Page 20 (1/2)
"Most of it, yes"
"For exae, turned it to read "Here on page 807, it says, &039;Leevers and Radon introduced a biaxiality paranitude of the T stress as in equation 5&039; You see that?"
"Yes" Barker sed
"What is a &039;biaxiality parameter&039;?"
"Uh, well, it&039;s rather difficult to explain briefly "
Marty jumped: "Who are Leevers and Radon?"
"They&039;re researchers in the field"
"You know them?"
"Not personally"
"But you&039;re familiar with their work"
"I&039;ve heard their na about them at all?"
"Not personally, no"
"Are they important researchers in the field?"
"I&039;ve said I don&039;t know" Barker tugged at his collar again
Jennifer realized she had to put a stop to this Marty was doing his attack-dog routine, snarling at the smell of fear Jennifer couldn&039;t use any of this stuff; the significant fact was that Barker had been on a crusade for years, he had a track record, he was coht In any case she already had his slats explanation from the day before, and she had softball answers to the questions she had asked herself She tapped Marty on the shoulder "We&039;re running late," she said
Marty responded instantly; he was bored He jumped up "I&039;m sorry, Mr Barker, we have to cut this short We appreciate your time You&039;ve been very helpful"
Barker appeared to be in shock He irl came up to hiet the makeup off"
Marty Reardon turned to Jennifer In a low voice he said, "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Marty," she said, answering him in the same low tones, "the CNN tape is dynaet on airplanes We&039;re fleshing out the controversy Perfor a public service"
"Not with this clown you&039;re not," Reardon said "He&039;s a litigator&039;s stooge All he&039;s good for is an out-of-court settle about"
"Marty Whether you like this guy or not, the plane has a history of problems And the tape is fabulous"
"Yes, and everybody&039;s seen the tape," Reardon said "But what&039;s the story! You better show , Jennifer"
"I will, Marty"
"You better"
Left unstated was the rest of the sentence: Or I&039;
AVIATION HIGHWAY
11:15AM
For a different look, they shot the FAA guy on the street, with the airport as background The FAA guy was skinny and wore glasses He blinked rapidly in the sun He looked weak and bland He was such a non-entity, Jennifer couldn&039;t even remember his name She felt confident he wouldn&039;t hold up well
Unfortunately, he was devastating about Barker
"The FAA handles a great deal of sensitive information Some is proprietary Some is technical Some is industry sensitive, and some is company sensitive Since the candor of all parties is critical to our function, we have very strict rules about the dissemination of this inforreat desire to see himself on television, and his name in the newspapers"
"He says, not true," Marty replied "He says, the FAA wasn&039;t doing its job, and he had to speak out"
&039;To attorneys?"
Marty said, "Attorneys?"
"Yes," the FAA guy said "Most of his leaks were to attorneys bringing cases against carriers He released confidential inforations in progress And that&039;s illegal"
"Did you prosecute?"
"We&039;re not able to prosecute We don&039;t have that authority But it was clear to us that he was being paid under the table by lawyers to give them information We turned his case over to the Justice Department, which failed to pursue it We were pretty upset about it We thought he should go to jail, and the attorneys with him"
"Why didn&039;t that happen?"
"You&039;d have to ask Justice But the Justice Department is made up of attorneys And attorneys don&039;t like to send other attorneys to jail Sort of professional courtesy Barker worked for attorneys, and they got hi he says is designed to support or incite a frivolous lawsuit He has no real interest in aviation safety If he did, he&039;d still be working for us Trying to serve the public, instead of trying to make a lot of money"
Marty said, "As you know, the FAA is currently under fire"
Jennifer thought she&039;d better stop Marty now There wasn&039;t any point in continuing She already intended to drop most of this interview She&039;d use just the early stateuy said Barker wanted publicity That was the least da coment
Because she needed Barker
"Marty, I&039;et across town"
Marty nodded, thanked the guy iraph for the guy&039;s kid, and climbed into the limo ahead of Jennifer
"Jesus," Marty said, as the lih the , smiled to hiet it, Jennifer," he said o But you don&039;t have a story You got soes But you&039;ve got nothing of substance"
"We&039;ve got a story," she said "You&039;ll see" She tried to sound confident
Marty grunted unhappily
The car pulled out, and headed north to the Valley, toward Norton Aircraft
VIDEO IMAGING SYSTEMS
11:17 AM
&039;Tape&039;s coers on the console
Casey shifted her body in the chair, feeling twinges of pain She still had several hours before the interview And she still couldn&039;t decide how she would handle it
The tape began to run
Har in a jerky slow eShe watched in silence as the bodies tumbled, the camera spun and fell, and finally came to rest at the cockpit door
"Go back"
"How far?"
"As slow as you can"
"One fraray carpet The blur as the caht off the open cockpit door The hot glare from the cockpit s, the shoulders of the two pilots on either side of the pedestal, captain on the left, first officer on the right
The captain reaching toward the pedestal
"Stop"
She stared at the fra, no hat, the face of the first officer turned forward, away fro his hand out
Casey rolled her chair toward the console, and peered at the monitor Then she stood,the scan lines
There it is, she thought In living color
But as she going to do about it?
Nothing, she realized There was nothing she could do She had the information now, but she could not possibly release it, and hold on to her job But she realized she was probably going to lose her job anyway Marder and Edgarton had set her up to do the press Whether she lied, as Marder wanted her to do, or whether she told the truth, she was in trouble There was no way out
The only possible solution that Casey could see was not to do the interview But she had to do it She was caught in the h"
"What do you want to do?&039;
"Run another copy"
Harmon pressed a button on the console He shifted in his chair, looking uncoleton," he said "I feel I have toThe people ork here have seen this tape, and frankly, they&039;re pretty upset"
"I can iuy on television, the attorney, who says you&039;re covering up the real cause of the accident"
"Uh-huh"
"And one person in particular, a woman in reception, dunks we should turn this tape over to the authorities, or to the television stations Ion a bohed She was not really surprised But it presented a new issue, and she would have to deal with it "Has that already happened? Is that what you&039;re telling me?&039;
"No," Harmon said "Not yet"
"But people are concerned"
"Yes"
"And what about you? What do you think?"
"Well To tell you the truth, I&039;m bothered, as well," Harmon said "I mean, you work for the company, you have your loyalties I understand that But if there really is so with this airplane and people died because of it"
Casey&039;s h the situation There was no way to kno many copies of the tape had already been made There was no way to contain or control events, now And she was tired of the intrigue - with the carrier, with the engineers, with the union, with Marder, with Richht in the ether
And now the damn tape company!
She said, "What&039;s the name of the woman in reception?"
"Christine Barron"
"Does she know your coreeuess she thinks her conscience takes precedence"
"I need to make a call," Casey said "On a private line"
He took her to an office that wasn&039;t being used She made two telephone calls When she came back, she said to Harmon, "The tape is Norton property It is not to be released to anyone without our authorization And you have signed a nondisclosure agreement with us"
"Doesn&039;t your conscience bother you?&039; Harmon said
"No," Casey said "It doesn&039;t We&039;re investigating this, and we&039;ll get to the bottos you don&039;t understand If you release this tape, you&039;ll help a bottoned an NDA with us You violate it, and you&039;re out of business Keep it in mind"
She took her copy of the tape, and walked out of the roory, Casey stor for her She introduced herself as Martha Gershon, in "randh-necked dress
Casey said, "I&039;m sorry, I&039;m very busy I know Marder asked you to see me, but I&039;m afraid that - "