The Last Network - Chapter 18
Currents
A Google alert for Peared hit Em’s screen. A teenaged boy in Mumbai had drowned attempting to reach an island. There had been a bridge there, but it was recently torn down so that it could be replaced by a larger road. The boy’s family was blaming Peared for sending him out there on a mission. She pulled Rabbit aside.
“Have you seen this?” she asked, holding her phone, being careful not to forward it to him.
“No. Has anyone contacted us about it?”
“I’m just seeing it now. NAM handles care. It’s all automated. There could be something in their queue. If they called headquarters, someone would have passed that message along.”
They walked over to reception. No calls from India had come in.
“What do you want to do about it?” she asked.
“First of all, let’s see if we had a mission out there. If we did, we need to turn it off ASAP, after that this is Paolo’s problem.”
“How is it Paolo’s problem?”
“He manages and operates the service. He programs the missions. We are just a technology platform. He is legally liable as the operator.”
“Hold on. He’s liable?”
“Why do you think NAM exists?”
“I figured they were cheaper, and you didn’t want to hire that many people.”
“Well yes, there’s both of those, but liability protection is an added bonus. It’s complicated, but at the end of the day we don’t run Peared. They do. It’s Paolo’s problem.”
“You can’t walk away from this Rabbit,” Em said.
“I’m not, but I’m also assigning it to the proper party. Paolo needs to look into this and come back with a conclusion, then he needs to present us with options.”
“Maybe that works from a legal standpoint, but from a PR perspective it’s a fucking nightmare. No one is going to care about this abstraction, and I’m not going to be the face of a company that works this way.”
“I didn’t ask you to be the face. I asked you to design an image. Nothing here has gone out in your name. It’s gone out in mine.”
“Hey dipshit, you know what’s a bad image? Getting branded as a murderer, then not responding to a grieving family.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t respond, but I need facts first. That kid could have gone out there to drink and smoke weed. Do us all a favor, craft a response in case there’s more to this than a reporter quoting a shocked mother grasping at straws.”
Em burnt furiously inside as she watched Rabbit walk away. So that’s how it was. Build walls, protect yourself, and don’t show any emotion other than annoyance. Some kid could be dead because of Peared and Rabbit was fine waiting on a report to find out. He was also ready to pin it on Paolo from the start. Maybe she was jumping the gun, but one thing was clear. Rabbit was a fucking asshole.