Blanket Coverage

Trouble was expected and soon arrived. The nasty, spiteful version. The sort you get when there's too many blokes together. A lads night out, an all-dayer. The testosterone tested till it asserted itself. Forcefully with a wallop.

It wasn't the first blow delivered that day. They'd all been told not to worry about the CCTV, it was turned off as much as possible, or inconvenience themselves by bothering to wear numbers. Balaclavas were gladly received when they saw how many long lenses were hanging about at the street corners, that rag-to-a-bull tag announcing 'PRESS' just below their prying metal eyes.

Anyone who got in the way of the orders that were to be issued through the earpiece. That was the extent of the briefing. The how and why would be picked up from the others who had been on this sort of thing previously. A few mentioned Wapping and some strike in Yorkshire which dragged on and paid for villas in Spain. Jokes about sending someone called Arthur postcards thanking him for the endless overtime.

The first lot he was a bit reluctant. Shy even. It was a bunch of girls, which made him glad of the balaclava again. They were told to move, not asked. They didn't. Batons did. Sore knees then an empty space. Noisy scruffy types next. More in your face. Up for it. Harder to hold back. Glad when the order was whispered in his ear. He later realised he hadn't spoken for about an hour. Just listened and swung. Compliance. And on it went. Provocation, orders, retaliation. Reclaiming the streets. The unstoppable force meeting immovable objectors.

The bloke was on his own. It was noisy and he was trying to ask something. Or tell them something while a dog strained to nip at his ankle. He walked up to a few. Hands held out. Message not received. Failure to communicate. Hard to hear through a balaclava with them lot still carrying on. The bloke was getting desperate now. A real need becoming frustration. It was like he heard me think, don't come to me. When he does, he's saying something about living round here. Has to get home. Bit too close to my face. I can smell him. Invasive becomes evasive with one big push. He sprawls but starts to come back. Baton stops him in his tracks. See his eyes for the first time, asking a question I'm not prepared to answer. Do-gooder helps him away. Orders come through. We move. Soon an ambulance crawls through the crowd.

"Look, this thing will blow up by tomorrow morning. Guaranteed. They have the footage. It will be out in the public bloody domain having opinions we do not want formed around it. Headlines. Emotions. Questions. Explanations.Inquiries. The whole bloody shebang. That's not fair. We reacted immediately and will continue to do our utmost to stop it, I can assure you of that".

Damage limitation. That's my job. Not miracle worker or turner back of time. If I could do that I'd be moving the hands right now, to about 6 this morning. When it was still dreams not nightmares. This one's a mess. Bang to rights. A fair cop guv. Not that I can actually say that. Not with my mortgage.

"We need to start dealing with a response, rather than a reaction. We can't deny it, we need to delay it. Take the sting out of the tail with a tale. Reset the agenda. The question is, how far do we go and with whom?"

I'll leave them arguing among themselves, but already know the answer. Let them hear the sound of their own voices for a while. Always calms them down. The coffee's as grey and tasteless as the building. Probably have a department hidden away somewhere to mix it specially. Grey blend.

"Well we can go down that route, but as I've already explained a ban is only going to make viewing the footage more desirable. Plus we don't own the footage and could find no dirt on the guy who shot it. He's squeaky. No flies on him. However, as I mentioned earlier, if we can reach an agreement on who, I can take the story from the top of the pile within twenty four hours. Well you might think that's not a massive achievement, but it's not bad, especially as I'm not even an Earthquake.

Christ. I really do not think these people live in the real world. A man is dead. Their big problem with that is that it will be on the news, where people find out about this sort of thing. They want me to stop them finding out. I can only attempt to stop them noticing. Push it down the hit parade and be thankful of such short attention spans. Or throw a more juicy bone to the pack.

"OK, deadline's approach. Ours and theirs. Would you like to hear my suggestion? We make sure the news starts with a different story. Simple as that. Agreed? I have the bare bones of what that story should be, I just need, one, your approval, two, some help fleshing it out. Are we agreed?

"Right, the clumsy one, our friend Police Chief Nimble. Yes, the one with the wife and vintage cars; or is it the other way round? Well we have the chance to kill two birds with one stone. He's become a bit of a thorn in the side and by rapidly promoting his clumsiness we rid ourselves of an irritant and get rid of an irritation. Mr Nimble becomes the news. I'm not interested in your friendships. I really don't want to bring personal feelings into this. Are you with me so far?

"We need to arrange for the our greedy friends in the press, or at least the ones with cameras, to greet Nimble when he gets out of his car tomorrow morning. Flash bang wallop they'll be taking loads of pictures. Nimble will think he's finally newsworthy. What he won't realise is I'll have placed a piece of paper at the top of the pile he's carrying with lots of juicy secret stuff written on it. Terrorist stuff which those telescopes pretending to be cameras will clearly be able to read".

No murmurs from the crowd so I must be doing well. This is more a pause for my benefit disguised as a pause for their benefit.

"Phase two. The document, which will be all over their editors' desks before you can say 'Freedom of Information Act' relates to some counter terrorism raids intended for the end of the week. But because those sharp as a tack 'just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the story' guys now have the information, we will be forced to dramatically bring forward the planned raids to ensure the security of our country. And make sure it's filmed for posterity's sake. Lots of breathtaking pics of people being arrested, on their knees, flashing blue lights, the lot. Guaranteed first story on the lunch and evening news, on all channels. Questions?"