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NEWSLINE
4:45 PM
Jennifer Malone headed toward Dick Shenk&039;s office On the way, she passed his Wall of Faraphs, plaques, and awards The photographs showed inti horses with Reagan; Shenk on a yacht with Cronkite; Shenk in a Southaame with Tisch; Shenk with Clinton; Shenk with Ben Bradlee And in the far corner, a photograph of an absurdly young Shenk with shoulder-length hair, an ArriflexJohn Kennedy in the Oval Office
Dick Shenk had begun his career in the sixties as a scrappy documentary producer, back in the days when the news divisions were prestige loss leaders for the networks - autonoeted, and lavishly staffed Those were the great days of the CBS White Papers and NBC Reports Back then, when Shenk was a kid running around with an Arri, he was in the world, getting real stuff that e and success, Shenk&039;s horizons had narrowed His world was now limited to his weekend house in Connecticut and his brownstone in New York If he went anywhere else, it was in a li, his Yale education, his beautiful ex-wives, his comfortable existence, and his worldly success, Shenk at sixty was dissatisfied with his life Riding around in his linition, not enough respect for his accoed into a querulous and bitter adult Feeling he had been denied respect hi a pervasive cynicis around him And that hy, she felt certain, he would buy her frame on the Norton story
Jennifer entered the outer office, stopped by Marian&039;s desk "Going to see Dick?" Marian said "Is he in?"
She nodded "You want co an eyebrow "Well," Marian said "He&039;s been drinking" "It&039;s okay," Jennifer said "I can handle hiers pressed together to htly as she spoke
She ran through the proposed seg all the beats: the Miami incident, the JAA certification story, the Trans-Pacific flight, the jeopardized China sale The for history of uncorrected design probleed, drugs and gang activity on the factory floor, a controversial new president, trying to boost flagging sales Portrait of a once-proud company in trouble
The way to frame the piece, she said, was Rot Beneath the Surface She laid it out: badly run coeable people complain, but the company never responds FAA is in bed with the company and won&039;t force the issue Now, at last, the truth comes out The Europeans balk at certification; the Chinese have cold feet; the plane continues to kill passengers, just as critics said it would And there&039;s tape, riveting tape, showing the agonies passengers went through as several died At the close, it&039;s obvious to all: the N-22 is a deathtrap
She finished There was a long moment of silence Then Shenk opened his eyes
"Not bad," he said
She smiled
"What&039;s the company&039;s response?" he asked, in a lazy voice
"Stonewall The plane&039;s safe; the critics are lying"
"Just what you&039;d expect," Shenk said, shaking his head "American stuff is so shitty" Dick drove a BMW; his tastes ran to Satches, French wines, English shoes "Everything this country makes is crap," he said He sluht Then his voice becahtful: "But what can they offer as proof?"
"Not much," Jennifer said "The Miaation"
"Reports due when?"
"Not for weeks"
"Ah" He nodded slowly "I like it I like it veryjournalism - and it beats the shit out of 60 Minutes They did unsafe airplane parts lastabout a whole unsafe aircraft! A deathtrap Perfect! Scare the hell out of everybody"
"I think so, too," she said She was sht it!
"And I&039;d love to stick it to Hewitt," Dick said Don Hewitt, the legendary producer of 60 Minutes, was Shenk&039;s neot better press than Shenk, which rankled &039;Those jerkoffs," he said "Reolf pros?"
She shook her head "Actually, no "
"It was a while back," Dick said He got fuzzy for ainto space, and it was clear to her that he had been drinking heavily at lunch "Never ot the reporter, you got tape of Miaht," she said, nodding
"But CNN is going to run it day and night," he said "By next week, it&039;ll be ancient history We have to go with this story Saturday"
"Right," she said
"You got twelve minutes," he said He spun in his chair, looked at the colored strips on the wall, representing the seg to be "And you got uh, Marty He&039;s doing Bill Gates in Seattle on Thursday; we&039;ll shuttle him to LA Friday You&039;ll have him six, seven hours"
"Okay"
He spun back "Go do it"
"Okay," she said "Thanks, Dick"
"You sure you can put it together in ti her notes &039;Trust h Marian&039;s office, she heard him shout, "Just remember, Jennifer - don&039;t co parts story!"
