From the second I stepped into the NewSpin offices on my first day there, my face still frozen solid from the whipping January air, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day. No one greeted me, barely anyone looked up at me. Not even Chase was there to give me another dose of his shit. I didn’t know where to go or what to do, so I wandered into the newsroom until a short kid with spiky brown hair stopped me.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” he asked, looking me up and down. “You don’t have a badge. Are you even supposed to be here?”

“You do know who I am, don’t you?” I asked and the kid’s face changed almost instantly as his eyes settled on my face.

“Oh, shit. You’re Jeff Taylor.”

“In the very cold flesh.”

“Sorry, things are a little crazy today. But it’s good we met because I’m actually going to be your mentor or whatever for a while until you learn the ropes around here,” the kid said and I had to stifle a laugh. A 20-something really thought he was going to show me, a veteran of the industry and a man easily twice his age, around a newsroom like I’d never seen one before. Instead of laughing, I sighed.

“Great. What’s your name?”

“Dylan. Dylan Pearson,” he said, offering me a hand to shake. “I gotta say, I’m honored to meet you, Mr. Taylor.”

“OK, first thing, don’t call me ‘Mister’ ever again. I’m not that old,” I said and his face turned beet red. I tended to have that effect on people. It wasn’t like I wanted to be a dick, sometimes I just came across that way. At 40 and after spending twenty years in journalism, I didn’t have the time or patience for pleasantries.

“Right, sorry, Miste—I mean, Jeff,” Dylan stuttered, and I could almost see him mentally kicking himself.

“It’s fine. So, you’re my tour guide for the day, huh? Got a lot of awesome things planned for me?”

“Yeah, something like that. We do things a little differently around here, so Lee thought it might be a good idea if I got you acclimated before we turned you loose.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” I said and Dylan smirked uncomfortably. “So, what are we supposed to be covering first?”

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to have you doing any real work today. Not yet. Lee said something about finishing up paperwork for your hire so I’m supposed to give you a tour of the office and everything while he wraps that up.”

“Shall we get started, then?” I asked, losing my patience. Dylan seemed totally flustered, like I was some sort of celebrity worth fawning over. I’d always hated being treated that way because I was a journalist, not a movie star, and now that I’d been downgraded to a D-lister at best in the media world, I hated Dylan admiring me more.

“Right, yeah. Let me run these papers to Lee really quick,” he said, holding up a stack of documents I hadn’t noticed he was holding. “I was on my way over there when I ran into you. I’ll be right back,” he said and darted off to the back of the newsroom to Lee’s office. I watched the two of them talk for a few minutes until Lee turned and waved to me. I waved back, unsure of what else I was supposed to do, and then Dylan returned.

“Sorry about that. So, I guess we’ll start the tour or whatever.”

“You don’t actually have to do that,” Lee called as he approached from his office. “Jesus, Dylan. I was joking,” he said and patted Dylan on the shoulder. “Forgive him. He’s a little too eager to help sometimes,” Lee said.

“Not exactly a bad trait to have in this job. I bet you learn a lot more than you’re supposed to know,” I said and Dylan smiled and nodded.

“Right, then. Back to work, Dill. Come with me, Jeff.”

“It was nice to meet you, Jeff,” Dylan said, offering me an awkward wave. He was dorky and weird, but I kinda liked him despite it.

“Yeah, sure. Likewise,” I said and set off for Lee’s office. Inside, Lee closed the door behind us and the blinds that draped his glass windows.

“What’s with the secrecy?” I asked as I took the same seat I’d had the day before.

“It’s warranted in this case, trust me. I don’t want the rest of them knowing about this just yet.”

“Knowing about what?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Lee said, rubbing his hands together excitedly as he sat down across from me. “Remember how I said you and I could make magic together? Well, my friend, magic is underway.”

“Alright, you’ve got my ear. What are you planning?”

“As you may or may not know, NewSpin is an online-only company. But you may not’ve known that we’re trying to branch out. You know, diversifying the portfolio and all of that. We’ve been watching the traditional news market for months now, waiting for the right opportunity to dip our toes in the wild waters, so I admit part of the reason I wanted to hire you so badly was to have a foot into that particular door.”

“Sounds like a pretty solid strategy to me,” I said, shrugging. “Cable news is still a huge money maker and it’s a tough business to get started in.”

“Right, exactly. But it’s not enough just to get our foot in the door. Now that GNN is, well, a little incapacitated after your sudden departure and their inability to find a replacement for you, a bit of a vacuum has appeared in the cable news arena. You’d think that your competitors would just absorb your now-available ratings, but we haven’t seen that happen since you left GNN and I don’t expect it to.”

