Better Late Than Never

Sarah waved goodbye to Sophie before she briskly walked over to the largest office on the floor. Just as she was about to knock on the door, it opened first. Sarah who still had her hand held out and prepared to knock on the door was instead met with the solid chest of Mark.

Both Mark and Sarah were startled by the unexpected physical contact. Mark had not expected there to be someone outside and had been relaying orders to his assistant with his head turned away from the door. When abruptly he walked into someone standing in the doorway and subconsciously reacted by hugging the person in order to steady them.

Sarah suddenly found herself wrapped in Mark's strong embrace blushed and then coughed before pushing Mark back. Mark only then realised what he had been doing and finally recognised the person he had been hugging was Sarah. He too coughed in embarrassment before he apologised.

"Ah, sorry about that Sarah, I didn't realise you would be there. My bad, I shouldn't have been looking back. Oh, Pete did you hear the last thing I said?"

Sarah heard a loud reply from inside the office and recognised that it was Mark's assistant Pete.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time Mark. I tell you every time to watch where you're going. But Mr Hotshot over there never listens to Pete does he."

Mark looked a little sheepish as he heard his assistant's complaint and then turned his attention back to Sarah and asked

"So, what brings you up here today? Something come up in your story?"

"Sometimes I wonder whether you're really his boss or not. Erm, anyways I need your help with something. You're free right?"

"Actually I just got a call from the Big Boss and he wants me to fly to Darwin, apparently he can't make the networking dinner tonight and no one else is free. Plus, he said they needed someone of importance, since they're all bigshots from Asia and we can't afford to miss it. You know how it is, the vultures are always circling. Sorry Sarah."

Sarah felt a little disappointed and then responded half heartedly

"Oh, I guess it can't be helped then. Don't worry then I can handle it on my own. Enjoy your event."

Sarah waved goodbye and then quickly headed back to her office.

Pete who had heard the entire conversation then poked his head out of the office and asked

"Mark, you know she's going to find out sooner or later. Wouldn't it be better if you just told her upfront now, rather than have her find out from someone else? I really wonder what goes through that brain of yours. These actions of yours these past few years have been completely illogical."

Only to realise that Mark had already left. He sighed loudly and lamented at the fates that bound him to such a fatuous friend, Pete shook his head and then went back to his desk.

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Sarah upon returning to her desk, was greeted with an email alert. She quickly opened it and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Minister's office had replied to her second email asking for access to the diary. Sarah scanned through the reply and was once again disappointed to find the Minister was unwilling to provide her a copy of his diary.

To be perfectly honest, the Minister had given her a copy, but it was completely illegible and was heavily redacted.

Sentences like "…meet…fruit…outside…his…" and "left…December…Christmas…" were very common.

She could get nothing from this and closed the email in frustration.

Sarah had the option of formally filing a freedom of information request and should they continue the obfuscation then she could dispute the response. However, this process could take many months and would more often than not amount to no more than a single complete sentence, if they were lucky.

She had heard many stories of how frustrating these processes could be. Her friend Yvonne had once asked a minister for a copy of their email correspondence with a banking executive whilst the minister was overseeing the drafting of new regulations for the sector. The first time she asked, the department did not respond until two weeks later only to have her request denied. So, she tried asking again and after two months wait was given a transcript that was two pages in length yet nearly four-fifths of it was black lines.

Yvonne felt that the situation was absurd and had then filed for a review with the Information Commissioner, where the process took another few weeks, only to have the Commissioner rule that the Minister had satisfied his obligations. So, after all that work and time spent, she got nothing out of it. In fact, by the time the Commissioner made a ruling the new laws had already been passed.

Sarah knew it would be futile and a waste of time to try and get more out of the Minister's office and decided to tackle another angle. She had only wanted access to the diary in order to crosscheck the location of the Minister on the date the photo was supposedly taken. However, with the appearance of the second photo, Sarah felt the anonymous tipper was not playing games with her and her gut also told her that the information from the mysterious person could be trusted.

As a result, Sarah knew she had exhausted all other outside legal options and decided to take up the challenge with her own two hands. She walked over to the filing cabinet behind her desk and took out a mouse and keyboard that she only ever used when she was serious about something. And those other times when she was bored at work and decided to play some video games. Sarah fully understood the importance of taking breaks.

Having arranged her setup, Sarah opened the program she and Mark had created a few months back that was able to jointly and separately identify an image and key markings from a vast database that included all things publicly accessible as well as live security feeds from all over the country.

How they were able to create such a thing and have access to real-time footage, Sarah liked to think it was all her skills, whilst Mark just helped with the user interface.

They had created the program not too long after Sarah received the first email. Although it had taken a little longer than they had thought it would, it was still undoubtedly a success as they had found the location of the restaurant. The program identified it as a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, ironically named the 'Golden Front', officially it was owned by a local businessman. However, the word on the street from her dark web contacts was that it had dealings with the Southern Mafia and was most likely a front.

Sarah at this time had decided to listen to the warnings of both her Grandfather and Mark as well as not being outright stupid and had left the restaurant alone, after all she was an investigative journalist not a secret agent or spy. If anything, she sometimes felt her job was closer to an information collector, as she was always scoping and asking for information as well as then passing it on to whichever of her colleagues had asked for it or needed it. But then again, she also had a professional duty to pass that information where pertinent onto the public and seeing the good that came from her job always motivated her to do more.

Sarah knew that this story was a big one, it involved powers that were far beyond her, but she felt compelled whether it was by her own sense of justice, her curiosity or even her ego. Most likely a combination of all three, although this story might put her life in danger, she had no regrets. After all, she would rather die fighting, than to live on her knees and knowing what she knew now, it was not in her to back away.