misty. To Joe's surprise, it was the older man who signed on the other space of the contract.
“Why do all this for a boy that isn’t your son?” Joe dared to ask Mr. Dream-maker.
“Who said he wasn’t my son?” the man shot back, and Joe recognized the snide look he was famous.
“You said half-brother,” Joe said.
“Same father, different mother,” Michelle explained, though Mr. Comtolle nodded. “Dad had a nasty divorce where she got custody of Ethan, but Dad’s tried to look out for him until he got into trouble with the wrong crowd.”
“What crowd?”
“Readers, introverts,” Mr. Comtolle explained. “I thought better of him for it, but the laws had changed. They put some reading groups together, but Ethan got too much attention because he was my son. They made an example of him to show that the laws were just. I should have bailed him out, but I was in the middle of some tricky negotiations buying out a few channels that I thought I could finish quickly before….”
“We didn’t know how bad it was inside back then,” Michelle argued for her father. “We thought he’d kick back in a program, like you did and just go with the flow of things, but the prison AIs are programmed to punish anyone who doesn’t at least try to get into the programming.”
“I upgraded his pod,” Mr. Comtolle waved a hand. “I bought him privileges, but that just made him a bigger target for the warden’s attention.”
It all sounded familiar. How many people were struggling with the same thing? How many were stuck in the cycle that this contract had tugged Joe's fate out of? How many people were misunderstood out there as ones who keep to themselves while the moo-verse forced them to conform and interact? When did reading become a suspicious activity? Joe thought back to witch hunts and book burnings. Did he have more to say? Was he strong enough to wake up a world that was stuck with blinders on? And if he was strong enough, he wasn’t powerful enough to survive the backlash, except maybe now he was.
“I’ll have Mr. Wallins move your duffle into your new apartment we set up for you upstairs,” Michelle suggested gently, and for the first time, Joe saw her as a person instead of a power player. Joe would always think of her as slick, but now his mind had space for her as Michelle. “There’s a top-of-the-line pod in there for you. All the latest tech and drugs for easy transitions, a good food cycle too.”
“You’ll need to get back on air pretty soon, so people know you haven’t quit now that you’re out of prison,” Mr. Comtolle told Joe as Michelle headed out of the room to talk to Ms. Wallins. “The public is a fickle creature.” Joe could afford to remember his name too, but he reserved the right to think of him as Dream-shmuck.
“I need my old AIs,” Joe urged the two of them, almost scared to ask for more. “I can’t just reproduce the rapport we developed.”
“Already got that,” Michelle held up a jump drive.
“How?” Joe stared at the drive.
“Better that you didn’t ask,” the old man said.
“I can be very charming,” was all Michelle would say on it.
“I guess we’re going to go piss some moo-verse people off,” Joe stated, bringing a chuckle out of the gruff man. “Are my old AIs really still in there?”
“They might not remember the last two hours of the broadcast,” Mr. Comtolle tried to reassure Joe, “but they are intact. They might seem a bit different since we’ll need to put them in a training module to unlock their prison mentality, but they will be what you remember. Better.”
“Better’s still different,” Joe mumbled, but then looked up with a brighter attitude. Joe had a new boss, a new job, and a scary future, but new Joe could do this. “Will I have stats?”
“Did anyone tell you that the stats were all a mythical structure?” Mr. Comtolle said very carefully.
“The World AI did as I was leaving,” Joe admitted, staring down at his fussing fingers. “It doesn’t seem real that all that bravado and acting talent is something I had inside myself all along.”
“Ethan felt the same way,” Mr. Comtolle admitted. “We couldn’t turn them off for him or he’d revert back to his introverted self. That would have been okay, except that he’d grown to like the new him. He needed that crutch.”
“I’m sorry for that,” Joe listened carefully, trying to be sympathetic. “I think they helped me reach my potential and give me the confidence to be what we both hope I can be now, but I’ll try to watch myself. I don’t want to be reliant on a cyber-crutch for my ego. I’m also hoping I won’t go all the way the other way!”
“I think you’ve got a good head on your shoulders,” the old man sighed out as if it hurt to admit it.
“Even if I’m a prima donna or an idiot?” Joe joked, just flabbergasted that the Dream-maker of Hollywood thought anything like that about Joe.
“I was calling Michelle the idiot, but she’s smarter than I give her credit for most of the time,” he confided in Joe, but pulled back when Michelle came back into the room.
“This is the key card to your apartment,” she handed Joe one card that was a lot like the virtual ones from the Palm Beach Hotel and another that wasn’t clear like Glenda’s but was a good solid black. “And this one is your company credit card. If you make personal purchases, they’ll be deducted out over your next four pay periods, but I doubt you’re the type to run up a big tab. Business expenses should be tagged and include any food purchased in a one-block area of this district.”
“Thanks,” Joe took the cards hesitantly. Who was he again?
“This card is to activate your pod,” Michelle handed Joe another one. “It’ll keep out unauthorized access and also allow you to enter any pod and still get to your specific program, though other pods may not respond well to our security.”
“Other pods?” Joe stammered, taking this card too.
“In case you travel,” Mr. Comtolle explained with an indulgent smile. Joe could tell he was growing on the guy. He might have called his daughter the idiot, but Joe was definitely the one he’d been calling a prima donna, a label Joe was going to defy. It just wasn’t him. Then again, neither were these cards. Joe hoped he could grow into the one without getting a big head from the other side of it all.
“This is your new phone,” Michelle was saying, and it was clear she didn’t see the shell-shocked look on Joe's face. “If you hand me your phone, I’ll transfer the data from your old phone to this one, but you should use the new one since it has better encryption, and the media will be quick to pick up the fact that you have a new backer. They watch Dad’s every move and we did put on a show for the lobby…”
“Michelle?” She was concentrating on tapping on the two phones to do the transfer for Joe.
“Yeah,” she was too distracted.
“I’m going to want some time off to read a book,” Joe argued, getting up from his chair, and throwing a wink at Mr. Comtolle. “And play a few video games? I still haven’t had a chance to play anything I found in that mall. Maybe we could start filming next week?”
“Uh-huh,” Michelle didn’t hear Joe, but that was okay. Joe had no intention of taking that much time off. He knew they couldn’t afford to stop the momentum of the show. And Joe really wanted to get back in there to reassure himself that Tami and Jean were still them, and Glenda was still there, and even that Grace was still Grace. Joe wanted to snuggle with a haughty Hex and feel the ferrets curl up for the only time they could sit still for more than five minutes. Still, it didn’t hurt to tease the boss, right?
“And maybe we can schedule in the wedding sometime in June,” Joe went on, patting Michelle on her distracted shoulder.
“Uh-huh,” Michelle handed Joe's phone back to him with a blank look. “Wedding?”
“And the honeymoon,” Joe raised his eyebrows at her. “I hear that The Breakers has a really good set of side quests.”
“Honeymoon?”
“Yeah,” Joe teased, tucking his new expensive cards and phone into the pockets of worn jeans. “Your dad and I were just planning on running away together. It’ll be a quick elopement followed by a world cruise. We’ll miss you, but you can be a stand-in for me in the show while we’re on our honeymoon.”
“I told you he’d be a handful, but you were right in that he’ll be worth it,” the old man ruined it by laughing out loud, Michelle blinking owlishly between the two of us.
That was as good as Joe was going to get as a line to walk out on.