Page 164 of Reaper Said Mine

Vakka mutters, “What does that mean?”

“Nothing good,” I say.

Dawson snaps, “This is not funny.”

“You’re right. Powerful interests are using financial channels, sabotage, and political pressure to push this station toward conflict, and your first concern is whether my personal life makes the story less marketable to the people implicated.”

“My first concern is keeping you from detonating your career and the network’s relationships over an incomplete theory.”

“It is not incomplete.”

“It is not prosecution-ready.”

“I’m not prosecuting. I’m reporting.”

“You are provoking.”

“Sometimes those overlap.”

His nostrils flare. “You stop now. No follow-up without approval. No more independent releases. No more unauthorized archives. You send everything through me, and we review what can be salvaged before this becomes a full institutional crisis.”

I stare at him, and the last thin strand of fear holding me to his approval finally burns through.

“No.”

His voice drops. “Ursa.”

“No. I will not stop investigating because the truth makes your lunch invitations awkward.”

“You self-righteous⁠—”

“Choose a better insult, Ted. You’ve had years to workshop.”

Gnash’s mouth curves beside me.

Dawson sees it and nearly vibrates with fury. “Do you understand that I can end your employment?”

“Yes.”

“I can lock your credentials.”

“Yes.”

“I can make sure every serious newsroom in Earth space knows you broke chain of command while compromised by a source.”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you still talking like you have leverage?”

I lean closer to the holo. “Because I have the story.”

For once, Dawson has no immediate answer.

I continue before he finds one. “And because if you bury this, the public record will show exactly when IHC-Now chose access over evidence. You can distance the network from me if you want. You can call me rogue. You can question my judgment. But you cannot make the documents vanish, and you cannot stop the next release by threatening my chair in your newsroom.”

The muscles in his jaw jump. “You are making a catastrophic mistake.”

“Maybe.”