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“Excellent” I picked up my PDA, which had been cued to an, and tapped Send “Please check your e- with a receipt confir that your final paycheck has been deposited to your bank account Due to California’s at-will status and the fact that you’re all employed under hazard restrictions, I’ive you any notice Sorry about that”

The conference exploded as everyone started talking at once, voices overlapping into a senseless barrage of sound Almost everyone Mahir, Becks, Alaric, and Dave stayed silent, all of the the conference online that so on

Shaun, Rick, and I sat quietly, waiting for the furor to die down It took a while The Irwins shouted the loudest, while the Newsies shouted the least; they kneell enough to know that if I was supporting a grand gesture—and this was a grand gesture—there had to be a reason They trusted h to wait and see what it was Good teaan to quiet, saying, “None of you work for us None of you have any legal ties to keep you here If you choose to log off at any point during the next five minutes, I’ll see to it that you have a letter of reco that your value as a journalist is entirely beyondanother job in your life because I’ll pull strings to get you hired, I’ll make sure you’re settled, and then I’ll write you off This is the all-or-nothing moment, folks: Walk away now if you want to walk, but if you do, you’re walking for keeps”

There was a long silence, broken when Andrea asked, “Can you tell us why you’re doing this?”

“Buffy’s dead, and noe’re fired,” interjected Alaric “You don’t think these things ht be connected?”

“I just—”

“Not very well, you didn’t”

“Do me a favor, dears, and shut up so our for me a headache”

“Thank you, Maggie” I looked aroundeach videoin turn “Andrea, the answer to e’re doing this is a siated to stay with this site any longer than you already have I’m sure you’ve all heard about the call the CDC received, reporting our deaths?” Murreement “It was received before we placed the call to tell them ere still alive Someone shot out our tires, there was no one else on the road, and yet somebody told the CDC that we’d been killed”

“Do you have time stamps on that?” asked Alaric, suddenly alert

“We do,” I confirlanced away fro the arrival of the appropriate files, and quieted “Buffy didn’t die in an accident; Buffy was ht they’d killed us too There’s a lot ht now: Buffy was murdered Her murderers would have been happy to do the same to the three of us, and that means I can’t put it past them to do the saraceful exit before I tell you why they want us all dead” I tapped ain “If you check your e-mail, you’ll see an offer of new edalene, and you, Mahir We need to talk to you off-line” Fro that request, or so si both responses “Again, if you want to refuse, that’s fine You will have five minutes to make your decision If you haven’t decided within that time, I’ll disconnect you froanization, you will have twelve hours to remove your personal files from our servers At the end of that time, your access will be revoked and you’ll need to contact ayou haven’t downloaded”

I paused, giving the others a chance to speak No one said a word “All right Please review your contracts If you accept, enter the security code listed under the space for your license nu with you I wish you all the best in your future endeavors”

More silence followed this announcereeinal contracts; they got the saes of the variouslines, and they were expected to hold to the same deadlines and levels of journalistic conduct In another way, everything had changed froinal contracts because when those contracts were signed, nobody was trying to kill us We weren’t offering hazard pay or guaranteed ratings We were just offering a lot of danger, and the only real reas the chance to be a part of telling a truth that was bigger than any of us on our own

Andrea was again the first to speak, saying, “I I’ia Shaun I just I was here because Buffy askedI can’t”

“It’s all right, Ace,” said Shaun, soothingly He’s always been good with this sort of thing That makes one of us “Thank you for all your hard work”

“I’ood luck, all of you” Wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand, she looked away fro a black rectangle on the corner of my screen

That was the pebble that kicked off the avalanche Screen borders started blinking white as people agreed to their new contracts; video s started blacking as people ed off Soot weren’t a surprise I knew Alaric and Becks would stay Shaun had given one, there was no one to vouch for the Fictionals, but it seemed likely that we’d lose at least half of the was howwith them