Silver Bullet

Episode 1

“Now listen carefully, Emily or whatever, it is either your job or your family! What part of that statement don’t you understand?” Oswald Peterson shouted in her face and she jerked back. “If you’re tired already of being a correspondent field reporter, then I’ll get you fired. There are tons of reporters who would kill to get this assignment”

Emily Bradley just sat back gazing at the wall-sized portrait of the Nigerian President hanging at the rear wall of the huge office, a million thought flashing her mind. She had gone through hell to get job and had sworn to keep it for a long time; reason, she was the major source of her family’s income. But her mother who had been informed that she had barely seventy-two hours to live and at most four days.

She was down with a chronic cardiovascular illness known as the coronary artery disease, a type of atherosclerosis meant that her arteries were hardening and narrowing by the moment and if the angloplasty surgery doesn’t work out, the arteries could be blocked,the flow of blood would become almost impossible and that would mean death. She brushed the thought off her memory. If not for any other thing but for the fact that save for her sister, she was the only family she had right now. She really had to be by her side during her last days.

“Please sir, I can get you a doctor’s analysis and report from the hospital. You don’t really need to do this to me”, she pleaded.

Her boss,Oswald Peterson was the last person you would want to get angry with you,so she had choose her words carefully.

With an irritatingly bad temper, Pete had already carved a niche for himself in the world of investigative journalism with his vast experience in numerous major news networks all over the world. Currently,he is the head of the international correspondence arm of the Cable News Network(CNN) in Nigeria.

“No, no, no. Don’t cross the line. This is ridiculous,how can I just give you such an important assignment on a platter of gold, one minute you accepted and the next you come running back demanding a leave cause your mother gonna die on or before Easter? I really don’t get it, you can’t just keep disrupting the way things are structured here!”

“I’m so sorry sir. But I really don’t want to call it quits”. She needed to clear her head right now,the cost of the operation that might save her mother’s heart failure at least for some time was very exorbitant and she has to be the one who would pay for it. Her other sister, Eliana was still in college and she had to stop school just because of this. She had tried everything; worked overtime,met some people but things are not as expected.

Her smartphone started ringing but she ignored it.

“I guess this meeting is over,if you’re not in the Vatican City to cover the pre-Easter and Easter celebrations for this news network then I’ll be left with no other option than to fire you,period”,he said and pressed a button on the mahogany desk and the glass door slid open.

“How did it go?” Duane asked as soon as she came out of the office.

“Forget it,Duane”, she said and slumped down on her swivel chair. Her phone rang again,

“Hello Eliana, how’s mum doing? Yeah give her the phone”.

“Hello mom,just hang in there. I’ll figure something out, trust me. Alright” the call terminated.

“S–t! The stupid network providers. Oh my God,I’m going to go crazy of all these”

“That’s frustration,depression comes after this”, Duane said from his workspace.

“Just mind your business,jerk”

“Anyway,Derek called your desk”

“And you picked it?”, she asked

“Trust me. He said that I should inform you that he would be making a flight stop in italy before heading for the United States for the exhibition,if you won’t mind joining him”

“Of course,at least it would save me some flight costs”,she muttered.

“I should have known thick-skinned no nonsense Emily is finally taking up the international assignment”.

“Just shut up!”, she scolded and everyone turned to look at her.