by Carl Andrew
“From your tone Jennifer, it sounds like there’s something else I should know.”
“I’m afraid it’s not good,” Jennifer replied.
“Tell me,” Vanessa said with authority this time.
“They took something. It was a file containing the research protocol. One of the team leads had left it out. They’ve been reprimanded but…” Jennifer paused for a moment trying to find the right words to use.
“But what?” demanded Vanessa, anticipating the worst.
“But I’m afraid the file contained details of the live trials, no prisoner names or records thankfully but definitely information we don’t want to have in the wrong hands.”
“Shit, that’s not good,” Vanessa responded.
“Another thing, not connected but potentially a way to take control of the situation,” Jennifer continued.
“My daughter has requested to reschedule the interview between Leon and I. They’re keen to understand more about the research project.”
“Initially, I wasn’t interested due to the sensitive nature of the research project but now we might have an avenue to get the story out there ahead of whoever broke in. We can get on the front foot. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a silver lining Jennifer. Scarily, your plotting is something I’m usually associated with. Are you sure you’re not in PR?” Vanessa said.
“So you think I should do it?” Jennifer enquired.
“It might work in our favour,” Vanessa replied. “Schedule it for later today. Can you come here this morning so we can work through what to say?”
“Sure, I can be there in a couple of hours. I’ll call Abby and let her know.”
Vanessa put the phone down, got dressed and went out to the corridor bound for David’s office to have a very difficult conversation.
As she walked past Janet’s desk, David’s PA, she asked: “What kind of mood is he in?”
To which Janet replied with a smile: “Good today. But it’s still early.”
Vanessa repaid the smile and knocked on the door before awaiting David’s invitation to enter.
“Come in,” he said.
“Aah, Vanessa, how can I help you?” Janet was right, he was in a good mood.
“We have an issue David. It’s one of those that leaves us between a rock and a hard place,” Vanessa replied.
“Ok, let me have it,” David said. He was so used to the role of Prime Minister now that nothing shocked him anymore. He was becoming immune to issues.
“I just got off the phone from Dr Hopwood. She’s had another break in at the Institute and this time they took something of value.”
“Tell me,” requested David.
“They took a dossier with details of the research project. All details,” Vanessa responded.
“Including about the prisoner trials I assume?” David asked.
“I’m afraid that’s correct,” Vanessa was in the rare position where she was genuinely unsure of how David was going to take this news.
“I thought we had tightened up security at the facility. How did they get in?”
“They were professionals. They only got seen on the way out. By which time, they were already too far away to be caught.”
“So, what’s the plan for dealing with this Vanessa?”
“Well, coincidentally we have also received a request from Leon Bryant for an interview with Dr Hopwood about the research project in greater detail,” Vanessa said.
“We’ve got to assume that the information that was stolen will get out to the public somehow. We need to take control of the situation. The only option we have is to reveal the details about the research project on our terms,” she continued.
“There’ll be uproar Vanessa. I mean essentially we’ll be voluntarily revealing that the Government is supporting live research trials on prisoners. Not only that but in return we’ve agreed to reduce their sentences by 10 per cent thus allowing criminals on the streets early and essentially rewarding them as prisoners,” David said.
“How do we deal with the fallout? They’ll be asking for someone’s resignation and you can guarantee it will be mine.”
“I know, I’ve considered that but we have no alternative. If the story gets out from other sources there’s no way we can take the upper hand and the fall out will likely be much worse,” Vanessa responded, aware that she was facing a fight of greater proportions than she’d ever faced before to manage this issue.
“David, I think we’ve got to be prepared to accept the reality of this situation. Either way the resignation question will be out there.”
“But if we go with the option of revealing the story to Leon first we’re more likely to be able to control the severity of the voices calling for you or Russell to resign.”
“Besides, there is no viable alternative to you leading the country at this stage. Your popularity ratings are still very favourable. I believe you have some wiggle room to be able to deal with this and come out intact,” Vanessa was trying as hard as she could to reassure the Prime Minister.
“Vanessa, you’re asking me to make a big call on something that’s a huge risk. But I can see our options are limited,” David paused for a moment and Vanessa was aware he had more to say so decided against interjecting just yet.
“Unless…” David continued.
“Unless what David? What are you thinking?”
“Unless I front the media after the article with Dr Hopwood comes out in The Day Today and offer to resign,” he said.
“What? But how will that help?” Vanessa was shocked at what the David had suggested.
“It will catch everyone off guard. It will position me as humble and willing to accept ownership of the mistakes my Government has made. It may even bring us out with an even higher favourability score,” David said with clarity of thought as if the decision was already made.
“David, it’s a bold move but I’m not convinced it’s the right one. We’d need to get senior ministers to speak out in support of you immediately after you offer to resign. We’d need to get the Chief Whip to cajole the Ministers and backbenchers to rally around.”
