Fake News
Page 13
“Ted”
“Lincoln, during the Civil War, hammered home his power as Commander-in-Chief. Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson were no less zealous. While we were engaged in World War I, Wilson expanded Executive emergency powers big time. Defense and war agencies were modeled to some extent upon the Brit’s wartime precedents”
“Ted”
“F.D.R., in the Depression era, enacted many Executive orders. And you know what he did after Pearl Harbor to those of Japanese ancestry…Truman invoked states of emergency”
“Ted, I”
“Nineteen-seventy U.S. postal strike, Nixon declared a national emergency, proclaimed another emergency during the international monetary crisis. And now, after nine-one-one, well”
“So, where are we?” Mary returned, squeezed in.
Ted continued, “Over the course of history, Presidents have had an expanding and never-ending range of emergency prerogative powers, bloom fullest in a crisis.”
“You still going?” Mary rolled her eyes.
“It’s a smelly democracy problem, in times of emergency”
“Ted, enough,” Zack said.
“Thank you,” Mary said.
Zack glanced at the time. “Ten forty-five, still have an hour and fifteen minutes to deadline…let’s do a headline swipe on the DC closure thing.”
Mary said, “Oh, great, now you want me to redo the front page.”
Ted spoke into her ear. “O’Brien, are you grasping the significance of what is going on here?”
“Oh, give me a break, big guy. As if it matters that we print it. Tomorrow everything is history anyway,” she said.
“Were you a student of mine?” Zack said.
“Slave.”
“Figures.” Zack lit a MORE. “And I think we better have a meeting, tomorrow morning, say, nine o’clock? You two, and tell Jim.”
Mary rolled her eyes. “Jim, Saturday morning, at nine o’clock, are you kidding?”
Zack said, “Make it eleven, call him, leave a message. You’re good at those, Ms. O’Brien.”
“Ha, ha, ha.”
Ted sighed. “Yep-purr. I guess I’m here all night. Why does it always happen like this? Anyway, lucky it wasn’t a Sunday, or a ”
“Or Easter, or Wednesday, orJesus Christ, give it a rest,” Mary said.
“Long day,” Zack said.
“Thank you,” Mary said.
“Yep-purr.”
Zack said, “Okay, before I say goodnight, let’s take a stroll one more time through TV land.” He picked up his TV remote control and, as he began surfing, commented: “NewsNow is on the Marines in DC story; [click] CBS is on the President in Camp David; [click] ABC is showing the infamous Channel 10 video; [click] WNBC is interviewingwho is Mildred Snodgrass?”
“Got me,” Ted said.
“Think it’s somebody in Seattle,” Mary said.
Zack clicked again, said, “Wait, WSUN has Chief Manny. Ted, Mary, you looking at your Channel 10, WSUN monitor?”
Heads turned from the video phone camera, both said, “Yes.”
Zack watched TV video that showed Chief Manny getting into a patrol car. Manny paused and said to a camera, “I’m tellin’ you fellahs, we got no record any of our units stoppin’ anybody last night out on Key Largo. None, zip, zero, bip. I’m tellin’ yas, it’s all a fake to embarrass me and the whole department, and I don’t know where it came from, but I can tell you this. I’m gonna by-the-Jesus find out. Got a pretty good hunch.”
Reporters screamed off-camera:
“But, Chief, where?”
“Manny, how do you?”
“Are there any?”
“Are you saying conclusively?”
“What evidence do you?”
The chief slammed his door and backed away.
Zack pressed the mute button, said to his video phone, “You folks see that?”
“Saw it,” Mary said.
“Yep-purr,” Ted said.
Zack clicked the channel. “Now, look at that. Fox has something onlooks likeit is, Dr. Babs Lande. Let’s listen to Ms. Lande for a minute. Put Fox on.”
Ted said, “I’m looking at all our monitors.”
“Everybody’s switching to something with Lande,” Mary said.
