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I entered al authority to access all files stored on our servers, just in case of situations like this The document flashed open It was a read-only copy of the actual docu to the header information, by the Meissonier family lawyer back in Berkeley For our purposes, it was more than sufficient

Shaun slid out of his chair and stepped up behinda hand on my shoulder Buffy left the bulk of her personal possessions to her family, her written works and literary estate to the site as a whole, and her nonfiction—which is to say, her personal files—to Shaun and ht to use her data howeverfit There was no mention of a successor, but that didn’twe needed to know

“Son of a bitch,” Ito die over this And she knew she was doing the wrong thing, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself She knew”

“How can you say that?” asked Rick

Shaun answered for , “She left us her personal files Why would she do that if she didn’t knoe’d need so that’s in them? Maybe she felt like she had to do this, but that doesn’t e ”

“Rick, I need you to find a new head for the Fictionals” I hit Print and closed the file “That’s your assignht now Well, that and the DAR report Shaun, I’ to need to do a news report on what happened, but—”

“But the bulk of it’s an Irwin thing Got it” Shaun squeezedto his own machine “What about Buffy’s files? The server she told us to access?”

“I’d really like that caet that out of the way first But yeah, the files I’ll head over there now”

“George—”

“Just be quiet while I deal with this,” I said, alan to type

After the End Times maintains two file servers for employee use One, the so-called “public” server, is open to uploads and downloads by every blogger we eer even remotely affiliated with the site If you do any work for us at all, we open an account for you on the public server, and those accounts are rarely revoked unless there’s active abuse There’s just no point, especially since we have a tendency to reuse freelancers Why burn goodwill on a server purge? More i your IT person to set up the saer—if we live that long—we’ll need to reconsider that policy, but it’s served us well so far

The private server is a lot more locked down There are presently seven people whose accounts include access to that server, and one of thedalene from the Fictionals; Shaun and Becks fros, fron that still need to have their facts verified That server is as hack-proof as it can be because one unverified story leaked under h to seriously cripple, if not kill, the news section of our site

The news is serious business If you’re not willing to treat it that way, you shouldn’t be anywhere near it

I opened an FTPand fed in the address for our secure server When it prosea, followed by the password February-4-29 Shaun and Rick abandoned their workstations andas the screen flickered once, twice, and then rolled as a video player seized control ofto stop the progra, and so I settled back in my seat, comforted by the presence ofby the day, but the three of us were all that we had left

The screen stopped rolling as the much-beloved face of Buffy Meissonier becaed on the counter of our van, wearing her patchwork vest and a tattered broo it the day we left Oklaho to one another She’d wanted us to give it up Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say Well, it was a little late now, but at least I understood why she’d wanted so badly to uided way, to save our lives

Looking into the camera, Buffy smiled “Hey,” she said Her voice and expression combined to paint the picture of a woh that she was no longer sure she could be patched back together again “I guess you guys are watching this Schr&ou—if you can see it, it’s too late for you to tell me what the picture quality is like Isn’t that always the way? It’s uess that means I won’t have to live with the reviews, either I should get down to business, though, because if you’re watching this, you probably don’t have ette Marie Meissonier, license nuht-four-one-two-zero-seven I a to testify that I have willingly and knowingly participated in a ca with ia Carolyn Mason As a part of this can, I have fed news reports and private feeds to third parties, with the understanding that they would use this inforn of Senator Peter Ry devices in private spaces, with the understanding that the material thus collected would be used to further undern”