“Q”
Chapter 53: Shaniqua had been very disappointed by Perkins.
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For one thing she didn’t care for the way he looked at her. Something about him made her skin crawl. He had a ‘greasy’ feeling about him.
They had driven around in the limo and he had shown her a number of very nice properties including one that was very strange.
“It was built by a cult I think” he had said. "You can purchase for a very reasonable price.”
He’d hesitated for a second before he’d quoted it too her. She thought it was much too high for something not completed. She’d graciously declined. That had been the last building he knew of that was for sale. The limo took her back to the Chronicle. She’d taken a long HOT shower as soon as she could, to wash off the greasy smell of him.
For days afterward she thought nothing more about a new abode. She’d lived in the backroom of the Chronicle for quite a while, she could live there longer she supposed. Then one day she happened to overhear two reporters talking. Something about a story. Anything in which the newspaper was involved was HER business.
“Tell me more.” she asked the reporter that was speaking.
“Oh nothing” the young man had said. He looked guilty as sin.
Shaniqua pressed him relentlessly.”Spit it out.”
Oh, I just wrote a story for the Chronicle is all. It’s in two parts. Part one ran in the last edition. I just submitted part two”.
“What was it about?” Shaniqua asked suspiciously. This didn’t smell right.
The reporter mumbled...
“What was that?” Shaniaqua spoke sharply. "I didn’t HEAR you.”
“Aliens” he said. He wouldn’t meet her eye.
“Come into my office.” said the spider to the fly. Shaniqua was feeling very much the spider. The reporter was the fly.
So they did. She brought yesterday’s edition on her computer screen. Sure enough the headline screamed.
What is the government hiding?
A picture went with the article. It was a blurry photo, perhaps taken with a cell phone, of what appeared to be a barge. The unusual part was that the barge was floating twenty or thirty foot in the air, above the water.
“What kind of story is THIS?” Shaniqua was outraged. "This is something that InfoWars, The New York Times,The Daily Mail, or the National Enquirer would run. The Chronicle is a respectable paper. We don’t run this kind of stuff. How did it get past me?”
The reporter looked as if he’d rather be anywhere else than where he was. He foresaw impending doom. He was right.
He mumbled something else.
“I can’t HEAR you!” she almost shouted.
“The page layout editor and I slipped it in after you went to sleep.” he said "You were very tired. We didn’t think we should bother you with something so minor”
“Where did you get this information?” she asked.
“Oh I conducted several interviews” he replied.
“ What, Where, Who, When and Why?” she asked
He blinked. "Um...I’m not sure what you are saying.”
He had been here when she bought the place. Perhaps he didn’t really know? That was unlikely since she had harped on those same principles almost daily since she fired the old boss. Possibly he hadn’t been paying attention?
She told him patiently. "What happened? Where did it happen? Who was involved. and Why did it happen? How it happened would be too much to ask?”
“No clue.” he said some what belligerently.
“Where did you conduct those interviews” she spoke to him as if he were a small child” Who did you interview?”
He looked uneasy, as if his collar was too tight. "Um...I talked to some people in a bar.”
“You got it from Social Media didn’t you?“ she looked at him. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Where did you get the picture? I don’t see any attribution. You took it off the internet didn’t you?” she accused him.
“Well yeah.” he admitted. He was becoming angry.
“This story is fiction then?” she pressed on. "or at best it’s an opinion with no credible sources? "
“Well NO!” he said. "It’s TRUE!”
“How do you know that?” She growled "Did even get off your dead ass? Did you interview anyone who was involved? Did you even speak with anyone who had SEEN it, even over the telephone? Did you even bother to research the subject on the internet?”
“Well no...” he mumbled.
“You’re Fired.” she said "Clean out your desk and leave.”
“You can’t do that!” he exclaimed.
“I just did.” she told him " Now git”.
He got.
She made sure of it. She accompanied him to his desk, watched him clean it out, then escorted him to the door. Everyone was watching.
“You!” she pointed to the layout editor. The guilty party was a young woman. Shaniqua had an evil suspicion. She remembered what two former editors had been doing on the day she arrived.
“You too.” she said. "You’re fired too!”
“Gather round” she told them after the two had left. From the venomous look the layout editor had given the reporter Shaniqua suspected that relationship was over. "I got some ‘splaining to do. Haven’t you been paying attention? Haven’t you been LISTENING these last few weeks? Didn’t I tell you what I expect of you regarding sourcing your material? Apparently you didn’t hear it the first twenty times I said it.”
“Apparently you STILL don’t realize what kind of an operation this is. I’m going to tell you. I’m going to KEEP telling you until it sinks in or I fire the last one of you.” she spoke to them as if they were somewhat slow children.
So she did.
The SteamShip Sultana exploded near Marion Arkansas,
1700 people died
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keep em coming! - I'll upvote when i have powered up a bit more
Chapter 53 are good,upvoted