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They&039;re calling the N-22 a deathtrap"

"Oh dear," Fuller said "That&039;s very unfortunate"

"Yes, it is," Marder said "I brought you in because I want to knohat I can do about it"

"Do about it?" Fuller said, frowning

"Yes," Marder said "We feel Newsline is being crudely sensationalistic We regard their story as uninformed, and prejudicial to our product We believe they are deliberately and recklessly defa us"

"I see"

"So," Marder said "What can we do? Can we prevent theet a court injunction barring them?"

"No That&039;s prior restraint And from a publicity standpoint, it&039;s ill advised"

"You mean it&039;d look bad"

"An attempt to est you have so to hide"

"In other words," Marder said, "they can run the story, and we are powerless to stop them"

"Yes"

"Okay But I think Newsline&039;s inforive equal time to our evidence?"

"No," Fuller said "The fairness doctrine, which included the equal-tiraation to present all sides of an issue"

"So they can say anything they want? No ht"

"That doesn&039;t see

"Okay," Marder said "Now, this progra to air at a very sensitive moment for our company Adverse publicity ht"

"Suppose we lost business as a result of their show If we can demonstrate that Newsline presented an erroneous view - and we told thees?"

"As a practical matter, no We would probably have to show they proceeded with &039;reckless disregard&039; for the facts known to them Historically, that has been extremely difficult to prove"

"So Newsline is not liable for daes?"

"No"

"They can say whatever they want, and if they put us out of business, it&039;s our tough luck?"

"That&039;s correct"

"Is there any restraint at all on what they say?"

"Well" Fuller shifted in the chair "If they falsely portrayed the coht be liable But in this instance, we have a lawsuit brought by an attorney for a passenger on 545

So Newsline is able to say they&039;re just reporting the facts: that an attorney hasaccusations about us"

"I understand," Marder said "But a clai to present these crazy claims to forty million viewers And at the same time, they&039;ll auto thee to us coinal claims"

"I take your point," Fuller said "But the law doesn&039;t see it that way Newsline has the right to report a lawsuit"

"Newsline has no responsibility to independently assess the legal claieous? If the lawyer said, for example, that we employed child molesters, Newsline could still report that, with no liability to theo to trial and win It&039;s clear that Newsline presented an erroneous view of our product, based on the attorney&039;s allegations, which have been thrown out of court Is Newsline obligated to retract the statements they ation"

"Why not?"

"Newsline can decide what&039;s neorthy If they think the outcome of the trial is not neorthy, they don&039;t have to report it It&039;s their call"

"And meanwhile, the company is bankrupt," Marder said "Thirty thousand employees lose their jobs, houses, health benefits, and start new careers at Burger King And another fifty thousand lose their jobs, when our suppliers go belly up in Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and Connecticut All those fine people who&039;ve devoted their lives working to design, build, and support the best airfraet a firm handshake and a swift kick in the butt Is that hoorks?"

Fuller shrugged "That&039;s how the system works Yes"

"I&039;d say the system sucks"

"The systelanced at Casey, then turned back to Fuller "Now Ed," he said "This situation sounds very lopsided We make a superb product, and all the objective measures of its performance demonstrate that it&039;s safe and reliable We&039;ve spent years developing and testing it We&039;ve got an irrefutable track record But you&039;re saying a television crew can co around a day or two, and trash our product on national TV And when they do, they have no responsibility for their acts, and we have no way to recover daes"

Fuller nodded

"Pretty lopsided," Marder said

Fuller cleared his throat "Well, it wasn&039;t always that way But for the last thirty years, since Sullivan in 1964, the First Amendment has been invoked in defa rooed "Press abuse is an old complaint," he said "Just a few years after the First Amendment was passed, Thomas Jefferson complained about how inaccurate the press was, how unfair - "

"But Ed," Marder said "We&039;re not talking about two hundred years ago And we&039;re not talking about a few nasty editorials in colonial newspapers We&039;re talking about a television shoith cooes instantaneously to forty, fifty e of the whole country - and murders our reputation Murders it Unjustifiably That&039;s the situation we&039;re talking about here So," Marder said, "what do you advise us to do, Ed?"

