.5

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.

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Chapter 10.5: Intermission 2. Face the Music

19 August 2020, evening

Adam heard some giggles coming from the living room as he emerged from the bedroom. What struck him first was that Callie uncharacteristically had her full work layout spread out and set up in the living room. She hadn't even brought it out for the courier, but now she even had her laptop hooked up to the television to use it as a bigger display. What also struck him was that both she and Shannon were giggling like schoolgirls over something. "What did I miss?"

"Just the juiciest gossip in the Pacific Northwest." Shannon was in the rocking chair leaning back and still giggling no matter how hard she tried.

Callie was shaking her head in disbelief. "Since I'm a lawyer able to do remote work and read into the Oracle NDA, I got drafted to help with the fallout of a case. A big one."

Despite himself, Adam was curious. "How big?"

***

Sometime in May 2020

A man in an Air Force dress uniform was sitting at a table with a folder in hand. "And what makes you think that this idea is good enough to get the Department of Homeland Security involved in the Air Force's program?"

Another man, this one in a business suit, grinned a bit. "You have too many balls in the air, and we have the ability to take a bit of the load. We need to get rolling with the prepwork if we want the general public to accept the... side effects... that have become evident in these trials. Let's face it, we need the public buy-in to be immediate and enthusiastic. The fate of the country might be at stake."

"You're not wrong, but neither I nor the US Armed Forces are novices at propaganda via entertainment outlets. We've been doing it since before World War 2."

"Yes, but I have the contacts to make it happen under the radar and secure. We had to get good at keeping this hush, and most of the tools in place doing it now are doing it for us anyway. I even have a company willing to do it. Music Television."

***

"Hold up. You're telling me that MTV got a hold of a DHS contract, to try to do something to make all of

this

," he vaguely waved his arm around, "easier to accept for the general public?"

Callie snickered. "Yep."

"And you're also telling me that this is gossip, and that qualified lawyers are being called in. Last I checked you aren't a contract lawyer, so that means it's taking all available hands on deck, which means whatever they screwed up must have been enormous."

"Let's just say that's a bit of an understatement."

***

Near the end of May 2020

Everyone present in the boardroom was there for a reason. The Homeland Security representative had an incredibly important mission to accomplish, a ludicrous budget to do it with, and the idea that he could add "saved the world" to his next promotion evaluation.

The MTV board members were no strangers to non-disclosure agreements by the nature of things, and were well aware that violations of one when the government was on the other side could get ugly. That said, the fact that this deal could be worth amounts of money that would make Scrooge McDuck sit up straight was not lost to any of them. Nor were the other considerations.

"Gentlemen, this is the program. As an additional return for this, all of you, along with the primary show-runner crew, will be entered at Level Three of the Oracle databases and will be active in it well before 99% of the men in the nation are. Each of you is therefore virtually guaranteed much greater safety with early vaccination, and much better choices when it comes to potential partners."

One of the board members, a man in his late fifties sitting near the head of the table, furrowed his brow. "Level Three? You told us that there were five levels."

"I am only authorized to give Level Three unless this show turns out to be a crucial success, at which point you will all likely be upgraded."

"And we will maintain exclusivity for these influence operations in that event as well?"

"Not quite, but the right of first contract is in black and white in section four. All you have to do is make your targets as stipulated and the Department of Homeland Security will go to you first for all similar requests for the next ten years. All you have to do is make a show that successfully encourages the population to participate in the Oracle and Quaranteam Serum programs, and follow the rules that we have laid out for their use."

***

"Hold on a sec." Shannon had a look of incredulity on her face. "The board members were literally offered money, women, AND power as direct terms in the contract?"

Callie nodded. "Incredible, right? The guy who wrote the thing managed to avoid getting burned at the stake when it all came out internally by stating that protecting the board and showrunners was necessary and the other two were standard since when they'd been contracting with cartoons. I'm pretty sure he isn't going to be getting the corner office for the rest of his career, though."

