Making the News

‘And how are you going to do that?’ Emma smiled, folding her arms.

‘That’s the clever bit,’ Jack said, leaning in closer and lowering his voice, ‘I’m going to make the news.’

‘Right.’

‘What do you mean, right? Have you no faith in me?’

‘If you’re going to make the news, it’s going to have to be about you.’

‘That’s correct.’

‘So how interesting is it going to be? Journalist writes story about himself. The front page: Jack Dancer eats cereal and goes to work, more on page three. I hardly think it’ll be among the most interesting stories of the day.’

‘You can mock all you want, I don’t care.’

Jack turned back to his computer, he could feel Emma still looking straight at
him.

‘What?’

‘When’s this big story going to be then?’

‘I thought you weren’t interested.’

‘I’m not. I am a little intrigued though.’

‘Intrigued, eh? Well your intrigue will be satisfied tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow, are you sure?’

‘Yep,’ Jack said, typing away.

‘Okay, two things,’ she said, ‘that would mean you need something by the deadline this evening.’

‘And the second?’

‘You know what it is.’

‘Why don’t you tell me?’

‘Dixon’s already given me tomorrow’s front page.’

‘Well you better get writing then, I’ll see you at the finish line.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Emma said, rolling her eyes as she turned away and went back to
work.

Jack smiled, picked up his jacket and left the office.

As he waited for the lift he looked in the glass and straightened his tie. There
was a ping and Jack joined a woman in the small moving room.

The ride down to the ground floor took a couple of minutes and from the lift doors it was thirty seconds over grey carpet before he was outside.

Rain was bouncing off the pavement and cars were whizzing past. Jack lit a cigarette and walked down the alleyway that ran adjacent to the building.

About halfway down he leaned against the wall and hit number four on his phone’s speed dial.

‘How’s it going?’ Jack asked.

‘Everything’s on schedule. Four o’clock today.’

‘All right, I’ll speak to you later.’

He took another drag from his cigarette and then squashed it on the ground.

September 11th in the year 2001, it was going to be a beautiful day.