The questioning room welcomed them. Daniel and Nora did their best to catch their breaths, but before the detective could take hold of his bearings over the sudden mess, Mr. Shin intruded again, extremely agitated. He slammed the door behind him, locking Congressman Kim and his secretary out. Daniel immediately raised a hand to keep him to the opposite side of the room. He knew where the source of the trouble was at.

“You,” he panted, “You wait over there. Better yet, sit down. I don’t feel comfortable with you standing up.”

The manager haughtily complied. Daniel kept his hand on the back of Nora’s chair, a protective stance, and followed her as she scooted her seat back to the wall. She was upset, and rightly so. The sudden frisking wasn’t a welcome one.

 

“It’s definitely not in her pockets. Then where…?”

 

On his own, the detective was still silently searching for the memory card. He had other priorities. Nora swiped his hand from her chair’s back and glared at him, and he decidedly retreated by seating himself onto the table in the middle of the room.

“What the hell was that about?” he finally asked.

Mr. Shin was hasty with his reply.

“I’m just getting what’s mine! I don’t know why everyone made such a big deal about it.”

“The ‘big deal’ is that you’re grabbing girls without permission. I thought she was supposed to be the stupid one here.”

“Excuse me?” Nora asked, but she was interrupted by Mr. Shin’s incredulous attempts at an excuse.

The detective, of course, didn’t let him get very far with those.

“I don’t wanna hear it. That was the most pigheaded thing I think I’ve ever seen. If you don’t apologize I’m gonna recommend that she press charges when her attorney shows up in the morning.”

Mr. Shin wasn’t listening. He leaned forward in his seat and scoffed, “It’s not my fault. She’s the one not handing those pictures over! Do you know what’ll happen if those don’t show up on our paper tomorrow?”

The detective went back to his habit of smacking his hand to the table, and Mr. Shin squirmed in his seat, shutting his mouth.

What a ridiculous situation. Did Mr. Shin really not understand what he was doing? It was like he had lost his common sense on his way to the station. He was usually a rational man, at least a person who would stand to reason and not falter to such absurd behavior. Wrestling a girl? Not bowing to a lion like the detective in his own den? When in Rome, one should do what the Romans would do, but Mr. Shin acted like a foreigner with zero regard to the rules.

Nora watched her boss wriggle in his seat. His hands were sweating from the previous altercation and kept wringing them. He was obviously anxious.

Why?

What was forcing him to act this way?

“Does ‘Reporter Breaks into Congressman’s House’ not cut it for you as a headline?” she asked him, “What are you so worried about?”

 

[Late morning. Mr. Shin sits at his desk. Through the windows of his corner office you can see reporters and editors squabbling around, save for a small group standing in front of the television. On screen, a news reporter narrates the new campaign efforts of Mr. Kim, highlighting his noble efforts towards the poor and unfortunate. Some watching nod, while others grimace, seeing through some unseen hoax. Nora is sitting at her small desk some ways away, listening but not paying specific attention.

The focus shifts. As soon as a commercial airs, the phone on Mr. Shin’s desk rings, and he answers it casually. A pause. The voice on the other end pales his face, and he sits up a bit straighter in his chair. Awe, respect, and fear lilt in his voice. One of those feelings far outweighs the others.]

 

A pause. Nora squinted at her boss, focusing on his uneasy face, as if she could see something no one else could. The detective sent her an inquisitive look.

“Who paid you for those pictures? It’s obviously not the editor. You wouldn’t be so desperate if it was him.”

 

[The voice on the phone speaks slowly, and Mr. Shin nods before forgetting that his response can’t be seen, then clears his throat. A small, crooked smile curves his rat-face. He looks out the window again, his gaze catching Nora as she leaves her desk with a stack of papers. When she returns, they make eye contact, and he waves his hand to pull her into his office. Nora’s confused but she can tell that something big just happened and hurries over. Mr. Shin’s hands are still shaking when he hangs up.]

 

Mr. Shin’s eyes went wide. How…? He leapt out of his seat, and the detective automatically shifted his shoulders slightly to act as a barrier between them.

“The memory card,” he said, “Where is it?”

Nora continued, unfazed.

“How did you know I was here?

 

[Night. Mr. Shin paces in his bedroom, the bedside lamp engulfing his silhouette. His wife urges him to bed, but he ignores her. He’s waiting for news. A text vibrates the phone on his nightstand, and he dives after it, but he howls when he reads the message. Something happened. Something is wrong. The fear from that morning returns, and he’s out the door before his wife can stop him.]

 

“The detective only called my attorney, and my attorney works for me. He’s my person. He’s not stupid enough to call you, so who told you to come here?”

Daniel raised his eyebrow. Good point.

“I’ve had her phone, and she hasn’t gotten any calls. You came straight here. You didn’t even check to see if she was in or not,” he added.