Adam shook his head in similar disbelief. "That explains why everyone got into this mess, sure, but not why it blew up."

"That's the fun part. We actually have the meeting minutes for it... and a recording, since this one was actually by teleconference."

***

About a week later

"If you will turn your attention to the slide that is now on screen, this is the mockup plan of the show formula. We thankfully have a wide body of preexisting assets for it, and an available site covering three stories of an apartment building in Seattle."

The other five people in the planning conference looked it over briefly. The team lead nodded. "So far, none of this seems a surprise. Do you have anyone particularly in mind?"

The first man took a deep breath to still his racing heartbeat. "That is on slide two." He hit his space bar, and the slide in question came up. "There are three or four eligible bachelors among our Reality Television talent, but of this bunch I would recommend Brayden Tremaine. Relatively new, young, and popular. And the female talent collectively and publicly thinks he's attractive, so that puts us off to a head start for a competition to be his first three partners."

The lone woman in the call was in disbelief. "Three women for one man. It seems obscene, even with the information DHS gave us. Still, that means having twenty-four ladies in the running gives us a traditional three-round structure."

Another man from the producer team got an idea then. One which would be rather important. "We need to show Serum effects as soon as possible. How about if we structure it so that he actively pairs with someone the judges pick each round? Give them the standard contract making executive word be final, and that should cover it. It would mean 31 contestants, make it 32 so that viewers get a number they expect. Not too much worse, and if we really need to we can dip into the more desperate applicant pool or starlets who score lower than the recommended 70 on that screening test of theirs. I say go down to 55, that's still above average, right?"

The presenter nodded. "The drama those will cause would certainly play into the successful formula. I'll toss it into the plan, let's keep going."

***

"FIFTY-FIVE?" Adam's shock was beyond his ability to easily express. "That goes beyond stupid and into malicious intent. Didn't they realize that this can't be undone?"

"Maybe they did and maybe they didn't." Callie was looking at the next slide on the screen. On it were a large number of female faces ranging from "pretty" to "scorching hot" and all taken in a way that suggested they all knew it. "The list of ladies who took the Oracle screening is basically a who's who of single starlets with MTV contracts, along with a few fresh faces that seem to be new recruits who were waiting for a show."

Shannon was studying the screen as well. "A lot of these ladies are single for a reason. London Forrest? She's an infamous prima donna, nobody likes her but she makes such a good heel that it drives viewership up. This one," she pointed to a redhead with the deadliest set of come-hither eyes Adam had ever seen, "has been divorced twice. Both marriages lasted about three months, and both ex-husbands say their greatest relief in life was not having a kid with her in that time."

"That's not even all." Callie tapped around on her laptop to find an altered version of the slide. This one had numbers under each portrait, and many were highlighted. "These numbers were their Oracle scores, and the 32 highlighted ones went to the production. Notice anything?"

Adam did, quickly. "Several of the highest scorers didn't go. Why is that?"

***

Mid-June 2020

Brayden Tremaine stepped out of his isolation room, to be welcomed by a familiar face. Well, two familiar faces, for very wildly different versions of the word. The first was Sheila McNama, the overwhelmingly sexy lady from Texas who he'd teamed up with a lot in the last show they'd filmed. They'd worked absurdly well together, and that cooperation had gotten both semifinal slots before he slipped up and got eliminated. She had an uncharacteristic half-smile as he hugged her in their normal greeting (okay, normal minus tongue, they'd been a serious item on set for a while). "Sheila, you're on this one? Everyone else had better step up, I know you're going to be my top pick!"

She shook her head, a bit wistfully. "I'm not. Already got paired up, so I wasn't available for the show." She nodded at the man she was standing next to. "I'm Teamed up with your producer, so I'll be helping with the production side."

