Page 44 of Perfect Satisfaction

From: Paula Stone, Wildcard Media Representative

To: Wildcard Press and Media Contacts

CC: Kristoffer Wilde, Chairman and CEO Wildcard Media

Re: Grammy Interviews

To whom it may concern,

If you have not already received direct notice, the performers representing Wildcard Media at this year’s Grammy Awards are:

The Rind

Zappata

Brendan Blake

This notice is being sent in advance of normal distribution to provide time for media companies to comply with Wildcard’s new corporate policy.

Effective immediately, any and all requests for advance interview access to Wildcard Grammy performers must be submitted in writing through the performer’s legal representation.

No media outlet will be permitted to reproduce or transmit any part of any interview, communication, spoken, or written word in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the legal representative.

This policy has been agreed to by all Wildcard performers. Attempts to circumvent this policy will invoke an immediate media ban from Wildcard to last at a minimum two years.

We hope you appreciate it is both your and the artists welfare we are protecting with these new measures.

Regards,

Paula Stone

In my head I hear Carys Burke-Lennan’s gentle voice rebuking me for revealing Angela’s address.“You may regret this sooner than you think, Mr. Ronan.”

“This isn’t about Wildcard, this is about me,” I whisper as horrific realization sets in. All our readers expect the early interviews we’ve been granted with the Wildcard Grammy performers. And with Brendan Blake in the lineup? I begin to sweat profusely.

“What do you mean?” Hastings demands.

I minimize the window and show him the tidbit I spotted after I read an article about Sula being hired by the United Nations to implement new multi-governmental facial recognition software. I stopped reading when a headline about country music’s biggest star floated across the screen. The headline business bloggerMoore You Wanttaunted, “Brendan Blake separates from Wildcard?”

Hastings shakes his head. “No. Not possible.”

Impatiently, I shove his face closer. “Keep reading.”

I can’t read it again. I’ve already put it together. Carys just forced a move to put her king in check. Monotonously, I quote the letter Hastings emailed me: “‘This policy has been agreed to by all Wildcard performers. Attempts to circumvent this policy will invoke an immediate media ban from Wildcard.’ Wildcard just made any agreements we had null and void.”

“Brendan Blake changed his legal representation to Carys Burke-Lennan.”

“Check and mate, unless...” I whip my phone out of my pocket and send a prayer skyward.

The minute the line connects, I say, “I’m not above begging.”

“Neither was my sister-in-law, yet you perpetually exploited her,” Carys fires back.

“I have nothing I can counter with.”

Instead of jumping down my throat with the heels she often wears, Carys shares a story about a girl who rushed home from work after finding out her parents had been killed. Just as I’m about to ask her point, she brusquely informs me, “I couldn’t get to Ward because of the number of paparazzi surrounding our home.”

“You? This happened to you?” I clarify, astounded.