Again, as I say, there was much more happening at Moynacorp beyond the car accident.

In that respect, all we did for the next few days was divert questions while we compiled data. We cooperated with Jefferson Parish as well as state and federal regulators regarding the safety of our cars. We wanted to be certain that the Bienville CV had not been at fault, and that everyone was aware of it.

There were complications.

The public at large had already made their decision. It turned out that Maria Robert, the woman who had lost her life in the crash, was the only daughter of Esposito del Castillo, a renowned educator in the New Orleans school systems. That man was a champion of equality and standards across the board for all New Orleans schools, and considering the state of our schools, he was very highly regarded by the community. Maria Robert had been following her father's lead. A teacher in the public school system, she was apparently beloved by everyone who knew her. By all accounts, she was a lovely young woman who, with her husband, was raising two small children and expecting another. She had... well, according to the autopsy, her death had not been painless. Granted, the same reports placed the blame on a driverless car with no human ability to make personal decisions.

The Moynacorp public relations team and media liaison handled it well, knowing intuitively the manner in which I wanted to approach it while also keeping it at a distance from me. Meanwhile, I went to Washington.

The tech industry had become very political of late. It was a necessity. A survival tactic, both for us and for the way of life Americans enjoyed. Most of us loathed having to deal with Washington. But we were willing to at least try to come to some sort of arrangement on the topics that affected us the most--not only directly, such as net neutrality and autonomous driving guidelines, but also regarding antitrust laws and social justice measures.

I do not typically accept invitations from Eric McGwion. That louse had thrown me under the bus once already, and once is enough. But with Moynacorp's reputation on the line, I couldn't afford to not be seen there, as socially petty as that is.

The gathering was a summit on the roles of technology in government and society. At the forefront then was net neutrality, which in this sense is a different way of talking about data and privacy. As far as digital rights activists are concerned, net neutrality refers to the practice of not favoring or disfavoring one Internet service over the other, and the barriers to entry and competition that would go along with deregulating internet service providers. Lawmakers, on the other hand, latch onto the term as a way of saying "we are totally in touch with the new digital climate" in general. So you can probably guess there's a decent-sized rift there.

I did not travel alone. Also representing the Moynahan Corporation was Drew Moynahan, who is somewhat related to me. We're half-cousins or something. He serves as Moynacorp's official government liaison. We're cool, but I was more happy about having most of my friends with me as well.

My friends are all involved in business in some way, and we are all based in that bastion of entrepreneurship, New Orleans. At the time we'd been in the news pretty often for reasons that I'll explain in a bit, if I remember to. The media had taken to grouping us together as "the Eccentrics." The name irritated us at first, but it's stuck.

We flew from New Orleans to Washington, business class on a commercial liner. Prrivate jet was an option, but we decided against it for appearances' sake. We spent the first few minutes after takeoff with fellow business travelers who wanted selfies.

"An airplane," Reynardo said wistfully. "For once I feel as though I am actually traveling."

He's easily impressed.

"You'll be doing much more of this in the near future, so get used to it," Blair replied following a sip of white wine.

When I said "appearances' sake," I also meant "human means." Some of us travel via teleportation or portal. Reynardo, though, seldom traveled at all. It's a hazard of his "condition."

"Right, I'll start by learning to nap on the plane," Rey said, and curled up against the small window.

Jaime asked, "Shouldn't we be rehearsing or something?"

"Rehearsing? We're spending a day flying to and from our nation's capitol to look pretty and nod enthusiastically," I said. "What did you think this was?"

"A conference?" Jaime shrugged.

"A conference in DC," I clarified. "And we're outsiders. Especially you, Mr. Financial Analyst."

"That's Mr. Top-Ranked Financial Analyst to you," Jaime shot back with his usual big, lopsided grin.

"What's in that mug?" Blair asked.

"Coffee," Jaime answered. "Why?"

Blair leaned past me and tapped Jaime's forehead. Jaime instantly folded over his seatbelt, sound asleep.

Remember when I mentioned my Fae ancestry? Blair is that ancestor. It's a long, twisted story that doesn't have much to do with this story, so just trust me on this.

What's important is that Blair and I look ridiculously similar. we both have black hair and blue-green eyes, narrow faces, and deceptively slender physiques. We're also both tall, but I have him beat by a couple of inches. But Blair looks slightly older than me, like an older brother, and he keeps his hair short and slicked back while mine is a bit longer and way harder to control.

So we look alike. So much so that when Blair was outed as a Fae last year, I was outed along with him. There's no way we aren't related.

René peered across the aisle. Jaime was snoring. "Well done," René murmured.

Blair said, "I am not spending a two-hour flight with Jaime Rennick on a caffeine high."

"That's what in-flight entertainment is for," René pointed out, "but the young man likely needed his sleep anyway."

René proceeded to place a set of noise-cancelling Bose headphones over his ears and close his eyes. He was a pro. The only confirmed human among "the Eccentrics," he likely flew all the time.

