"Live footage of that shithead Peacekeeper blowing his own ass off and you keep it in the can?" McGrath roared.

"But you made this agreement with Faure…"

"That two-faced little frog let me think the Moonbase people had killed the Peacekeeper! He lied to me!"

"You didn't tell us-"

"And they've declared independence! This is the biggest story of the year! Of the decade! Don't you have any freaking sense?"

"You mean you'd've wanted us to air it?"

McGrath walked around the table to loom over the news VP Leaning over until his nose almost touched the younger man's, McGrath pointed to the elaborate corporate logo engraved on the wall above the doorway.

"What's our middle name?" he asked sweetly. Before the anguished vice president could open his mouth, McGrath bellowed, 'NEWS, goddammit! Global NEWS Network. A colony on the Moon declares independence and chases off a regiment of Peacekeeper troops—that's freakin' NEWS!'

The vice president was perspiring, his face white with fear and shock.

Straightening, McGrath whirled on the head of the legal department, a distinguished-looking man with the chiselled features of a video star, carefully coiffed silver gray hair, and a tan almost as deep as McGrath's own.

"How can Kiribati pick up a report from one of our employees and broadcast it around the world?"

The lawyer arched an eyebrow. "They can't. Not legally. We can sue them for billions."

McGrath stared at the man for several silent seconds. "It would make a great news story, wouldn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "Global News Network sues the nation of Kiribati in the World Court because a bunch of half-naked islanders have the brains to broadcast news from one of Global's own reporters while Global's news department DECIDED NOT TO AIR THEIR OWN REPORTER'S STORY!'

"He was following your own orders," the lawyer said mildly.

"That's right, chief," said programming. "You can't blame the news department for doing what you told them to do."

McGrath stood silently for a moment, then crossed his beefy arms across his chest.

"We look like freakin' assholes," he muttered.

"As I understand it," the head of the legal department tried to explain, "Edie Elgin beamed her report here from Moonbase. We were under your orders not to reply to any messages coming from Moonbase—we expected her to return with the Peacekeepers, after all."

"Okay, okay," McGrath grumbled,'so I told you not to carry anything coming from Moonbase. But our own reporter, for chrissake! Shows the world that Faure's a lying little sneak. And they've declared independence. Doesn't anybody think for themselves around here?"

An uncomfortable silence greeted his question.

The lawyer resumed, placatingly, "Apparently Elgin, or the Moonbase people, repeated her report to several locations around the world. Maybe she was trying to get one of our offices to acknowledge receiving it."

"We don't have an office in Kiribati," McGrath mumbled.

"That's true. But those islands are spread out over a considerable portion of the Pacific. Somebody out there must have picked up Elgin's report and decided to pirate it."