“I suppose we have a solid majority in the house and strong support in the party ranks. There’s no one who really stands out at the moment to contest you in a leadership battle. It might just work but it needs to be well organised. Are you sure you want to do this?” She asked.
“I’ve never been more certain. I think this might work.” David replied with absolute confidence.
David was becoming well known for making snap decisions and taking risks. It’s one of the qualities that adhered voters to him. They liked to see things done, action taken when required.
“Vanessa, get the interview with Dr Hopwood set up. Arrange for a meeting of cabinet members at 12pm and then get the Chief Whip working his magic. Let’s deal with this head on,” he said.
“Thank you David. I’ll get everything organised. This is going to be one hell of a day,” Vanessa said as she made her way out of the room, still feeling a little bit like she was in some sort of weird dream that she’d wake up from any minute.
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Finsbury Park, London
Leon was looking through his inbox for any new emails that could turn into potential stories. In between email views, he was responding to inbound comments on his previous posts.
Story ideas were pretty sparse but he had planned to follow up on a few old stories to round them out to a conclusion. He always had plenty to do to keep the blog going.
In the other room, he heard Abby’s phone ring. She picked it up as she walked through into the lounge area.
“Hello, Abby speaking.”
“Hi Abby, this is Jennifer, err… I mean mum. How are you?” Jennifer still found herself tiptoeing between awkwardness and uncertainty when she spoke to her daughter.
Theirs was a relationship that was rebuilding but still based on a fou
ndation of egg shells.
“Hi mum. Wow, that was a strange way to introduce yourself,” Abby said.
“I know, I’m sorry, I’m still getting used to speaking to you again. I know that sounds strange but I guess I’m just a little nervous. It will take time I suppose,” Jennifer replied.
“You were never very good in social situations anyway mum. That would be the scientist in you,” Abby said with jest, attempting to lighten the weight of the conversation.
“Too true darling,” as soon as she mentioned that last salutation, she wondered if she’d overstepped the mark, back to uncertainty again.
“Anyway,” she said with haste to try and hide her previous potential faux pas. “I wanted to come back to you on the interview request. I’m happy to do something this afternoon about 2pm in London near Downing Street if that would work. I just need to confirm a venue.”
“Ok great, let me check with Leon. Hold on,” Abby held the phone against her chest and turned towards where Leon was beavering away on his laptop.
“We’re on for an interview with my mum in London this afternoon, 2pm, near Downing Street. Can you do it?”
Leon checked his calendar. “Yeah absolutely, I’ll get cracking on the planning. Great news,” his face lit up with delight.
Abby lifted the phone back to her ear.
“Ok, we’re confirmed. Now, mum remember, this is Leon’s work so please don’t expect any favours.”
“Abby, I wouldn’t want anything else than Leon being his professional self. Obviously there will be some areas I won’t be able to go into as much detail on but I’ll be as open as I can be,” Jennifer responded.
“Sure, I understand. I’ll let him know and thanks for doing this,” Abby said with genuine feeling.
“No problem Abby. I’ll see you both later.”
Leon turned away from his laptop to face Abby when he heard her conversation drawing to a close.
It was one of those situations where he could hear one side of the conversation and was intrigued to know the missing pieces in order to complete the puzzle. Plus he heard that he was referenced which just served to heighten his curiosity.
“So, all good then?” he asked her.
Abby explained the boundaries put forward by her mum. Leon nodded along; it was something he was used to. He was fine with the protocol.
“Absolutely, I’m just glad we’ve got an opportunity to learn more about the Institute,” he said.
“Just one other thing Leon,” Abby said adopting a more considered tone. “Mum asked that you be your normal self. No favours because she’s my mum. She wants you to treat this like any other interview.”
“That works for me. It’s always going to be a little bit strange because of the relationship but I’ll deal with this interview like I do others. No problem. Thanks for sorting this out Abby,” he replied.
Leon got back to his work and added ‘planning for interview with Dr Hopwood’ to his to-do list. He was excited and a little nervous at the same time at the prospect of interviewing a renowned scientist who he respected but also the mother of his girlfriend.
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10 Downing Street, London
Vanessa and Jennifer spent much of the rest of the morning preparing for the interview with Leon. They had to play this right and Vanessa was definitely keen to opt for an honest, open approach.
There were no issues with Jennifer being able to handle the line of questioning but they just needed to agree the level of detail she could provide and how to set up the interview at the beginning.
There was a lot at stake. Success or failure of the interview could go some way to determining the fate of the Prime Minister.
Vanessa had decided not to let Jennifer know all the details of her conversation with David to avoid putting too much pressure on her.
However, she was obviously well aware of the repercussions herself and tried to disguise that as much as possible.
The venue had been set at a meeting room in Portcullis House. Vanessa and Jennifer made their way over there with plenty of time to spare to finalise their preparation work.
