“I hate my job,” said Dirk. “It’s a travesty. Mirror Alert is not to be confused with journalism. A. J. Liebling would not be pleased to see where his profession has ended up. Do you know what we do? We compile a tip sheet for Wall Street. We exist to provide a few thousand asshole clients with a five-second beat on Reuters in reporting the earnings of Micron Technology or a dividend cut by General Motors. A big scoop for us is an exclusive on what the Agriculture Department will report about expected soybean production in September. We have four people covering the Bureau of Labor Statistics and nobody covering the State Department. How do you like that? We have so many people covering the Federal Reserve that Alan Greenspan can’t take a shit without one of our guys handing him the toilet paper. I mean, this is not a life.”

“It’s a job,” I said. I didn’t want to hear about his problems right then.

“Yes, jobness is the principal virtue of this job. No doubt about it. And payness. But other than that, it’s pathetic. The managers—they want you to call them that, by the way, not ‘editors’—are all from our beloved joint venture partner, Press Alert, ownership unknown. And believe me, they know absolutely nothing about the news business. Most of them are Wall Street washouts, as near as I can tell. I wonder if Sellinger knows what second-raters our new partners are. I can’t believe he made a deal like this. I used to think Sellinger was a smart guy.”

“Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”

“We all have choices, buddy boy. And I’m telling you, these Press Alert guys are weird. In fact, I am conducting my own quiet examination of who they are and where they came from. It’s the only thing that is keeping my mind alive at present. And I’m telling you, there is a story here. I’m never wrong about these things.” His eyes glinted with the fire of revenge. “How about you? What’s up with you?”

“I’m going to China for a week with Arthur Bowman.”

“You’re shitting me. You and Bowman? That can’t be healthy.”

“I’m chasing the best story of my life.” The force of that statement left even Dirk momentarily speechless. “The reporting has been weird, and the story scares me a little. It’s dangerous, in a bunch of different ways.”

“What are you talking about? I’m really not tracking you at all.”

“I can’t explain. But I need to ask you a favor. That’s why I wanted to see you before I left.”