The man was obviously fit and vigorous as he held out a hand to shake Brayden's. Guy Wright had been a producer for several projects in the past, including an assistant for one of Brayden's first forays on camera. "Glad to see you made it through isolation with sanity intact, the candidates will be emerging over the next couple of days. Like Sheila said, I'm your producer for this project. I got paired up early for safety, and got her as my first partner. Just waiting on our own Serum dose to make it final, since the ones we got are reserved for the show. We have a spare on set, so if none break then that's probably going to be the one we use."

***

"So, yeah, you got it in one. Bunch of the higher-ups abused their early adopter status to pair up with women who were taking this for candidacy on the show, but who were solid matches for them. They were taking them from the roster before they could be put on the list to actually go." Callie was pulling up photo after photo of those same women on the arms of executives. "The bunch who arrived were the best 32 matches of the ones who were left."

Shannon frowned. "So, what, Brayden lost his chances with most of the women who would have actually been on his Team?"

"Worse. There weren't enough men in the pool when this happened to really show a spread of options and scores. The pairings were decent, so the ladies tended to accept what they thought was the best they'd get, but none of them got the opportunity for what we are sharing with Adam. Add the fact that this meant the average compatibility with Brayden was much lower, and it resulted in a lot of predictable friction for the cameras to eat up."

***

Late June 2020

The ladies had indeed emerged from their rooms over the next few days, like a multitude of beautiful butterflies breaking free of their cocoons. That is where all similarity to butterflies ceased for the vast majority of the contestants. Even in the introductory day or two, before the first event was announced, they began rapidly forming into cliques and clubs meant to tear down their opponents and get at the prize: the penis of one Brayden Tremaine. About a quarter of them weren't shy about offering their bodies to him before the games even began, whether it was because they thought he was a good lay, KNEW he was a good lay (a couple of prior shows did get a bit steamy behind the scenes), or for a competitive edge. By day two, he thought he was going to lose his mind before the real filming got started.

Sheila helped. When the cameras weren't around, she helped steady him and catch him up on gossip that he wasn't tracking about some of the girls. Brayden found himself hoping that about two thirds of the contestants flunked out early, since he had no desire to have them in the same room for more than a quick screw and scram. And not even that for a couple of them. He really wondered how people like that had managed to be among the best available for him to match with. It just... didn't seem right.

Filming the intro finally arrived, and he got to announce that the themes of the competition would be domestic skills, teamwork, and then individual appeal. In that order. He'd been allowed to decide that much for the show, since he'd be the one stuck with them forever. Brayden hoped that cooking and cleaning would immediately disqualify most of the worst offenders. The writers designed the challenges, though. The ladies all had rooms to maintain and apartments to share, so the first competition would be to get them configured, organized, and decorated. Brayden's disappointment was immense. Almost as immense as when the judging was done and half the contestants sent home, and he received word that his first pairing had been picked for him. London Forrest. Possibly his least favorite person presently in MTV's employ.

***

Shannon facepalmed. "They HAD to know that was a really bad pick. How'd she even get past the round about domesticity, anyway?"

"By convincing the others in her apartment to follow her directions and present a united theme. She did a lot of pointing and insulting, plus a little bit of hanging up pictures, while the others did the dirty work." Callie's face betrayed the disgust she felt at those words. "Still, you're right that it was a terrible pick. Probably the worst real compatibility of anyone present. Just... the choice was bad for a different reason than you think."

***

Two days later

Brayden looked at the shoebox in his hands and shuddered a bit. Knowing what was in it was a weight on his mind well beyond the mere ounces that gravity decided its contents weighed on a scale.

In what would no doubt be filmed for drama, he had gone around to find two of the ladies competing for positions on his Team. Two he felt comfortable with, who liked him and had worked well with him before. He'd gone to Lindsey's room first, the sweet girl with the Hollywood-nerd vibe, gone right past her apartment-mates, and talked to her directly. Asked her, plain as day, for a wild romp in her bedroom before he was tied down by his first pairing.

