‘Viewer discretion is advised for the following images, which come from our live Wednesday game currently showing on CS3. Texas Midland’s rookie quarterback, JJ Janssen, was on an excellent six and zero start to the season. But this freak injury in the derby game with Austin Roadrunners will end his first season as starter.’

‘How can you look at that?’ Lana moaned.

Matt and Harry ignored the protest as the story went past the point where Matt had rewound.

‘After the incident, there was a bizarre twist. Midland fans took offence at four-hundred-and-thirty-pound lineman Perry Addison high-fiving team mates, while JJ Janssen was given oxygen and placed on a stretcher. Among those offended was Janssen’s wife, who decided to take things into her own hands …’

Matt, Harry and Lana all gawped as they watched a tall woman stagger on to the muddy football field with a folding chair held above her head.

‘Charlie’s sister, Fawn!’ Harry blurted.

‘It’s like WWE!’ Matt howled, laughing hard.

Despite high-heeled boots on a muddy field, Fawn got close enough to swing the chair at the 400lb lineman, glancing the back of his head, before getting tackled by security staff in fluoro-pink jackets. Fawn’s Midland shirt got ripped at the neck and her face hit the mud as the crowd went bananas.

Lana had uncovered her eyes and joined Matt, laughing at the footage of Fawn being dragged away. But Harry had stopped laughing, because JJ and Fawn were Vegas natives, and he had a hot story.

Licensing the clip from the National College Football Association would cost thousands of dollars, and Vegas Local would get sued if they used it without permission. Harry’s task was to make a front-page article for Vegas Local which looked official, but opened the video of the incident in a window from another website.

‘This could be the biggest story of the year,’ Harry said happily, logging into the Vegas Local content-management system with his phone. ‘Plus, it’s an out-of-state game, so with any luck nobody else is watching and I can have this on Vegas Local ahead of all our rivals. Should easily clock half a million article views, which is a minimum three thousand dollars of ad revenue …’

Lana was impressed, watching over Harry’s shoulder as he rapidly tapped a four-paragraph story, embedded a link to the horror-tackle video on Cox Sport’s website, added keywords for search engines and coupons for a local sporting goods store and a solar-energy installer.

‘I can improve the story and maybe buy some photos later,’ Harry explained to Lana. ‘Right now, the job is to get this online fast, so that people who see the story go to our site, not someone else’s.’

‘If you ever need an assistant,’ Lana suggested brightly. ‘This stuff is so cool!’