Part 59 (1/2)

”Doug, I am not a pimple faced cub reporter I never was, that's why you hired ht withas they walked down the hallway to Higgins' office He was still calling Doug every nains sat behind his desk, no tie, totally un-Higgins-like Scott shot out another nasty remark

”Hey, you look like shi+t”

”Thanks to you,” the bedraggled Higgins replied

”What? You too? I need this today” Scott's anger displayed concern as well

”Sit down We got troubles” Higgins could be forceful when necessary Apparently he felt this was an appropriate tieant voice It startled Scott so he sat - on the edge of his seat He wasn't through dishi+ng out what he thought about having a story pulled this way

Higgins waited for nearly half a minute Let some calm, normalcy return before he started

”Scott, I pulled the story, Doug didn't And, if it ht And we've had outside counsel lose sleep, too Congratulations”

Scott was confused Congratulations? ”What are you?”

”Hear me out In my 14 years at this paper, this is the first time I've ever had a call fro me, that I, we had better not run a story

I ains' sincerity was real; tired, but real

Scott suddenly felt a twinge of guilt, but not enough to reer he still felt ”What ever happened to the first amend- ment?” Irate confusion ritten all over his face

”Here ins sounded very tired ”About 10:30 last night I got a call from the Print Chief He said that the NYPD was at the plant with a restraining order that we not print a story you had written What should they do, he asked Needless to say I had to come down, so I told him, hold the presses, for a half hour I called Ms Manchester and she met me here just after eleven The officer had court orders, froned by the Attorney General personal- ly, infor- edly written by you, the paper could be found in violation of some bullshi+t national security laws they , as pleased to hear froreed Pull it Whatever was going on, the story was so strong, that we can always print it in a few days once we sorted it out We had no choice But noe need to knohat is going on?” Higgins was clearly exhausted

Scott was at a loss for words ”Iuhdunno What did the court order say?”

”That the paper will, will is their word, refrain froards to CMR And CMR was all over your article

nobody here knew much about it, other than as in the arti- cle, and we couldn't reach you, so we figured that weJust a day or two,” he quickly added

”How the hell did they find out ?” Scott's mind immediately blamed Tyrone He had been betrayed Used Goddamn it He knew better than to trust a Fed shi+t Tyrone one upstairs and told his cronies that I was onto a story andwell one thing led to another But Jeezthe Attor- ney General's office

”Scott, what is going on here?” Higgins asked but Doug wanted to knoell ”It looks like you've got a tiger by the tail

And the tiger is in Washi+ngton Seems like you've pissed off some important people We need to know, the whole bit What are you onto?”

”It's all in the story,” Scott said, emotionally drained before 9:00 AM ”Whatever I know is there It's all been confir was as accurate as is expected in such cases

”Well,” Higgins continued, ”it seeton don't want any of this printed, for their own reasons

Is any of this classified, Scott?”

”If it is, I don't know it,” Scott laot ineers and a hacker type who is up on computer security stuff This stuff is chicken feed compared to SDI and the Stealth Bomber”

”So why do they care?”