"Well" Fuller cleared his throat again "I always advise my clients to tell the truth"

"That&039;s fine, Ed That&039;s sound counsel But what do we doT

"It would be best," he said, "if you were prepared to explain what occurred on Flight 545"

"It happened four days ago We don&039;t have a finding yet" Fuller said, "It would be best if you did"

After Fuller had left, Marder turned to Casey He didn&039;t say anything He just looked at her

Casey stood there for aIt had been a very effective perforht It would be best if they could tell the truth, and explain the flight As she listened to hiht find a way to tell the truth - or enough of the truth - to h uncertainties, that she ht, John," she said "I&039;ll do the interview" "Excellent," Marder said, sether "I knew you&039;d do the right thing, Casey Newsline has scheduled a slot at four PM tomorrow Meantime I want you to work briefly with a media consultant, someone from outside the company - " "John," she said "I&039;ll do it my way" "She&039;s a very nice woman, and - " "I&039;m sorry," Casey said "I don&039;t have time" "She can help you, Casey Give you a few pointers" "John," she said "I have work to do" And she left the room

DIGITAL DATA CENTER

6:15 PM

She had not promised to say what Marder wanted her to say; she had only promised to do the interview She had less than twenty-four hours to ation She was not so foolish as to iine she could determine what had happened in that ti to tell the reporter

There were stillpin The possible problem with the proximity sensor The possible intervieith the first officer in Vancouver The videotape at Video I The fact that the slats had deployed, but had been stowed immediately afterward - what exactly did that mean?

Still sosaid, spinning in his chair "I know, believe ital Display Room, in front of the screens filled with data "But what do you expect me to do?"

"Rob," Casey said "The slats deployed I have to knohy - and what else happened on the flight I can&039;t figure it out without the flight recorder data"

"In that case," Wong said, "you better face the facts We&039;ve been recalibrating all the one hundred and twenty hours of data The first ninety-seven hours are okay The last twenty-three hours are anomalous"

"I&039;m only interested in the last three hours"

"I understand," Wong said "But to recalibrate those three hours, we have to go back to where the bus blew, and work forward We have to calibrate twenty-three hours of data And it&039;s taking us about two minutes a frait in her head

&039;Two minutes a frame means it&039;ll take us sixty-five weeks"

"That&039;stwenty-four hours a day Real world, it&039;d take us three years to generate the data"

"Rob, we need this now"

"It just can&039;t be done, Casey You&039;re going to have to work this without the FDR I&039;m sorry, Casey That&039;s the way it is"

She called Accounting "Is Ellen Fong there?"

"She didn&039;t co at home"

"Do you have her number?"

"Sure," the woo to a for with her husband"

&039;Tell her I called," Casey said

She called Video I on the videotape for her She asked for Scott Harone for the day He&039;ll be in at nine to"

She called Steve Nieto, the Fizer in Vancouver, and got his secretary "Steve&039;s not here," she said "He had to leave early But I knoanted to talk to you He said he had bad news"

Casey sighed That see "Can you reach him?"

"Not until to

"Jesus, that Benson is unpleasant," Rich to hit me"

"Where are your

"At the office Want me to come to you?"

"No," Casey said "It&039;s after six You&039;re done for today"

"But - "

"See you toar 5, she saw the electrical crews rigging TPA 545 for the CET that night The entire aircraft had been raised ten feet into the air, and now rested on heavy blue , and fore and aft on the fuselage The crews had then slung black safety webbing beneath the underside of the aircraft, soe, doors and accessory panels were open, and electricians standing on the webbing were running cables from the junction boxes back to the main CET test console, a six-foot square box that was placed in the center of the floor to one side of the aircraft

The Cycle Electrical Test, as it was known, consisted of sending electrical impulses to all parts of the aircraft&039;s electrical system In rapid succession, every co lights, cockpit display panels, engine ignition, and landing-gear wheels The full test cycle ran two hours It would be repeated a dozen tiht

As she passed the console, she saw Teddy Rawley He gave her a wave, but didn&039;t approach her He was busy; undoubtedly he&039;d heard that Flight Test was scheduled three days from now, and he would want to be sure the electrical test was performed correctly

She waved to Teddy, but he had already turned away Casey headed back to her office

Outside, it was growing dark, the sky a deep blue She walked back toward Ad the distant rush of take-offs fro toward his car, carrying a stack of papers under his arm He looked back and saw her

"Hey, Casey"

"Hi, Amos"

He dropped his papers with a thud on the roof of his car, bent to unlock the door "I hear they&039;re putting the screws to you"

"Yeah" She was not surprised he knew The whole plant probably knew by now It was one of the first things she had learned at Norton Everyone knew everything,to do the interview?"

"I said I would"

"You going to say what they want you to say?"

She shrugged

"Don&039;t get high and hty," he said "These are television people They&039;re beneath pond scum on the evolutionary scale Just lie Hell with it"

"We&039;ll see"

He sighed "You&039;re old enough to knoorks," he said "You going ho around the plant at night Casey"

"Why not?"

"People are upset" Ao home early You knohat I mean?"

"I&039;ll bear it in ot in his car, and drove off

QA

7:20 PM

Nor crews had already started in the back offices; she heard a tinny portable radio playing "Run Baby Run"

Casey went to the coffeemaker, poured a cup of cold coffee, and took it into her own office She flicked on the lights, stared at the stack of papers waiting on her desk

She sat down and tried not to be discouraged by the way things were going She had twenty hours until the interview, and her leads were falling apart

Just lie Hell with it