Connected

Press Conference

Three days later...

Diane Mogwai straightened herself up,cleared her throat, and recited her speech. She'd been standing there in front of that mirror for over three hours.

"Citizens of Neo City. Today I will--Shall--fuck!"

She cussed, smacking herself, leaving behind a red handprint against her cheek. "Again! No fuck ups Diane."

"Citizens of Neo City. Today I shall put to rest any concerns with regards to the Cyber Terrorist group known as The Dysko Club as well as telling you how we here at Mogwai Corporation plan to go forth with apprehending and bringing these terrorists to justice."

Her room had changed. No longer was she standing in front of a mirror, reciting her speech. She stood at a glass stand in front of a crowd numbering in the hundreds of thousands, flashes of camera lenses and questions yelled by journalists would have overwhelmed the average individual.

But not Diane Mogwai. She had attended such events countless times in her career. Only this time, she wasn't advertising a product, she was making a promise.

"Miss Mogwai!"

"Yes." She said, pointing at a journalist in the crowd.

She thought he was quite the cute one. Wearing a pair of glasses and an average blue shirt, chocolate hair running down his shoulders. She wondered how great he would look without his clothes on. Diane made up her mind that she would find where he lived and what company he worked for, perhaps pay him a visit in the future.

"Miss Mogwai, I'll ask the question on everyone's lips...Is the video footage leaked by Grin and his associates about Mogwai Corporation selling weapons to street gangs in Neo City true?"

Diane bit her lip, and for a moment she couldn't tell whether she bit it for him or if she was struggling to answer the question.

"It is true. However, Mogwai Corporation had good reason. We at Mogwai believe that our citizens should have weaponry to defend themselves with. Did we sell them to street gangs within the video? Yes. But we do not discriminate. We sell you, the good citizens of Neo city, arms to defend yourself with as well don't we? We're simply giving them what we give everyone. A means of protection. The video the Hacktivist group showed was just a piss poor attempt at stopping us from providing you, the fair citizens of Neo City, the protection and right to arms that you all deserve. By painting us as illegal arms dealers rather than weapon manufacturers."

The citizens of Neo City all chattered, but she could tell that all of them were wrapped around her finger now. All of them had been pulled into her ploy. Her business was safe.

She ran a database scan on the journalist,finding his name and address. Diane had made up her mind that she would be finding him later tonight.

"Next question."

"Miss Mogwai!'

"Miss Mogwai!"

A flood of questions, a plethora of people screaming her name.

Once again, Diane was used to this, but in a context far different to the situation she was currently in. She was used to people screaming her name within the underground club she would visit every Saturday night.

"Yes? You there."

"Miss Mogwai, what are the measures Mogwai Corporation are taking to bring down the Cyber terrorists?"

"We are currently working on putting together an anti Cyber terrorism unit who  can--who will--find and bring the group to justice. We are fighting fire with fire."

It was the truth. She had taken this as a new resort. Diane was losing billions in Tiles and she was losing them fast. She had announced that she had a new product on the line that would revolutionize warfare.

It just so happened that her product quite literally had legs and had somehow been avoiding the woman for the past few weeks. Trying to break the doctor had yielded little results.

He was as stubborn as she remembered. She'd broken Roland's fingers, shattered his shoulder blades, had some of her toughest units knock out a few of his teeth. Still, he refused to tell her where his Synthetic had run off to.

Zephyr 30-03-22. She could be using all of her time and resources to find it. Instead she was expending time and losing money trying to find some blackhat hacker.

Roland insisted that the robot had a will of its own, that it had run away and gone where it wanted to, not where he had programmed it to run. He built the damn thing. It wasn't born, it was made. No man made object was capable of emotions or having a conscience. The doctor was deluded. Giving his project a brain? Impossible. How would he work out grey matter? How would it dream? Feel emotion without coding?

That robot could be weaponized into the next greatest thing that could give Mogwai Corporation the funding to take the next step in warfare-space travel.

Yet there she was, answering questions about a hacker group that threatened to ruin her entire companies work force. She'd swayed the public this time. It was easy enough, they were the public. They ate up bullshit like kids ate cake at a birthday party. They believed anything anyone with a big name said without question.

She did have a weakness though, one that terrified her. She could sway the public about guns easily. Their whole operation was guns. The problem would be if these jackass script kiddies somehow managed to find the other things she did, like her Saturday night outings, they could severely damage her reputation, and in turn, her companies.

"Miss Mogwai!'

"Yes dear." She said with a fake smile that she had learned master over years of doing these fucking conferences.

"Do you have any knowledge as to what happened with the disappearance of Doctor Roland Morgan from Akido Corporation?"

She hesitated.

Who was this woman? After searching through several databases she couldn't even come up with an identity. No ID? Impossible. She couldn't cause a scene. She couldn't show any signs of being nervous. This was being streamed live across all major platforms and broadcasted by the broadcast drones who hovered silently in the air.

"I don't have any knowledge about Doctor Roland? Isn't he the Doctor who claimed he made the next big leap in bionics?"

The crowd looked around at one another, seemingly confused. They fell silent, confused at the sudden question.

"I hadn't mentioned he made the leap in bionics...Mogwai corporation also revealed that they had a new project just a few days after his disappearance isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?"

Who is this little whore?

"I don't know where the Doctor is. However, our relationship with Akido Corporation is a solid one, and if we can in any way help in finding their employee, we will. Do you have any other questions-"

The woman who had asked had vanished, no longer within the mass of people who surrounded the stage.

Diane clenched her fists, trying to calm down.

Someone knew about the Doctor...someone was looking for him...

Stay calm Diane. Stay calm...

She took a breath, calming herself.

Get through this interview, and I'll figure the shit out later.

She composed herself. She wasn't about to let some girl get to her. She'd find her. No doubt about that. But for now, she needed to put this PR nightmare to rest.

"Next Question!"