Leon and Abby arrived about 30 minutes later and greeted their hosts accordingly.
Oddly, Abby appeared to be feeling a little more awkward about the situation than Leon. He spotted that and gave her waist a gentle squeeze as a form of comfort.
The room was a stereotypical civil service style. A table and chair set commanded the middle of the room. There was a cabinet by the far wall, playing host to an assortment of drinks and snacks. The walls were bare and painted in a light grey. It was the epitome of plain but practical.
Refreshments were offered and accepted, before each of them found the seat of their choice.
“So, before we begin Leon, there’s something we need to discuss,” Vanessa, as ever, took control of the conversation.
Leon was all ears.
“I’m going to confide in you Leon and I hope you can extend the professional courtesy to me to accept that what I say is not to be shared outside of these walls.”
“Vanessa, you’ve worked with me often enough now to realise I’m not a typical journalist. I’ll give you my word that whatever you say to me before the interview, I’ll treat as confidential.”
“Thank you Leon. I knew I could trust you,” Vanessa said.
“So, initially we weren’t going to accept your request for an interview,” her tone was now lower and much more serious.
“As you will be aware, the research project that Dr Hopwood oversees is private. The challenge with a scientific project of this magnitude is that people do not understand it well.”
“This level of uncertainty can lead to fear and also a negative interpretation of the facts when they become apparent,” she was setting the scene, providing a diatribe to act as a back story for Leon to identify with.
“You see, sometimes in a project such as this, there are elements that the public may find… unsavoury, but they are an essential part of the process. Do you understand?” As she was talking, Vanessa glanced over in Abby’s direction, her previous engagement with activism well known.
With a casual nod towards Vanessa, Leon said: “I think I know where you’re coming from. But I don’t understand why I now find myself here when you want to keep the project under wraps?”
“Good,” said Vanessa. “Well, to answer your question, we’ve had an incident.”
“What kind of incident?” Leon was sensing something interesting.
“Last night, there was a break in and they took something…” Vanessa allowed a long pause after the last word. “Something of value, something we didn’t want to get into the wrong hands for people to misinterpret or misuse.”
“And, this something was some kind of document right?” Leon’s investigative instincts took over. He could put the pieces together.
Taken aback, Vanessa looked across to Jennifer who gave an encouraging nod back. “How did you know that?”
“It’s pretty obvious from what you’ve just been telling me. To change a decision from not wanting to share information to now providing that information willingly would have to suggest that paperwork or files were taken. Who broke in? What did they take?” He asked.
“You’re right in that they took documents Leon. They took a key overview of the entire research project. We don’t know who it was but we do know it was a highly professional job,” Vanessa responded.
“And you want me to break the news before they do right? So you can do it in a controlled way,” Leon responded, sharp as a tack.
“Exactly, you’ve summed up precisely why we chose you Leon. You understand us. Furthermore, you respect Dr Hopwood and her scientific ability,” Vanessa was a little more relaxed now. She sensed that Leon was on board.
“I can tell you that the reason why we’re worried about the information that was stolen is because it shows that the research project has been trialled on
live cases,” Vanessa was keen to get straight to the point.
“That is why we need to handle it in the right way.”
“Live cases, you mean animals right?” Leon enquired with an uncertainty that would suggest he already knew he was wrong.
“No Leon,” said Jennifer. “Live cases as in humans.”
Leon took a deep breath, puffed out his cheeks and exhaled. He looked over at Abby and found she was staring back at him, dumbstruck.
“That’s, err... that’s quite a lot to take in Jennifer. I’m sure you’re both aware of the unfortunate situation that lead to the deaths of ten people when science last tried to use humans in live trials for something other than clinical trials?”
“Absolutely Leon, which is why this is such a sensitive topic,” Vanessa said, jumping in to manage the potentially explosive question.
“When you say humans, in what way?” Leon asked.
“Leon, perhaps we should take this as the beginning of the interview. Ok with you?” said Jennifer.
“Absolutely,” Leon set up his voice recorder and placed it on the table. Out of courtesy he looked at Jennifer and then Vanessa to confirm he was ok to use it.
They both nodded in acceptance.
“So Leon, what I can tell you is that we’ve been working with live cases, as we call them, for over a month now. The experiments are purely measurement based and not intrusive at all.”
“And how are you planning to use the results of the experiments?” Leon said, keen to move the conversation on. He was like a kid in a candy store, eager to unravel the next wrapper to see what goodies lay within.
“Well, I can't go into too much detail at this stage but needless to say, the results will be used to gauge someone's behaviour.”
“So, how do the results look at the moment and how far away are you from announcing how these might be used in Government policy?” Leon was true to his word. He was being professional and asking the most poignant questions.
“The results are encouraging but in terms of how soon we are to forming public policy, I'm afraid I can't disclose that at this stage,” Jennifer answered with the assurance she brought to all of her interviews.