🔞5EX: SUSTAINED OBLITERATION🔞

In flagranté delicto

*Noah POV

I had the ball rolling before she ever even met us. I had already organised her sabbatical from work, had her assigned to cover the fan sign, and asked her editor to continue to decline Yanni's requests for meetings... I wanted him frustrated, to think that she had rejected his approaches. I wanted him mad... I wanted tension!

My manipulations had effectively guided Yanni towards hiring her to be our biographer, convincing him that she was the only person that could write our story, and I had shared her fan fictions with the boys, knowing that some of it would rile them up... and for some of them it would cause stirring in their loins! This made talking them into taking her with us to Oz a walk in the park for me. The seeds were sown. I knew they would all want to persuade her to come with us, for their own reasons, but to be sure we instructed Ferdi to prepare the court papers.

She had told me during one of our long chats while in Australia that she was invited to write an article about an up and coming American rapper who she explained to me she was really excited to be asked to interview. Her brief was to discuss the impending release of his first studio album and allow him to plug it, in return she would be permitted two unrelated questions, one of which was to have been about his manager Trent McMasters alleged involvement in an international sex trafficking ring!

Trent McMasters, manager to many of the most well known rappers in the U.S is a man best described as a 'pitbull in a chihuahuas body'. At just 5 foot 3 inches tall, with the physique of a 10 year old boy and a voice that makes him sound pre-pubescent he appears weak, feminine and easily manipulated. Anyone who falls into the trap of believing their eyes and rumours only quickly finds that he is one of the most ruthless men in the industry. Many a writer or television reporter has fallen foul of his extreme sensitivity to his physical appearance. One such unfortunate was Sydney's predecessor and one time bed fellow from the paper. Mark Weldon was the most respected entertainment editor in the UK when he interviewed one of Trents clients.
The story is that when Mark met Trent his surprise at the super-managers small stature was evident all over his face, his eyebrows described by witnesses as 'almost lost in his receding hairline', such was his immense shock that such a successful and powerful man could be so tiny, but when Trent spoke Mark burst into peals of laughter which was the moment his career ended, albeit unknown to him at that point.
The interview with the rapper went ahead as scheduled but all Marks questions were answered with minimal detail or depth, and many were not allowed by Trent as 'invasive, irrelevant or stupid'. Before Mark had made it back to his office that day every publication and news outlet had received the same message, 'employ or work with Mark Weldon and NEVER get any information from or about ANY of Trents artists'. Trent McMasters manages almost every successful hip hop, grime and R&B artist making music today.
Just to make Marks life even more unbearable rumours began to circulate that he had sexually assaulted a young female artist during a previous interview. Blurry images of a man reported to be Mark 'in flagranté delicto' with the young woman soon made it into the inbox of every journalist, news anchor and editor across the world! The message from Trent clear!
The female artist was encouraged to talk about her 'harrowing' experience at the hands of a 'vile, perverted predator' and did the rounds of radio and TV talk shows, never mentioning Marks name directly, but giving enough details to make it possible to find out who she meant with a simple google search.

Marks career was ruined, his name defamed, and the pressure became so great that he sank into depression, finally taking a cocktail of drugs and alcohol and attempting to fly from his buildings roof garden........ 35 storeys up! It obviously didn't end well........ journalists can't fly!

Sydney had taken his death hard, she told me she felt enormous guilt for Marks death.
She had been requested as interviewer for that particular rapper but was unwell that day with a particularly severe case of D&V, not something easily ignored or hidden. She would usually take high doses of vitamins, painkillers and fluids and wear her make up a little thicker and just power through other illnesses and ailments, but that was not an option in this situation. She asked Mark to call and apologise on her behalf and reschedule if possible, but rather than reschedule the interview Mark decided to take it for her. If she had pulled herself together she would have taken the interview and the trigger would not have been pulled on Marks depression, leading to his suicide.

Harry had organised it all himself, calling in a favour from Trent whom he had met at an awards show. All Trent had needed to do was request Syd to interview his artist and then mix her a drink containing the sedatives. Simple, or would have been but for Syd's illness!
How I didn't give away the fact that I knew all of this already, or tell her details she didn't know, namely her intended kidnapping, I don't know!