Author's Note: I've been playing with images more and made a new cover. That's Penguin on the monitor at the bottom. I'll probably change the cover again to something else later, but if you want to go and look at all the OCs and old covers, you can check out my writer profile on Facebook.

Music Lover's Alert: "The Pirate Radio Song" by David Rovics and/or "Radio Retaliation" by Thievery Corporation. I looked for "The Pirate Radio Song" on youtube, but only found his other pirate songs. Those aren't the ones you want. So, I just uploaded the right one on my channel.

Chapter 37 Publicity

"You mean I did all that work for nothing?" Penguin screeched at Tulip. Her hazel eyes glowed hot, and she clenched a fist so hard that she broke one of recently manicured nails.

"No, some people saw your tape," Tulip replied meekly.

"How many?" Penguin demanded.

"Based on the viewership of the independent news stations, I'd say about two million," Tulip estimated.

"I wanted two billion at least!"

Sean yawned and kicked back in his chair. "Quit being such a prima donna."

"Shut up and be grateful, bitch! If it wasn't for me, nobody would know why we are doing what we do," Penguin barked.

The other Noelites in the room shifted uncomfortably, but Sean stared at her with hard brown eyes. "Call me a bitch one more time."

"Bitch-eee!"

Before anyone could blink, Sean had jumped out his chair, grabbed the mouthy blonde by the waist, and bent her over the table. He then lifted up her short pink skirt and spanked her with his firm, calloused hand. Penguin squealed as the unexpected blows hit her bottom and her cheeks turned a rosy red. Since she was wearing a thong, everyone could see.

When she fully registered the humiliation that her girlfriend was enduring, the first impulse that Pretty Pictures had was to run to her girlfriend's aid. However, after further consideration, she realized that Penguin had it coming and that interfering in Sean's dispensation of justice could earn her a spanking, too.

Sean stopped spanking Penguin before either of them developed welts that would last longer than a few hours. By this time, she was trembling and whimpering in such a way that Sean took pity on her. He picked her up again, carried her back to his chair, and held her against him in such a way that there would be no pressure on her sore rear end. All the other Noelites stared in shocked silence as he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

Sean shot Joan a smile and said, "I think we're ready to move on now."

Joan blinked and said, "Right. So, the thing to keep in mind here is that we're all in this together. If one part of our system fails, the rest of us should step in and try to fix it in a constructive manner."

Penguin sniffled and buried her face in Sean's chest.

"So, what can we do to make sure that our message gets out next time?" Joan asked.

Pretty Pictures looked at the information team leader thoughtfully and said, "Can we hack into Global Communications directly and force them to broadcast the video?"

Tulip straightened his glasses. "It's possible, but I'd really have to look into it more. Global Enterprises keeps such a tight grip on all of their branches in terms of security that it would be really hard to do it without getting caught. We might get away with it once, but the second time they would be expecting us and they would trace our location."

"What if we did it off-site, somewhere they couldn't catch all of us and the risk would be lower?" Joan asked.

"Yeah, but where?" Tulip wondered.

"Cousin Monica's farm," Sean said to himself.

"Who? I didn't know you had a cousin," Joan said.

"Not my cousin, Salt and Pepper's cousin. She has a ranch slash farm out in the country with her wife Angela. International Communications put up a broadcast tower on their property years ago before people started buying cable TV. It might still work."

Tulip thought for a moment. "Old technology, eh? That could work to our advantage. The new equipment has more identity features that would tell Global Communications which one was tampered with, but the old ones are much simpler. Let's check it out!"

Sean patted Penguin's head and said, "Feel better now, dear?"

"Yeah," Penguin admitted.

"Good. Let's get on to the next order of business," Joan said, "what are we going to do with that giant truck?"

"Truck!?" Penguin, Jessica, and Jamie asked in surprise.

"Yeah. My boys commandeered it when their truck died," Sean said proudly.

"We stole someone's truck!?" Pretty Pictures said, aghast.

"That depends on whether or not you consider corporations people. Under the government's law they are people, but under the bylaws of our organization, they are specifically-" Tulip started to explain.

"-Yeah, we know. Get to the point," Penguin demanded.

"It is Flo*rMart's truck, class eight," Joan summarized.

Jamie's anthracite eyes widened. "Seriously!? I would do anything to get my hands on a beast like that."

"I was hoping you would say that. We need someone to keep it tuned up in case we need it again. Also, chance the license plates on it and paint it ASAP. I'm sure the police are looking for it," Joan said.

Jamie nodded and replied, "Yes ma'am! Where will I get the license plates, though?"

"Tulip, you find an appropriate number to use and Pretty Pictures, you paint it or enamel it or whatever you did when you made these," Joan tapped the little circular medallion that was set into the table in front of her, "and made it look official."

"I get to forge a license plate? Cool!" Pretty Pictures exclaimed.

"Yes. Now, is there anything left to discuss that wasn't on our agenda?" Joan asked.

Based on the contented silence in the room, the answer was clearly "no."

"All right, meeting adjourned."

Sean stood up with Penguin in his arms and dumped her in the lap of Pretty Pictures. Then, he put and arm around Joan's shoulder and left with her. The other ream leaders packed up their things and went their own ways.