Chapter 126
“I hadn’t even thought about that. I hadn’t looked up any of my old work. Everybody in the Palace Press said that they had researched my work. I just assumed it was public.”
He nodded. “I thought as much. They would research it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s available to the public.” Mr. Dale looked around furtively. “I know I can trust you, but I don’t know who else I can trust, And that’s why I had to send your bodyguard off.”
“You should know I’ve read your work, and I’m one of only a few in Packhaven. I just happen to have relatives who live elsewhere in Orlune, and I had them send me a paper copy in the regular mail. They monitor email and such here, but I could get away with it that way.”
He made a face. “I wouldn’t have wanted to get my family in trouble sending it in a way that might be intercepted. I’ve even made sure there’s no paper trail. I’ve already shredded the envelope and the article. But after reading it, I knew you were the person that I needed to talk to.”
“Explain, please,” I said, my eyebrows raising.
“I needed to give you a story. One that you won’t be able to publish through the Palace Press. But you seem like a resourceful sort of reporter who isn’t scared by someone telling you no. So…”
“Just what exactly are you telling me?” I asked through tingling lips.
“Everything that we’re telling you during today’s interview, except for what I’m going to give you in private here, is a carefully crafted lie.”
“And you’re admitting to this to a reporter?”
“I know you won’t reveal your sources,” he said, looking at me earnestly. “And like I said, you’re not going to be able to release this through the Palace Press. So when it does come out, I think I can feel relatively safe that they won’t trace this back to me or my family.”
“But you’d put me in danger?”
His next look was full of sympathy. “Miss Elena, you are already in danger. But I think you know that already. I don’t know who hired you that bodyguard, but you definitely need a bodyguard’s eye on your safety.”
He sighed and looked around one more time and then leaned in to continue with our covert conversation. “There is contamination in the water. The palace and the Packhaven government are both aware of it, and they do nothing about it.”
“Then everyone in Packhaven is at risk?” I yelped. “From what exactly?”
“Forever chemicals, most of which are cancer-causing,” he said. “But it’s not Packhaven that’s at risk. The treatment to pull those chemicals out of the water is extremely expensive. And we do pull plenty of them out. Everything that goes to Packhaven is perfectly safe by all standards. What’s not safe is the water that we don’t treat and send on to Southhaven.”
“Let me clarify this. The city is knowingly sending contaminated water on to Southhaven?”
He nodded and said, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. There are two different water supplies, then?”
Mr. Dale shook his head. “No, it’s all the same water supply. The difference is just the treatment. The government doesn’t want to spend the money to treat the water that’s going to Southhaven. They said those residents don’t need it. But what they’re really saying is the residents of Southhaven aren’t worth the expense.”
He shook his head sadly. “I know that’s where they send off all of the low-income and less fortunate residents since they’re not bringing in the kind of income and living the kind of lifestyle that meshes with the rest of Packhaven’s image. Packhaven isn’t interested in spending extra money on them.”
“This is appalling,” I said. “And you’re positive?”
He nodded. “We were all forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement. We’re not allowed to talk about that with the press, only about the water heading to Packhaven.”
Again, he waved his hand around us. “That’s why I had to draw you in here, where the machinery will cover the noise of anything I said. Anybody might be listening in other locations. I can’t be sure that we wouldn’t be overheard just about anywhere except here.”
He grinned. “But I spend a lot of time in this building. I know exactly where the blind spots on the surveillance cameras are, and I know for sure that there are no listening devices in here. And even if there was a physical person trying to listen and tell someone that I pulled you in here and had a conversation with you, there’s no place anyone can get close enough to overhear without being visible. The background noise of the water system is just too loud.”
He looked at me intently. “Do you have any other questions about this?”
I shook my head. “Not at the moment. Unless there’s anything else you think I should know before I leave you.”
Mr. Dale shook his head. “You’ll be able to deduce everything else you need for your report from what I tell you in the open. The forever chemicals you will be listing in that main article are the ones we really are treating for.”
I swallowed on a sick feeling. “I understand. Basically, you’re saying if you’re treating for Packhaven, then you’re not doing it for Southhaven. And that is where the scandal lies.”
He nodded. “Yes, exactly.” Mr. Dale looked around again. “If you don’t have any further questions, we should get back before anybody suspects us.”
“Is there any way I can get ahold of you again in the future if I need to?”
He shivered. “I don’t know that I dare, and I can’t think of a safe way to meet up again, unless you could find an excuse to come back in here.”
“I doubt it. At least not one that wouldn’t draw suspicion.”
“Not to mention the fact that you’d have to ditch your bodyguard.”
I sighed and slumped. “That doesn’t make it difficult. Well, in that case, I will just have to go about finding more information. I just wish I knew how or where to start.”
His face brightened up. “I think I can help you with that, though.” He tore a piece of paper off his notepad, bracing it against the cement of the wall he wrote in pen. “I don’t want an impression of this website anywhere on my clipboard. Because I shouldn’t know about it, and neither should you. So find a place to put this where no one is going to find it.”
He handed me a piece of paper with a website address on it. “This is a gateway to the dark web, and on it, you will find access to any and everyone who opposes the government of Packhaven and the Alpha King. But make sure that you don’t access it from any device that has any ties at all to the government or that they can find and check.”
His face tightened into a grimace tainted with fear. “The handful of residents who have been caught using this website have simply disappeared. I’ve never heard anything of a trial, and I happen to know one family personally.”
“They were told that their relative was transferred to an office in a remote part of Orlune. But they’ve never been able to track their loved one down. I hate to find out you’re the next one to up and vanish.”
I shuddered. “Well, thank you again for all of the information that you’ve given me. I’ll do what I can to break this open and expose the corruption. I can’t believe that they would rather sacrifice an entire city’s worth of residents rather than spend the money on both Packhaven and Southhaven. It’s unfair that some residents get everything, and the rest get poisoned.”
He put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sincere look. “You’re a kind person. Please don’t run afoul of the government. I would hate to see your good work stopped before you get a chance to continue helping people.”
Keeping the hand on my shoulder, he turned me and guided me back out to the main bulkhead. He put his hand on one of the large pipes and started speaking loudly again.
“And this is the water that comes directly in from the reservoir.”
His “tour” started just in the nick of time because Theo came around the corner and hurried over beside me.