“And why do you think that is?”

“People liked you, Jeff. Like, really, genuinely liked you and there just isn’t a replacement for you out there. No one has the voice that you have, nor the skill.”

“So what are you trying to get at here?”

“Man, you really are a journalist, aren’t you? Always looking for the real story.”

“Call it a bad habit.”

“It’s not, though. It’s what makes you, you.”

“Are you trying to tell me you want to give me a show on NewSpin?”

“Yes and no.”

“Yes and no? I’m not following. It’s one or the other.”

“Not necessarily. I’d like to run something past you, but first I want your word you won’t overreact.”

“You say that like I have a reputation for it or something,” I said, and Lee laughed.

“Well…”

“Yeah, alright, you have my word. I won’t flip out. I think I’ve done enough of that lately.”

“Good. OK. So, here’s the pitch. Imagine yourself as an anchor in a documentary series, maybe six episodes or so to start. We’d put it all up on the site at once, Netflix-style, to encourage binge watching.”

“OK, so it would kinda be my show, but I’d be covering other people and subjects? I kinda like the idea so far. It’s not something I’ve done before, but I’d appreciate the challenge. Who or what is it on?”

“The state of the media, of course.”

“Even better. Do you have some people lined up for me to talk to, or something particular in mind, or am I just going vlog style and documenting what I think?”

“I do have someone lined up, a controversial figure who could make for some really great programming,” Lee said, his eyes straying away from mine and making me feel more than a little uneasy about the direction the conversation had taken.

“Who is it?”

“Remember, you promised not to flip.”

“I did promise and I’ll keep it. Now, who is it?”

“Kile Avery,” he said, and immediately my head spun away in a million different directions, tugged at by as many or more competing thoughts. NewSpin wanted me to work with Kile Avery—the very guy who’d been the catalyst for my meltdown and current situation—and sing his praises in some bullshit documentary. It all made sense now. Lee had never intended to bring me on as a legitimate journalist, he only wanted to bring me on as ratings bait, to throw me to the wolves on camera. As much as I wanted to flip out, I did promise I wouldn’t, and I had to admire Lee’s tactics.

“Jeff?” Lee asked, waving a hand in front of me. “Did I lose you?”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” I said, though it was far from the truth. “Is this some kind of joke?” What I really wanted to do was tell Lee where he could go and how he could get there, but the question came out instead. My face burned with anger but I did my best to contain it. Lashing out hadn’t done me any favors lately.

“It’s not a joke. And all you have to say is yes.”

“Lee, you know as well as I do I can’t do this.”

“Bullshit. You totally can. The only question is if you will. If not, hey, no hard feelings, but your job here might be in jeopardy. The only way the higher ups would even let me make you an offer is if I agreed to this,” he said, all of the humor gone from his tone. He was totally, deadly serious. And he had me exactly where he wanted me because he knew I couldn’t say no and I also couldn’t direct my anger at him because the decision had been out of his hands—or so he said.

“I knew this was all too good to be true,” I said and Lee chuckled.

“Jeff, you make it sound like I’m some sort of schemer,” he said and I raised my eyebrows at him. “OK, so maybe this was all a little less than truthful on my part, but it’s no different than when you omitted a bit of the truth, is it?”

“Can I at least have some time to think this over?” I asked. At that particular moment, all I really wanted to do was get the hell out of Lee’s office and back out into the freezing morning air to clear my head because I knew I was trapped but I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the project without tearing into Avery again.

“Sure. But I want an answer by close of business today,” Lee said as he sat back in his chair and rested his hands on his stomach.

“Right, yeah, of course,” I said, feeling disconnected from my body as the words came out of it. I stood up and walked to the door. My hand had just touched the handle when Lee cleared his throat to get my attention.

“Yes?” I asked as I turned to face him again.

“Don’t throw this away, Jeff,” he said.

“I won’t,” I said and stepped out of the office, letting it slam behind me. The noise made dozens of heads look up to find me standing like a deer in the headlights. Ignoring them, I set off for the front door, desperate to get some air and put a bit of space between myself and all of their prying eyes. I’d nearly gotten there when Dylan’s face swam into my peripheral, clearly trying to intercept me.

“Jeff, wait!” he called and though I picked up my pace to beat him to the door, he still managed to get there before I did. “Look, I know you probably don’t like what you just heard, but can we talk about it?” he asked and I had to stop.