She'd blushed, smiled, and nodded. Then blushed more when her apartment-mates cheered. They'd closed the door, he had put on music which he knew MTV didn't have the rights to so that the audio feed would cut, at a volume a step or two louder than normal so that they'd have another layer of protection.

Lindsey realized something was up when the music came on, she was always sharp, and when he'd pressed down into her and whispered his plan in her ear she'd confirmed she got it by squeezing her vaginal muscles on him twice. And then they had a wild romp for about fifteen minutes, because why waste the opportunity?

He'd always been known for making the "walk of shame" into a "strut of pride," and had confidently returned to his room to get cleaned up and ready for the next step. When the knock came at his door, he'd already known who it was going to be. Clara did most of her television on survivalist shows and hiking treks. Though they hadn't ever been on the same shows before this one, they'd hit it off when they crossed paths in the social scene. She, apparently, was jealous and wanted what Lindsey had gotten. It took some extra effort to get started, but it was well worth it. Especially when he whispered the start of phase two to her

She left before long, and so did he. Passing by the room where the medical team was administering the first of the injections to London so that she'd be fully ready in the morning, waiting to see the lights on the camera go out as Sheila used her production access to temporarily cut the recording, to the display box that held the other three doses, unlocked now due to the medics needing access.

His phone vibrated against his hip. Lindsey had come through with three numbers: 92, 89, 81. Then another, 42. He knew it. A third text came through, a mail icon with a running man next to it. Time to go.

He left the box, transferring the three remaining injections to a cushioned shoebox and closing the display. He swung by his room to grab a backpack he'd discreetly packed in the closet while rummaging for other things, hidden by hanging clothes. He got to the emergency escape stairway, shoved a paperclip into a small hole that would make sure the alarm didn't sound, and waited perhaps sixty seconds for Sheila, Lindsey, and Clara to show. Clara made sure the doses were administered without the fuss the show was trying to make over it, and the three escaped into the night.

Six hours later, in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of Seattle, the three ladies were bonded to Braden.

***

"I've taught High School for a decade, and I've never seen a stunt that took as much guts as that. Look at the layout! The sheer number of cameras everywhere!"

"And the production team thought they'd just gone to sleep," said Callie. "Nobody bothered checking on them for another six hours."

Shannon's eyes were wide. "What the heck happened to LONDON? She got her shot and was marinating in it, then she wakes up and the guy she was supposed to bond to just isn't there? Heck, why did the executives even pick her, if everyone hates her so much?"

Callie clicked yet another file, this one looking like a courtroom transcription. "Both of those tidbits came out in testimony. This one answers the second question, they literally wanted her out of the way and forced the pairing so that she'd get tamed or something, and it let them have a way to stop using her in their shows. She was sex appeal and a heel, nothing else, so if she couldn't have sex with anyone else then that was that. No consideration for her Oracle score, in direct violation of their contract with DHS. No consideration for Brayden's happiness, nor hers. As for what happened to her, MTV had every male they had access to in range to get there within a day or two take an Oracle survey, then offered her to them from the top down. One eventually said yes, though who it may be is not on record for the court to protect his identity."

Adam nodded. "Must not be a big name, then. They'd have made a big deal about the celebrity dating if he was even if they couldn't talk about the serum itself."

Callie chucked some more. "Yep. So, Lindsey got into their computers because she knew the default passwords they used. Once there, she accessed the production notes, Oracle scores, and other info for proof... then emailed her findings to all four of the escapees via anonymous accounts, plus a lawyer she knew in the area. Sheila used her access to make sure their movements weren't recorded, making it look like the systems glitched. Clara served as team medic, bodyguard, and has a house in Lacey they retreated to afterwards. Incidentally, all three had either worked well with Brayden in the past or at least got along well with him, and the two who were competitors got solid passes on the domestic and teamwork event they competed in. Word is that they're rather happy with the arrangement."

"I'd bet I know at least one person who isn't as happy with the story." Shannon inserted.