I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1132: An Hour of Horror]

Seated at the head of the conference table, Eric scanned the room with a somber expression, his gaze landing on the shared screen of Ian Gurney, Steve Mitnick, and Tina Brown. He asked, "So, Ian, what time is it over there?"

In the video call, Ian Gurney looked at his wristwatch and replied, "It's 8:25."

"Great, that leaves us with one hour and five minutes until the Nasdaq opens," Eric said as he surveyed the room again. "You all know what has been happening. Call those people -- Steve Case, Bill Gates, or any other CEO of tech companies. Tell them to remove all news related to the three kids and block all sites publishing their information. If they can't meet my demands in an hour, the Firefly Group will publicly announce plans to reduce holdings of stocks from publicly traded companies like Yahoo, Cisco, Amazon, Sprint, and Qualcomm. Since they think things are too easy, let's bring down the Nasdaq."

Upon hearing Eric's words, all the executives connected to the conference room looked shocked. Stocks from companies like Yahoo, Cisco, and Amazon were major tech stocks that could sway the Nasdaq's market.

Although the Nasdaq was getting increasingly volatile, it was also teetering on the edge, and any slight wind or disturbance in the capital markets could cause tremors in the index. If Yahoo, Cisco, and Amazon announced sell-off plans simultaneously, it could trigger a panic sell-off, and the Nasdaq could collapse in an instant.

After a brief silence in the conference room, it was Jeffrey Katzenberg -- usually the most impulsive among them -- who spoke up first, saying, "Eric, even if you do this, it won't stay hidden."

"I never intended to hide anything; I am merely teaching some people how to play by the rules," Eric shook his head, adamantly stating, "Now, let's get started. You all have ten minutes. When the calls are done, we'll continue the meeting. No more negotiations with me today; I don't want to bargain with anyone!"

Feeling the undeniable tone in Eric's voice, Tina Brown was the first to grab the phone on the table and walked off-screen. The others quickly followed suit.

...

Eric instructed Caroline to bring over a laptop and connect it to the internet, casually placing it on the conference table. He leaned back in his chair, mindlessly flipping through a document.

Moments later, the sound of a phone ringing echoed in the conference room. Eric glanced at the nearby phone but quickly looked away, showing no intention to answer it.

Soon, Eric, Caroline, and Merissa's cell phones rang as well, with the Boeing Connection Company's exclusive top communication network for this Boeing 747 making communication onboard as seamless as on the ground.

However, this time, Eric didn't lift his head.

Merissa looked at Eric's reaction and placed her ringing phone on the table, making no move to answer it. Caroline hesitated with her small Nokia phone but eventually followed suit.

...

Eric remained indifferent as the urgent rings of the phones echoed. Across North America, as Chris, Katzenberg, Ian Gurney, and Tina Brown made calls, many tech executives gathered in cities like San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, New York, and even Los Angeles were nervously experiencing their own hour of horror.

No one dared to gamble against Eric Williams, wondering if he would actually announce the sell-off plans.

After all, even if Eric Williams' net worth was cut in half, he was still a billionaire tycoon. However, if the Nasdaq collapsed, countless new tech companies that relied on tech stock bubbles to attract funding would face ruin, and many capital newcomers who had made billions by riding the tech wave could plummet into obscurity.

Within just a few minutes, the entire tech industry erupted into chaos.

From the East Coast approaching working hours to the West Coast just brightening up, countless executives at internet companies who had been reveling in the drama were now braced for the communications barrage.

Not just a few executives from the Firefly Group, but also numerous VCs, major shareholders in tech companies, and Wall Street capitalists who had invested heavily in tech stocks started to pressure the entire internet industry after hearing the news, unwilling to let their billion-dollar fortunes go up in smoke over some gossip.

Soon, countless news portals, search engines, news websites, and online forums received forced directives from the highest levels of their companies to start removing any news relating to the three kids.

...

In the Boeing 747's conference room, ten minutes flew by, and everyone gradually returned to the video call screen.

Eric had already instructed Caroline and Merissa to turn off their phones and disconnected the landline.

Chris approached the call screen last and gestured with his Nokia, saying, "Eric, you have a call from the President."

Eric nodded, and Chris put the phone on speaker, placing it in front of the microphone.

"Eric, can you hear me?" Bill Clinton's voice quickly came through, testing the waters. Without waiting for Eric to reply, he continued, "Listen, Eric, you can't do this. Tell me you're not going to do this, right?"

Eric replied bluntly, "Mr. President, the decision does not lie with me."

"They are already handling it, Eric, but you need to calm down."

"I'm very calm, Mr. President."

"Well, good," Clinton paused for a moment before adding, "Eric, I know you're angry, but you can't fight against the whole world."

"Thanks for the advice, Mr. President. But if the whole world is against me, I don't mind trying to take on the world," Eric coldly responded before adding, "Sorry, Mr. President, we're in a meeting."

"Alright then, talk later," Clinton said somewhat awkwardly, hanging up.

Eric looked at the others once again and said, "Now then, regarding television and print media, my bottom line is that they can discuss it, but the names, photos, and addresses of the kids must not appear, not even blurred images. Jeffrey, you're in charge of coordinating this."

"Got it," Katzenberg nodded and hesitated a moment before asking, "Eric, should we issue an official statement?"

"Cancel tomorrow's taping of the Late Show with David Letterman and have ABC prepare. Once I'm in New York, I'll cooperate with a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show to air tomorrow."

"I'll have Robert arrange that right away; it's just..."

Seeing Katzenberg hesitating to voice his concerns, Eric added, "The promotional schedule for Iron Man stays as is. Of course, you can also have Marvel prepare to adjust the movie universe plan. If necessary, Iron Man can be completely taken out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe plans."

