copytakers were arguing about football and the subeditors were composing joke captions for spiked pictures, laughing uproariously at each other's wit. Arthur Cole was pacing up and down, resisting the temptation to smoke and secretly hoping for a fire at Buckingham Palace. Every so often he would stop and leaf through the sheets of copy impaled on his spike, as if worrying that he might have overlooked the big story of the day.
After a while Mervyn Glazier sauntered across from his own small kingdom. His shirt was hanging out. He sat down beside Kevin, lighting a steel-stemmed pipe and resting one scuffed shoe on the rim of the wastepaper basket.
'The Cotton Bank of Jamaica,' he said by way of preamble. He spoke quietly.
Kevin grinned. 'Have you been a naughty boy too?'
Mervyn shrugged. 'I can't help it if people ring me up with information. Anyway, if the bank ever was in danger, it's out now.'
'How do you know?'
'My tight-lipped contact at Threadneedle Street. 'I have looked more closely at the Cotton Bank since your call, and I find it to be in excellent financial health.' Unquote. In other words, it's been quietly rescued.'
Kevin finished his tea and crumpled the plastic-paper cup noisily. 'So much for that.'
'I also hear, from a quite separate source not a million miles from the Council of the Stock Exchange, that Felix Laski has bought a controlling share in Hamilton Holdings.'
'He can't be short of a few bob, then. Is the Council interested?'
'No. They know, and they don't mind.'
'Do you think we made a big fuss over nothing?'
Mervyn shook his head slowly. 'By no means.'
'Nor do I.'
Mervyn's pipe had gone out. He tapped it into the wastebasket. The two journalists looked helplessly at each other for a moment; then Mervyn got up and went away.
Kevin returned his attention to the gossip column, but he could not concentrate. He read a paragraph four times without understanding it, then gave up. Some large piece of skulduggery had gone on today, and he itched to know what it was, the more so because he felt so close to understanding it.
Arthur called him. 'Sit behind here while I go to the lav, will you?'
Kevin walked around the news desk and took a seat behind the news editor's bank of telephones and switchboards. It gave him no thrill: he had the job because, at this time of day, it hardly mattered. He was just the nearest idle man.
Idleness was inevitable on newspapers, Kevin mused. The staff had to be sufficiently many to cope on a big day, so they were bound to be too many on a normal day. On some papers they gave you silly jobs to do just to keep you busy: writing stories from publicity handouts and local government press releases, stuff that would never get in the paper. It was demoralizing, time-wasting work, and only the more insecure of newspaper executives demanded it.
A Lad came across from the teleprinter room, carrying a Press Association story on a long sheet of paper. Kevin took it from him and glanced at it.
He read it with a growing sense of shock and elation.
A syndicate headed by Hamilton Holdings today won the license to drill for oil in the last North Sea oil field, Shield.
The Secretary of State of Energy, Mr. Carl Wrightment, announced the name of the winning contender at a Press conference overshadowed by the sudden illness of his Junior Minister, Mr. Tim Fitzpeterson.
The announcement was expected to provide a much-needed fillip to the ailing shares of the Hamilton print group, whose half-year results, published yesterday, were disappointing.
Shield is estimated to hold oil reserves which could ultimately amount to half a million barrels a week.
The Hamilton group's partners in the syndicate include Scan, the engineering giant, and British Organic Chemicals.
After making the announcement Mr. Wrightment added: 'It is with sadness that I have to tell you of the sudden illness of Tim Fitzpeterson, whose work on the Government's oil policy has been so invaluable.'
Kevin read the story three times, hardly able to believe its implications. Fitzpeterson, Cox, Laski, the raid, the bank crisis, the takeover-all leading in a great, frightening circle, back to Tim Fitzpeterson.
'It can't be that,' he said aloud.
'What have you got?' Arthur's voice came from behind him. 'Is it worth a fudge?' The fudge was what the public called the Stop Press.
Kevin passed him the story and vacated his chair. 'I think,' he said slowly, 'that story will persuade the editor to change his mind.'
Arthur sat down to read. Kevin watched him eagerly. He wanted the older man to react, to jump up and shout 'Hold the front page!' or something; but Arthur stayed cool.
Eventually he dropped the sheet of paper on the desk. He looked coldly at Kevin. 'So what?' he said.
'Isn't it obvious?' Kevin said excitedly.
'No. Tell me.'
'Look. Laski and Cox blackmail Fitzpeterson into telling them who has won the Shield license. Cox, maybe with Laski's help, raids the currency van and gets a million pounds. Cox gives the money to Laski, who uses it to buy the company that got the oil license.'
'So what would you like us all to do about it?'
'For Christ's sake! We could drop hints, or mount an investigation, or tell the police-at least tell the police! We're the only people who know it all-we can't let the bastards get away with it!'
'Don't you know anything?' Arthur said bitterly.
'What do you mean?'
Arthur's voice was as somber as the grave. 'Hamilton Holdings is the parent company of the Evening Post.' He paused, then looked Kevin in the eye. 'Felix Laski is your new boss.'
FOUR P.M.
32
They sat down in the small dining room, on either side of the little circular table, and he said: 'I've sold the company.'
She smiled, and said calmly: 'Derek, I'm so glad.' Then, against her will, tears came to her eyes, and her icy self-control weakened and crumbled for the first time since the birth of Andrew. She saw, through the tears, the shock in his expression as he realized how much it meant to her. She stood up and opened a cupboard, saying: 'I think this calls for a drink.'
'I got a million pounds for it,' he said, knowing she was not interested.
'Is that good?'
'As it happens, yes. But more importantly, it's enough to keep us comfortably well off for as long as we're likely to live.'
She made a gin-and-tonic for herself. 'Would you like a drink?'
'Perrier, please. I've decided to go on the wagon for a bit.'
She gave him his drink and sat opposite him again. 'What made you decide?'
'No single thing. Talking to you, and talking to Nathaniel.' He sipped his mineral water. 'Talking to you, mainly. The things you said about our lifestyle.'
'When does it become final?'
'It already has. I shan't go back to the office, ever.' He looked away from her, out through the French windows across the lawn. 'I resigned at twelve noon, and I haven't felt the ulcer since. Isn't that marvelous?'
'Yes.' She followed his gaze, and saw the sun shining redly through the branches of her favorite tree, the Scots pine. 'Have you made any plans?'
