Chapter 221

The Hummer pulled into the driveway of Pacific Hall. Purple and gold flags of the Dominion were flying over the entrance. A group of Dominion Guard soldiers stood at attention. The driver got out and opened the door. Louis stepped out, followed by the women. He looked at the familiar building. He had not been here in a while. He felt a strange mix of nostalgia and reluctance.

Erin Hobbes, Secretary to the Supreme President, was waiting for them at the entrance. She nodded at Louis. “Mr. Collins, I’m glad to see you’re safe.” Then she turned to the women. “Welcome to Pacific Hall, ladies.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hobbes,” Angelique said. “We’re glad to be back.”

“The Supreme President is in a meeting with his cabinet,” Erin said. “In the meantime, your rooms have been prepared. Feel free to rest or to explore the building.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hobbes,” Louis said, looking at her. “It’s nice to see you again. You look tired.”

Erin managed a weak smile. “It has been a long month, Mr. Collins. For all of us.”

“I can imagine,” Louis said. “Take care of yourself, Ms. Hobbes.”

“I will, Mr. Collins,” Erin said, nodding. “Please, follow me.”

She led them through the grand lobby and to the residential wing. Before they went inside, a man ran toward them. It was Malcolm. He was wearing a tailored suit, his hair perfectly styled. He looked flustered.

“Louis, Angelique, I was so worried about you,” he said, stopping in front of them. “I’m so glad you’re back. I heard what happened. It’s terrible. Absolutely terrible.”

“Thank you, Malcolm,” Angelique said. “I appreciate your concern.”

“Are you alright, Louis?” Malcolm asked. “You look… different.”

“I’m fine, Malcolm,” Louis said. “I’ve been through a lot. But I’m alive.”

“I can see that,” Malcolm said, looking at the women. “Welcome to Sacramento, ladies. I’m Malcolm Lancaster, a friend of Louis and Angelique and a great admirer of your bravery.”

Gladice raised an eyebrow. “A great admirer? You don’t even know us.”

“I watched your livestream, of course,” Malcolm said, smiling. “I’ve been following your journey. Very impressive. All of you.”

“How nice of you,” Maeve said. “You must be very busy.”

“I am, actually,” Malcolm said. “I’ve been doing my internship at the Ministry of Finance since you left. It’s a lot of work. But also very rewarding.”

“I’m sure it is,” Angelique said. “But we are tired, Malcolm. We need some rest.”

“Of course,” Malcolm said. “But I’m really happy to see you again.” He looked at Louis. “We need to catch up soon. I have a lot of questions about what happened.”

“I’m sure you do, Malcolm,” Louis said. “Now, if you’ll excuse us.”

“Alright,” Malcolm said, stepping aside. “I’ll see you around.”

Erin led them upstairs to a suite. “This will be your floor for the duration of your stay,” she said, opening the door to a familiar room. “Mr. Collins, your room is the same as before. And the ladies have the rooms next to yours.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hobbes,” Louis said, walking into the room. The others followed him.

“I will leave you to it,” Erin said, closing the door.

Louis looked around the room. He hadn’t been here in a long time. Everything was clean, neat, and impersonal. He sat on the bed. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

“It’s very official,” Gladice said, looking around. “And very boring. I prefer your place in LA.”

“Me too,” Louis said, lying down. “But better than a hotel.”

Maeve walked to the window. “Nice view. We can see the garden from here.”

“It’s a good place to think,” Angelique said, sitting on a sofa. “And to plan.”

“We have a lot to plan,” Willa said, her arms crossed. “Like the visit to Mr. Cruise and the next step of our investigation.”

“And the construction of Pax Pacifica too,” Savannah added. “We need to hire architects, engineers, and designers.”

Louis smiled. “We don’t have to worry about logistics, Savvy. I have a team for that. You can just tell them what you want.”

“Alright,” Savannah said, sitting next to Angelique. “But I still want to be involved.”

“Of course,” Louis said. “We will only involve ourselves in the fun part. The rest is too tedious.”

“The fun part?” Maeve asked, turning from the window. “What’s the fun part?”

“Choosing the furniture, the colors, the decorations,” Gladice said, lying on Louis’s other side. “And the location of our bedrooms. I want one with a balcony.”

“We all want one with a balcony,” Cherish said, sitting at the foot of the bed. “And a view of the ocean.”

“I will make sure we all have one,” Louis said, closing his eyes. “We’ll have a private beach, a pool, a bar, and a cinema.”

“And a shooting range,” Maeve said, her eyes glinting.

“We can have one in the basement,” Louis said.

“Good.”

