The Passage

the knee announcing without fanfare the editor's priorities. The Daily is

successful, but the margin, as with all products that depend upon the fickle

public, required a nervous eye. Maya found he had to be a politician more

often than a reporter, and where this did not set well with his perfunctory

personality, he had learned to accept this as a fact of life. Some news came

with a price, when printed.

Maya eases into his worn leather chair, flipping the pages of a story laid on

his chair seat with barely time enough to grasp their meaning. Glancing up

through his bifocals at Danny, who has been watching from his desk and has

come to lean in the doorway, the editor is brief and to the point. Maya points

a finger at Danny.

This won't fly. I won’t print the story. He has no

proof! It’s just a crazy idea. Can I remind you that

you write for a conservative newspaper? You could

start a panic with this stuff.

Danny frowns and slips into a wooden chair in front of the editor’s desk - the

defendant's chair, not meant to be comfortable. Danny is listening but we can

see he's not buying this explanation. Maya continues,

Who's going to pay the merchants for damages, for the

riot that this might cause?

Danny protests.

It’s a great article. The guy impressed me, and he had

plenty of sources. We’ve done documentaries before,

asteroids slinging by and all. I, I didn’t think this

was any different.

Maya just shakes his head, looking unblinkingly across the desk at Danny,

peering up over his bifocals.

That was maybe, this isn't saying maybe. I can’t print

this.

Maya tosses the story across his desk to Danny, settling back into his chair.

You're not sitting in my chair, Danny, and I'm telling

you, this won't fly.

Danny scoops up the story, his mouth opening and closing as he processes and

rejects arguments, blinks twice, and slowly rises and walks out the door

without a comment. Outside the editor's office he stops and is lost in

thought, his face smooth, showing no emotion. Finally, under his breath.

12

Bull shit.

Danny grabs his jacket and strides out of the office.

_______________________________

The wooded campus at Brandon University backs up into the foothills of the

Appalachian Mountains, crisscrossed with trails worn smooth by the pounding

feet of jogging students and faculty. For those familiar with the maze, the

trails led to treasures in the woods known to few. Isaac is fishing with his

cap down, back against a tree along the river. Isaac casts a fishing line when

a phone rings. He reaches into his fishing bag, pulls out a phone and

answers.

Danny is leaning against the edge of his desk, phone in hand.

Yes Professor Isaac, this is Danny at the paper. ..

Well, I want to do the story but my editor says it’s

crackpot stuff and The Daily is a newspaper of

integrity .. But I know we’ve done stuff like this

before. Do you happen to know why he won't publish the

story? .. I know the place. I’ll be right there.

_______________________________

Isaac is fishing with his cap down, back against a tree along the

river. When Danny arrives, in jeans, he is breathing heavily from the climb.

He fishes a notebook out of an inside pocket within his lightweight jacket,

and flips the pages, having tucked a pencil stub momentarily behind his right

ear. During their conversation, Danny is alternating between believing what

Isaac is saying and wanting to deny as to take it seriously is to be

frightened, so he is coming up with plausible explanations for what Isaac is

laying out. Isaac is familiar with this type of reaction and counters this by

just laying out the facts until they are overwhelming.

Danny . . a friend of mine at a large observatory has

been tracking an incoming object, but has been told to

keep mum about it if he knows what's good for him.

Says this has been going on for over a decade, what's

reported to be Planet X for many years. It comes

through the Solar System every 3,600 years or so and

pretty well tears up the Earth. Well, that's the

rogue planet I was telling you about. It’s real! It’s

inbound! And none of us is ready for it, that's for

damn sure. And that's precisely why the government

doesn't want the public to know about it. They're not

ready for it either.

13

Danny had been expecting this. The editor rejected his story too quickly,

barely reading it.

Who’s asking him to keep quiet and why?

Isaac lifts his pole and flips the line out into the shallows again before

answering. Danny is relieved to be having a discussion over the issues, but is

nonetheless taking this all in but not yet willing to buy it. Isaac says,

The government doesn't want the public to know about

it. They're not ready for it, and they don’t know