Zack pressed his volume up and watched. TV video showed the White House Press Room crowded with reporters. Lande, dressed in maroon blazer, open white shirt, stood at a lectern.
Smiling, she began, “Good evening, or should I say goodnight? Late, isn’t it? Let me first say the President is sorry he can’t be with you in person. He sends his best wishes and hopes to meet with you in a press conference very soon. As you all know, he has had to relocate his office to Camp David due to the reports we received of terrorist activities in the Washington DC area.
“Nevertheless, he has a statement that he wants to deliver to you and the American people, so we have arranged a live satellite pick-up from Camp David.”
She turned and looked at a large screen above and behind her that displayed the seal of the President. In a moment the screen dissolved to a medium close-up of President Armstrong.
The President, sitting behind a wooden desk, wore a blue flight jacket, white shirt, no tie. He placed his hands on the desk top, smiled and said: “May we have a moment of prayer?” He closed his eyes and bowed his head.
“Benny, Benny, Benny,” Zack sighed.
After five seconds, Armstrong looked up and began. “Good evening my fellow citizen partners in America. I’m sorry for the lateness of the hour but the times sometimes dictate our actions. And these are truly the times that try men’s souls.”
Zack scratched his head. “What do you think, Ted, he should at least give credit for that line?”
“Right.” Ted said. “Thomas Paine. Crisis Papers, Chapter One, ‘The American Crisis,’ December 23, 177”
“Shut up.” Mary said.
As the TV video zoomed in to a close-up of Armstrong, he continued. “And so, my fellow Americans, we, at a crucial time in history, as I have been telling you for some time now, elements, both foreign and domestic, would like to see our beloved America brought to her knees. And as I’ve also been telling you, that just ain’t going to happen.
“Recent events—our historic Old Ironsides ship being destroyed, the chemical attack at Seattle International and, yes, threats to our own beloved Washington DC—all have brought this reality to where it is now a threat to our nation’s survival. But let me assure you, you must not be alarmed. As one great President said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
“So, we—you and I—citizens of the mightiest fortress on the face of the earth, have come to the turning point. We must forge a new world order, safe and secure for all Americans, you and your family and all your loved ones, no matter where they reside on this, our great space ship, earth.”
“And there’s no way off this sucker,” Mary said.
Zack sipped. Ted flossed his front teeth with a piece of paper.
The President continued. “Let me just say, as your Commander-in-Chief, I want to assure friend and foe alike that we are prepared to protect the vital interests of America at home and to the four corners of the universe.”
“I guess that includes us, huh guys,” Mary said.
Armstrong: “With that said, I have issued the following command to our armed forces.” He held up a document and read. “Any harassment of U.S. interests anywhere in the world—and I might add that includes these United States—any harassment of U.S. interests, corporate, collective, or otherwise, is to be considered an act of war and is to be dealt with swiftly and totally.”
Laying the document on the desk he continued. “Let the word go out. The freedom of all people is our concern and I pledge the power and might of these United States to protect and guarantee the world’s well-being.”
The TV video starting a zoom-out, Armstrong smiled, “I will be talking to you again soon. Tha
nk you, goodnight” he saluted. “and God bless America.”
Zack muted his TV, drained his glass, poured another shot and studied Mary and Ted’s images squeezed into his phone’s video display. “How about them little green apples, boys and girls. The sonofamother is insane.”
Ted said, “If he can guarantee the world’s well-being, can he unguarantee it, too?”
“A-plus,” Zack said. “Anyway, we have to get our late edition downloaded to the printers. You’re staying there tonight, right, Ted?”
“Yep-purr, your office couch.”
Mary said, “I guess I’ll be going home to my little apartment.”
“Try to get a few winks. I’ll see you both in the morning. Get the word to Jimbo, Mary, meeting, eleven. I’ll try to call him, too.”
“Lots of luck,” Mary said.
