Yesterday, the unimaginable happened. The police allied itself with non-other than Spider-man to take down the criminals, publicly known as Shocker and Rhino. Even though it was only a half-success, by night, every known media outlet was covering the story, with lots of speculations, criticism and all the other things they usually do when something major happens. The Daily Bugle was, of course, no exception and, despite some heavy protests, it mostly went on the criticizing side.
That wasn't really surprising to Betty. The surprising part was that Ben Ulrich agreed to Mr. Jameson's demands without any objection. She found that really weird since he has been, if not actively supportive, then at least positively neutral about New York's masked vigilante. And a bit disturbing since he knew to some degree that Betty had met him before. Which is why, despite her curiosity, she didn't want to question his willingness to undermine Spider-man and the police so openly.
Ned had no such problems however, and since she still had a hard time saying no to him, they were both walking towards Mr. Ulrich's office together. Ned seemed really vivid so Betty hoped that she could rein him in a little bit before they arrived there but he hadn't really listened to her so far. Still, she was sure that Mr. Ulrich was busy and wouldn't receive them upfront so she thought she had time... which is why it surprised him that he was waiting for them in front of his office. His face seemed to say 'finally' as soon as he saw them.
"Ms. Brant. Mr. Leeds." He greeted them in a polite, indifferent tone. Ned looked as surprised as Betty felt but he quickly got over it, changed his expression to a neutral one and cleared his throat.
"Good morning to you too, Mr. Ulrich. We were wondering if we could talk to you for a minute or two." He said getting to the point quickly and unintentionally robbing Betty the chance to return the greeting. She settled for a nod. Ulrich's expression remained unreadable but Betty thought that his eyes sparkled with amusement at Ned's hurried tone.
"What a coincidence." He said slowly as if musing over it. "I was just going to look for the two of you myself. You know, these last few years I've been noticing that these kinds of coincidences happen one after another without any explanation..." It was by this point that Betty realized that he was just stalling or, at very least, talking deliberate nonsense. It was to annoy Ned and he was really committed to it as he just kept going on and on about the nature of inexplicable coincidences or something like that... honestly, Betty turned out and she was just waiting for Ned to interrupt. She didn't have to wait long.
"Sir, could you... I mean I'm sorry to interrupt but... Why are you doing this?" He asked and managed to maintain his professional tone even if it slipped for a bit.
"Could you specify that, Mr. Leeds?" Ulrich asked in a bit harder tone.
"Why are you stalling?" Ned asked, letting a bit of irritation slip into his voice.
"So you can ask a direct question, that's a relief." He said monotonically. "Then, pray tell, why didn't you start with one?" He continued, resuming his harder way of speaking.
"Sir?"
"If you want to ask me something, then treat me as a colleague and simply ask but if you want to interview me with standard introductory questions then don't expect me to be straight with you either. Is that clear?" He lectured Ned but somehow managed to avoid sounding condescending. It must have come from years of experience working under Jonah Jameson. Ned just stared at him, as if he was trying to decide whether he should get offended or not. He apparently chose the latter.
"Why did you support Mr. Jameson's campaign against the police and Spider-man?" Ned asked and Mr. Ulrich nodded with satisfaction.
"Because it sets a dangerous precedent for the NYPD. And before you start making excuses, I'm well aware that in light of the recent attack on the police headquarters, it had to take extreme measures and that the vigilante Spider-man helped a great deal both in capturing the attacker and protecting police lives but the fact remains that they involved a civilian during a shootout and one whose identity isn't even known." When he saw that Ned still wanted to argue, he sighed and continued. "Look, this criticism was necessary. If we supported this kind of action, there would be riots. This way, the police can say its excuses then eventually apologize and swear not to make the same mistake again. They recover and the public stays happy that it got to scold the system."
