Evening News

by Arthur Hailey

  Consequently, when the news broke it was immediately copied and repeated throughout the world, with CBA News acknowledged as the source. At other TV networks, testy inquests would soon be held, asking: How did we miss out on this? "at could we have done, but didn't? "y didn't you check this, or you follow through on that? Didn't anyone think of calling there? How do we guard against this happening again?

  Meanwhile, TV networks hastily revised their second newscast feeds, using swiftly supplied videotape displaying "Courtesy CBA,” while newspapers reshaped the next day's front pages. At the same time, all major media alerted their regular Peru contacts while rushing to get their own reporters, correspondents and video and sound crews on airplanes to Peru.

  Amid it all, a major new development occurred.

  Don Kettering, now heading the CBA kidnap task force, heard about it shortly before 10 P.m., as the one-hour News Special was nearing its conclusion. Kettering was still at the anchor desk, where he had presided—apparently, so far as viewers were concerned—jointly with Harry Partridge, though the Partridge contribution was on tape.

  Norman Jaeger conveyed the news through an anchor desk telephone during a commercial break. Jaeger was now senior producer since Rita Abrams had left for Teterboro Airport and her Peru flight an hour ago.

  ”Don, there's to be a task force session immediately after we've finished.”

  "Has something happened, Norm? Something hot?”

  "Hot as hell! I've just had word from Les. Over at Stonehenge they've received the kidnappers' demands along with a videotape of Jessica Sloane.”

  4

  They ran the videotape of Jessica first.

  It was 10:30 P.m. on Friday. In a private viewing room at CBA News, used normally by senior executives, ten people were assembled: Les Chippingham and Crawford Sloane; from the task force, Don Kettering, Norm Jaeger, Karl Owens and Iris Everly; from CBA corporate headquarters at Stonehenge, Margot Lloyd-Mason, an executive vice president, Tom Nortandra, and Irwin Bracebridge, president of CBA Broadcast Group; and from the FBI, Special Agent Otis Havelock.

  Chance had played a part in the group's assembly. Earlier in the evening, about 7:30 P.m., a small plain package was delivered by messenger to the main lobby of Stonehenge, addressed: President, CBA Network After a routine security check it was sent to Margot Lloyd-Mason's floor where it would normally have waited, unopened, until Monday morning. However, Nortandra, whose office suite adjoined Margot's, happened to be working late, as were his two secretaries. One of the secretaries received the package and opened it. Realizing its importance, she informed Nortandra who telephoned Margot at the Waldorf where she was attending a reception and dinner honoring the President of France.

  Margot abandoned the reception and hurried to Stonehenge where she, Nortandra and Bracebridge, who had also been called in, screened the videotape and read an accompanying document. Immediately they realized that the News Division must be informed and arranged a meeting at CBA News headquarters.

  A few minutes before the meeting, Bracebridge, a former news president himself, took Crawford Sloane aside.”I know this is hard on you, Crawf, and I have to warn you there are some sounds on the tape I didn't like hearing. So if you'd prefer to watch the video alone first, while the rest of us wait outside, we'll do that and understand.”

  Crawford Sloane had driven in from Larchmont, along with FBI Agent Havelock who had been in the Sloane house when a call about the videotape of Jessica was received. Now Sloane shook his head.”Thanks, Irwin. I'll see it with the rest of you.”

  It was Don Kettering, taking charge, who called to an operator behind the small audience, "Okay, let's go!”

  Lights in the viewing room dimmed. Almost at once a large, elevated TV screen went to black with scattered pinpoints of light, as was usual when running a blank tape without pictures. But sound was on the tape and was transmitted suddenly—a series of piercing screams. The group was transfixed. Crawford Sloane sat up straight, exclaiming in a broken voice, "Oh, Christ! That's Nicky!”

  Then abruptly, as unexpectedly as it had begun, the screaming was cut off. A moment later a picture appeared—of Jessica's head and shoulders against a plain brown background, obviously a wall. Jessica's face was set and serious, and to those in the group who knew her, as most did, she appeared wan and under strain. But her voice, when she began, was firm and controlled, though an impression persisted that Jessica had willed herself to speak normally.

  She began, "We have all been treated well and fairly. Now that the reason we were taken has been explained to us, we understand why it was necessary. We also have been told how easy it will be for our American friends to ensure our safe return home. To have us released, you must simply follow quickly and exactly—the instructions which accompany this recording, but be sure of this . . .”

  At the words "be sure of this,” there was a sharp intake of breath by Crawford Sloane and a muted exclamation. The tape continued.

  ”. . . If you do not obey these instructions, you will not see any of us, ever again. We beg of you, do not let that happen . . . "

  Again a sudden sound from Crawford Sloane—a whispered exclamation, "There!”

  “We will be waiting, counting on you, desperately hoping you will make the right decision and bring us safely home.”

  For a second there was a silence in which Jessica's face remained on screen, her features expressionless, her eyes apparently unfocused, looking straight ahead. Then both sound and picture ended. In the viewing room the lights came on.

  ”We ran all of the tape earlier,” Irwin Bracebridge said.”There's nothing else on it. And about the screams at the beginning, we think that was patched in from another tape. When you watch closely with the tape slowed right down, there's a slight visual break where two tapes were edited together.”