“Meanwhile, as always, stay calm and call me anytime,” Zack said.
“Sweet dreams, sleep tight and watch the bedbugs don’t bite.” Mary waved.
“Yep-purr.” Ted sucked his teeth.
“Goodnight.” Zack snapped the phone off and, surfing his TV, stopped at a medium close-up of former TV news anchor emeritus, Chip Walker.
He pressed the sound up a notch and listened to Walker: “I call for reason and forgiveness in this time of national tragedy. Even in the face of a great injustice, I plead with those with calm heads and compassionate hearts to let justice do its work. Let us hope reason and calm will prevail for the sake of us all.”
Zack clicked the set off. “Nominate Mr. Walker for an Emmy or Espy or Sippy or whatever they’re giving out in wacko-land now.”
He stepped to the gallery and prepped a seven-scoop pot of coffee for tomorrow morning. As he put the seventh scoop in, a thought struck him.
“Benny sure got to Camp David in a hurry—costume change, makeup, the whole nine yards.”
Chapter Twenty Five
That evening
11:30 p.m. EST
Sleep on hold, sitting at his bar nursing his fourth, or was it fifth, Glenlivet, playing around with that never ending editorial, Zack glanced over draft notes scrawled on a yellow pad: How far society has come in four thousand years. And before that who blocked the entrance to the cave? And what will you say when they ask you why you did nothing, said nothing? Excuse me, I didn’t know? So sorry.
He burped. “Zorry this, zorry that—zo-orry is what you say when you don’ give a damn.”
He put his pencil down and swore he smelled cigar smoke. Joe Case’s presence strong, he remembered Joe’s ramblings from conversations here and there:
Love, hate. Order, chaos. Blackness, light. Give, take. Mostly take…how many steaks can you eat a week…we live, on this tiny speck of dust in vast universe, to date only life discovered, all of us even smaller specks, three races–Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasoid–all basically the same, killing each other over lines on a map, religion, whose god is god…at any given moment, in the hands of fat cats living in glass mansions, protecting their bank accounts, human species ten minutes from extinction…profit has no home, men kill, women weep, children die…and who will say the eulogy at that funeral…Capitalism is an innocent driven by obscene greed masters, an ideal gutted by more, driven by cruel me-me masters with sharp teeth…
“That’s not news, Joe, its ancient history, and besides, you could stay stuck in that philosophical cow patty from now until the bulls come home. Never get out.”
Zack remembered his previous Jesuit life and the many convoluted thoughts–a higher calling, God’s absence, Christ’s teachings, affairs of individuals, do unto others, rotting flesh…
The last pausing him, he said, “Where did you come from?”
He sipped and remembered, while consuming a case of beer, all-night philosophical debates with fellow seminarian Hank Bostick over Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, the five logical arguments for the existence of God.
With the clarity of eighty proof Glenlivet, he slurred through Aquinas’s arguments:
“Motion—whatever is put in motion has to be put in motion by another…ball on a flat floor doesn’t start moving by itself. Something starts it—a person, an earthquake, the windMary O’Brien.”
“She moves by herself.”
Zack sipped, and Hank seemed present. “Hey, Hank, last I heard you were a parish priest. St. Joseph’s in Steubenville.”
Hank said, “That’s correct.”
“You still eat a grape jelly and peanut butter sandwiches, wash it down with beer?”
No answer, he went on with Aquinas. “Anyway, efficient cause—in the world of senses there is no cause of a thing which is the cause of itself. In other words, Skippy didn’t cause Planter’s Peanuts.”
Zack freshened his scotch.
Nursing his drink, he continued. “Possibility and necessity–in nature things are possible-to-be and possible not-to-be. But if everything is possible-not-to-be then at one time there could have been nothing in existence, which is not possible.”
He sucked his teeth. “If possibly everything wasn’t, nothing existed, why are we here? I mean, here I stand with Glenlivet in my hand talking to Veracity. Hello.”
