GraceFall [ONC 2024]

10

The Daily Bulletin offices ...

Betty looked around the bullpen and marvelled at the noise that assailed her. Muted, but there. Not the noise of the incessant rush of a working newspaper, though there was enough of that, but the noise of thoughts leaking from the minds of her co-workers. It was, to say the least, a revelation, and she felt more than a little like a voyeur, intruding upon the privacy of others.

She twisted the ring upon her finger, now the correct size for her own hands, and watched as people hurried around the office. The copy boy, who had a crush on Barnes, the sports columnist. Elsa, who really wished she could sing as well as her animated namesake. Phillip, who had carried on an affair with his best friend's wife for the last three years and had, literally, no regrets about breaking that particular trust.

The more juicy, lewd and downright filthy thoughts, she ignored and her power pushed those thoughts into the background, muffled, but still there. Her power. She still couldn't believe it. If someone had said to her the day before that she would join the ranks of the super-powered people, she would have laughed in their faces. Still, it opened up many avenues. The things she could learn, the secrets and the lies. It would revolutionise her career.

But that would crash, headlong, into her unassailable ethics. Not to mention that simply knowing that kind of information would not mean she had evidence and, in the reporting game, evidence was king. Oh, some, less scrupulous, reporters had a laissez-faire attitude to presenting evidence, but she was not one of them. It could be a tool, but it could never take the place of true reporting skills. She would still have to investigate, interview and search for the truth.

"Burns! Do I need to tell you that daydreaming doesn't win a Pulitzer?" Brody Quint stormed through the crowd like a stay-at-home mom on Black Friday, her colleagues practically leaping out of his way. "Stories, Burns! Stories keep newspapers alive and you're only as good as your last! What have you got?"

"I'm still working on it." She dropped the hand bearing the ring to her lap and made a play of looking at her laptop screen. She hadn't written a thing. "Though I do have something about the fires in Torquay Heights. That new villain, Phaross, and ... and Psycona arriving late again."

"Is this a story? Any idiot can report on a fire!" He dropped his spreading backside on her desk and looked about ready to smoke the unlit cigar he always held in his hand. He'd stopped smoking years ago. "Who is Phaross? Where did he come from? What does he want? What's his connection with Psycona? Don't give me crap and I won't bury your stories on page twelve!"

Everything was an exclamation with the chief. Everything of viral importance. Of pure journalism. He shouted and yelled to keep errant reporters in line, showing a gruff and immoveable façade to his staff. Only, now, Betty could hear a different side to the man. On the inside, Brody Quint cared. He cared about every single one of his staff members, wanting and expecting the very best of them. He liked her. Thoughts poured from the man who hadn't even told anyone that worked here the name of his wife.

In Betty, he saw a daughter. Someone that could carry on his work in the future. The kind of reporter that could eclipse him as Editor-In-Chief. He wanted that for her. Expected that of her and Betty almost blushed at the confidence the man had in her. But she also felt dirty at learning such things. The chief kept those thoughts private for a reason and she had intruded upon his privacy. As she thought that, the chief's thoughts faded into the background, becoming nothing but incoherent whispers among many others.

"I think there's a definite connection between Phaross and Psycona, chief. I'm just lining up the evidence before I commit to saying anything." That was mostly true. Except she didn't think there was a connection, she knew there was. "You wouldn't want me to do something half-assed, would you? You want me to be thorough? I'll have the Torquay Heights story ready in five. Trust me, the wait for the Phaross/Psycona story will be worth it."