  Someone asked, "Why would they do that? Bracebridge shrugged.”Maybe to wake us up, scare us. If so, it worked, didn't it?”

  There was a murmur of agreement.

  Les Chippingham asked gently, "Are you certain that first sound was Nicky, Crawf?”

  Sloane said bleakly, "Positive.” Then he added, "Jessica passed two signals.”

  "What kind of signals?” Chippingham sounded puzzled.

  ”The first was licking her lips, which means 'I am doing this against my will. Don't believe anything I'm saying'"

  "Clever!” Bracebridge said.”Good for Jessica!”

  'Spunky!” someone else added. Others nodded approval.

  Sloane went on, "We talked about signals the night before all this happened. I thought that one day I might need them myself . . . Life's full of coincidences. I guess Jessica remembered.”

  "What else was she able to tell you?” Chippingham asked.

  ”No, sir!” The voice of the FBI man, Havelock, cut across the conversation.”Whatever else you learned, Mr. Sloane, keep it to yourself for the time being. The fewer people who know, the better. We'll talk in a little while, please.”

  "I'd like to be in on that,” Norm Jaeger said.”The task force has done pretty well in keeping secrets until now.” He added pointedly, "Discovering them too.”

  The FBI agent glared.”It's my understanding you'll be hearing from our director about that—why we weren't kept informed.”

  Iris Everly said impatiently, "This is wasting time. Mrs. Sloane said something on the tape about instructions. Do we have them?” Though she was the youngest person present, Iris was typically unimpressed by the influx of network heavy brass. She had worked hard all day on the one-hour News Special and was tired, but her fast mind was functioning as usual.

  Margot, still wearing a lavender chiffon Oscar de la Renta gown in which she had met the French President, answered, "We have it here.” She nodded to Nortandra.”I think you'd better read it aloud.”

  The executive vice president accepted a half-dozen clipped sheets from Margot, perched a pair of half-moon reading glasses on his nose, and moved under a light; it heightened his thatc
h of white hair and a brooding face. Nortandra had been a corporate lawyer before becoming a CBA executive; his voice had an assured authority, developed from years of addressing courtrooms.

  ”The title of this document—or perhaps I should say this extraordinary diatribe—is: 'The Shining Time Has Come.' I shall now read to you, without comment or interjection, exactly what is here.

  "In the histories of enlightened revolutions, there have been times when the persons leading and inspiring them have chosen to remain silent, to endure and suffer, sometimes to die miserably, but always to hope and plan. And then there have been other times—moments of glory and victory in the uprising of a downtrodden and exploited majority, the overthrow of imperialism and tyranny, and the deserved destruction of an encrusted capitalist-bourgeois class."

  ”For Sendero Luminoso the time of silence, patience and suffering has ended. The shining time, along the Shining Path, has come. We are ready to advance."

  ”In the world at large the self-proclaimed superpowers, while jockeying with each other and pretending to seek peace, are in reality preparing for a catastrophic confrontation between imperialistic and socialist-imperialistic forces, both seeking world hegemony. In all of it, the already enslaved and abused majority will suffer. If left alone to further exploit the world, a few power-mad money masters will, for their own advantages, control mankind."

  ”But like a volcano ready to explode, revolution is simmering everywhere. The Party—Sendero, Luminoso—will lead that revolution. It has the knowledge and experience. Its growing influence is extended throughout the world."

  ”The time has come to make ourselves better known and understood.'

  ”For many years the lying capitalist-imperialist media, which prints and broadcasts only what its money-grubbing masters tell it, has ignored or misrepresented the heroic struggle of Sendero Luminoso's people."

  ”That will now be changed. It is why capitalist captives have been taken and are held as hostages."

  ”The American CBA television network is hereby ordered to do the following."

  ”One. Commencing with the second Monday after receipt of this demand, the program CBA National Evening News (both network feeds) will be cancelled for five weekdays—one full week "

  "Two: In place of the cancelled program, another program, to be supplied in five tape cassettes delivered to CBA, will be broadcast. The program's title is, 'World Revolution: Sendero Luminoso Shows the Way.' "

  "Three: During the Sendero Luminoso broadcasts no commercial advertising will be allowed "

  "Four: Neither CBA nor any other agency will attempt to trace the source of the cassettes received, the first of which will reach CBA by Thursday of next week. Others will follow day by day. A single attempt to find the origin of the cassettes will result in immediate execution of one of the three prisoners held in Peru. Any further foolish attempts will bring a similar result."

  ”Five: These orders are not negotiable and will be obeyed exactly."

  ”If there is full obedience by CBA network and others with the orders in this document, the three prisoners will be released four days after the fifth Sendero Luminoso broadcast. But if the orders are not obeyed, the prisoners will not be seen again and their bodies will never be recovered."

  "Then there's something else,” Nortandra said.”It's on a separate sheet of paper.

  "Copies of 'The Shining Time Has Come’ and the tape cassette of the woman prisoner have been sent to other television networks and the press.

