Poker Protocol by Anne Maria Nicholson

Author:Anne Maria Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tablo Publishing

Chapter 26

Saturday morning in the newsroom was always deathly quiet with a skeleton staff to prepare the bulletins. But for Tully it was a blessed relief to be free of the extra layers of producers who plagued her during the week. She perused the handover notes from the night producer. The Washington correspondent should be ringing in soon with the details of her story on the Congress’s economic rescue measures. She looked up at the line of clocks above her desk. Nine-thirty in Sydney. Europe was sleeping, Asia was waking up and North America was winding up for the week. One thirty in Baghdad. Very late, but he was an insomniac and a barfly.

She rang his number and was disappointed when it went to his message bank. The greeting was new.

“Hi there, Harry here. Well actually, it’s Harry not here. Leave a message!”

His humour and the warmth of his voice jolted her. They’d been apart too long. She was living as erratically as he was without the excuse of a war zone. They allowed each other the freedom and space to do what they wanted while they were not together. But hearing him filled Tully with an unexpected longing and a concern that the bond between them was weakening.

“Coffee Tully? Going down the road to the new café if you want some.”

The trainee producer, in skinny black jeans with a sharp geometric haircut, was standing next to her.

“Love some. The usual. Thanks Andy.” She passed him some coins as her phone rang.

“Tully? Harry. Sorry I missed your call. What’s up?”

“Nothing. Wanted to talk to you.”

“Really? I’m honoured. You’ve usually got an assignment for me.”

His voice was tainted with hostility, a little slurred, either from alcohol, drugs or sleep.

“Did I wake you?”

“No, just crawled in from a party with the American crews.”

“Isn’t it a bit late to be outdoors?”

“Yes, but I’m not. They’re down the hall, remember? We’re all jammed into the same hotel since the other one was bombed, since the others died.”

The unreality of Harry’s situation crept up on her again, the profound disconnection between her world and his.

“I was wondering when you’re coming back to Sydney. It’s been too long.”

There was a long silence.

“Harry?”

‘Tully you know I want to come back but the problem is…”

He paused.

“The problem is you. You’re the reason I haven’t been able to come back. You keep sending me on these frigging dangerous jobs…”

Tully went cold. She wanted to shout at him. Harry was the emergency junkie, begging her to send him to the hotspots, always wanting to push the safety boundaries. She steadied herself. She recognised he was projecting some of his own serious shit onto her.

“Dangerous? You’re kidding aren’t you? You’ve never complained before. In fact you’re always asking for it.”

“You’ll never understand will you? None of you understand.”

He continued to talk but she strained to hear what seemed to be incoherent ramblings. Thought she heard a woman’s voice. The line went dead. She rang back. The call went to his message bank again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.