“No, I don’t follow you. What’s wrong at Mirror Alert?”

“Okay. Point number one: What does it do? Basically, it exists to provide inside financial information to traders in the market. Advance tips about trade statistics, or unemployment numbers, or crop forecasts, or what the Fed is going to do at its next meeting. Or lists of companies that have recently retained investment bankers, which means they may be involved in tender offers or takeover bids. It’s all boring stuff, but if you’re even twenty seconds ahead of the market, you can make an enormous amount of money. Mirror Alert is trying to get some of this stuff twenty-four or forty-eight hours early—before the numbers are even washed and dried. This stuff is totally inside information—it would be illegal to trade on it, normally, but because Mirror Alert is regarded as a legitimate news organization, we’re allowed to put it out. And you know what? We’re pretty good at it. Not us old farts who were brought over from the Mirror, but the kids from Press Alert. Some of their information is so good, in fact, that we actually have to tone it down before putting it out, so it will look like a prediction and people won’t know that we’ve actually got the number. These kids are getting this stuff from somewhere, and don’t ask me how. Actually, do ask me how. Go on.”

“Okay, George, how are they getting this stuff?”

“I’ll tell you how. They pay for it. I mean, they have to. I’ve been a reporter for fifteen years, and I know what you can get from sources the ordinary, straight-up, no-money-changes-hands way. You get tips, leads, maybe once in a while you get some documents. But this stuff is in a different category. It’s privileged information. People can go to jail for leaking it. Cash has to be changing hands somewhere. Somebody is bribing the people who take out the trash, or the bike messengers who carry messages around town, or the FedEx clerks, or the night clerical staff at the law firms, or whatever. It’s ugly. Anyway, that’s point number one.