The Need for Fear by Oisin McGann Page B

“What about it? Who are you anyway?”
    â€œI’m one of those guys you’re always writing about, sonny.” The man leaned in and added in a low, theatrical voice: “I’m a spook .”
    Chi frowned, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, unable to get any words out. He tried again. “Really? You’re admitting that? Are you having me on?”
    â€œNo. I’m dead serious,” the man assured him.
    â€œI thought you guys weren’t allowed to … y’know … tell people what you did?”
    â€œWe’re not. There’s a lot about this meeting that I’m not supposed to be doing.”
    â€œWhat’s your name?”
    â€œCall me what you like. I’m not telling you my name and it’s not important. What is important—”
    â€œCan I call you Robert?”
    â€œWhat? Why ‘Robert?’”
    â€œI dunno,” Chi shrugged. “I have to call you something. You look like a Robert.”
    â€œFine—call me Robert then. Anyway, what is important is why you used this particular combination of words in your article.”
    He pointed to the sheet, where several words were circled in red pen. The paragraph was about how the black ops teams, aka “the Scalps,” were running an experimental brainwashing operation on captured terrorists in the mountains of Sinnostan. “Robert” had circled brainwashing , Scalps , and Sinnostan .
    Chi said nothing for a minute. That bit had only got a brief mention, because he’d been fishing. The information came from one—slightly unreliable—source and he hadn’t been able to corroborate it. He knew next to nothing about Sinnostan and had been forced to look it up on a map just to find out where it was. He’d been hoping someone would get in touch with more information. Instead, here was a guy claiming to be an intelligence agent, showing up asking questions. I’ve got your attention now, haven’t I, you bastards? Chi thought. He glanced at the paper, then sat back, folding his arms.
    â€œWhat, did I throw up some flags during all your data surveillance?” he asked smugly.
    He knew GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters, could now monitor all phone and online traffic in the UK and Ireland. Massive processing power went into analyzing all that data for anything suspicious—a deeply invasive, and hopelessly ham-handed, approach to gathering intelligence.
    â€œSonny, you’ve raised so many stupid flags over the last few years, even the computers are bored,” Robert told him. “I just want to know what made you connect those three terms.”
    â€œAre you kidding?” Chi exclaimed. “I’m not revealing my sources.”
    He’d always wanted to say that.
    Robert rolled his eyes and folded up the page again, slipping it back in his pocket.
    â€œI’m not trying to stitch you up,” he said. “Believe it or not, I actually want to help you.”
    â€œWhy would you want to do that?”
    â€œI have my reasons—which are none of are your business.”
    â€œYeah, right. And why should I trust you? You need to give me something solid if I’m going to believe this is for real. You wanna help me? So tell me about the aliens.”
    â€œThere are no aliens, you moron! There have never been any bloody aliens!”
    â€œWell, of course you’d deny it… .”
    â€œChrist on a bike, will you forget about the aliens? But what you are right about is the brainwashing . That’s something that’s really happening … or at least, it’s about to happen. And I’m going to help you blow the story wide open.”
    â€œOh yeah? How?”
    â€œIf you’ll shut your trap and listen, you’ll find out, won’t you? Jesus …”
    Robert took a thumb drive from the same pocket and handed it to Chi, who took it tentatively, as if it might