 

[In the back of a taxi, Mr. Shin receives another text. He’s panicking. His hands grip the side of the box beside him. He hopes that he can be persuasive but being persuasive was never his forte. He doesn’t think he can handle it.]

 

“It doesn’t make sense,” Nora admitted.

And the detective replied, “No, it doesn’t.”

Fear. Shin threw a fist onto the table, a bad move. It was close enough to Daniel’s thigh for him to smack down his own hand and keep it there. The detective clutched at the aggravated man’s arm and their eyes met. Under the inquisitive glare, Mr. Shin didn’t move a muscle.

“I can always switch you two out. You look like you want to try the cell,” Daniel threatened.

Shin was unbothered. Desperate. Something was squeezing his insides from the back of his mind, and it was an unpleasant sensation.

Nora watched him. She leaned across the table, almost across Daniel’s lap, and when her elbows grazes the detective’s thigh he twisted away from the sudden invasion of privacy. She didn’t pay attention to him. She was listening.

 

[Back in the taxi, Mr. Shin receives another phone call. An unknown number, different from the first. He lets out a nervous sob under his breath before answering as professionally as he can, but only three words are spoken. A woman’s voice. Raspy, calm, but full of a gravitating power that sucks the oxygen out of his lungs and the thoughts out of his brain. It’s a voice that’s surprisingly familiar and needs no introduction.

“Get those pictures.”

Click.]

 

Nora calculated an unobvious equation, and finally stood up on her own accord. A slow, steady movement. Daniel had every intention to sit her back down, and he swiveled from his spot to gain a better stance in the event.

“Nora Lee,” Mr. Shin said, “the pictures. I need them.”

She read his face.

 

[Mr. Shin stares at the phone in his hand long after the call is over. As soon as life fills his lungs he leans back into his seat and grabs at his hair. The taxi driver watches from his rearview mirror in concern but doesn’t say anything. After a moment of thinking over his options, the manager glances at the box again. He lifts the lid to check the contents, and decidedly shuts it. He calms down and assures himself. If this doesn’t go well, it won’t be his fault. It will be the incompetence of his employee, and she would be easily replaced.

But another text, this time from a number different from the previous ones. This one drowns out anything that could have saved him:

DELIVER OR PERISH]

 

Nora glared. She decided that silence was indeed a virtue:

“What pictures? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“Do NOT start that again.”

 

The detective made a face, and a long, exhausted sigh escaped him once again. He should have expected this.

“You really…”

Nora was stubborn. She spat her words at him.

“I. Have. No. Idea.”

“YOU LITTLE—!"

Shin’s desperation lurched him towards her, and Daniel placed a well-timed hand on his chest to shove him back. The sudden push forced the room back into high-tension, and the detective tried to calm down the aggrieved.

“Look, she says she doesn’t have it,” Daniel sounded frustrated in his own right.

“She obviously does!” Mr. Shin yowled.

“I know, I know. And even if she did have it, it’d be confiscated as evidence. She broke into someone’s house. She damaged property. Headline or not, she’s being detained until her warrant comes in and all of belongings on her person will be submitted—."

But the detective’s words went unheard.

“If you don’t hand that memory card over, you’re fired!” Mr. Shin warned, “Terminated immediately! Make the right decision and give me those pictures, or I swear—!"

Nora knew better. She felt it was better not to respond. She just stared.

Mr. Shin ballooned up. His fury was almost uncontainable, and the detective made a smart decision to remove him from the room. He opened the door and two curious public officials fell in, then sheepishly picked themselves up off the floor. Daniel made a grab for the manager’s arm, but he missed, and Mr. Shin was already huffing out.

The detective turned to Congressman Kim, who couldn’t hide his embarrassment very well and turned to let himself out. But before he could make it out the door-.

The manager was back. Mr. Shin, the box of Nora’s belongings in his hand, swung back into the questioning room in a large arc and tossed the objects into her direction. She had to dodge out of her seat as the box hurtled towards her. Between the hundreds of loose-leaf papers airborne she could make out the detective tackling her boss, the congressman and his secretary scrambling out of their way, and the loud, obnoxious screeches that was the desperation of Mr. Shin’s voice as he screamed obscenities at her, both heard and not.

“DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT COMING BACK TO WORK. DON’T YOU EVEN DARE!”

 

“YOU DUMB BRAT, YOU RUINED US ALL!”

 

“I KNEW YOU WEREN’T ANY GOOD! YOU CAN’T EVEN DO A JOB CORRECTLY! I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAD TO COME ALL THE WAY OUT HERE FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU. I HOPE YOU STAY IN THAT CELL! I’LL MAKE SURE YOU—!"

 

“—NEVER FIND A JOB IN THIS INDUSTRY AGAIN! THAT’S IT FOR YOU! YOU’RE DONE FOR!!"

 

Did he really—

Did he really think this would get him what he wanted??