“Wait, you knew about this?”

“Yeah, of course I did. Lee told me this morning. He wanted me to help brace you for it, hence the office tour and all of that other stuff he told me to show you, but I guess he changed his mind or something.”

“Unbelievable,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “Who else knows about this?”

“A few people. Higher ups, I think. I was sworn to secrecy about it.”

“No wonder he likes you,” I said.

“Being a brown noser has its perks, I won’t lie. Come on, let’s go get a coffee or something,” Dylan said, gesturing to the door. “It’s on me.”

“Please, Dylan. I’m not that broke or desperate,” I said and he laughed. I didn’t really want to go with him; I just wanted to be alone and stew, but I knew he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I followed him through the front door and out onto the sidewalk. The wind tore through my clothes, but I savored the feeling as it stole the breath from my lungs.

“I know a really great place near the circle, come on,” Dylan said, wrapping his arms around his chest to pull the coat he’d brought tighter around himself as he tore off down the sidewalk. Clearly, he wasn’t interested in the cold. I trotted after him for about a block down New Hampshire until we got to Dupont. Dylan took a hard right into the circle toward a bookstore and ducked inside. I followed him in, confused, until my nostrils were greeted with the sweet, sweet scent of coffee grounds.

“God, I’m still not used to the cold here,” Dylan said, rubbing his arms to try and warm up.

“Where are you from, anyway?” I asked. He didn’t have a recognizable accent nor any physical features that gave him away.

“Florida,” he said and I laughed.

“Yeah, no wonder you’re freezing your ass off here,” I said as we queued up. I ordered an Americano with five shots—I needed it, despite the barista’s protests—and paid for Dylan’s drip coffee too.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said as we sat down at a table in the back corner of the café.

“And you didn’t have to invite me out for coffee, but you did,” I said. “I don’t know what your investment in this is, but clearly you’ve got something to say. So, what is it?”

“I just want you to really think this through.”

“Why? What does it matter to you?”

“I like you, Jeff. There are a lot of us out there who respect what you do—er, what you did—and want to see you do more of it.”

“I understand that and that’s nice of you to say and all but what does that have to do with the thing with Avery? Me shooting some bullshit documentary series on the guy who cost me everything isn’t exactly going to lead to hard, breaking journalism.”

“Maybe not right away, no. But think about the long game. If you do this and do it well, it would show a lot of good faith to the public. You could be back on top before you know it, maybe with your own show on NewSpin, or something even bigger than that if you really wanted it,” Dylan said.

“Maybe. Or more likely, it’ll be a complete disaster, I’ll end up punching Avery in his smart-ass mouth on camera, and then I’ll go to jail for aggravated assault.”

“Dude, what’s with your hatred for him, anyway? I really don’t get it,” Dylan said, sipping his steaming coffee.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s not really him I hate so much as everything he stands for and the way he does what he does.”

“Hey, everyone’s gotta make a buck, right?”

“Yeah, I guess, but I think there’s a line to be drawn when making that buck is causing real, lasting damage to the industry and to the country.”

“Do you really think that’s what’s happening, though? And I mean, seriously, Jeff, there are much more nefarious people behind that transition you could be going after.”

“So not only are you a brown noser, you’re also an apologist?” I asked and Dylan laughed.

“Not exactly. I just think you have to make lemonade when life gives you lemons, you know? Sometimes we all have to do things we don’t want to do. That’s life.”

“How the hell did you get so wise? What are you, like, 20?”

“I’m 28,” Dylan answered.

“Point still stands.”

“See, this is why people like Avery came after you. You’re too stuck in your ways and you’re too quick to write off us young’uns.”

“Are you calling me stubborn?”

“I’m only calling things as I see them.”

“Look, Dylan… I appreciate you trying to save me from myself, but I don’t think you really understand. Avery is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’d sooner live under a bridge than work with him.”

“Well, then be my guest.”

“I didn’t mean that. It’s just… It’s beneath me. No offense, but that sort of thing is something someone like you should be doing at the start of their career. I’m 40 years old and I used to helm the biggest news show in the country. Forgive me for feeling like a documentary on Avery is a waste of my time and talent.”

“Maybe it is, but like I said, you’ve got to pick your battles. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, Jeff,” Dylan said. Maybe he’s right, I thought. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to work with Avery. It would certainly be better than going back to being a beat reporter or an ambulance chaser.

“At the very least, this project will keep your name in the public realm and in a much better way than it’s been thrown about since your little moment,” Dylan said.

