Citadel
Public Domain
Chapter 6
The light flickered on Marlowe’s interphone.
“Good morning, Mr. Secretary.”
“Good morning, Mary. What’s up?”
“Harrison’s being deported from Dovenil, sir. There’s a civil crime charged against him. Quite a serious one.”
Marlowe’s eyebrows went up. “How much have we got on it?”
“Not too much, sir. Harrison’s report hasn’t come in yet. But the story’s on the news broadcasts now, sir. We haven’t been asked to comment yet, but Emigration has been called by several news outlets, and the Ministry for Education just called here and inquired whether it would be all right to publish a general statement of their exchange students’ careful instructions against violating local customs.”
Marlowe’s glance brooded down on the mass of papers piled in the tray of his IN box. “Give me a tape of a typical broadcast,” he said at last. “Hold everything else. Present explanation to all news outlets: None now, statement forthcoming after preliminary investigation later in the day. The Ministry regrets this incident deeply, and will try to settle matters as soon and as amicably as possible, et cetera, et cetera. O.K.?”
“Yes, sir.”
He swung his chair around to face the screen let into a side wall, and colors began to flicker and run in the field almost immediately. They steadied and sharpened, and the broadcast tape began to roll.
Dateline: Dovenil, Sector Three, Day 183, 2417 GST. Your Topical
News reporter on this small planet at the Union’s rim was unable
today to locate for comment any of the high officials of this alien
civilization directly concerned with the order for the deportation
of exchange student-observer Hubert Harrison, charged with theft and
violent assault on the person of a Dovenilid citizen. Union citizen
Harrison was unavailable for comment at this time, but Topical News
will present his views and such other clues when more ensues.
Marlowe grunted. Journalese was getting out of hand again. That last rhyming sentence was sure to stick in the audience’s brains. It might be only another advertising gimmick, but if they started doing it with the body of the news itself, it might be well to feed Topical enough false leads to destroy what little reputation for comprehensibility they had left.
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