BACKGROUND:

Bad guys, for me at least, are especially difficult to personify.

This is a section of a forthcoming novel of mine, where a gentleman by the name of Francis Boudierre uses his power projection capabilities to hack into the mass media network of the United States to give an address.

Angela is a devout genius who has, among other things, invented a energy storage device of enormous benefits in terms of clean energy. Despite the realization that this invention can be used to solve most of the world’s quickly building energy problems (this story takes place in late 2028), Angela has opted to keep the design and formulas secret for unknown reasons. Seeing this, Francis has made extensive plans for her future, so the remaining challenge is forcing her hand at playing along. 

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“Ladies and gentlemen.” began the news anchor, “this video was sent to us just an hour ago from an unknown source, claiming to be affiliated with a group of so-called ‘masterminds’ who have their ‘demands.’ Due to the ominous nature of this video’s content, viewer discretion is advised. We repeat, this video has just been sent to us, and an unknown number of stations around the nation. Please stay with us as this story breaks.”

Alone in what appeared to be an empty room, sat a professionally dressed figure, adorned with an expensively tailored suit. He sat firmly, with the posture of a man who clearly knew and meant business, speaking so fluidly that the conceptual undertones of his message were made so much clearer than any nemesis that the people had ever known. As he leaned forward with his face concealed behind a beautifully crafted metal mask–not much unlike an example used at the attendance of a masquerade ball–his hands extended together to embrace those of whom he was addressing.

“Now,” he began, “there are many questions. These questions have come to light in a world dominated by the production of energy, the life-sustaining blood of our civilization, the very thing that makes our entire lives trudge forward day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute—second by second. So fragile we all are, so comfortably hemmed up within our ignorance that we cannot see the facets of the loins we sew. Both you and I know of our coming calamity, our coming struggle, our coming ruckus of a battle that will ensue so deeply into the fabric of our history that the engine driving mankind will nearly seize to a halt. Our nations have begun preparing for such inevitability, but have you?

“It is with great regret that I, along with my confidantes, have noticed the extreme imbalance of power in the global playing field. It is with my personal contrition that I must admit that I have planned far ahead of anyone else. For you all, I share my deepest sympathies, but in lieu of this selfish revelation, why should I keep this conclusion from the light of day, from the eyes of the concerned individuals vying for survival in a place that will soon be ridden of all modern technological comforts and assisting devices. The conservation of energy is the key law that binds our fates with our faults. Our reluctance to pursue better ways to master its conservation has sent us barreling down a path to certain doom, but now, my friends across this world, someone knows the answers.”

From the table in front of him, he withdrew a photograph of Angela Dolphine from a folder and held it up to display it clearly to the camera. As the zoom focused in on the image, his voice hung lower, perhaps for the deeper sting of his conclusive statements, or maybe for the added flair of the panic that would ensue.

“I give you Doctor Angela Dolphine, hailed as the world’s greatest mind, the leader of our charismatic and vibrant youth, the founder of humanity’s new boundaries of physical and theoretical science. A pure genius in her own right, she is known to hold a number of patents specifically in the area of breakthrough technologies, but this, ladies and gentlemen, is the groundbreaker. In behest to our plights in a world being starved of its natural resources, she, in all of her selfish wisdom, has solved one of the biggest conundrums of all. Today, with our modern technology, we can produce a monumentally grand amount of energy to sustain our thirsty needs, but the difficulty lies within the storage of this energy. Sometime during the evening hours of August 5, 2028, our genius had produced the first stable example of an magnetic energy storage cell that sustains its internal reactions via the usage of a common noble gas, Argon. Within this battery, there apparently lies a sustained superconductive state in which the energy is stored inside of an immense magnetic field. Superconductivity is nothing new to science, but until now it has required very expensive and large supporting devices to remain viable.

“Single-handedly, however, Doctor Angela Dolphine has shifted the paradigm. Through a currently unknown means, her cell maintains a superconductive state at room temperature, somehow reacting with a pressurized, but nearly inert containment gas to begin what other scientists believe is a pre-fusion loop, in which the cell is initially charged, yet not only maintains this charge for a seemingly indefinite amount of time, but also generates its own power from the contained reaction inside of it.

“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the beginning of our long road to an energy revolution. Imagine a battery that when charged by a normal, run-of-the-mill wall outlet, would give you not days, or weeks, or even months of uninterrupted power, but perhaps on the scale on the years. The nearly unlimited potential of such a device could yield us a promising future of prosperity, without war over resources, or global warming resulting in the burning of our primitive fossil fuels, but as unfortunate as it may be, I must include the hiccup.

“In her show of utter disregard for the needs of the society around her, she has remained steadfast in her efforts to contain this breakthrough technology to herself, assuming that it relies purely on the benefit of her own good. As woman with a rapidly blossoming net worth of tens of millions of dollars, what’s a little more to hold onto, if she holds, in her own two hands, the lifeline to the entire world?

“As beautiful and electrifying as she may be, the truth can be clearly seen. There are no intentions to develop the technology into a commercially viable resource that can be used by all of us for the greater good. There are no intentions to even share the formulaic designs that led to her verified discovery. In an effort to protect her control, she has even opted to withhold the application of a patent, knowing full and well that the information could be easily extrapolated by those specializing in the reverse engineering of these documents.

“So ladies and gentlemen, it is with my extreme dissatisfaction to end this greatly informative discussion with the brunt of bad news, but in all, I know you will understand. See, the intent of my colleagues and myself, is to provide the populace with a means of a reparatory negotiation in the form of an offer to solve this grand problem. It is our right as humans in the collective blanket of our civilization to be able to embrace the founding of world-changing technologies. If you knew that there was a cure for cancer, yet were also aware that its creator was purposely withholding the life-saving serum for their own personal gain, what would you do? Would to rise to fight against the tyranny? Would you stand up to fix the problem with the solution that stands in front of you, plain as the blue sky on a clear day?

“Rise up, my friends. Demand your rights. Speak up and hold her accountable for her actions that have not only gone against you, but against everyone on this blue planet that struggles everyday to sustain our lives. It will not be blue for long at this rate, but this is the first step. Guide her into the light of our voices. Show her that this society will not tolerate blind deceptions.

“We will have your backs, my friends. We will fight alongside you as you protest. We will be there as you take the hands of your own fates and determine them with free will. You have called upon us, and now, we have answered. The ball is your hands now, so please, make the play.”