Willa sighed. “It will take some time to build all that. Let’s focus on the immediate issues for now. Brother John is dead, and we lost whatever clues he could have given us. The Bishop is still out there. We still need to find the network behind him.”

“Then we’ll find him,” Louis said.

“I’m not sure we’re making any progress,” Willa said. “Do you think the Tengri hack has any connection to the Bishop?”

“It’s possible,” Louis said. “Alistair Finch was paid to hack the home page by an unknown party. The same party could be behind the Bishop and Lumen Path Shipping.”

“Why would they do that?” Savannah asked. “If I were running a human trafficking network, I wouldn’t want to draw attention to myself.”

“To send a message, maybe.” Gladice shrugged.

“Or they are not connected at all,” Angelique said. “It could be a rival of the Dominion. Or a foreign power. We don’t know yet.”

“Whatever the reason, it’s a provocation,” Louis said. “And we will make them regret it.”

“How?” Willa asked.

“By finding out who they are,” Louis said. “And by destroying them.”

“Do you think Mr. Cruise knows who paid Finch?” Donya asked.

“I doubt it,” Louis said. “But he has some explaining to do about the security of his platform and the people he employs.”

“Are we going to be harsh with him?” Cherish asked, her hands in her lap.

“Depends on his cooperation, Cherry,” Louis said. “We still have a favor to ask him. And we need him to be on our side.”

“Good luck with that,” Willa said, rolling her eyes. “He’s the CEO of the biggest tech company in the world. He’s used to being the one in charge.”

“And we’re the ruling family of the Dominion,” Louis said, smiling. “Plus, he’s a friend of my father.”

“That doesn’t mean he will help us,” Willa said. “Especially with what we’re asking for. A complete overhaul of its moderation policies? That’s a huge undertaking.”

“We will see about that,” Louis said. “Policy is made by people. And people can be persuaded.”

“Let me guess,” Gladice said. “You want to persuade him with a tungsten rod?”

“No,” Louis said, laughing. “But I have other ways. Like covering up an insider security breach that would tank his stock price if it gets out.”

“Aha,” Gladice said, grinning. “I love it when you’re ruthless.”

“That’s my boy,” Maeve said, giving him a thumbs-up.

Donya sighed. “Is that really necessary, Louis? Blackmailing him?”

“It’s not blackmail, Donya,” Louis said, looking at her. “It’s a transaction. He helps us. And we help him. Win-win.”

“I’m not sure it’s that simple,” Donya said.

“It never is,” Savannah said. “But sometimes you have to play the game to win the game.”

Cherish looked at them, her brow furrowed. “Politics is so complicated. I prefer chess.”

“You are good at it, Cherry,” Angelique said, smiling. “You can use your strategic mind to help us plan our next move.”

“I will,” Cherish said, her face brightening. “I think we should start by making a list of all the questions we want to ask Mr. Cruise. Then we can prioritize them.”

“That’s a good idea,” Willa said, taking out her laptop. “Let’s do it.”

Gladice cleared her throat. “First question: why is your platform a cesspool of trolls and haters? Second question: why did one of your senior engineers hack your home page? Third question: are you going to do anything about it? Or are you just going to sit there and count your money?”

“I think we should be a bit more diplomatic, Glads.” Angelique sighed.

“I’m just being honest,” Gladice said, shrugging. “He’s a big boy. He can handle it.”

“He can, but he might not wanna cooperate if we come at him too hard,” Savannah said. “We gotta be smart about this.”

“I agree,” Willa said. “We need to be firm, but also respectful. At least at the beginning.”

“Let’s make two lists then,” Louis said. “A nice list. And a mean list.”

Gladice grinned. “I like the mean list already.”

“Let me start,” Cherish said. “Nice question: what is Tengri’s policy on harassment? And how does it enforce it?”

“Good one, Cherry,” Louis said. “What’s next?”

Gladice raised her hand. “Mean question: are you a complete idiot, or do you just not care about your users getting death threats every day?”

Angelique rubbed her temples. “Oh, Glads.”

“Mean question from me,” Maeve said. “Do you get a hard-on from reading the comments section?”

“Excellent, Mae-Mae.” Gladice slapped her thighs with laughter.

“Alright, enough,” Louis said, laughing. “Let’s forget about the mean list for now.”

“The nice list then,” Willa said. “How can we work together to make Tengri a safer platform for everyone?”

“Good one,” Louis said. “You sound like an EU bureaucrat at a press conference.”

Willa rolled her eyes. “I was just trying to be constructive, Louis.”

“You are, Willa,” Donya said. “And I agree with you. We should ask him what he thinks we can do to help.”

