Gumshoe Gorilla Read Online Free Page B

then, of course, there was the fact that he had tossed Justin Weir, an extremely popular Christian rock star, off the top of the Liberty Media building. You just don't come back from a gaffe like that. Pollsters everywhere had been forced to invent new measures of negative public approval.
     
    "THEN JUST WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST WE DO, TRENT?! WE'VE GOT NO AD REVENUE COMING IN, PAY PER VIEW SALES HAVE PRACTICALLY EVAPORATED, AND THE OLD MAN IS DRAINING OFF OUR CASH RESERVES AT AN ALARMING RATE TO COVER HIS LEGAL FEES!"
     
    "STONEWALL SAYS HE'S NOT SELLING, AND THAT'S FINAL!"
     
    "STONEWALL DOESN'T HAVE THAT CHOICE!"
     
    Worse still, the network's biggest advertiser had switched sides. The Christian Alliance, Stonewall's political party, was leading a devastating boycott of BNN and anyone who advertised on it. From a tactical viewpoint, I had to admire the move. It was a clever bit of political jujitsu. In a stroke, the party had distanced itself from the disgraced Senator, and turned him into a frightening new enemy that they could rally the faithful against. And once the boycott succeeded and BNN was in ruins, the Christian Alliance would be able to pick up its studios at fire sale prices.
     
    "STONEWALL BUILT THIS NETWORK!" Reed shouted.
     
    "YEAH, AND NOW HE'S TAKING IT APART!"
     
    "HOW DARE YOU!"
     
    "I'M JUST BEING PRACTICAL! WE CAN SELL NOW, OR WE CAN WAIT A MONTH AND LET THE BANKRUPTCY COURTS DO IT FOR US! THAT'S THE ONLY CHOICE WE'VE GOT!"
     
    Behind the two men, the wall monitor was running a video clip. They must have been discussing it when the fight broke out. The scene was from last night's Crossfire on CNN. Reed had been on it, debating the spokesman for the Christian Alliance, Calvin Walker. As public speakers they were pretty evenly matched. They were both young, both moderately attractive, and they both had that righteous "wrath of God" style, that comes across so well on television. The only difference was that Walker was on the winning side.
     
    "I SAID WE'RE NOT SELLING!" Trent shouted. "ARE YOU LISTENING?"
     
    "YEAH! BUT I'M STILL WAITING FOR YOU TO SAY SOMETHING THAT MAKES A LICK OF SENSE!"
     
    "EXCUSE ME, BUT HAS THERE BEEN A REVOLUTION? CAUSE THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, I WAS IN CHARGE HERE!"
     
    "YES TRENT, YOU ARE IN CHARGE! YOU ARE FUCKING IN CHARGE OF RUNNING THIS COMPANY INTO THE GROUND!"
     
    "ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? ARE YOU FUCKING DARING ME TO FIRE YOU?"
     
    From the sound of it, Reed and Cantor were going to be at it for a while longer. It was the sort of argument that wouldn't be over until one of them collapsed from exhaustion. I sidled over to one of the technicians to see what he was doing.
     
    "How's it coming?" I asked, leaning over his shoulder.
     
    "See for yourself," he said. He punched a button, and ran the clip he was working on.
     
    A dark-skinned woman holds up her hand, and as the camera watches she cuts off the last joint of her index finger with a crude flint knife. Shrieking ecstatically, she places it in a bowl, holding it up as an offering too the sky. From somewhere to the right, a scream. The camera spins and stops on a man in a loin cloth with hooks embedded in his chest. Ropes attached to the hooks tighten, slowly pulling him off the ground. The sound he makes is indescribable. Blood trickles down his chest, and the camera follows it, to where it collects in a pool beneath his feet. A small child squats by the crimson puddle, seemingly at play. He paints lines on his face with the blood, and then looks up at the audience, a terrible, inhuman smile on his face. Then a tag line appears asking,
     
    Is this the future of America's children?
     
    I blinked and caught my breath. I'd forgotten to breathe during the clip.
     
    "Nice work."
     
    "Thanks," the techie said. "I'm still trying to get the kid's eyes right. I want a sort of a flat, dead look to them."
     
    He pulled up the child's face and showed me some of the options he'd tried so far.
     
    "I haven't quite