Paul Black - The Presence

Praise for Paul Black

an imaginatively skilled story teller of the first order

~ Midwest Book Review

Mr. Black has quite an imagination

~ Dallas Morning News

Black is one of those writers that we who worship this genre look for every time

~ John Strange, the cityweb.com

TH EPR E S E N C E

By Paul Black

Published by Novel Instincts Publishing. A Smashwords edition.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Programmable Matter is a trademark of The Programmable Matter Corporation

Copyright 2010 by Paul Black

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

ISBN: 9780972600743 Library of Congress: 2010934982

1. THE GREATER GOOD

Deja?!

Deja Moriarty sensed her bosss beckon somewhere at the periphery of her consciousness. She left her virtual researching and peeled the Netgear from her head. Its microfiber-optics uncoupled into techno dreadlocks that glowed prismatic at their ends. She cautiously peered over her cubicle.

Ah, there you are! Bishop Greens anger was clearly in professional check because Lifes a Bitch had dropped to a 22.0 share in the weekly ratings, now making it the second-most-watched program in AztecaNets prime-time lineup. Which meant the second-most-watched program on the planet. Which also meant his bid for the old Kennedy compound, out in the Hamptons, would have to hold at its present number. Since his earnings were directly tied to the Net ratings, the people who labored under Green had come to accept his emotional swings as part of the package. There had been other success stories, but nothing compared to Greens. His prolific output of hit programming not only exceeded shareholder expectations, but also garnered him accolades usually bestowed on producers twice his age. Bishop Green was definitely AztecaNets undisputed it boy.

Deja passed a hand through her electric blond hair and strutted toward him with all the confidence her new senior producer title could bring.

Be a dear and get Sothebys on the line for me. And if youre headed that way ... Green raised his coffee cup.

What kind of sugar day are we having? Deja asked, irritated with his lack of acceptance of her new role.

Green thought for a second, then a sly grin grew across his face. Triple.

Oh! One of those days.

Yes, it is, Green said, then suddenly shifted mien and announced to anyone in earshot, and if we dont get Lifes a Bitch back up to number one, therell be a housecleaning like youve never seen!

Lifes a Bitch was Greens brainchild and had perched at the top of the ratings for over a year. Its concept was simple: destroy an ordinary life as a ruthlessly brutal world looks on. Nanocameras disguised as houseflies provided a world audience with an unfettered view of the destruction, while AztecaNets patents on the cameras technology ensured its reign as the leader in reality-based programming. It also gave new meaning to an old phrase.

In the beginning, the plan was to leave individuals destroyed. But after the pilot seasons first unsuspecting contestant, Leonard Smotts, decided to reduce himself to a puddle of matter by eating the butt end of a Light-Force, AztecaNets lawyers decided that revealing the prank and restoring a persons life might be the preferred option. The finale had been completely reworked with a digitally processed Leonard morphed into a happy ending. Litigation with his family was still pending, but if the numbers held, final payoff to keep the Smott familys contractual silence would be a drop in the bucket compared to the revenues from Lifes a Bitch .

Three sugars, please, Deja ordered into the system pad at the snack dispenser, but then thought better. Wait! Make that four ... The dispensers door slid aside and presented a steaming ceramic mug of coffee, specially blended to Bishop Greens genetic profile. Only she had access to his codes.

Deja had worked with Green as his assistant since his producer beginnings on the soapy Net drama All of Their Days , where he would have probably gone unnoticed if it werent for the sudden exit of its head producer to the Chelsea Clinton Clinic. When Green took control of All of Their Days , it was floundering somewhere near the bottom of the ratings. And since the suits at AztecaNet considered it fodder for a demographic comprised mainly of those left floundering by the economic shift of the Biolution, they never noticed Greens decision to tweak the formula when he fired all the writers.

Green felt the audience of the Net was better suited to dictating the comings and goings of the simple folk of Waterville. By switching All of Their Days to an interactive format, he created a promotion managers wet dream and offered weekly contests for the best scripts, which, conveniently, were judged by Green and his favorite assistant.

Slowly, ATDs ratings began to climb as Green and Deja allowed a tasteless, insomniac audience to drive the daily actions of their shows characters. Being a late Friday night product meant talent was barely C level, comprised mostly of young actors who would do practically anything for the mere possibility of Network exposure. So when Deja presented Green with a script written by a particularly horny housewife from Manchester, England, who suggested the shows leads go ahead and give in to their characters carnal passions, Green announced to his stunned associates there had been a shift in direction for their little corner of the Net.

Since the shows leads were sleeping with each other off camera anyway, the two actors merged business with pleasure and gave their worldwide fan base a season they would never forget. It was weeks before Network censors caught on, but by then All of Their Days was in the Top 10. It became an underground hit that redefined the late-night soap genre and catapulted Green to phenom status with many of the boardroom suits. It also brought Green to the attention of AztecaNets parent company, Grupo TVid Azteca, and its chairman, Alberto Goya.

Deja handed Green his coffee. I need to show you this bit of info Ive dug up on Billy Bob

Ray, he corrected, reviewing his Netpad. Billy Ray .

Well, whatever his name is, our little Texas boy has a whole other offshore account hes been diverting gobs of credit to for the last 10 months.

Green looked up mid-sip and raised an eyebrow. Mistress?

Oh, yeah .

Green smiled around the edge of his cup and took a gulp. Thats why I love you, Dej. You always have your priorities in the right place. He turned and headed toward studio 2b, but stopped and glanced back. He pointed with the cup. Oh, and ah, nice coffee, love ... just right.

* * *

Good night, Miss Moriarty.

Deja looked up at the intern.

Working late?

Deja grinned tersely and returned to her Netport, its cerulean glow the sole light in her cubical. The kid sulked away.

You alone? Sonny Chacos image filled the screen.

Deja glanced about. Yeah, its just me and the data.

You running that security program I gave you?

She rolled her eyes. Yes, Sonny, I am.

Okay, dont get upset.

I dont like all this spy business.

Chacos holoimage quivered out from Dejas Netport as he sat in the cramped confines of his office, deep in the lower levels of the National Security Agency. He relaxed and gave Deja that grin, just like he did the first time they had met at the National Netcasters Convention a year earlier.