“That’s true. Any bit of redemption I can grab now would be useful.”

“Exactly, that’s my point. You need to win public trust back. Maybe some of them agreed with the things you said, but I think most of them didn’t take too well to essentially being told they were stupid for following the trends of the media,” Dylan said. “I mean, isn’t our whole basis for existence that people can trust us? You flat-out told them they can’t anymore. I think you might’ve done more damage than good.”

“Hey, I never called anyone stupid.”

“Maybe not explicitly, but you definitely implied it. No matter how you slice it, it didn’t look good.”

“Fair enough.”

“And you know, if this thing with Avery works and takes off, which honestly I think it will, you could find yourself doing something much bigger than even you’d imagined. Bigger than GNN.”

“Like what?” I asked, genuinely curious, because I couldn’t think of anything better than that.

“Hard to say. I guess you’ll have to see what happens.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you had some sort of stake in this.”

“Maybe I do,” Dylan said with a wink. “I might be cute, but that doesn’t mean I’m not also cunning.”

“I like you, kid,” I said, smiling at him. He was smarter than I gave him credit for, and maybe the whole awkward thing was part of his act. It disarmed people, made them trust him. “You’re going places, I promise you.”

“I sure hope so. And I hope you are, too.”

“That makes two of us,” I sighed.

“Well, we should probably get back. You ready to go?” Dylan asked. I hadn’t even touched my coffee yet but it had already turned lukewarm.

“Yeah, sure.” We set off into the cold again and raced back to the NewSpin office, Dylan’s size giving him the advantage of being able to bob in and out of the hundreds of people that were now on the streets that hadn’t been there earlier this morning.

Inside the office, Dylan gave me a smile, whispered “Good luck,” and went back to his desk. Taking a deep breath to steel myself for the conversation I knew I needed to have with Lee, I walked to his office and knocked on the door. For once, he didn’t seem to be preoccupied so he waved me in.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were stepping out? I’d kill for a caramel macchiato right about now,” Lee said, nodding at my cup.

“Oh, sorry, it was a little impromptu.”

“I’m joking. So, I take it Dylan talked some sense into you?”

“You put him up to it, didn’t you?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets.”

“Right,” I said, sitting down in front of him again. “Look, I won’t lie to you, Lee. I hate every part of this idea. Literally every part.”

“Understandable. Can’t say I’d feel any differently if I were you.”

“But I don’t have much of a choice. And this could really lead to something. At the very least it’ll make me look a little bit less like a shit heel publicly than I do now.”

“Smart way to look at it. So, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Not yet. I need details, Lee. Hard, fast details. What exactly are we doing with this?”

“Well, we’re still sorting all of that out, but right now what we’re looking at is about a month-long assignment. You’ll tail Avery during that time with as big of a crew as he’ll allow, ask him questions, get to know him. Show the audience he’s not just some cunning master manipulator. You’ll show them he’s a real person underneath all of the fake smiles and sheen. I’ve seen your human interest pieces on The Edge. If anyone can humanize Kile Avery, it’s you.”

“I think you might have more faith in me than I do,” I said and Lee chuckled. “I’m not sure there’s much human about him, honestly.”

“Well, now it’s your job to find out. Look, I know it won’t be easy for you, and it won’t be easy for him, either, but if I didn’t think this could work I never would’ve brought you two together. You’ve got talent, Jeff, no one can deny that. Now’s a great time to put it to good use, really stretch outside of your comfort zone.”

“Oh, this is stretching it, that’s for sure,” I said. “Wait, do you mean to tell me Avery doesn’t know I’m attached to this?”

“Let’s just say I omitted that part of the truth,” Lee said with a wink and I couldn’t help laughing. “He’d never have agreed to it either if he knew about you. And it wasn’t totally a lie because I still don’t have a reporter for this project, do I?”

“Alright, fine, you’ve twisted my arm enough. I’m in,” I said, regretting the words even as they left my mouth.

“I’m thrilled to hear it. That said, I need you to go and talk to Kile, like a preliminary interview sort of thing,” he said.

“When?”

“Today. Like, in the next twenty to thirty minutes,” he said.

“Alright,” I sighed. “Does he at least know we’re coming?”

“Not yet but he will after I call and tell him.”

“Great. A double whammy.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’ll be fine. You’re not going to regret this, Jeff,” Lee said, extending his hand for me to shake. I took it in mine and prayed I hadn’t just signed a deal with the devil.