  "That's all of it,” Nortandra concluded.”Neither paper is signed, but the fact it accompanied the tape makes them, I suppose, authentic.”

  A silence followed the reading. No one, it seemed, wanted to be first to speak. Several people glanced at Crawford Sloane who was slumped in his chair, his face grimly set. The others shared his sense of hopelessness.

  It was Les Chippingham who said finally, "Well, now we know. All along we've wondered what these people wanted. We thought it might be money. It's turned out to be much more.”

  "Much, much more,” Bracebridge added.”In money terms of course it's incalculable, but obviously that isn't the issue here.”

  "As I indicated at the beginning,” Nortandra observed, "the whole thing—especially all that jargon—doesn't make a lot of sense.”

  Norm Jaeger spoke up.”Revolutionaries seldom do make sense, except maybe to themselves. But that's no reason not to take them seriously. We learned that from Iran.”

  Jaeger glanced at a clock above their heads, which showed 10:55. He addressed Chippingham.”Les, do we want to break into the network with this? If we're fast, we can do it on the hour and use some of Mrs. Sloane on tape. If what we heard about other networks getting the tape is true, they may go with the story any time.”

  "Then let them,” the news president said firmly.”This is a new element in which we are players and will not rush. We'll put out a bulletin at midnight, which gives us an hour to consider how to handle the news and, more important, what our response—if any—will be.”

  "There can't be any question about a response,” Margot Lloyd-Mason declared.”It's perfectly obvious there is no way that we can accept those ridiculous terms. We will certainly not put our network evening news out of business for one whole week.”

  "However, we don't have to say that, at least, not in the beginning,” Nortandra pointed out.”We can say something like, the demands are being carefully considered and we'll make an announcement later.”

  "If you'll pardon my saying so,” Jaeger told him, "I doubt if that would deceive anyone, least of all Sendero Luminoso. I've spent a lot of research hours on those people and whatever else they may be, they aren't fools; they're sharp. Also, they've clearly learned about our business—for example, that the National Evening News goes out with two feeds and our news audience falls off on Saturdays and Sundays, which they've indicated they don't want.”

  "So what are you suggesting?”

  "That you let the news department handle everything in the way of a response. This calls for finesse, not a blunderbuss approach like speaking of 'ridiculous terms.' In CBA News we're better equipped, more finely tuned, our knowledge of the scene is greater at a signal from Chippingham, Jaeger stopped.

  ”Basically, I'm agreeing with Norman,” the news president said, "but since it's my responsibility I think I should say that, yes, the News Division ought to handle any response because we are better informed, we know the ground, have established contacts, and one of our best correspondents, Harry Partridge, is in Peru already and must be consulted.”

  "Consult and finesse all you want,” Margot snapped; she had flushed at Jaeger's reference to her "ridiculous terms” statement.”But what's involved here is a corporate matter requiring executive decision.”

  "No! Goddamn, no!” The words were shouted. Heads turned. The speaker was Crawford Sloane, no longer seated and dejected, but standing, eyes fiery, face flushed. When he spoke, his voice was emotional, at moments choked.

  ”Keep corporate out of this! Norman is right about a blunderbuss approach; we all just witnessed one, and it's because corporate people don't have knowledge or experience to make news judgments. Besides, a corporate decision is already made; we heard that too: Can't accept those terms. Won't put our news out of business for a week. Did we really need you to tell us? Didn't we, in news, already know that—yes, all of us, including me? You want it on the record, Mrs. Lloyd-Mason. Well, here it is: I know we can't close down CBA News and hand it over to Sendero for one week. God help me!—l accept that. You have witnesses.”

  Sloane paused, swallowed, and continued.”What we can do, here at news, is use our skills, our know—how, play for time. At this moment, time is what we need the most. That, and use Harry Partridge who's the one best hope we have—my best hope to get my family home.”

  Sloane remained standing, but fell silent.

  Before anyone could react, Bracebridge, the long-ago news man, now a corporate wheel, tried a co
nciliatory tone.”A time like this is hard on everyone. It's emotional, tension is high, tempers short. Some of what's been said tonight could have been put more courteously and probably should have been.” He turned toward the network president.”Just the same, Margot, I believe that what's been presented is a viewpoint worth considering, remembering—as Crawf made clear—that your end decision is understood and accepted. There seems no question about that.”

  Margot, having been offered a face-saving device, hesitated, then approved it.”Very well,” She informed Chippingham, "On that basis, you may decide a temporary, stratagem response.”

  "Thank you,” the news president acknowledged.”May we clarify one thing?”

  "What is it?"

  "That the ultimate decision we've agreed on will, for the time being, remain confidential.”

  "I suppose so. But you'd better get the same assurance from the others here. In any case, keep me informed.”

  Everyone else had been listening intently. Chippingham faced them and asked, "May I have that assurance, please?”

  One by one they acknowledged their agreement. While they did, Margot walked out.

  * * *

  When Chippingham returned to his office it was 11:25 P.m. At 11:30 he received a printout of a Reuters dispatch originating in Lima, Peru, with information about the Sendero Luminoso demands on CBA. Moments later, AP in Washington came through with a more detailed report which had "The Shining Time Has Come” document in full.