The Sunday Review Newspaper was located on bustling Shamrock Avenue at the edge of the Lower District. The paper was obscure in faraway Tobesk City of the Northern Kingdom, but it had an enormous circulation throughout the Moon Bay Area. Of course, though it sounded like a respectable newspaper that commented on current affairs, it was actually a famously sensational local tabloid.
If Shade and Miss Galina's story had taken place in Moon Bay City, they would have become regular celebrities in its pages.
Mr. Cooper, the reporter codenamed "Boatman," was the person Shade had come to find. When Shade met him at the newspaper office, he was checking a manuscript and was startled when he saw the business card of a United Fruit Company salesman. After confirming each other's identities, he invited Shade to have a drink at a tavern across Shamrock Avenue, followed by lunch.
Shade was somewhat worried that this would delay the man's work, but the reporter waved a hand in irritation:
"Everything here is about adultery, affairs, and illegitimate sons. The editor even demands that we fill in the details ourselves and make them eye-catching enough. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm a reporter or a novelist writing illegal publications. All right, all right, let's go get a drink. Don't you have things you want to ask?"
Compared to an agent, this reporter, of average height and even sporting a slight belly, looked more like an ordinary employee who had become utterly sick of work under the crushing burden of life. The two sat down in the tavern to eat and talk, and Mr. Cooper insisted on paying the bill:
"It can be reimbursed."
After a pause, he added:
"Both at home and at the newspaper office."
Shade therefore accepted the man's "kindness" and explained why