Thinking of the overwhelmingly positive media reception Iron Man had received, Katzenberg felt a pang of regret and bit his lip in frustration at the mastermind behind today's incident, saying, "I'll do it."

"Now," Eric redirected his focus to everyone in the room, "I believe you all know about the recent events -- the massive wiretapping scandal and the recent exposure of the three kids. There's an old saying: A tree that stands taller than the others is bound to suffer more from the winds. The Firefly Group is that towering tree. Therefore, incidents like this will continue to happen. To ensure our enemies think twice before acting, I will get to the bottom of this. I won't let anyone -- the ones in front of the stage or those behind the scenes -- get away."

...

Faced with the immense pressure from the Firefly Group, the general public remained blissfully unaware, and the brewing internet storm was quickly quelled.

However, due to the extreme openness of the internet, this incident could not be completely covered up. Although suppressed, the relevant news began to spread among the public, but without the media's guiding narrative, the ensuing uproar was far less than many had anticipated.

...

Manhattan.

As the clock approached 9 a.m.

In Cindy's apartment on East 75th Street, Linda barged in excitedly with her key. Seeing Cindy quietly reading on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window, she felt it was a bit odd but quickly adopted a gloating tone and said, "Hey, have you heard?"

Cindy flipped a page of The Thorn Birds and shook her head lightly, "No."

"Hey, what's wrong with you lately? You seem off," Linda muttered as she tossed her bag aside, darting for the study. A moment later, she rushed out holding a laptop. "That guy's in trouble! All the information about the three kids has been exposed online -- I just saw it on AOL. Phew, good thing I wasn't pregnant last time or I'd have to deal with that mess too."

Cindy's expression changed slightly at Linda's words, and she finally closed her book and moved closer.

Seeing that Cindy was finally showing interest, Linda got more excited, quickly opening the browser and typing in AOL's homepage. She pointed and turned to Cindy, "Look, here!"

Cindy glanced at the AOL homepage with a puzzled look, "What am I looking at?"

Linda shifted her gaze back to the screen and quickly scanned it before saying, "Huh? I just saw 'Eric Williams' love child exposed' -- where did it go?"

At this, she refreshed the page a few times, but the link had now turned into an article about the latest biopharmaceutical policy from the Clinton administration.

"Oh right, I remember that article said it was republished from 'Hollywood Gossip'," Linda mumbled, then opened the Google search engine, typed in "Hollywood Gossip," clicked on several search results but found no trace of the website.

Linda wasn't foolish and quickly figured it out. She leaned back against the couch, grabbed a cushion, and hit it a few times in frustration, saying, "I get it; that guy must have pulled some strings."

Cindy, however, didn't believe Linda came over so early just to chatter nonsense. She pulled the laptop over, easily switched between several portals, and researched for a while. Then she opened some of the larger news websites, but there was no news on the three kids.

After a moment's thought, Cindy picked up the remote and turned on the TV, flipping through channels until she finally stopped at CNN.

"According to our internal sources, Eric Williams has issued an ultimatum to senior executives of all portal news sites. If by the time the Nasdaq opens today, they do not remove all news regarding his personal love children, the Firefly Group will publicly announce a significant sell-off of stocks from tech companies like Yahoo, Cisco, and Amazon. In just half an hour, we discovered that all related news articles on mainstream portals like AOL and MSN have been removed, and Yahoo has not had any related news at all."

The host continued, "Bernard, can you explain to everyone why the tech giants in the internet industry capitulated to the pressure from the Firefly Group? And does what the Firefly Group is doing pose a serious threat to press freedom?"

After the host spoke, the camera shifted to a guest seated beside him.

Cindy didn't listen any further and hit the mute button.

Linda had her mouth slightly agape. After a moment, she exclaimed, "So it really was that guy!"

"Or else who?" Cindy shut her laptop and returned to the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window.

Linda turned the volume back up to hear a bit more, but soon felt a bit deflated and switched off the TV. She leaned closer to Cindy and said, "Ugh, I initially thought that guy would really be in trouble, but he managed to suppress it without a peep."

Cindy opened The Thorn Birds and remarked, "Do you want him to be in trouble that badly?"

"Not really," Linda grabbed a pillow beside her, feeling conflicted. "But he, he wanted us both to get pregnant last time -- what a terrible guy!"

"You didn't react that way back then."

"He's a tyrant! If I disagreed, he might have beaten me to a pulp."

Cindy smiled at her reply and said, "Maybe."

Realizing the unconvincing nature of her reasoning, Linda felt a bit embarrassed and stammered, "So, um, have you had breakfast? Let's go downstairs and eat."

"I've already eaten, you go ahead," Cindy replied.

"Why have you suddenly become so boring?" Linda reached for the book, then instinctively made a defensive gesture, only realizing that Cindy wasn't acting like she used to, letting her have it. The confusion grew apparent. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh," Linda replied, then immediately jumped up in shock, throwing the book away. "What?!"

Cindy shot her an exasperated look as she picked up The Thorn Birds. "Stop bothering me; it's not the weekend. Don't you have work to do?"

"But did you tell him yet?"

"I feel a bit hesitant," Cindy said as she opened the book again. "And the recent event reminded me. Maybe naming this child Crawford wouldn't be too bad; I can afford it now."

"He definitely won't agree to that."

"Let's see how he handles this situation first. It's not over yet. If he can't manage Kevin and Hawaii's issues, I think it's better for my child to bear the Crawford name."

"Yeah, uh-huh," Linda nodded along, then leaned in excitedly to suggest, "When that happens, I'll be the mom."

"What does that make me?"

"With your temperament, you'd definitely be the dad."

"Get lost."

"Aw, you're getting all angry again."

*****

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