A lot of tussling occurred. Nora stayed glued to the corner of the room as it settled, and she watched Daniel drag the tossing manager to the floor. He called for another officer for backup, and when no one came he grabbed the secretary’s wrist and swung him towards the direction of his desk.

“My handcuff’s are in the top drawer if you could—” the manager squirmed, and Daniel barked, “Will you stop moving?”

He turned back to a confused Mitchell wandering at his desk, “Yes, the top drawer. That’s it. No, leave the key there—”

A lot of chaos, but after he directed Mitchell, he still managed to look over his shoulder at Nora. It looked as if she wasn’t planning on moving any time soon.

The manager grunted under him. He squirmed and struggled. Nora could hear the desperation under his curses but couldn’t muster the energy to feel sympathy towards him. The fear in his mind was overwhelming to the point where her own head started to ache, and she was too busy rubbing the migraine out of her temple to care. He was too crazed to understand the position he was in, and from the obvious profanities he was still spewing at her he wasn’t going to get it, period.

“There’re kids ten times better than you lining up for a shot at your job, you know that?” Mr. Shin coughed out a dry laugh, “You don’t even know how lucky you are. Just because you for some big break in college, you think you’re the greatest thing that’s walked the planet, but you can’t even get one job done. You’re nothing. You hear me? Nothing.”

Finally, she moved. Nora took a step. Then another. She walked towards him.

Daniel grabbed the handcuffs from Mitchell and almost snapped them to the manager’s wrist, but Nora stopped him before he could. She knelt down next to them, her feet shifting the tossed papers on the floor, and she stared.

“No. Don’t detain him. Let him walk out.”

Daniel stared.

“Excuse me??”

“You’re excused.

“What? No, that’s not how this works—”

She didn’t let him continue. She bent forward so that she could get a good look at her manager’s eyes.

“What, you’ve got something to say?” he spat.

“I do,” Nora said, “so you better listen.”

He was about to argue, but Daniel’s frustration dropped his handcuffs, and the cold metal hitting Mr. Shin’s back startled him enough to keep quiet.

“You said I’m no good. Do you know what you just threw at me?” Nora asked.

She gestured to the papers scattered around the room.

“That’s two months of your content, and the next four months of your editorials. I slaved for you, and you had the nerve…. This is how you’re letting me go? Over a few pictures some senator paid you to scrape up? On some congressman who can’t even keep his family together, much less an election campaign?”

The room went dead silent. Someone took in a sharp breath. Congressman Kim.

Nora continued.

“I’m not gonna stand in the corner and let you attack me over your own botched decisions. Pick up my stuff and fire me with the dignity I deserve instead of throwing a tantrum like a child. It’s embarrassing.”

Everyone was too afraid to speak. The detective stared at the girl in front of him. It was as if she was sucking the air out of the room with her words. He watched as she started picking up choice pieces of paper here and there, causally turning the worlds of her victims upside down, and the detective did his best to pull together the new accusations as coherently as he could.

A senator? Was this a paid covert operation? A true scandal in the making? Nora seemed not to have the energy to care about the events she was insinuating. She didn’t care about the emotions of the politician whose personal life was suddenly scattered into the air. She paid no mind to the secretary behind him, who was growing more nervous by the second at the events that unfolded in front of him. This was out of his control now. Nobody noticed when he slipped away.

Finally, someone had the nerve to utter a sound: the stupid manager.

“YOU—!”

Of course, she gave him no room to speak.

“I’m not afraid of Senator Song.”

A name dropped. A big name dropped. A name that meant much too much to those who heard it. A name that explained everything.

“I’m not afraid of prison,” Nora announced, “Or that detective on top of you. Or that stupid congressman and his sleazy, two-faced secretary that just walked out. I’m not even afraid of you.”

She leaned closer to the floor. Not so that she could see him better; so that he could see her. Her voice grew smaller as it carried more weight. Her volume wasn’t necessary. She had control of the room, and the attentions in it.

“I’ve got enough dirt on you to write a book. A long, tedious, boring book about all the sex-scandals, brown-nosing, and blackmailing you’ve covered up to keep your sorry ass floating. And, I’m warning you now, if there’s even an ounce of intelligence left in that pathetic grape of a brain, you’re going to treat me with some respect. Not as a person who can destroy your life, but as an employee who risked my well-being and reputation for your stupid under-the-table job. And if you don’t, I will not hesitate to drag you head-first into the deep end.”

An audible gulp from the manager.

Nora smiled.

“Act like an adult. Apologize. Clean up your mess. And walk yourself out.”

What all was said and done, Nora stood up and brushed the invisible dust off of her knees. The silence was extremely heavy, but she waded through it, and after sliding her foot among the stray pages on the floor she made her best effort to break the awkward atmosphere. She laughed through her nose at the broken man before her.

“I’m lucky to work for you?” she grinned, “You’re lucky to have me. That ‘big break in college’ got me to the Pulitzer finals, you freaking idiot.”