Page 19 - SurprisingTruthSample

Nicholas Boothman
priceless for swallowing blame. She would deliver the
message live, radiating pure, sad sincerity while
deflecting the fury. She was the human shield.
Henry ran the whole statement through his final
check, The Honesty Meter. This program scored the
potential for actual, unadulterated truth to sneak past
the defences. The score flashed: 0.03% Truth Leak.
Essentially zero. It was a seven-hundred-word
masterpiece of nothingness.
“The script is locked,” Henry told the dead speaker,
his voice sounding like pavement. “Seven hundred
words of groveling promise, followed by Sharma’s
three-minute video. Hit the wires in ten minutes, blitz
all the channels, and make sure the third-party attack
dogs are ready with their ‘unwavering commitment’
spin. Focus the ad buys on the older stockholders and
the younger, tired moms.”
The office hummed. The machine was doing its
work.
As the ten minutes evaporated, Henry walked to the
massive window and stared down at the concrete
canyons. He put his hand on the glass, feeling the
slight vibration of the city beneath him. Down there
were millions of people, driving home, eating
microwave dinners, scrolling through their feeds,
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