Free 1990 by Wilfred Greatorex

rapist with toothache.'
    'You are in a mood.'
    'It's that bloody court,' he confessed. 'It gives me a desperate longing for fresh air.' He hurried her down the steps to the pavement.
    'You
will
help us, though?' she urged, sensing the slight softening in him.
    Looking down at her, he suppressed his anger. 'I'll help
you
,' he promised.
    The State-controlled
British Gazette
decided to promote Alan Vickers as an example of all that was rotten and ruining the government's brave new society. So the following morning saw photographs of the doctor and his family splashed across their front page. As Tiny Greaves pointed out, they had made Vickers look like a train robber and touched up Mary Vickers' picture to make her look as fit as a Russian gymnast. Having muttered and cursed over the report, he shoved it into the paper shredder near his desk.
    'Poisonous liars! They should be prosecuted as con-men!'
    Kyle laid his latest story on the desk and the news editor's mood began to improve as he read it. Soon he was chuckling, 'If the Home Secretary sees this, he'll bring back the death penalty just for you!'
    'But he's always stood out against capital punishment,' Kyle pronounced, solemnly, then added with suspicion, 'What do you mean,
if
he reads it?'
    'Tomorrow's edition,' Greaves confirmed, reading on. 'I can see the government cutting our State advertising yet.'
    'Or our newsprint ration,' Kyle suggested.
    'Not just yet, Kyle,' the big man assured him, eyeing the copy with delight. 'Twenty six thousand! I can see it coming! I can see the day when they'll have to requisition every one of London's hotel bedrooms as courtrooms.'
    'They'll find an easier way, by just announcing a blanket refusal to all exit visa appeals.'
    The news editor leaned back in his long-suffering chair and examined Kyle with a frown. 'I still can't make you out. Half the time you push the Public Control Department's lousy hand-outs and then...'
    'That's the half of me that's the good citizen,' Kyle said.
    'And the other half puts bombs under 'em.' He almost caressed the manuscript in front of him, and asserted, 'It's the bomber I like!'
    Kyle smiled broadly. 'You know something, Tiny? You've got violent tendencies.'
    He had crossed to collect his jacket from the line of hooks behind the door and was carefully examining his pockets. It was there, stuck under one of the flaps this time. He glanced round the busy newsroom, but no-one was watching him with special interest. All the reporters seemed to be occupied with their own affairs.
    Kyle returned to his news editor's desk and discreetly laid the radio bug on it. 'Whoever it is who keeps doing this to me, I wish he'd stop,' he said, very quietly.
    'I'll keep it,' Greaves offered.
    'No...Who's covering the Home Secretary's press conference?'
    'I thought you would be.'
    Kyle shook his head. 'It's only a whitewash speech. He's out to play up the new Inspectors of Culture as high-minded blokes who aren't really out to screw writers and artists and broadcasters. He's already said it all once in the House of Commons.
    There was a pause, before he added 'I have other things to do.'
    Greaves checked his big desk diary. 'I'll send Norton.'
    Kyle eyed the stocky, cheeky, young reporter bashing at a typewriter with two fingers, and nodded at Tiny Greaves. Then, moving towards the door, he brushed against the row of coats and neatly slipped the bug into a pocket of Norton's jacket.
    The two news cameras rolled in towards Dan Mellor, the Home Secretary, as he stood on the conference platform surrounded by his aides, notably the Controller and Deputy Controllers of the Public Control Department. Before them, a crowd of press men and women sat attentively, armed with notebooks and tape recorders.
    A powerfully built man, with thick, iron-grey hair, Dan Mellor knew he looked good on the screen. Half a dozen sessions at the government TV school, together with a natural aptitude, had equipped him well. He knew exactly how to get