He saluted the TV. “Benny would be proud.”
Pacing the cabin: “Where were we? Yes, number four, graduation to be found in things. You see, some things are more good and some less good. As a thing that’s hot resembles that which is hottest so there’s something that is truest, noblestergo, there must be something which is alike to beings and the cause of their being.”
He put a finger in his drink, “Always had trouble with that one.”
He slurped. “Last but not least, governance of the world. Things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end evident from their acting. Moon going around the earthwhatever. Something lacks intelligence cannot move toward an end unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence.”
Smiling, he held his glass high. “That explains Benny.”
Suddenly depressed, he sat on the sofa, “Like I said, you could stay in Aquinas’ cow patty until the bulls come home…and where are you when the cows do come home?”
His phone rang. He got up, maneuvered to the bar and switched it on.
Mary, in a close-up, smiled. Looks like Botticelli’s Venus, he thought and, leaning over the bar, said, “What are you doing?”
“How’s the ear?”
“The ear is wonderful.”
“Finishing up here, printers got everything.”
“Jim’s, too?”
“Yes.”
“How was it?”
“Want me to read it?”
“Go ahead.”
She picked up a piece of copy. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
She read: “Chief Denies It. Recalling a famous historical TV commercial, ‘Is it live or is it Memorex,’ questions remain unanswered regarding the already infamous Channel 10 video of two Miami police officers murdering a female motorist. The incident allegedly took place this past Thursday evening on Key Largo. WSUN-TV, Channel 10, was the first station to broadcast the video of the homicide. Deputy Police Chief Glenda Bruno staunchly denies that any Miami police were involved in any way. In an exclusive interview, she held firm to her story that none of her patrol cars were anywhere near Key Largo the night of the incident. Speaking for the chief, they challenged anyone to produce evidence the officers on the tape were their people. If Glenda and the chief are correct, the million-dollar question looms big as a Mack truck: who were the alleged officers on the tape? One thing is certain—an African-American woman was murdered. Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies discovered her body early Friday morning. Her identity remains a mystery.”
Mary looked into the camera. “Not bad, huh?”
“Hits the nail onna head.”
“Are you drinking?”
“You tell Jim ‘bout the meeting tamorra?”
“Are you drinking?”
“No,
pr-aying.”
“Liar, you’re drinking. What are you doing up this late?”
“You wakened me.”
“Baloney, what are you doing?”
“Thinking.”
“Me, too.”
“Bout what?”
“If I had gone into the sisterhood, I’d be a Mother Superior by now.”
“D-minus” He sucked his ice cubes.
“So what are we going to do?”
“Bout what?”
“Us.”
“I don’ know.”
“I think you do.”
“I think I do, too.” His eyes closing. “I have t’ get some sleep.”
“Why don’t I come to Veracity, nurse your booboo?”
“Stay there, use my office couch.”
“Ted’s got it.”
“Kick em out.”
“He’s sleeping.”
“See ya tamorra, be carefu drivin ome.”
“Don’t drown.”
Chapter Twenty Six
11:59 p.m. EST
The day’s events roiling his thoughts, pacing, writing notes, talking to himself, sipping, smoking, around 3:00 a.m., Zackary stretched out on the sofa and, moving in and out of sensual fantasy—Veracity full throttle, the feel of her wheel, the song of her engines, the smell of the ocean slapping her sides—he closed his eyes and dreamed.
a noise, he looked up, Mary stood in Veracity’s cabin entrance. A cut-off white T-shirt revealed her navel, faded blue denim shorts revealed her slender thighs. Barefoot, she held a basket of large purple grapes.
What are you doing? Zack sat up and looked at her.
Hanging around. Did you doze off?
Just taking a catnap.
How’s that ear? She came to him and sat. Want some grapes? I’ll peel them for you.
I don’t think so.
She ate a grape, put one in his mouth, said, Let’s go for a swim.
You have a suit?