Elise

Elise huffed and turned off the TV as soon as Reid Brennan walked on screen. Her plan had been a spectacular failure. She had intended to confront the man in an awe-inspiring manner, forcing him to address the accusations her research had generated. Instead, she'd gotten dragged away like a wild animal, kicking and screaming because they had no right to touch her all while the asshole looked on in bemused shock.

Reid Brennan's company was culpable in the use of forced labor... slavery.

The top cosmetics company in the world was fueling human rights violations in several countries, and it seemed as if no one, least of all Reid Brennan, gave any shits. Scowling, Elise tossed the remote down where it landed on her desk, knocking a mess of papers over and sending them flying around her office, not that papers all over the floor looked out of place in her office.

Well, it wasn't really an office. It was her walk-in closet she'd converted into an office when she was fired for ruffling too many feathers at her old paper. It didn't matter. Now Elise was freelance and far happier than she'd been in a long time. But she had bills to pay and an endless string of emails sitting unanswered in her inbox from people desperate to get their stories out in the world. Each one of those emailers had harrowing tales of abuse and power and oppression that mainstream media outlets refused to take up. Most of the time, the perpetrators of the crimes people were reaching out to her about were the empowered, the ones funding media outlets.

People like Reid Brennan, founder of Marauder's Inc.

Her cell rang, and she frowned, spun around in her desk chair to face her bag, then fished around in the backpack until she found the thing and answered.

"Hello?"

"Did you get the video I sent?" It was Kalani, her on-the-ground woman in the country where Marauder's products were produced... and her source of intel about the forced labor.

"You got the footage?!" Elise exclaimed, spinning her chair to face her computer and opening her email as quickly as she could.

"Some of it, yeah. Only the stuff the guy was willing to video then share. He's terrified, Elise. Worried someone will realize he took the cellphone footage of the abuse in the factory. The people in charge... they run it as if they were a mafia. Our informant's family would even be in jeopardy if anyone caught wind that he was selling this shit to you."

Elise bit her lip as she opened the email from Kalani and downloaded the attachment. When the video began playing, she caught her breath. The footage was grainy, obviously taken with some sort of cheap flip phone, and as Elise watched, she noticed armed men stalking up and down the aisles in a factory. Most of the employees working the machinery seemed as if they were children, the thought of which wrenched Elise's heart. Then, when one girl, who was seated near the person filming dropped the packaging she was trying to put together, one of the armed guards struck her with the butt of his rifle. Then, the shaky video cut off.

"You know I pride myself on keeping my sources anonymous, Kalani. Tell the guy he doesn't have to worry. Tell him that... tell him that I'm trying. I'm not going to let these stories be ignored."

"I will, Elise. The video's good, isn't it?"

Elise nodded as she rewound the footage, pausing on a frame of the packaging that had slipped out of the girl's hands. There, displayed prominently on the cover of the box, was the Marauder's logo.

"Perfect. The video's perfect. Excellent work."

"Good. About the payment..."

Elise sighed, saving the video to a folder on her computer before turning on the TV then muting it so that she wouldn't have to hear Reid Brennan's voice. Tucking the phone between her shoulder and ear to free up her hands, Elise shoved her USB stick into the computer and backed up the Marauder's folder for the millionth time.

"Umm... yeah. I'll find you guys the money. I will. Two weeks tops."

"Elise, I believe in what you're trying to do. Really. But we can't feed our families with promises."

"I know! I'm not bullshitting you, Kalani. I just need... time. To figure things out. I'll get it to you and the informant. I swear."

The other woman huffed out a breath, but when she spoke, she didn't sound angry. Just oddly sad. "Two weeks, Elise. I'll wait two weeks. Then find someone else to do your dirty work."

"Thanks," Elise's words came out in relieved, rushed breath. "I owe you."

"Yes, you do."

With that, the other woman hung up, leaving Elise to stare at the interview on her television screen. She hated Brennan. Hated his arrogance and immaculate appearance. Hated the way his company just won at everything. Hated the way his products created herds of hungry customers looking for their next fix of whatever the hell they were putting into their cosmetics.

Because Elise was certain whatever was going on at Marauder's wasn't natural. She'd even bribed a kid at the college to run chemical analysis on the products she'd practically taken out a loan to buy, convinced there was some sort of drug in there. But, everything had been... normal. Yet Marauder's wasn't normal.

And no company should have that much power over people. Capitalism had already fucked the world to the point that the climate was irreparably harmed and wealth distribution so one-sided that the top one percent of the entire world controlled over seventy percent of the world's wealth. It was wrong, and the system was so broken that people couldn't even see the human rights violations going on right before their eyes. Capitalism had rendered them blind to injustice, and Elise had a responsibility to push back against that.

She had a chance to change things, to challenge the system through her reporting. She'd been working on building this Marauder's story for years, slowly collecting intel on Reid Brennan and his family. The Brennan clan has always guarded their histories well. The Brennan siblings came from a long line of movers and shakers: politicians, industry leaders, the list went on and on, although it was Reid Brennan that established Marauder's, the most successful enterprise in the Brennan history books.

But, the fact that the family hid their secrets so well didn't stop Elise. She'd dug in archives and bribed her way through the past, even visiting Salem, Massachusetts to inquire with local historians about the Brennan lineage.

The facts that she managed to uncover almost made things more perplexing than remaining in the dark. Everyone knew the Brennan's, the same way they knew the Kennedy's or the Rockefeller's. What everyone didn't know was that the Brennan family came from a long line of occultists with histories dating back to their time in Europe. What that had to do with Marauder's Inc. and the haughty arrogance of the company's handsome CEO, Elise didn't know, yet she was determined to find out.

When her phone dinged with a message, she looked down to see a text from one of her old friends from the paper. It was brief, but the words drew a reckless smirk to her face.

Brennan is giving a press conference tomorrow about his company's new media campaign and Glamour Me. Thought you'd want to know. I didn't tell you about this.

Grinning like a fool, she replied with a gif of a child doing a happy dance before setting her phone down on a stack of old magazines she couldn't remember why she'd bought. This was her chance. Brennan would be live on television. Let's see him try to dodge her questions in a room full of hundreds of reporters all broadcasting live or recording his words for later analysis. Elise's eagerness was so pronounced that it had her sucking in a hitched breath, and before she knew it, that started her into a coughing fit of epic proportions.

Eyes watering from her inability to breathe, Elise dug around frantically in her drawer hunting for an inhaler. Gasping for breath, she felt her hand grasp the object, and she pulled it out, taking several deep puffs until she could finally catch her breath. She didn't know if her asthmatic fit was a sign she was on the right track or if it was the universe warning her against grappling with Reid Brennan.

Either way, Elise wouldn't be dissuaded... even if her ribs hurt now. She had an important press conference tomorrow to prepare for.