"Yes," Casey said.
"I'm waiting. Ask politely."
In her exhaustion, her mind raced, examining the options, trying to see a way out But she could see no way out. Newsline would run the story. Marder's plan would succeed. She was defeated. She had been defeated from the very beginning. Defeated from the first day Richman had shown up.
"I'm still waiting," Richman said.
She looked at his smooth face, smelled his cologne. The little bastard was enjoying this. And in a moment of fury, of deep outrage, she suddenly saw another possibility.
From the beginning, she had tried so hard to do the right thing, to solve the problem of 545. She had been honest, she had been straight, and it had just gotten her into trouble.
Or had it?
"You have to face facts, here," Richman said. "It's over. There's nothing you can do."
She pushed away from the sink.
"Watch me," she said.
And she walked out of the room.
WAR ROOM
3:15P.M.
Casey slipped into her seat. The soundman came over and clipped the radio pack to the waist of her dress. "Say a few words for me, will you please? Just for level."
'Testing, testing, I'm getting tired," she said.
"That's fine. Thank you."
She saw Richman slip into the room, and stand with his back to the far wall. He had a faint smile on his face. He didn't look worried. He was confident there was nothing she could do. Marder had made a huge deal, he was shipping the wing, he was gutting the company, and he'd used Casey to do it.
Reardon dropped into his seat opposite her, shrugged his shoulders, adjusted his tie. He smiled at her. "How you holding up?"
"I'm okay."
"Hot in here, isn't it?" he said. He glanced at his watch. "We're almost finished."
Malone came over, and whispered in Reardon's ear. The whispering continued for some time. Reardon said, "Really?" and his eyebrows went up, then he nodded several times. Finally he said, "Got it." He began to shuffle his papers, going through the folder in front of him.
Malone said, "Guys? We ready?"
''A camera ready."
"B camera ready."
"Sound ready."
"Roll tape," she said.
This is it Casey thought She took a deep breath, looked expectantly at Reardon.
Reardon smiled at her.
"You're an executive at Norton Aircraft"
"Yes."
"Been here five years."
Chapter 23
"Yes."
"You're a trusted, highly placed executive."
She nodded. If he only knew.
"Now there is an incident Flight 545. Involving an aircraft you say is perfectly safe."
"Correct"
"Yet three people died, and more than fifty were injured."
"Yes."
"The footage, which we've all seen, is horrifying. Your Incident Review Team has been working around the clock. And now we hear you have a finding."
"Yes," she said
"You know what happened on that flight"
Careful.
She had to do this very, very carefully. Because the truth was she didn't know; she just had a very strong suspicion. They still had to put the sequence together, to verify that things had happened in a certain order, the chain of causation. They didn't know for sure.
"We are close to a finding," Casey said.
"Needless to say, we're eager to hear."
"We will announce it tomorrow," Casey said
Behind the lights, she saw Richman's startled reaction. He hadn't been expecting that The little bastard was trying to see where she was going.
Let him try.
Across the table from her, Reardon turned aside, and Malone whispered in his ear. Reardon nodded turned back to Casey. "Ms. Singleton, if you know now, why wait?"
"Because this was a serious accident, as you yourself said.There's already been a great deal of unwarranted speculation from many sources. Norton Aircraft feels it is important to act responsibly. Before we say anything publicly, we have to confirm our findings at flight Test using the same aircraft that was involved in the accident."
"When will you flight test?'
'Tomorrow morning."
"Ah." Reardon sighed regretfully. "But that's too late for our broadcast. You understand that you're denying your company the opportunity to respond to these serious charges."
Casey had her answer ready. "We've scheduled the flight test for five A.M.," she said. "We'll hold a press conference immediately afterward - tomorrow at noon."
"Noon," Reardon said.
His expression was bland, but she knew he was working it out Noon in LA was 3:00 P.M. in New York. Plenty of time to make the evening news in both New York and Los Angeles. Norton's preliminary finding would be widely reported on both local and network news. And Newsline, which aired at 10:00 P.M. Saturday night, would be out-of-date. Depending on what emerged from the press conference, the Newsline segment, edited the night before, would be ancient history. It might even be embarrassing.
Reardon sighed. "On the other hand," he said, "we want to be fair to you."
"Naturally," Casey said.
NORTON ADMINISTRATION
4:15P.M.
"I don't know," Richman said. "I think she may be planning something. She's pretty smart, John." "Not smart enough," Marder said.
"Fuck her," Marder said to Richman. "It doesn't make any difference what she does now."
"But if she's scheduling a flight test - "
"Who cares?" Marder said.
"And I think she's going to let the news crews film it"