p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"-DAY THREE-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanI got sleep last night, but admittedly, not enough. Today was the day. We had decided to hire two decoys, both prostitutes at a backdoor alleyway-type joint that Greg says he had heard of from a friend of a friend of a friend. Total bullshit though. He'll never admit to it, but there's surveillance footage of him paying good money to the ladies and snorting coke. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanWhat a gentleman./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanIt was one of the first things I was greeted with by coming into the office. A note on my desk, written on truly fancy stationary. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span"John. We have the ladies, I'll send you their numbers via email. Hidden cameras are also available for you in the multimedia room, along with some of those small little audio recorders. Never say I don't look out for you. -Greg"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanWhat a hard-ass. But I wouldn't expect anything else from him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"I whipped out my notepad once again just to review everything that I'd written out throughout this crazy investigation. Bill and Donald, drinking buddies. Apparently, they're sex buddies too. For the average American like myself, the sheer thought of the image makes me want to fall into the fetal position and reconsider all of my life's choices. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Were there any more secrets that the President was hiding? Yes, this "secret" was miniscule at best, but it had genuinely caused a shockwave throughout the newsroom and America. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Nevertheless, common sense and human instinct makes me think that if a person's going to hide something like this, they've got to be hiding something bigger, right? /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"I put down my notepad and finally got on the computer and checked my email. A little Google searching and his personal experience helped Greg pick which escort service we needed to go with for this investigation. So without further ado, I finally made the phone call./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""District Escort Services, just what the doctor ordered," said a male, obviously in his mid-30s. "What can I do for you tonight?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Good evening, this is John from the WaPo." My voice was wobbling. I was seriously questioning why in the hell I was calling a stripper service./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Good evening, John. Your boss told us all about your report. Still need the escorts?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"In a nervous fit, I began to chuckle a little bit. Then I gained my composure back once more. "Yessir, if we can get the two finest escorts you've got, I'll be happy. We'll pay y'all the day after, we just need to make sure the job gets done on our end."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"A short, awkward silence pursued. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Look." The man on the other end of the line's voice got serious. "As long as you keep these ladies' identities concealed in the article or the videos that I'm sure you'll be recording, they're all yours. Pay whenever. Call this number again whenever you're ready to do a story. I'll arrange to have our two best escorts come with you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"I sigh. "Alright. Thank you very much… what's your name?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Wilson. Wilson Venable." He then hung up the phone. Silence enveloped the newsroom as I got up from my desk. They knew exactly what I knew. It was go time. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"I got up from the desk, grabbed some camera equipment, lavalier microphones, and a tote bag to carry it all in. After that, it was out the door, and away I went to the Metro./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"As soon as I headed outside, Mother Nature gave me a sign. In case I needed more reason to be worried about what's going to happen here real soon, rain started to come down, and it came down rampantly. And of course, that caused delays on the trains as well. It couldn't have been timed out any better. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"As the train quickly approached the platform, the stress and nerves were already starting to get the better of me. I began asking questions internally. "Was this drinking tip really important enough to get us to this point?" "Are the escorts really necessary to get this thing off the ground?" "Will these ladies be able to get me the story of the century hot off the presses by tomorrow?" I had a lot of time to reflect and think before I finally made it to my stop. Beautiful Chinatown./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"The lights of Chinatown were starting to come on as I made it up the escalator to street level. The rain was still coming down, the nerves still at an all time high. As I walked down the street, I whipped out my phone and made the call to Wilson. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Hey Wilson. This is John. I'm here."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Alright Post man. Look, I've got two ladies who are at McDonald's. Look, as soon as you find them, you're free to do whatever you need to do with them until 3am."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""That should be enough time for me to get what I need to get done done. Thank you once again, Wilson."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"The call disconnected as soon as I got those words out of my mouth. As the rain continued to pour down, I began my trek to McDonald's. As I rounded the corner, my game plan was set. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"I entered the McDonald's soaking wet. It's unfortunate too, as I walked in during the middle of the dinner rush. However, as soon as I did make it in, I knew who exactly to look for. Two girls who looked like hookers. They don't teach students in journalism school how to identify hookers from the average Joe Schmo, and for the most part, that might be a good thing. In tonight's case though, not so much./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Thankfully, the two ladies made my life much easier in the way they dressed up. It was easy to tell, fishnet leggings, stupidly high heels, and perfume that you just knew would catch the attention of an old, wrinkled bastard or two./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"As I went up to order a McMuffin, the two ladies walked up to me. One was a tall, Caucasian woman, about six feet tall. The other? Asian, a lot smaller, roughly four and a half feet tall. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Nervously, I took a look at the white woman, who was fittingly a bit taller than I am./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""I presume y'all are from the District Escort Services?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""You must be John," said the tall one. She was blonde, a little older with wrinkles around the edges of her eyes, and had a relatively sizable bust. Again, not usually noticeable by a journalist, but in this case, I kind of just had to notice them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""What do you want us to do, and how do you want us to do it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"With a McMuffin in one hand and a tote bag in the other, I led the ladies to a table and sat down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Alright ladies, here's the deal." I looked at both ladies dead on in the eye. "This is a first for the three of us, I know that for fact. However, I think that this will be relatively easy... I think." There was an awkward chuckle after that. "Here's the deal. I have these two mini cameras, you'll be putting those on. They're about the size of a tip of a pen, so you should just be able to attach them onto your bra strap or something. You'll also be getting a mini audio recorder. Keep it on. Please. Both of these will be how we get the dirt. If anything serious winds up happening between you and the President or Bill Clinton, that will be our lifeline and the key for the story. Comprende?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Both ladies nodded. The mission was on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Next stop? The Trump./span/p