“We can start by sending our own army of trolls to the trolls,” Maeve said. “A little taste of their own medicine.”

“Or we can just arrest them,” Gladice said. “And send all of them to Santa Catalina.”

“Tengri is a global platform, Glads. You can’t arrest everyone,” Willa said. “We need a more systematic solution.”

“Like AI moderators that are not shit?” Gladice asked. “Or actual humans with a brain?”

Cherish looked at them. “Maybe we should know more about Tengri before we talk to Mr. Cruise. What kind of company is it? How many people work there? And what are their values?”

“Good questions, Cherry,” Louis said. “I’ve used Tengri since I was a kid. But I never really thought about it.”

“Because it was just there, Louis. Like the air,” Angelique said. “But now we’re going to its heart. So we need to be prepared.”

“Let’s do a quick research then,” Willa said, typing on her laptop. She put the screen on the big TV. “Alright. Tengri. Founded in 2004 by Claude Cruise and his partners. During the financial crisis of 2008, they acquired a lot of struggling tech companies and expanded rapidly. It was banned by the US government for hosting extremist content in 2012. But before that, California became independent, so the ban never really took effect.”

“They got lucky,” Savannah said. “Very lucky.”

“They did,” Willa said. “During the hearing, their stock price went down. So the Collins family bought a lot of shares.” She looked at Louis. “Now your family is Tengri’s third-largest shareholder, behind Claude Cruise himself and the employee stock ownership plan.”

“I never cared much about it,” Louis said. “But I guess it gives us some extra leverage.”

“It does,” Willa said. “It means your father has a seat on the board. And he can influence the company’s decisions.”

“Then why didn’t he use it before?” Donya asked. “To make the platform safer.”

“Because Tengri’s business model is based on complete freedom of speech, Donya,” Angelique said. “The Dominion supports that in principle. At least publicly.”

“Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom of hate,” Donya said, her voice firm. “Or freedom of threats.”

“I know, Donya,” Angelique said. “But it’s the reason why Tengri is the biggest platform in the world. And why people use it.”

“And why we have to deal with all the trolls,” Willa said, sighing. “It’s a trade-off.”

“Then we need to change the trade-off,” Louis said. “Or at least, tilt the balance in our favor.”

“How?” Gladice asked. “By threatening to sell our shares?”

“That would be a terrible move, Glads,” Angelique said. “It would tank the stock price. The Collins family would also lose a lot of money.”

“Not to mention, it would create a huge public backlash,” Willa said. “The Dominion is already seen as a personalist dictatorship. Interfering with the private sector would only reinforce that image, which could undermine market confidence and your father’s political capital.”

Cherish looked at her, her eyes wide. “You are so knowledgeable, Willa. How do you know all this?”

“Because I grew up in the Republic of New England, Cherry,” Willa said, smiling. “And I went to MIT. We learned about these things.”

“I wish I could have a proper education,” Cherish said, her voice soft. “I could have learned about these things too.”

“You are learning, Cherry,” Angelique said, taking her hand. “And you are learning fast. We are all learning together.”

“So, we are going to be nice to Mr. Cruise,” Maeve said. “Is that the plan?”

“Yes, Mae-Mae,” Louis said. “At least at the beginning. We will show him our concerns. We will also offer our help. But we will also make it clear that we are not going to accept the status quo.”

“I understand,” Maeve said, looking at her sword. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

There was a knock on the door. Louis got up and opened it. Erin was standing there. “Mr. Collins. The Supreme President will see you and your family now.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hobbes,” Louis said, looking at the women. “Let’s go.”

They followed Erin down the hallway to the administrative wing. Two Dominion Guard officers stood outside the Supreme President’s office. They opened the door for them. Constantine was behind a large desk, signing a document. Judith was sitting on a sofa, sipping champagne. She stood up as they entered.

“Louis, darling!” Judith said, opening her arms. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“Mom,” Louis said, hugging her. “It’s good to be back.”

Judith released him and hugged Angelique and the other women. “Welcome to Pacific Hall, my dears. You are all heroes. And you are all beautiful.”

“Thank you, Judith,” Angelique said. “You look wonderful as always.”

“You are too kind, my dear,” Judith said, smiling.

Constantine put down his pen and leaned back. “It’s good to have you back, son.” He looked at the women. “Ladies. Thank you for keeping my boy safe. Welcome to our capital.”

“We did our best, Constantine,” Angelique said. “He kept us safe too.”

“I’m sure he did,” Constantine said, smiling. “Now, sit down. I have news for you.” He gestured to the sofas.

They settled around the room. Constantine looked at Cherish. “Cherish, we just made contact with your parents.”