We didn't pick each other based on species, by the way. The bunch of us just bonded over time. Mostly, business brought us together. I tracked down Blair Winters, my ancient-as-fuck ancestor who at the time was both a professor and something of a lobbyist. Blair was already friends with Reynardo Morales, an architect, and Rey was already business partners with René Renaud, an investment banker. René knew Jaime Rennick, a financial analyst, from past projects of his. That came full circle when Jaime and I realized we had an acquaintance in common: Rowan Bloodworth, who is my best friend and one of Jaime's clients. Rowan is almost never in the States, but he still manages to play a huge role in things. I mean, even as I record this I still have not seen him in years, but you'll see how he ends up being a turning point in this whole mess anyway.

Our plane landed in Washington on schedule. Blair, being the politician that he is, broke away to say a few specific words to a few specific people. The rest of us took a walk through the National Mall to stretch our legs. That's where McGwion found us.

"Mr. Moynahan! I'm so glad you could make it," McGwion said, shaking my hand with gusto.

Coffee Date and Expresso are social apps. (And yes, McGwion spelled Expresso with an X. No, I do not approve.) The former is a dating platform; the latter is a content-sharing site with "friends" and the like. Moynacorp acquired these apps from McGwion for the value of the data they generat, and we allowed McGwion to remain in charge. I regret one of those decisions.

"I appreciate the invitation," I said dryly, taking back my hand as soon as the man let me escape his grip.

"Of course! I see the Eccentrics have descended upon the Capitol!" McGwion cackled. I looked at him with marked disdain.

"Yeah," McGwion continued in a more respectable tone. "Uh, please let me introduce my assistant, Jenna."

"Hi." The woman next to him waved. I had not noticed her up until that moment.

Poor woman. McGwion had invited her to a veritable boys' club for the sake of having company. Certainly, traveling with an assistant could be useful, but in the circles we move in, it isn't always ideal. My assistant was Tina, and I had left her in New Orleans for that reason, and also for reasons related to her being an artificial intelligence.

"Pleased to meet you, Jenna," I said. "Pardon us, please. We'll see you at the meeting."

"For sure," McGwion said, and we walked on, waiting until after McGwion and Jenna were out of earshot.

"Was that Eric McGwion?" Jaime asked. "I always thought you were exaggerating about how pathetic he is."

"Mind your words, Jaime," René warned. "This isn't New Orleans."

"True," I said. My phone buzzed at that moment. It was Blair telling us to show up for the meeting early. As in, right then. "Okay. Game time, y'all."

We went to the White House. Apparently, plans had changed on a dime. Some staffers were setting up the room for photography, and we managed to snag some good seats before the room swelled with tech gurus. We sat down only to stand right back up as the President entered.

Scott Barnhardt was never meant to be present. He was pretty much a nobody, just a senator from North Carolina, before the mass tragedies a few years back marred the line of succession and put him in power. He got re-elected last year, but that's probably because of the ongoing conflicts and restructuring happening around Japan.

The guy's comparatively young, early fifties I think, and he's as slimy as a newborn baby. We all shook hands with him and I instantly wanted a bottle of Purell.

"Everyone come into the middle here," someone said, and we all inched together for some photos. There were thirty of us present. That took ten minutes; I know because I was watching the clock. Then we sat down again, and Barnhardt talked about his commitment to technology and how the United States being a leader in tech would be beneficial to all Americans. He talked without stopping for eighteen minutes. Then he took questions. Someone asked about the loss of jobs to automation, to which Barnhardt expressed support for keeping jobs and factories in the States. Someone else asked about net neutrality, and Barnhardt praised Internet service providers for having committed to their customers on that topic (they hadn't, but that's a rant I won't get into here). McGwion brought up climate change, and Barnhardt used pretty words to encourage us as business leaders to be leaders in cutting down carbon emissions and implementing sustainable renewable energy practices (almost every company represented in that room had long since done so). Then the "tech summit" was over.

I know everyone else had questions. I'm not clear on what anyone else wanted to talk about, although I'm sure the social policies Barnhardt's administration purported to support, such as LGBTQ rights and gender equality, would definitely have come up. I can speak for my friends, though. Reynardo, who claims to be from Mexico (he was actually born in what is now Peru, but no one seems to know the difference anyway), would have brought up immigration and how it affects the technology workforce, which tends to hire from abroad more than other industries do. Jaime had a question about financial deregulation and the Federal Reserve. I wanted to discuss the administration's approaches to autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. Blair had his own questions, I don't remember what about, but he was going to ask about data and privacy on my behalf. Of course, none of that came to fruition.

Fortunately, the day was not a total wash for us, as René announced that if anyone was interested in continuing the discussion amongst ourselves, he would treat everyone to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Nearly everyone agreed. René doesn't usually flaunt his money like that--he's one of the richest and most valuable people in the world--but it was pretty clear that the non-event had bummed everyone out. So we basically took over a diner for a couple of hours, brainstorming on the tech world's problems over some all-American food and a backdrop of Motown hits. All the big names, the CEOs and founders you would normally think of, were there, and I got into friendly debates and discussions with them all. It was great.

So the official meeting did not go well, but we boarded our plane back home in high spirits, feeling confident in the future and our roles in it.