Satan chuckled at that. I suppose that was a good sign, though standing behind him, I couldn’t see his facial expression.
“As a journalist, however, my job isn’t to see them as anything other than what they really are. I would describe them as this. Yes, they are mean. Yes, they swear. Yes, they can go too far, and yes, they have little regard for social decorum and unwritten rules. But the absence of following society’s standards does not indicate a lack of standards. Instead, I have grown to see that for at least this club in particular, they have a hard set of rules. They do not have very many, for more rules makes for more complications, but in essence, I would summarize them as keep your circle tight, do anything for those in your circle, and cause no harm when none comes to you. Anything and everything else is fair game. And that is the Devil’s Patriots way. From WPTV, this is Hailey Cook.”
The video stopped playing.
A long silence ensued. The only thing I could hear was the AC blowing in the house and Satan’s slow breathing.
“You made this,” Satan said. “And you gave it to the station?”
“Yes,” I said.
I had so much more I could have said but decided silence was better.
“And…why did you show this to me?”
“Because I believe that the most important thing in this world is the truth, Satan. WPTV did not air the truth. It aired what it thought would make them money. Ironic since they’ve just laid off a ton of people.”
Satan chortled.
“You, too?”
“No, not exactly.”
Finally, he turned around to face me. There wasn’t anger on his face. It was as much a blank slate as I’d ever seen from him. It was impossible to read.
“You could get fired for showing me this, couldn’t you?”
“I could have,” I said.
Satan arched an eyebrow.
“Again, the most important thing to me is honesty. Period. I got into this field because I wanted to unearth the truth, especially when keeping it hidden was hurting people. I can’t control what viewers do with it. If that actual video aired, everyone would probably just double down on their positions, maybe a single percent of the population would change their minds. But you’d know the truth was given to the public.”
Satan nodded.
“There’s something I want to show you upstairs, but before we go, why did you say, ‘I could have’ when I asked if you would get fired?”
“Oh, because I texted the station while your clubhouse was being attacked that I quit.”
Satan
“You gotta be fucking shitting me.”
But Hailey shook her head. Not only did she shake her head, she had a proud, defiant grin on it, like she’d wanted to make this move for so long and couldn’t wait to brag about having done it.
“Nope.”
“Why? How the hell are you going to get by?”
She snorted.
“Here’s the thing, Satan. I’m young enough that I can make risky moves like this and recover. I believe that. But while I was in the clubhouse, I kept thinking about how King had seen that report and fed information to me accordingly. Even though it seemed like things were brewing with you guys already, I kind of felt like the false report that aired played a role. And furthermore, I kept wondering, if I’m not in journalism for telling the truth, and I’m only staying for a paycheck, how is that different than any other job?”
I mean, I supposed she was right. I wasn’t one for finding deep meaning in my job. I didn’t consider being the president of the MC my job; working at the club’s repair shop was.
“They actually already laid off Mr. Roberts, who was my boss. He was a real shithead, blatant about wanting the coverage we ran to draw clicks and using the clunkiest metaphors I have ever heard a human produce. But even with him gone, I still wanted out. I knew I wouldn’t magically ascend to the top. So here I am.”
“All because the station didn’t air the version of the video that you just showed me.”
