Read Online Netcast: Zero by Ryk Brown - Free Book Online

health nanite monitoring stream before. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. Maybe he just saw it coming and used it to his advantage?”
    “Or maybe he had control of Doctor Benarro’s nanites.”
    “It doesn’t work that way, Hanna,” Graham argued. “Our implants control our health nanites. They can’t be remote controlled. Your physician sends them instructions, and they either comply or refuse based on your current condition. There are safety protocols that prevent our health nanites from causing harm to us. Hell, Hanna, he could have been watching the press conference and simply noticed that Doctor Benarro didn’t look right and simply guessed. It was a live broadcast, you know.”
    “That’s a hell of a lucky guess, Graham,” Hanna argued.
    “Yeah, you are right about that.”
    “He said, ‘I wrote it, I control it.’”
    Graham looked puzzled. “Wrote what?”
    “Since he said that the Twister virus causes Klaria in his messages, I assumed he was talking about Twister.”
    “But Twister just messes things up, doesn’t it? Crashes systems, causes data loss…”
    “That could simply be a front to hide its real intent.”
    Graham shook his head in disbelief. “Can you forward me those messages?”
    “I checked my inbox. They’re gone. They must have been set to auto-delete.”
    “You should have force-saved them,” Graham told her.
    “I know, I know. I was just so freaked out that by the time I thought of it they were already gone. I’ve been hiding out here for over an hour. I don’t know what to do, Graham.”
    “Well, the first thing you have to do is tell Arielle,” Graham insisted.
    “Are you kidding? That’s the last thing I want to do. She’ll think I’m making this all up to convince her to let me chase the Twister-Klaria connection again to boost my ratings. If she leaves…”
    “She’s not going to leave, Hanna. She needs a paycheck just as much as you do.”
    “No, she doesn’t,” Hanna explained. “She’s got a fiancé back in San Diego. He’s an attorney, on his way to full partner.”
    “Well, if she does leave, just self-produce,” Graham argued. “Then you can chase the money all the way to the pop-nets, if you want. You might even be able to slip into producing for them before your looks go south.”
    “Such a way with words you have,” Hanna replied. “I know nothing about producing. Hell, the majority of the questions I ask come from either the client or Arielle. I’m just the on-air talent.”
    “No, you’re not. You are a reporter, Hanna. You had a hunch, and you followed it. That’s what good reporters do. It’s not really your fault that Benarro flipped out over your questions. That was just bad luck.”
    “Or a bad hunch.”
    “Look, Hanna, just be straight with Arielle. If this guy is a hoax, it will become obvious pretty quickly. All you have to do is call his bluff.”
    “And if he isn’t a hoax?”
    “Then Arielle is really going to want to know, trust me.”
    Hanna shook her head. “No, I can’t tell her, not yet.” She looked at Graham again. “And you can’t either… Promise me.”
    “Fine, I promise. But when we go back, jack me into your comm-stream so that I can see the messages as you do, before they auto-delete. At least that way you’ll have a witness.”
    “Okay, I will.”
    “All right then,” Graham said, leaning back in his seat and taking another drink of his coffee. “Finish your tea, we have to go.”
    “Why?”
    “They’re reconvening the press conference in less than an hour.”
    * * *
    “While we mourn the loss of our friend and colleague, Doctor Benarro would have insisted that we do not let his passing interfere with our mission as physicians, which is the saving of lives.” Doctor Mesnard paused a moment before continuing.
    Message; Graham: the text typed across Hanna’s personal visual space as she thought the words. Are our comms linked?
    Reply: I see all your incoming and outgoing text