The One: Strained Ties (The One Series-Book7) (ORIGINAL DRAFT)

Chapter11: Controlled Buyouts

Chapter11-Controlled Buyouts

September 17, 2010

 It's now mid-September. 7th Anthem had wrapped up their tour. They're now promoting season two of their hit TV series, The Delinquents. They're also beginning to air their series in Canada, but they're having trouble finding a TV station to air their series. This was due to the provocative content.

 They're also getting ready to promote their final single from their ReInvented/Invented albums, All for Nothing. As for their second album, it was about half-way done.

 7A were back in London, but only for a few days. They were going on a TV show to premiere their single, and promote their series. They were going to Toronto, Canada to do promotions.

 Amanda was listening to music from her laptop as she was getting ready to leave to condo with the band. As she was about to stop the music, she noticed the a red light on top of the screen. It was the built-in camera, and it was on.

 She went on the video chat, and saw some coded screen name. She typed to this unknown name, "Who are you?"

 With that, the name logged off. She gave a puzzled stare at the screen. Then she called out to the other members. They went into her room. Andrew asked, "What is it?"

 Amanda replied with a question, "What does it mean when your laptop camera is on, but you didn't turn it on? And when you turn on the chat to see if anyone was on, you find a coded name?"

 Alyson asked, "What are you trying to say? Were you hacked?"

 She said, "I think so."

 Andrew asked, "Was your laptop on?"

 Amanda said, "Yeah, it was. I was listening to some music."

 "You weren't using the camera?"

 "No, I wasn't."

 Then Andrew said, 'Check you phone and your tablet."

 So Amanda did as he said. She noticed the camera on her iPad was on, and her iPhone had some missing pictures. He asked her if there was anything. She said, "There was a coded name on my laptop. This is the same name on my iPad."

 She showed the name on her iPad to Andrew. He said to the other members, "Check your phones, laptops, and tablets."

 Justin said, "But we have that gig tonight. Do we have time to search through our stuff?"

 Andrew said, "Our privacy is being invaded, and this has happened before. Now we know there's a name, maybe we can stop this thing before it leaks anything."

 So the members quickly looked through their electronics. They all saw coded names, and a couple of missing files. Then they met in the living room. Libby asked, "What are we gonna do? We can't keep buying new electronics every time we get hacked."

 Andrew said, "I know. We need to encrypt them."

 Alyson asked, "We should, but do we know how?"

 They didn't have an answer, but they had no time. They had a TV gig to do.

 It's a few days later. 7A were in Toronto, Canada. They were there for promotions, but at the moment, they were out and about. They were in disguise. They all wore jeans, hoodies, and sunglasses.

 They went to several electronic stores and cell-phone companies. They bought laptops, tablets, and cell-phones. When they returned to their hotel suite, they took off the hoodies, and turned on their products.

 A few days earlier, they figured out how to encrypt their products. It wasn't easy, though. After they password-protect and encrypted their electronics, they worked on figuring out what those coded names meant. By the time it was morning, they found out who it was in one of the names.

 It's the next day. 7A went to Boston. They went to an entertainment management office. This was their management from the UTurn years. Then the band barged into Maurice's office.

 He was startled by their abrupt entrance. He asked, "Why are you here? Don't you have some gig in Canada?"

 Alyson approached his desk, and slammed a folder on it. She gave hard glare as he opened the folder. Maurice then asked, "How did you find out?"

 Alyson ignored the question by saying, "Wrong question. We want to know why you did this, and how."

 Maurice gave a smirk and a smug laugh as he explained, "When you bought the UTurn franchise, I called your former people to meet with your new people. I wanted to control 7th Anthem. So we all agreed to track down everything you did, said, and owned by hacking into your phones, computers, and tablets. I was the one who tried to stop you signing onto North American record labels. As for the two couples' highly publicized relationships, I had nothing to do with that. There are others working on the couples."

 That surprised Andyson and Bailstin. Andrew asked, "What are you saying? We're not being paid to do anything for the paparazzi and the tabloids."

 Maurice said, "No, you weren't. But the popularity of Andyson and Bailstin as brought in money for your publicist, your marketing team, your PR team, and your management. From what I was told, there are plans to shake the two couples, but keep them together at the same time."

 With that, the band left the office. Alyson then took Andrew aside. She said to him, "We can't let our current people and our former people control us and buy us off. We have to fire them. Besides, they're obviously the ones that hacked into our stuff."

 Andrew, who was visibly frustrated, said, "Yeah, we'll fire everyone except Louis and Simon. As for this f*cked up mess, let me handle it."

 Alyson was taken back by this, so she said, "Andrew, you can't do this on your own. This is a huge task, and you need more than one person doing this."

 "Alyson...just let me do this. Okay?"

 So Andrew stormed off. Alyson, feeling frustrated, approached Bailey and Justin. She told them, "We need to bring down our people. Andrew insists on doing this himself. I say otherwise. So the three of us should team up together."

 Bailey and Justin exchanged looks with each other. Then Bailey asked, "Why are you really doing this?"

 "Bailz, you're my bestie. And Justin, you're my friend, too. I just think Andrew needs a little help."

 The couple thought for a moment, then they agreed to team up with Alyson.

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IN THE VIDEO IS 7TH ANTHEM'S SINGLE, 'ALL FOR NOTHING'>>>