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The senator looked like a man who’d been hit, hard and unexpectedly, froaze, despite the alien appearance of htly controlled shake of his head Please, that gesture said, not right now

I nodded, taking Shaun’s aretting to work We’re a bit behind after last night”

Shaun blinked atto conceal his relief “Miss Mason, Mr Mason, thank you for your time I’ll have someone notify you before we’re ready to check out andthe still-bewildered Shaun along inclosed behind us

Shaun yanked his araze “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

“The ed,” I said “They’re not going to co That’s going to take days Meanwhile, we have reports to splice together and update, and Buffy’s due to server four We should take a look”

Shaun nodded “Got it”

“Come on”

Back in our hotel rooed my handheld into the wall jack and settled down to work We couldn’t both record voice feeds at the same time, but we could edit film clips for our individual sections of the site and we could write as much text as we needed I skimmed the reports Buffy authorized while Shaun and I were on cleanup All three of the betas had done excellent jobs Mahir, especially, had done an ahtforward video feed, and I saw froe and his voice tracking had already been optioned by three of the larger news sites I tapped in a release, authorizing use of the footage under a standard payive Mahir forty percent of the profits, with clear credit for the narrative His first breakout report He’d be so proud After a pause, I added a note of congratulations, directed to his private mailbox He and I have been friends outside of work for years, and it never hurts to encourage your friends to succeed

“How’re things in your departe of the attacks and setting it to run sequentially onfor, but I had a hunch, and I’ve learned to follow my hunches Buffy knows visual presentation, and Shaun knows shock value, but e Why? When? And how had our saboteur been able to cut those wires without co Becks away frolanced over Shaun’s screen was doainst the fence, holding off the last of the zo fed directly to hied into his left ear His expression was serious “She wants to go Irwin She’s been begging for weeks And this report—this isn’t a Newsie report, George You know that”

I scowled, but it wasn’t like the request was a surprise Good Irwins are hard to coh You don’t have ti with the infected “What are her credentials?”

“You’re stalling”

“Hue on my screen was set to play in real-time, which meant soain The gate ca from their narrative, while the attack at the fence was al when I saw one of the wo the infected I didn’t need the dialogue tracks to tellher to halt in her approach, back off, and present her credentials But she just kept coe twenty-two, BA in filraded froo, when she passed her finalfor an A-18 next month”

An A-18 license would mean she was cleared to enter Level 4 hazard zones unaccompanied “If you take her, my side of the site retains a six percent interest in her reports for the next year” The infected girl was sinking her teeth into Tyrone’s left forearm He screamed soundlessly and fired into the side of the zoe was done

“Three percent,” Shaun countered

“Done,” I said, not taking rees, she’s yours” Tyrone was staggering in circles, clutching his ar orders; Carlos turned and ran for the convoy, presuet reinforcements That’s why he survived—because he ran away How ine that it sits very well

“George? What’s up? I expected you to fight , I pulled the headphone jack out ofto the roo The round was low and constant; the infected were co open

“Shut up and help ate with both hands After ahis hands well away fro as she didn’t encounter any of the live virus, she wouldn’t begin amplification, and in soer than was needed to close a siate, even one that heavy Once it was shut, she could wave hih his brain It wouldn’t be pretty, but eliion rarely is