Transition and Restart Chapter 187

"Yes, I like my high school very much . Himekaizen is so much fun," Christina said and giggled inanely .

The anchor gave her a pained but professional smile in return . Most likely the woman had seen more than her fair share of beautiful airheads flaring into fame just to be forgotten half a year later .

'Well, you're going to remember this interview,' Christina thought . 'You fired first and I'm responding with heavy artillery . '

"Is there something special that makes you like your school that much?" the anchor asked .

Christina stared into two uninterested eyes facing her . 'This is where you expect yet another brain-dead answer . '

"Yes, as I'm a foreigner I'm very happy my school doesn't tolerate racism the way Red Rose Academy does," she said and made her face light up in a wide grin . Christina knew it made her look stunning, and it offered the anchor an opportunity to gloss over the uncomfortable message .

"I'm happy that you have found a school to your liking," the anchor said and didn't look happy at all . Her smile hardly reached her eyes .

They quickly moved on to Christina's model career and she made an effort to balance between being an airhead and a professional model . Christina had to keep her persona as The Billion Dollar Empress in check, because it was one thing to stride down the catwalk as haughty royalty, and a totally different one scaring away a television audience who thrived on cuteness .

After the talk show Christina changed into her baggy incognito set of clothes after checking for needles and other booby traps as usual . She found nothing, and hadn't really expected to here at a television studio, but better safe than sorry .

When she left the studio she walked to the bike stand where her body guard stood waiting patiently . But for the attack on Ulf her agency would have dropped him by now . After the assault there was no way she'd have her privacy back .

"Pleasant evening?" Christina offered .

"Yes miss," her bodyguard answered . Nothing in his voice indicated whether he found anything pleasant or not .

Christina shrugged and mounted her bike . She plugged in the earpiece to her headset and dialled one of her new-found contacts in the computer club . After a few rumbling sounds; 'ringtones' didn't really describe the feeling of ringing someone in Japan, he picked up .

"Ageruman here," she said . They had agreed she'd announce herself even though he saw her contact information when she called . Just in case anyone stole her cell .

For once she didn't care if the paid muscle heard her conversation or not . She was embarking on a dirty smear-campaign and any kind of rumour-mongering would further her case .

"I dropped the bomb on the show," Christina said .

"They could edit it out . "

"Yeah, and break the contract . Costly, dangerous and they'll never see a teen model on their show again . " Christina didn't know if the penalty would really stretch that far, but her contact at Uniclo, Alice Kerringer, had pulled some strings of her own .

"I don't believe you," came the response .

'Computer geek and a coward . ' Immediately after that thought Christina felt ashamed of herself . She did this to avenge Ulf, and he started out his professional life as a computer geek himself . "At the moment I'm Uniclo's little mascot and I told my contact there what could happen to their Korean and Chinese market if they glossed this over . "

"Why should I care about Koreans and Chinese?"

'We don't accept that kind of behaviour at Himekaizen but that apparently doesn't mean there aren't people in school who thinks that way anyway . ' "Would you care to repeat that for me?" Christina said and made an effort to lace her voice with the next ice age .

"Sorry Ageruman-san . I apologise . That was uncalled for . "

'Uncalled for, my arse . You'll be ostracised until graduation if you make an enemy of me . ' "I don't mind, but I'm certain Hamarugen-san would be unhappy if he heard you say those things," she said instead and felt her stomach cramp at the lie . She cared very much . You didn't build a global fashion empire if you truly believed in eugenics .

"Ah, sorry . My bad . "

'Your bad indeed . ' Ulf had garnered his fair share of adoration in the computer club after he ran some kind of tech seminar there a few weeks ago .

"Anyway, the show goes live tomorrow at five pm . Could you start those voices of indignation from half past five?"

"Sure, and you're certain you only want those sites seeded?"

Christina nodded as she biked . "Yeah . I'll give you another list with sites of importance together with a schedule later . "

He only needed the list . Explaining demographics would take too long . Explaining how she happened to know exactly where that TV-channel made an impact was impossible, and in truth she didn't really know . Christina gambled on the demographics being mostly the same in this world as in her old one . She'd make certain the ugly rumours about Red Rose reached other local communities like rings on the water .

Next on her agenda was setting up a live protest . One that could be traced back to 9:1 but no further . After that a few well-placed libellous newspaper articles . As far as she knew the right wing loonies at Red Rose would take the bait, and Christina already had Noriko's consent to detonate the real bomb .

'Sorry Ulf, but I won't let him stay peacefully in his grave . ' She'd use the evidence on the suicide victim, because that evidence included damning photos of two teachers and the principal of Red Rose . 'When I'm done with you arseholes you're going belly up . Not even right wing loony parents will place their kids there . '

Christina used the time at a red light to place another phone call and continued her smear campaign .

Chapter end