Traveller Probo
7. New Zealand

The Police radio frequency buzzed in excitement. The burst of static took TV journalist Michelle Quail by surprise as she busily finished off her copy for a story on school attendance in the less privileged suburbs of Auckland. Not very gripping stuff but it was a living.

As soon as the radio squawked into action she ceased her largely therapeutic pounding at her keyboard and turned up the volume. All other journalists were at lunch or on stories but it was a slow news day anyway so she had time to listen.

She paused and frowned. Had she heard correctly? There were rumours about the Traveller Project being in the Auckland area. She only knew what every other Kiwi had heard, that the project had been assigned to some academic from the Auckland University. Nothing else had been divulged. As a relatively junior journalist, she would certainly not cover that world-class story as it had already been assigned to one of the nation’s top celebrity journalists.

The Police dispatch had only mentioned the Traveller Project once. Apparently it was in the bayside near Mangere, a thirty-plus minute drive away. According researchers had been injured and a local Maori man apprehended but the made no sense.

But an address had been given and police and medics were urgently required on site.

Without a thought, Michelle grabbed her notebook and scribbled down the address before she scooped up her microphone and bellowed for her camera-jock. She had to get there in case the newspaper, or worse, a journalist from a competition TV network, also heard the garbled broadcast.

Her tone said it all and her camera operator came running. A hot scoop was there for the taking, and opportunities like this only came once.