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Marder said, "You explain it, Casey"

Casey had been appalled by Marder&039;s explosion Marder was famously bad tempered, but it was a major tactical error to blow up in front of a reporter And now, still red faced and huffing behind his desk, Marder said, "You explain it, Casey"

She turned to face Malone

"Ms Malone," Casey said, "I think everyone here is deeply coht safety" She hoped that would explain Marder&039;s outburst "We&039;re committed to product safety, and the N-22 has an excellent safety record And if so did go wrong," Malone said, looking evenly at Casey

"Yes," Casey said "And we&039;re investigating that incident now I&039;ation, and we are working around the clock to understand what happened"

"You mean why the slats extended? But you must know It&039;s happened so many times before"

Casey said, "At this point - "

"Listen," Marder said, breaking in, "it wasn&039;t the damn slats Frederick Barker is a hopeless alcoholic and a paid liar orks for a sleazebag lawyer No one in his right mind would listen to him"

Casey bit her lip She couldn&039;t contradict Marder in front of the reporter, but -

Malone said, "If it wasn&039;t the slats - "

"It wasn&039;t the slats," Marder said firmly "We&039;ll issue a preliminary report in the next twenty-four hours that will conclusively de? There was no such thing as a preliminary report

"Really," Malone said, softly

"That&039;s right," Marder said "Casey Singleton&039;s the press liaison on the IRT We&039;ll be getting back to you, Ms Malone"

Malone see the interview She said, "But there&039;s o over, Mr Marder There is also the Miami rotor burst And union opposition to the China sale - "

"Oh, coes," she continued, "I think that you arton, an opportunity to respond"

"That&039;s not going to happen," Marder said

"It&039;s for your own benefit," Malone said "If we have to say that the president refused to talk to us, that sounds - "

"Look," Marder said "Let&039;s cut the crap Without Trans-Pacific, you have no story And we are going to issue a preliminary report on Transpacific tomorrow You&039;ll be informed when That&039;s all we have for theby"

The intervieas over

NORTON ADMINISTRATION

12:43 PM

"I can&039;t believe that woone "She isn&039;t interested in the facts She isn&039;t interested in the FAA She isn&039;t interested in hoe build airplanes She&039;s just doing a hatchet job Is she working for Airbus? That&039;s what I want to know"

"John," Casey said, "about the preliet it," Marder snapped "I&039;ll deal with it You go back to work I&039;ll talk to the tenth floor, get sos We&039;ll talk later today" "But John," Casey said, "you told her it wasn&039;t the slats" "It&039;s o back to work"

When Casey was gone, Marder called Edgarton

"My flight&039;s in an hour," Edgarton said "I&039; to show my concern for the fa them Talk to the carrier, express my sympathies to the relatives"

"Good idea, Hal," Marder said

"Where are we on this press thing?"

"Well, it&039;s as I suspected," Marder said "Newsline is putting together a story that&039;s extremely critical of the N-22"

"Can you stop it?&039;

"Absolutely No question," Marder said

"How?" Edgarton said

"We&039;ll issue a preliminary report that it wasn&039;t slats Our preliminary will say the accident was caused by a counterfeit cowl on the thrust reversers"

"Is there a bad cowl on the plane?"

"Yes But it didn&039;t cause the accident"

"That&039;s fine," Edgarton said "A bad part is fine Just so it&039;s not a Norton proble to say that?"

"Yes," Marder said

"She better," Edgarton said "Because it can be tricky talking to these pricks"

"Reardon," Marder said "It&039;s Marty Reardon"

"Whatever She knohat to say?"

"Yes"

"You&039;ve briefed her?"

"Yes And I&039;ll go over it with her again later"

"Okay," Edgarton said "I also want her to see thatwoman"

"I don&039;t know, Hal, do you really think - "

"Yes, I do," Edgarton said, cutting in "And so do you Singleton should be fully prepared for the interview"

"Okay," Marder said

"Just rearton said "You fuck this up, you&039;re dead"

He hung up

OUTSIDE NORTON ADMINISTRATION

1:04 PM

Outside the Adot into her car, more distressed than she cared to admit She now felt it was unlikely the company would produce the president And she orried - she had the feeling - that they leton their spokesperson

That could alter the eant captains of industry get their just deserts An intelligent, earnest, attractive woh to know that?

And, of course, Marty would attack her

That wouldn&039;t look so good, either

Just iave Jennifer the shivers Singleton was bright, with an appealing, open quality Marty&039;d be attacking motherhood and apple pie And you couldn&039;t hold Marty back He&039;d go for the throat

But beyond that, Jennifer was starting to worry that the entire seg when she interviewed him; she had felt elated afterward But if these ADs were for real, then the coround And she worried about Barker&039;s record If the FAA had the goods on hiiving him airti He didn&039;t play well on caave a das on the factory floor Every co problems That wasn&039;t news And it didn&039;t prove the airplane was bad - which hat she needed She needed vivid, persuasive visuals to demonstrate that airplane was a deathtrap

She didn&039;t have them

So far, all she had was the CNN tape, which was old news, and the Mia visually S deal

Worst of all, if the co that contradicted Barker -

Her cell phone rang

"Speak to me," Dick Shenk said

"Hi, Dick," she said

"So? Where are we?" Shenk said "I&039;ht now Marty finishes with Bill Gates in two hours"

Soet it The story&039;s flaky It isn&039;t coether I was dumb to think I could nail it in two days

"Jennifer? Do I send him, or not?"

But she couldn&039;t say no She couldn&039;t ad He&039;d kill her if she backed off the story now Everything about the way she had made her proposal, and the cool way she had walked out of his office, forced her hand now There was only one possible answer

"Yes, Dick I want him"

"You&039;ll have the piece for Saturday?"

"Yes, Dick"

"And it&039;s not a parts story?"

"No, Dick"

"Because I don&039;t want sloppy seconds on 60 Minutes, Jennifer It better not be a parts story"

"It&039;s not, Dick"

"I don&039;t hear confidence," he said

"I&039;m confident, Dick I&039;m just tired"

"Okay Marty leaves Seattle at four He&039;ll be at the hotel about eight Have the shoot schedule ready when he arrives and fax ot him all to up

She flipped the phone shut, and sighed

She turned on the ignition, and put the car in reverse

Casey saw Malone backing out of the parking lot She was driving a black Lexus, the same car Jim drove Malone didn&039;t see her, which was just as well Casey had a lot on her ure out what Marder was doing He had blown up at the reporter, told her it wasn&039;t a slats incident, and told her there was going to be a preli from the IRT How could he say that? Marder had bravado to spare, but this ti a hole She didn&039;t understand how his behavior could do anything but dae the coed himself

QA

2:10PM

Norma listened to Casey for several minutes without interruption Finally she said, "And what&039;s your question?&039;

"I think Marder&039;s going to make me the spokesman for the couys always run for cover Edgarton will never do it And Marder won&039;t, either You&039;re the press liaison for the IRT And you&039;re a vice-president of Norton Aircraft That&039;s what it will say at the bottom of the screen"

Casey was silent