QA/NORTON
2:21 PM
Casey came into the QA office with Richarette "Norma," she said, "have you seen a videotape around here? One of those little eight-s?"
"Yeah," Norht I put it away" She ruht it out She turned to Richot two calls froht away"
"Okay," Richone, Norma said, "You know, he talks to Marder a lot I heard it fro in with the Norton relatives?"
Nor her head "He&039;s already hter, for Christ&039;s sake"
"What&039;re you saying?" Casey said "Rich to Marder?"
"About three times a day"
Casey frowned "Why?"
"Good question, honey I think you&039;re being set up"
"For what?"
"I have no idea," Nored "I don&039;t know But Marder is the best corporate infighter in the history of the co his tracks I&039;d be real careful around this kid" She leaned across her desk, lowered her voice "When I got back from lunch," she said, "nobody was around The kid keeps his briefcase in his office So I had a look"
"And?"
"Richot a copy of every s"
"My phone logs? What&039;s the point of that?"
"I couldn&039;t begin to iine," Norma said "But there&039;s more I also found his passport He&039;s been to Korea five times in the last two ht, honey Seoul Went almost every week Short trips One, two days only Never more than that"
"But - "
"There&039;s ht number But the nuht numbers They were tail numbers"
"He went on a private jet?"
"That&039;s what it looks like"
"A Norton jet?"
Norht Ops None of the company jets has been to Korea in the last year They&039;ve been shuttling back and forth fro for months But none to Korea"
Casey frowned
"There&039;s more," Norma said "I talked to the Fizer in Seoul He&039;s an old beau of ency last month, and took three days off?"
"Yeah"
"He and Richether in Seoul Fizer heard about it after they&039;d gone, and was annoyed to be kept out of the loop Wasn&039;t invited to any of the s they attended Took it as a personal insult"
"What s?" Casey said
"Nobody knows" Norma looked at her "But be careful around that kid"
She was in her office, going through the most recent pile of telexes, when Richman poked his head in "What&039;s next?" he said cheerfully
"Soo to the Flight Standards District Office See Dan Greene over there, and get copies of the flight plan and the crew list for TPA 545"
"Don&039;t we already have that?"
"No, we just have the preliminaries By now Dan will have the finals I want theundo"
"El Segundo? That&039;ll take me the rest of the day"
"I know, but it&039;s important"
He hesitated "I think I could be ," she said "And call me when you have them"
VIDEO IMAGING SYSTEMS
4:30 PM
The back roo Syste computers, the squat purple-striped boxes of Silicon Graphics Indigoin a cast, hobbled over the cables that snaked across the floor
"Okay," he said, "we should have it up in a second"
He led Casey into one of the editing bays It was athe back wall, beneathconsole wrapped around the other three walls of the room; three an punching the keys He waved her to a seat alongside him I
"What&039;s the ht?" He was looking at an oscilloscope as he spoke "That&039;s what it looks like Dolby encoded Standard stuff"
"I guess so"
"Okay According to this, we got nine-forty on a sixty-minute cassette"
The screen flickered, and she sawA a se, beige roofs Bamboo on both sides of the road
"Where&039;s this?&039; Hared "Looks like China Can you fast-forward?"
"Sure"
The ilimpsed a small house, the front door open; a kitchen, black pots and pans; an open suitcase on a bed; a train station, a wo on the train; busy traffic in what looked like Hong Kong; an airport lounge at night, the youngThen a gate, tickets being taken by a flight attendant -
"Stop," she said
He punched buttons, ran at normal speed "This what you want?"
"Yes"
She watched as the wo the baby, walked down the rae showed the baby in the woiving a theatrical yawn They were on the aircraft, during the flight; the cabin was lit by night lights; s in the background were black The steady whine of the jet engines
"No kidding," Casey said She recognized the woman she had interviewed in the hospital What was her name? She had it in her notes
Beside her at the console, Harrunted "That&039;ll teach me," he said
"What&039;s that?"