No. 10: Scandal

[Jamie]

​

Politics are never clean. It's an elaborate game of chess, every move is calculated and one misstep can become your unravelling. Absolutely everyone is out to get you. Even those within your own cabinet. For the last few weeks, there had been a shift in the atmosphere. Something Adams himself had felt. It begun subtly - exchanged glances during cabinet, decisions questioned in private rather than through debate and a growing distaste for his approach over the last few months. Conversations came to abrupt endings when Adams passed through the halls and those who questioned what he stood for only a few weeks earlier, were expressing loyalty.

There had been meetings. Meetings without agendas. Whispers reaching journalists before the Prime Minister. Off the record conversations in the quiet halls of Whitehall. The Deputy Prime Minister accompanied by the First Secretary and Chancellor had all become surprisingly cordial with one another and now it appeared to be a coordinated plot around succession. It was Friday 1st December, it'd just turned 0902 and Adams was comfortably sat reading through paperwork laid on his desk with the ambient noise of rain splashing against the window in his office when his head spun to the door following the sound of three knocks. "Come in" he called out, the door open.

"Prime Minister..." spoke Taylor, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, a loyalist. Taylor stepped into the office and shut the door quietly behind him, a few seconds of silence passed as the Secretary pondered his choice of words. "I've been informed by a friend of mine that the BBC are working on a ... for lack of better word, hit piece on you. They intend to publish it in the coming days."

"A hit piece? About what?" Adams asked, unimpressed.

"Hawthorn Dynamics."

"Fuck..." Adams reacted, slumping back in his chair with an emerging frown, sliding the palm of his hand over his face in visible frustration, "How do they know?" he growled.

"I'm not sure, obviously a leak. From what I've been told, it's comprehensive. Financial links, the bidding itself and..."

"And?"

"Some internal memos. They're not connecting the dots, they have the entire picture" clarified Taylor, shifting uncomfortably.

Adams didn't respond at first, the only noise was an exaggerated sigh. Pushing his chair back with his feet, he rose and stepped over to the window. His eyes flickering over the empty courtyard, covered in drizzle.

"It's someone close, it has to be. We'll start with the Treasury."

"I hate to say it, Prime Minister, but the information is out there. Maybe who isn't the immediate issue but how you intend to respond. Denial won't work. They're after you."

"I did suspect something..-" Adams was cut off, another knock on the door "Yes?" he called. The door opened, his Secretary popped her head in.

"Sir, you should check Twitter"... "Thank you" Adams responded, she left the room and he moved back to his desk to open Twitter.

Taylor stepped forward. "What is it?" His voice lowered.

Silence. There was no response, he simply rotated the monitor to display the Twitter post from the BBC.

"Its started" he muttered.