The Joe Brennan Spy Thrillers by Sam Powers

Author:Sam Powers [Powers, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Amazon: B07XBTP28T
Published: 2019-09-01T23:00:00+00:00

WASHINGTON, D.C.

“No more stories about Ahmed Khalidi.”

Kenny Davis wasn’t even looking at her when he said it. The News Now editor had never been great at confrontation, and he figured if he avoided her gaze, Alex would cool off more quickly.

Her head dropped slightly, her mouth dropped open. “What?”

His office always smelled musty and his desk, as usual, was a pile of litter of gargantuan complexity and depth. He turned briefly and rifled through it as if needing to find something important quickly, but continued to avoid eye contact. “You have nothing hard to support any of this nuke stuff, just your anonymous sources. It’s not good enough this time, Alex,” he said. “This stuff is scary, scary material. Jesus, I’ve been a journalist thirty-two years, and even I’m tempted to call the feds and turn this over to them. We either create a panic or we slow down an investigation. But we’re not indicting a man as powerful as Ahmed Khalidi on this little evidence.”

Malone blew out a lungful of air. “You know, I’ve risked a lot just by coming in today to discuss this…”

“So you say,” Kenny said. She gave him a harsh look and he backpedalled. “Don’t get me wrong, okay? You’re a great reporter and if you say the bad guys are gunning for you, well, you’ve got bigger balls than I do. But I can’t be responsible for us potentially terrifying thousands of readers and getting the magazine sued out of existence.”

“I spent three hours writing this…” she said. “What more…”

“Evidence,” he said preemptively. “Hard paper showing me someone in authority believes a nuke might be on its way into the country. In other words, anything you get requires official corroboration and reaction before we’ll even consider another piece. You’ve got a lonely desk out there in the newsroom, Alex; you’re already here. You might as well spend a few hours before the end of the work day making calls to your other federal sources – you know, the ones you can publicly name. See if anyone’s heard this stuff. Then maybe we can move ahead.”

Malone left his office feeling stung; Kenny had always backed her in the past, but increasingly he seemed more worried about his pension than her stories. Which probably made sense; the lawyers would rip any follow-up to shreds anyway. Maybe he was right; maybe she could put in a couple of hours before she headed back to Myrna’s and the safety of anonymity.

She thought about the older woman and smiled. She had a good heart, and she’d understand if Alex was a few hours later for dinner.

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