Special Branch: Unbound
POSTED BY: seryn
UPDATED: Friday, June 23, 2006 23:10
VIEWED: 21806
PAGE 12 of 12
As Kyra exited the cell, closing the door behind her, she discovers the guard that had let her in was sitting unnervingly close to the door.
Suddenly a worrying thought crosses her mind. Did he hear our conversation?
“Everything sorted?” the guard asks her, interrupting the thought before it had time to set in.
“Sorry?” she asked softly, desperate to conceal her guilt.
“Your brother - You said what you need to say?”
“Oh, yeah.” She replies, careful to disguise the relief that had just passed over her. “It’s just… brothers, they can be so stubborn sometimes”
“I bet”
After thanking the guard for his help, she quickly makes her way towards the exit – Payne’s announcement to her had made everything more urgent. They had been given a window of opportunity, and it was doubtful the window would remain open for long.
First though, she needed to get Milton out. And she knew exactly who to turn to for help.
*****
1 year ago:
“You’re out!” Carl Perry’s voice boomed.
“What?” Kyra gasped
“You heard! I’ve covered your back one too many times but this…” he holds up the news article in question, “you’ve gone too far this time”
“It’s the truth”
“It’s fei-oo”
“Well, we’ll let the readers decide”
“No, we won’t, because this isn’t going out there. I told you to leave the stories of aliens, ghosts and reavers at home; that if you wanna stay a reporter, you give me a real news stories. But you can’t do that can you”
“Carl…”
“Don’t Carl me. What about the job I assigned you?”
“I can’t do that”
“You’re a reporter; you’re supposed to get your hands dirty. You’re not here to make friends, you’re here to tell the stories people wanna hear. Expose the truth.”
“This is the truth!” Kyra shouted, grabbing the article he had thrown down.
“But people don’t wanna hear that sort of news. They want to read of crooked politicians and sordid affairs, not about children being raped to death by Reavers”
Kyra breathed heavily through her nose as she tried to contain her frustration and anger. “What do you want me to say Carl?”
“Well that depends. You’ve run out of lives. Are you going to do the story I assigned you or not?”
“I can’t…”
“Then there’s the door, it’s been nice knowing you”
Carl may have been a no-nonsense boss but, even so, the ultimatum still came as a shock to her. She had gotten used to being under his wing of protection. She was a good reporter – this much he had told her plenty of times - but it didn’t seem enough now. IT seemed his hand was being forced
“What’s the story again?” she surrendered.
*****
Now:
“Kyra?” Carl responded upon accepting the call on his mobile cortex
“Hey, Carl”. Kyra replied on the video screen.
“What is it?”
“Remember the story I did for you?”
“The story? Of course. Why? What is this about?”
“Remember what you promised me?”
“I…”
“Carl…” she interrupted him before he could answer. “I need to cash in that favour.”
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
new thread then.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=11&t=21730&m=325395#325395
Still working on the summary, need to get bits straight about April's characters and kyra's bit, so bear with me.
Feel free to post there however.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME