Contemporary Corruption chapter 2

Author's note: A simple point on names. I know jack shit about Korean names, so I googled Korean female names and picked the first one that sounded decent. So if it's off, do tell me. Secondly, this is an alternative world. I may use the names of certain celebrities when dealing with actors as a shorthand and to convey a certain image. I try not to use the names of politicians, except maybe historical ones for context. This story isn't supposed to be a political take on anything, so when I mention something like a governor or president withou saying their name, you can assume I don't mean their real equivalents.

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She was already pulling on her sneakers when the doorbell rang. She took a quick glance at the nearby mirror to make sure everything was well in place, just in case. Her skintight black and purple sports pants outlined and showed off her figure perfectly, and the sporty top of the same colors did the same for her bust. Her phone was attached to her arm, as she never allowed her phone to be far out of reach. With a smile, she pulled her blond hair into a loose ponytail and opened the door. “Jennifer!” She called out happily and opened her arms for a hug.

The woman on the other side of the door eagerly stepped in close and hugged her. “Selene. It’s good to see you. You’ve been a busy girl the last few days. I feel out of shape already.”

She didn’t look out of shape. In fact, she looked like a model. A sporty and well-endowed model, with a riot of shiny onyx hair and Asian features. Jennifer was one of the most gorgeous women Selene had ever met. Aside from herself and her mother, from whom she’d inherited her looks, of course. Jennifer had a very similar attire to hers, just in slightly different colors. Instead of purple, her top and pants were accented with light green. Not a surprise since they’d bought the clothes together.

They released the hug and Selene grinned at her friend and neighbor. Jennifer lived a couple floors down from her. “You do realize you could’ve gone exercising even without me, right?”

Jennifer made a dramatic sigh. “It just wouldn’t have felt right. We exercise together. That’s the sacred pact we’ve made and the bond we share. Exercising alone would’ve meant I’ve betrayed our pact.”

“Hah! You’re just feeling lazy.” Selene jibed. There was no pact of course. “My place, or shall we go outside today?”

“Let’s go outside today. It’s nice weather today. Besides, despite the excellent facilities, I feel like such a hobo every time I enter your lavish mansion of an apartment." Jennifer shook her head and pulled Selene fully into a small waiting room in between the elevator and her front door. The space only really existed so that any visitors had a space to step out of the elevator and stand in while waiting for her to open the door, and for any packages to be dropped off at.

“I resent that.” Selene protested as they moved into the elevator and pushed the button for street level. Despite the fast elevator, it would take a bit to go down so many floors. “I exercised quite a bit of restraint when decorating.”

“Oh, you did. You have nothing obscenely ostentatious, except maybe the Sakura trees. Just that everything is made of the best materials, and the fact that your penthouse covers three whole floors in one of the most expensive buildings in the most expensive city in the world. Honey, my husband and I are rich, and we barely managed to buy half a floor that’s not even close to the top level.” Jennifer’s tone was slightly exasperated. “How much did you pay for the apartment?”

“About fifteen.” She replied vaguely, meaning millions. The three floors had been separate when she’d bought them, and she’d combined them into a single apartment.

“And after all the work you’ve had done, how much is it worth now?” Jennifer asked again.

“I haven’t had it evaluated, but I’d be surprised if it was valued as less than five times that.” Knowing the value of things was one of the things that had brought her the money she had.

"Exactly," Jennifer stated emphatically, as if that explained everything. "Now don't get me wrong, I like a nice place as much as the next gal, but it makes me feel a bit poor to mooch off your facilities all the time.”

The elevator dinged at the ground floor, and they both stepped out. They greeted the doormen and security as they walked outside. The lobby of the building was reminiscent of a luxury 5-star hotel’s lobby, and the bottom floor held several businesses catering towards the inhabitants and those in the nearby buildings.

The streets of central Los Yorkeles were always busy, and both residents and tourists were everywhere. The streets were glutted with cars, and everyone seemed to be in a hurry. The nearby buildings were all hideously expensive, filled with the offices of the biggest firms, the apartments of the filthy rich, and the businesses that were high enough in revenue to afford the prices while catering to both. There were no quaint little coffee shops or obscure boutiques for several blocks, which was one of the downsides of the area.

Even on the busy streets of the central New Yorkeles, the two gorgeous women drew looks from everyone as they ran down the sidewalk, people eagerly making space. Luckily, they didn’t have to go too far before they hit Central Park, which allowed them even more breathing space, and the ability to move at their own pace. That pace was actually quite fast as the two were in extremely fit condition, and really pushed themselves as they ran down the nature-filled lanes of the park. They passed several slower joggers as they ran, and their almost frantic pace drew almost as many looks as their appearance.

“It seems your bout of laziness has not dulled your edge too badly.” Selene taunted a bit. Jennifer was one of the few people able to keep up with her. One of the reasons the two loved working out together was that they were almost at a professional level when it came to such things.

“Have to fight the good fight against the evil calories.” Jennifer laughed, only slightly winded. “How about a friendly wager?”

“The usual? A full lap around the park?” Selene laid out the terms.

"A dare, cashed in at a later date," Jennifer confirmed. They'd made several similar bets in the past. They called it a dare, though in practice the loser simply had to do something the winner demanded, using the word dare as the trigger. The requests varied from standard and practical to raunchy and wild.

“You’re on!” Selene called out while increasing her pace even more, metaphorically shifting to a higher gear. She tended to win more than she lost, though the margin between the two wasn’t large enough to spoil their fun.

The two raced around the entire park at a pace that was frankly suboptimal for a great workout, but the winner was clear by the time they reached their goal. Selene won by a rather clear margin. “Hah! You are getting slower Jen! Maybe you should think about utilizing my home gym more often instead of slacking around.” Selene jeered, just like a gracious winner should.

Jennifer leaned on her knees panting heavily. “Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up ponygirl. Aah, I really shouldn’t have had that breakfast.” She cooled down while stretching to avoid any cramps, before sitting down on a nearby bench. “Win is a win though.”

“And I shall savor it. One of the top lawyers in the country in the palm of my hands. Muhaha!” Selene made an exaggerated evil laugh.

“Gracious winner as always.” Jennifer shook her head again in exasperation. “How’s the new job? I heard you got your dream to come true.”

“Not much to say yet. Yesterday was my first day and it was just a couple hours. Met some people, shadowed a more experienced reporter on a basic outing. Talked to a cop. That’s about it.” She shrugged.

“Was he hot at least?” Jennifer asked with a grin.

“Who? The senior reporter? Or the cop?” Selene asked back with slight confusion.

“Either!”

“Well, the reporter, Darius, was decently handsome. Well built. Had muscles on his muscles. Fancied himself a bit more charming than he was, though that’s rather common in this city and I can’t say I don’t appreciate confidence.” She gave a quick evaluation. “Hard to say much more yet. The cop was female.”

“That never stopped you before.” Jennifer winked at her suggestively.

“True enough.” She admitted shamelessly. “She was also at least bi, which is why I said Darius thought himself more charming than he was. He tried using his looks to fish for information. I got the distinct impression that the detective would’ve rather I was asking the questions.”

Jennifer burst into a gale of laughter. “Not a fair comparison, honey.  I know I’m a ten, and I would still bet on you being more charming 99 out of 100 times. Still, at least it wasn’t a total bust of a first day.” She wasn’t just bragging or using false bravado either. Jennifer was genuinely gorgeous.

“Eh, good to know I still got it.” She waved the compliment away, as the two started to walk back to their building, a bit slower this time.

As they were about to get on the elevator, Selene had to ask. “Are you sure you don’t want to at least do some yoga at my place? Better yet, I have a shower with your name on it. Quite literally. Nameplate and everything.”

Jennifer laughed. “Honey, we both know that if I came to your shower, no actual showering would get done. And while a little fun is always welcome, I actually have to get to work. Unlike some, I can’t waltz in at midday.” She pressed the buttons for her floor, as well as Selene’s to emphasize the point.

“Boo. Have it your way you boring person.” She pouted at her friend.

“Oh, how poetic. Shows the writer in you. Real eloquent.” Jennifer jibed.

Selene gave her a smack on the rump as the elevator stopped on Jennifer’s floor. “Don’t get uppity now. I seem to recall you owing me a dare.” Felt rather pleasant for both of them.

Jennifer wiggled her luscious butt while standing at the doorway. “Oh, poor me! However, will I survive?” She cried over-dramatically just as the doors closed.

Jennifer was always fun to be around. Too bad she hadn’t taken up the invitation. She’d been right though. Selene felt rather horny, and there would’ve been little actual showering going on, assuming they’d even get to the showers in the first place. Now she’d have to try and burn some of that frustration with yoga and a cold shower before work.

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The office was busier when she arrived. More reporters had shown up in person, though only still a handful. She recognized Darius, but the others were unknown to her, as expected. She didn’t make it more than two steps in before a voice greeted her from her left. “Hey! You must be Selene!”

She turned towards the voice, seeing a beautiful woman that Selene instantly recognized as South Korean. She didn’t have some special skill in picking out people’s backgrounds, just that she had noted that South Korean women seemed to often fit in a very particular kind of mold. Maybe it was due to some cultural beauty ideal, she wasn't sure, but to her, they'd always been very recognizable. Especially when they happened to fit that beauty ideal this well. The woman was dressed impeccably in a pencil skirt similar to Selene’s own, a white blouse, and a black jacket. It almost looked like the two of them had dressed to match today. She also seemed to be around thirty. It was hard to tell whether that was just under or over thirty exactly.

“I am indeed. Selene Khalidor. Nice to meet you.” She extended her hand for a shake, which the other woman took in a gentle grip.

“Oh, wow, Darius wasn’t exaggerating it seems. You are very recognizable and fit his description to a T.” The woman said with a warm smile on her rather luscious lips. She had this mischievous yet teacher-like air about her. She had shoulder-length brown hair, large pretty eyes, a charming smile, and a very well-sculpted face. “Nice to meet you. I’m Ha-eun. You’ll be assigned to me today.”

“Glad to be with you Ha-eun. What are we up to today?” Selene asked curiously, managing to hold a straight face despite recognizing the name.

“First, I’ll show you around the office, since I know Darius and Antonio didn’t manage that. They’re decent enough reporters, but they don’t know how to deal with newbies. Then I’ll do some introduction and show you your station. We can get into further details after that.” Ha-eun started guiding her around the office.

“Bathrooms are on your left. Since the amount of people and gender distribution of people in the office on any day or week varies so much, the oh-so-brilliant bosses decided to make them unisex." Ha-eun's opinion of that idea became clear with her sarcastic tone. "On your right, you'll find our resident tech support, Gunnar. Don't let his looks deceive you, he's a teddy bear." The guy didn't even look up from the screen as he made a rude gesture towards Ha-eun. He looked like a Viking in fancier clothes, with blonde messy hair and a long beard tied into a braid.

Ha-eun continued the tour. “Here we have the conference room and break room. Yes, they’re located next to each other on purpose. The coffee slu…I mean coffee enjoyers need their fix during meetings. Don’t worry, sophisticated people can enjoy their tea as well.”

“Any decent teas, or should I bring my own?” Selene asked immediately.

"Oh, I knew I'd like you." Ha-eun smiled, pleased. “To answer your question, they have the basics, but everyone else is a coffee slu…I mean coffee enjoyer, so don’t expect anything special. You can get by if you’re not too picky, but if you’re a connoisseur…”

“Say no more. I’ll have my own with me tomorrow.” She promised eagerly.

“Lovely. We can compare and trade notes. Let the coffee sluts suffer their vile concoction.” They moved on in good spirits, and Ha-eun guided her to where most of the people were gathered. She noted that the conference room and break room were tactically placed on the other side of Antonio’s office, so that the man could see everyone going on break.

Ha-eun started pointing out people. “You already met Darius. You made quite an impression apparently. He is already singing your praises.”

“Hey, don’t be snitching on me right away Ha-eun! You’ll blow all my chances!” The dark-skinned man joked. “Besides, she managed to get into Smitty’s good graces right away. Apparently helped them quite a bit when it comes to solving cases.”

“Uh-huh. So, is that why when I asked for a description, you just told me to address the hottest piece of ass I’d ever seen?” Ha-eun shot back. Fun woman.

“I mean…was I wrong?” He shrugged innocently and shamelessly.

Ha-eun sighed. “No. No, I suppose not. Anyway, you already know Darius is the one that most likely deals with cops and street crime.” She pointed towards another man. A Caucasian man with dark long hair in a ponytail, wearing a leather jacket and blue jeans. “That’s Jamie. He handles mainly anything to do with Hollywood and Europe. Say hi Jamie.”

"Hi, Jamie." The dark-haired and rather handsome man grinned as he made the obvious joke, causing the others to snort. "Anyway, good to meet you. Always nice to get more members of the fairer sex into our little den of vice and testosterone.”

Selene looked at Ha-eun with a questioning eyebrow. “Yes, you’ll be the third female that regularly comes into this office, which means us, and the other newbie. No, it’s not by design, as the organization in general has a great mix, but somehow the people in our department tend to be male for some reason. Yes, I’m also more than glad to have you here. Yes, there are other women among the freelancers and semi-regular reporters that more commonly work from home.” Wow, Ha-eun really had teacher energy. Probably why they’d been assigned together.

"Incidentally, I thought Sports and fashion dealt mostly with celebs, and I'd imagine Hollywood mostly deals with celebs as well," Selene asked, without right-out asking.

“Ah, you got the spiel from Gladys.” Jamie nodded. “I can see how you might be confused. The other departments write stories about celebrities. I write stories that might or might not involve celebrities. A fine line, but an important one.”

Selene nodded. “I think I see what you mean though.”

“Also, you’d be surprised how many stories concerning Hollywood have nothing to do with actors. There’s a lot of people working in that part of town. Actors are actually a tiny portion of the whole, even if the most visible.” Ha-eun added.

“Certainly.” Selene conceded the point. She’d never thought otherwise, as she knew better, but didn’t bother saying anything.

“Anyway, that’s Dom, he handles general domestic news. He also does general country-level politics.” Ha-eun pointed out an older guy in a suit and slightly graying hair. He’d probably been quite fit in his younger days, but it seemed age had somewhat caught up with him. He wasn’t fat by any means, but he had a bit of belly going. He was also clearly the oldest one in the office, even older than the Chief Editor. The man just waved as he was speaking on the phone, and Selene returned the wave. He was also the only man so far that seemed to be able to keep his eyes off Selene and Ha-eun. Might have been that he was just busy.

“Last, and definitely least, Arash, our foreign affairs guy." He pointed at the tall man with Arabic features coming out of the bathrooms, currently drying his hands.

“Selene? Is that you? It’s been a while!” The rather handsome dark man greeted her happily.

“Uh, you two know each other apparently.” Ha-eun was caught by surprise.

As if to counter her words, Selene had to dig deep to try and remember and still came up blank. “Hmm, Arash was it? I’m sorry, I can’t place where we’ve met.”

“Oh dear, Arash, you don’t seem to have made as memorable of an impression. Don’t worry, we understand.” Ha-eun teased happily. She’d obviously be using this to tease him more later.

Arash just laughed, not offended. “Not a huge surprise, considering she was one of the guests of honor at the event we were at, while I was there just as a reporter.”

This time it was Ha-eun’s turn to look at Selene with a raised eyebrow, while Selene just smiled mysteriously. “Oh? What sort of event.”

Selene gave Arash a look, and the man clammed up right away. “Hrmm, I think I better not mention. I feel my safety depends on my silence. We wouldn’t want to spoil anything, would we?”

“Hmm, highly suspicious.” Ha-eun narrowed her eyes at the two.

“I know Selene is some sort of investor at least.” Darius ratted her out right away. The traitor.

“Not much to go on. I shall allow you your secrets for now.” Ha-eun stated magnanimously. “But be warned. I shall find out all your deepest and darkest secrets! It’s literally my job. Anyway, here’s your workstation, and I’m right next to you.” She led Selene to a rather typical office desk with a computer, and not much else. The station was separated from others by the typical padded light gray noise muting screens that you could easily look over if you stood up. They were mostly used to give the illusion of privacy and a bit of sound insulation.

There was a post-it note on top of the keyboard with login credentials and stern instructions to change the password right away. Gunnar’s work, most likely. Selene sat on the provided chair and followed the instructions, finding herself with a basic office computer setup.

She turned to Ha-eun, who had wheeled her chair next to hers. “You told me everyone else’s specialties. What’s yours?” She already knew but asked anyway.

Ha-eun smiled brightly. “Ah, I forgot. I used to be our local politics expert, but I burnt too many bridges with my latest stories. Now we're looking for a new one. I'm guessing that's going to be either you or the other new girl, Sophie. Now I mostly deal with corruption and abuse of funds, embezzlement, fraud, that sort of thing. If there’s a crooked politician on the take, or a company doing shady things, that’s what I’m here for.”

“I thought your name sounded familiar!” Selene exclaimed, pretending to only now realize. “You’re the one that broke the story about the Governor and the Police Chief.”

Ha-eun nodded. “Correct, although I also got the mayor’s involvement wrong, which is why I’m no longer welcome at city hall. Well, one of the reasons. It didn’t affect the mayor’s numbers, but it was still a reputation hit, even if we printed a correction. Turns out, the guy was just shagging his secretary like normal, instead of being involved with the bigger scandal. So he was involved with a scandal, just a different one.”

"Stil marvelous work," Selene assured her.

“Perhaps, but false accusations have consequences. That’s why we really try to avoid them.” Ha-eun emphasized with a lecturing tone.

“So, what’s on today’s agenda?” She asked, changing the subject.

“Well, like I said, I deal with corruption. I have some reasonable leads that certain construction companies are misusing public funds. The trick is to find some proof." Ha-eun used her foot to push over a rather heavy-looking box filled with files. "FOIA request produced those. And three other boxes. It's the usual tactic of hiding a needle in a haystack. We need to go through the whole haystack and note any discrepancies. So, we’re going to be diving into the exciting world of data analysis.”

"Fun," Selene said with a monotone voice, eliciting a laugh from the other woman.

"This is unfortunately a large portion of our job," Ha-eun stated cruelly, picked up a file from the box and handed it to Selene. "Now get to it."

While data analysis like this was dull, it was something Selene was fortunately quite used to. She was actually very good at it, as that was a large part of how she’d made her money. ‘Now, if I was a discrepancy, where would I be?’ She asked mentally, and started going through the files and making an Excel table of all her discoveries to make sure she didn't miss anything.

As she spent the next few hours going over the files, several things became obvious. Many of the government contracts were grossly overpricing everything and very inefficient. Not necessarily criminal though. They also tended to run over schedule and over the already inflated budgets. It wasn’t until hour three that she finally figured out what was really wrong with what she was looking at. “Ha-eun! I think I found it.”

The other woman was over to her in less than a second. “Show me.”

Selene pulled two separate files and highlighted two columns on her computer. “They’re paying two separate companies for the same job. This isn’t the only case either, though it’s rare enough to be hard to spot.”

“Hmm, now that you mention it…I think I might have spotted something like that as well.” Ha-eun quickly moved to her own desk and pulled a couple files from her own pile, before leafing through them for a moment. “Aha! You’re right! Now this is interesting. I was suspecting certain companies of wrongdoing, but this wouldn’t be possible without some official arranging it. This just got a lot more interesting.” She tapped her cute lips with a pen. “Well. Time for a tea break. As a reward for your find, I’ll let you try one of my special blends.”

As they reached the break room, they noted Darius and Arash sipping on their coffee. "Hello, coffee sluts." Ha-eun greeted them while setting the tea water to boil. "Anything interesting?"

Darius grinned. "Two things. Smitty was quite grateful for Selene's aid, and apparently, they’ve identified all three victims. The good news is that it’s seeming even less likely that it’s a serial killer. Boring for us, but good for the city. Secondly, Arash is maintaining his silence. He refuses to reveal any details about when he met Selene. Such a bad friend. I told him bro’s before…well…girls, but he refuses to cooperate even in the face of the bro code.”

"Nice save," Ha-eun muttered as they sat down.

Dom also walked into the room and called out. “For god’s sake, you’re all investigative journalists. Investigate if you’re so curious.” He went straight for the coffee of course.

Ha-eun looked at him incredulously. “You’re trying to imply you’re not curious? You? You’re the epitome of curiosity.”

“I’m more curious how you two managed to already coordinate your clothing.” Dom joked back with a teasing expression.

"We are rather similarly dressed, aren't we?" Ha-eun laughed and rose back up to get the water, pulled out a tin can from one of the cupboards, and set two cups down on a little tray, bringing them back to the table. “Here you go. Too bad we don’t have time for a proper tea ceremony. I did it a couple times at work, but the coffee sluts got sulky and loud about their lack of culture.”

The guys laughed at that. "I'll just settle for my cup, thank you very much," Darius said flippantly. "I don't need it to taste refined. I need it to keep me awake."

“Thank you Ha-eun.” Selene expressed her gratitude to her senior. “This is good.”

“Excellent. I knew you had taste, unlike the rest of these plebeians. Now, let’s talk about what happens next. We could start calling all the double contracts we find, but I think we should start by visiting one of the companies in question. If we can fish up any information, then we’ll have a better idea about what questions to ask the others.” Ha-eun slowly sipped at her own drink.

“Sounds fun. I’m up for it.” Selene stated confidently.

They spent a good amount of time just enjoying their drinks, forgetting everything else going on in the world, both of them almost slipping into a meditative state, before Dom brought them back to the present. “Incidentally, the case with the Governor and Police Chief is escalating. Others are getting caught in the mix.”

The whole story seemed like a slightly tamer and more contained version of Epstein’s Island, which is probably why it wasn’t suppressed. People were actually getting implicated, and some were losing their positions.

“Who did they catch this time? I’ve tried to stay distanced from the story since my original article. I don’t want to taint the effort by giving the impression that this is just my personal witch hunt.” Ha-eun inquired.

“Some local politicians like school board members and union reps.” Dom shook his head in disapproval. “There are even rumors of a bishop being involved. Every time a new group gets implicated, someone breaks and gives other names for leniency.”

“Good. Maybe the police will not hate me as much if they’re the ones getting the glory for catching all the dirtbags.” Ha-eun nodded satisfied. “It would still be worth it, but I’d rather not get pulled over just because the boys in blue have it out for me.”

“I don’t think that’s the case with the majority of the cops.” Darius shook his head. “At least Smitty mentioned that most of them are just happy the Police Chief got caught. He wasn’t exactly hugely popular with those in uniform. Mostly budget cut reasons, and not his sexual misconduct, which is a bit ironic considering he’s not the one who decides the budget, only how it’s allocated.”

Ha-eun looked at Selene. “Here’s a lesson to you. Doing the right thing often comes with consequences. I got off easy, luckily, even though the city hall and the politicians will never work with me again. That should not stop you from doing it, but you need to go into these things with your eyes open.”

“Don’t worry. I’m well aware that doing the right thing isn’t always easy or consequence-free.” Selene reassured her.

With their tea finished, Ha-eun led her to the elevators, and down to the parking garage below the building. There she led them to a rather expensive-looking sporty car. Selene knew rather little about cars, but she recognized the Maserati logo at least. “You’re doing well.” She commented.

Ha-eun smiled. “Not my own success I’m afraid. I come from a wealthy family. Do you have a parking space here? I forgot to even ask whether you came in a car. Do you want us to take your car?"

Selene laughed. "No, I didn't come in a car. I live close, so I came on an e-scoot. I would run here if it didn’t mess with my hair and clothes.” Heels were also murder to try and run in.

"E-scooter? One of those kickboard-looking things that work on electricity?" Ha-eun asked, clearly surprised.

“Yes. The distance is short enough that a car makes no sense. The e-scoot cuts the travel time down a lot, and there's a spot near the lobby where you can leave it. I can literally get inside the elevators in three steps.” She explained.

“That sounds nice. Where do you live though? The city center is filthy expensive, and I doubt you could get much of a place with just your TV appearances, even if you're ridiculously popular." Ha-eun asked, mostly just to make conversation as she drove out of the garage.

“Perhaps you’ll find out one of these days.” Selene just smiled mysteriously. “Besides, if I want to go anywhere further, I can just arrange for someone to drive me.”

“Fine. You and your secrets. Speaking of secrets, there’s something I’ll have to talk to you about.” Ha-eun’s voice got serious. “It’s my duty as your mentor, and this is a lesson we all have to learn. One of many.”

“I’m all ears.” Selene sat straighter.

“Our job is to dig up and collate information. Sources and contacts are the bread and butter of our job and cultivating them is important if you want to succeed. Much of the time, people are happy to provide information and answer questions, especially when a pretty woman is asking them. People tend to be helpful that way. However, on many occasions we run into people who are less willing to share, or they have something to lose by sharing. With me so far?" Ha-eun explained as she drove.

“Yes. Seems clear enough.” She nodded in response.

“When we run into these situations, there are several ways to proceed, and we have to decide how far we’re willing to go for the information, and whether we want to cultivate a more regular source or is it just a one-time transaction. Some methods work better for certain people, and we all have our advantages when it comes to certain approaches. The simplest, and often the easiest way is just to pay for the information. A bit of straight-up cash goes a long way to loosen some lips, especially when the people aren't all that unwilling to part with the information in the first place. The good part is that it’s easy, simple, and often leads to a good relationship where they might slip you more information in the future. The downside is that it costs money, and once you start paying them for information, they expect to be paid in the future as well. As long as you can pay, it could be a very fruitful relationship.” Ha-eun easily and calmly navigated the traffic. Selene noted that she was a much safer driver than Darius.

“Obviously it doesn’t work on someone already well-off, like politicians or bankers.” Selen guessed.

“Exactly. It’s not that they can’t be bribed, but that the bribes that would move them are just too expensive. The second way is to persuade them verbally. This can be appealing to their sense of justice, cajoling them, scolding them, charming them, or even threatening them. The latter works better for guys like Darius or Jamie, as they’re physically more imposing, while charming works better for us. Darius also fancies himself a bit of a charmer, but I suppose that’s a matter of taste. Anyway, the upside of this method is that it can be very effective and doesn’t cost anything. Even someone who might lose their livelihood might be persuaded if you say the right thing. The downside is that this doesn’t really lend itself to forming long-term contacts, especially if you use threats. Those really only work the one time when they don’t have enough time to think, and people really, really hate it if you try to threaten them more than once. They might give you false information just to spite you at that point. Charming is slightly better in that regard, but that method usually only works with people who don’t have much to lose in sharing the info.” Ha-eun was in full lecture mode.

“That’s unless you’re willing to move to the third method, which is where things get a bit dicey, ethically speaking. A significant portion of men especially are perverts and horndogs. Charming can be taken further by flirting and teasing. This works really, really well with the right target. For someone like you and me, there’s no method more effective. These are easily the most reliable and longest-term sources we can have. If you have someone wrapped around your finger, they’ll happily sing your tune. The catch is that sometimes a source might call you on your flirting and ask for more. It's not rare for them to ask for sexual favors in exchange for information. It’s also usually nigh-impossible to pull back at this point without removing any chance of getting the information and worse still, souring a long-term contact. At that point, you’re going to have to judge whether the information is more important than what you’re losing.” Ha-eun didn’t sound judgmental despite her words.

Something Selene pointed out. “Sounds like you’re not advocating against the method.”

“I’m not. It’s high risk, high reward. I’m not saying you should do it, or that you shouldn’t. I’ve done a few questionable things in my life. I know some female reporters who would happily sleep with a source for a good story. Some men would do it just for fun. What you’re willing to do is entirely up to you, and I will neither encourage you nor condemn you for what you choose to do. The chief editor does expect us to flirt with certain people, as I’m sure he explained to you. There’s a reason for that. It’s just that effective when used at the right time and in the right way. The thing to keep in mind is that if you go down that route, the contact will expect similar things in the future and will likely want to escalate things further. It’s a slippery slope and can get dangerous. Some people don’t take refusal very well either, and it can get dangerous. Just something to be aware of.” Ha-eun pulled up next to a large-ish HVAC company store.

"I remember seeing the name of this company on a few of the documents," Selene commented.

“As you should. It’s also one that is part of at least three cases where the contract was first awarded to another company. Since you found this discrepancy, I’ll let you take the lead on this one. I’ll only step in if it seems things are going wrong. Just remember what I told you.” Ha-eun encouraged her with a smile.

With a nod, Selene got up from the car, leading them inside. HVAC systems were another area where she had no knowledge to speak of. That said, if she'd been told all the stuff on the shelves had something to do with it, then she would've believed it. The store was relatively clean, with some occasional grease stains that you could often find when dealing with metal and mechanical parts. There was a rather bored-looking young woman leaning against a counter with the cash register. "How can I help you?" The woman asked with an equally bored-sounding voice.

Selene noted a nametag on the office door behind the woman. “Hello. We’re from the Los Yorkeles Herald, and we’d like to confirm a few things with your boss. Is Mr. Lopez in?”

The woman suddenly looked more awake and alert. “He is. Just go through the door there.” Not a very good employee, since she didn’t even check with the boss first.

The two of them stepped through the surprisingly thick doors, and Selene realized the room had decent soundproofing, hence the door as well. The owner of the room was a tanned man in his fifties sitting behind a computer. He had dark hair and a bit of a goatee, and he was dressed in a clean but wrinkled business shirt and was wearing a cheap tie. “I don’t remember ordering hookers, though I don’t mind if they look like you. You have a nice thing going on with your similar outfits.” The man said in a greasy voice and a lascivious look at both of them.

“Oh, honey, even if we were prostitutes, you wouldn’t be able to afford us.” Selene countered without hesitation, causing the man to cackle. Seems her snap judgement had been correct.

“You’d be surprised, but fair enough. Then what are you here for?” He asked, turning a bit more serious.

“We’re from the Los Yorkeles Herald, and we’d like to confirm a few things.” Selene pulled out her phone. “You won’t mind if I record this, do you?” She graced him with a disarming smile.

"Not at all. I'm an open book. Some of the pages might be stuck together, but I have nothing to hide." The man joked, clearly enjoying practically eating them with his eyes as his gaze roamed up and down their bodies.

“Excellent.” She had started recording already, and placed the phone on the table, on top of some magazines. “We were looking into some public funding issues, and we discovered something interesting. You do a fair bit of work for the city, don’t you?”

The man puffed up a bit. “Yeah. I do great work, and I’m not the most expensive company around either. Mostly the city really cares about their money, so cheap is good in their books. The fact that I also get the job done is a nice bonus as well.”

“Indeed, which is why we were slightly surprised when it seemed that your company was hired to complete a contract another company was already hired to do. Several times. And for the full price as well.” She pressed the man a bit, not really accusing him of anything yet, but her tone made it clear that she knew there was something shady going on.

“Right. I assume you’re talking about the school gymnasium and municipal office jobs? Yeah, the city hired Doug Moreno to do those jobs before me. Doug is also cheap, but the difference is that he doesn’t care to do a very good job. The city had to call me in to fix the botched job Doug did. He did such a poor job of it, that I had to basically re-do everything, hence the full price.” The man explained, having the answer ready to go. It didn’t sound rehearsed, but he certainly didn’t have to think before replying either.

Selene gave Ha-eun a quick glance. “If Mr. Moreno is such a poor contractor, why were they hired three times? You also did the library archives job after him.”

“Beats me.” He shrugged. “You’d have to ask them.” He seemed genuine in that regard.

“Who hired you for all these jobs?” She asked. “Was it the same person, or…?”

The man glanced at the phone recording meaningfully, and Selene paused the recording in understanding.

“Look, this is getting into territory I’m not sure I want to go into. I mean, they’re getting me nice contracts and all. I don’t want the work to stop.” He said suggestively.

Selene sensed an opportunity and went for it. She didn’t know HVAC, but she did know what made people tick, and she knew several ways to get the man to talk. “Well, here’s the thing. We’re going to have to write a story about this topic anyway, and we’ll get the name eventually from other sources.” She leaned forward a bit, allowing him a glimpse of her cleavage. “Now, if you gave us the name, it’d save us some trouble. Mr. Moreno is likely not going to do very well in the story, but how we write about you is still up in the air. We might not mention you at all, or even mention that you're a quality company that helped clean the messes. Alternatively, we could be vague and just let your name be associated with misuse of public funds. What's it going to be?" She asked, her smile turning a little predatory.

The man laughed, clearly appreciating both her candor and the view. “I like you. I’ll tell you what. Keep my name out of it, and you’ll have a deal. Wouldn’t want anyone thinking I gave you the info. The one doling out the deals to me is Councilwoman Denise Richards.”

“..as in the actor?” She asked, vaguely recognizing the name from some movies made decades ago.

“Used to be really hot stuff. Nowadays she's in politics." The man nodded. "Yeah, that's her. Now, as much as I enjoy the view, either start undressing or get out. I have work to do."

As they walked out Ha-eun turned to address her. “Impressive. You took an interesting approach, combining several of the methods I mentioned. Nicely done. We got what we wanted, and I do believe he’d be willing to talk to you again in the future if necessary. The information was not what I expected though. We’ll have to do more digging tomorrow.”

“Not today?” Selene confirmed with some surprise.

“No. I’d like to check whether Councilwoman Richards is involved in more of these deals, and then we’ll need to research her before we try to talk to her. We might need to interview more of the contractors as well. It’s better to go fully prepared when dealing with politicians. Otherwise, they’ll just dance around your questions. There’s also the additional hurdle that I’m not very welcome among politicians at the moment. Come on. I’ll take you back to the office, and we can make a few calls before you can go home. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”