She pushed away from the sink.
"Watch me," she said.
And she walked out of the room.
WAR ROOM
3:15 p.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."
"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
4:15 p.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"
"So what? Flight Test will only make the story worse. She has no idea what caused the accident And she has no idea what will happen if she takes that Transpacific plane up. They probably can't reproduce the event And there may be problems nobody knows about"
"Like what?"
_ "That aircraft went through very severe G-force loads," Marder said. "It may have undetected structural damage. Anything can happen, when they take that plane up." Marder made a dismissive wave. "This changes nothing. Newsline airs from ten to eleven Saturday night. Early Saturday evening I'll notify the Board that some bad publicity is coming our way, and we have to schedule an emergency meeting Sunday morning. Hal can't get back from Hong Kong in time. And his friends on the Board will drop him when they hear about a sixteen-billion-dollar deal. They've all got stock. They know what the announcement will do to their shares. I'm the next president of this company, and nobody can do a thing to stop it. Not Hal Edgarton. And certainly not Casey Singleton."
WAR ROOM
4:20 p.m.
The cameras were packed up; the white foam sheets removed from the ceiling, the microphones unclipped; the electrical boxes and camera cases removed. But the negotiations dragged on. Ed Fuller, the lanky head of Legal, was there; so was Teddy Rawley, the pilot; and two engineers who worked on FT, to answer technical questions that arose.
For Newsline, Malone now did all of the talking; Reardon paced in the background, occasionally stopping to whisper in her ear. His commanding presence seemed to have vanished with the bright lights; he now appeared tired, fretful, and impatient.
Malone began by saying that since Newsline was doing an entire segment on the Norton N-22, it was in the interest of the company to allow Newsline to film the flight test.
Casey said that presented no problem. Flight tests were documented with dozens of video cameras, mounted both inside and outside the plane; the Newsline people could watch the entire test on monitors, on the ground. They could have the film afterward, for their broadcast
No, Malone said. That wouldn't be sufficient. Newsline's crews had to actually be on the plane.
Casey said mat was impossible, that no airframe manufacturer had ever allowed an outside crew on a flight test. She was, she said, already making a concession to let them see the video on the ground
Not good enough, Malone said.
Ed Fuller broke in to explain it was a question of liability. Norton simply couldn't allow uninsured nonemployees on the test. "You realize, of course, there is inherent danger in flight test. It's simply inescapable."
Malone said that Newsline would accept any risk, and sign waivers of liability.
Ed Fuller said he would have to draw up the waivers, but that Newsline's lawyers would have to approve them, and there wasn't time for that.
Malone said she could get approval from Newsline's lawyers in an hour. Any time of the day or night.