Savage News

by Jessica Yellin

  The First Lady sighed and Natalie knew she had to wrap up the interview. Bring it around to current events. “Do you believe Sonia Barbaro’s story? That Rigo Lystra raped her?”

  “I don’t know the truth. I only know we can’t silence people, not any longer. The way you all have condemned Sonia Barbaro, judged me—it’s wrong. Have you noticed how Western culture still celebrates silent women? The quiet matriarch, the supporting actresses of steely resolve who keep persevering and putting up with it?

  “We’ve all been too compliant. Me. Eva. Sonia. Playing along doesn’t change anything. That’s why I’m giving you this interview. Our silences were never going to protect us. It’s time to speak.”

  Natalie felt a sudden jolt, thinking of her mother’s line. “Be noisy,” she said.

  “That’s right. Smart girl. We need to be noisy.”

  32

  The Myth of Power

  As Dasha drove them down the winding mountain road back toward the airport, it was quiet in the car, Natalie stared out at the trees dotting the mountain, in shock from the weight of everything they’d just heard.

  After the interview the First Lady had thanked them and quickly vanished. As Dasha began packing up, Natalie had checked her phone and found it melting down with emails, texts and notifications. There were urgent messages from presidents of rival networks, talk show bookers, and thousands of DMs from viewers who’d just watched the interview live on social media.

  “Look, we don’t need ATN to have an audience,” she said, thrusting the phone in Matt’s face.

  Without asking he’d taken the phone from her hands and powered it off. “I’m putting you on a media blackout.”

  Now, in the car, she turned the phone back on. It began filling with messages. The first, from her mother.

  MOM: Hi, dear. I’m at Wailee Resort and we watched your interview on the computer outside the group touch room.

  MOM: Honey, you did a great job with the First Lady. That poor woman.

  Natalie smiled.

  NATALIE: Hi, Mom. I’m so sorry about the wedding.

  MOM: You know I wasn’t going to kill Cronkite. Guru Steve says a dog is a great way to meet a man. You wouldn’t have taken him if I hadn’t forced it. Cronkite is a man magnet.

  MOM: Are you going to do more interviews like that?

  MOM: You could interview Oprah. People really like Oprah.

  Natalie couldn’t hold back her laugh.

  NATALIE: Okay, Mom, thanks for the tip. Love you.

  Matt’s phone rang and Natalie looked up in time to see him check the caller ID. “Shit,” he said and answered. “Matt Walsh.”

  There was silence followed by, “Any point in pleading my case?” then more silence until he said, “I see. Sorry to hear that. Yes? Got it.”

  He hung up and turned to Natalie, “I just lost my job.”

  Natalie blinked, horrified. “Who was that?” She hoped he was joking.

  “Bibb,” he said. “She said I should have made sure they got the exclusive on your FLOTUS interview, and she’s right.” He stared out the window for a minute before laughing. “Anyway, I’m fired, but you are expected back in the office tomorrow.” He turned to face Natalie. “The Chief probably wants to give you a promotion.”

  She felt awful. She’d been so consumed with her own issues she hadn’t considered how this might impact Matt and Dasha. “What are you going to do?” she asked him.

  He gave her a sly look. “Actually I have an offer from a station in Iowa. They want to put me on camera.”

  Natalie looked at him, jaw nearly on the floor. “You can’t be serious. Why the hell would you want to go on camera when you’ve seen everything I just went through?”

  “Because I’m not a woman,” he said, as in duh. “I don’t have to deal with any of that shit. No one’s going to ride my ass about my hair or try to trip me up because I’m a younger version of themselves. Actually, dudes like to promote younger versions of themselves.” He considered this. “Interesting. That’s true. Anyway, gotta leave this town to get some work-life balance, right? I have friends in Iowa. Laura’s family still likes me.”

  “Laura?”

  “The ex-wife,” Dasha said with a sly glance in the rearview mirror.

  “How about you, Dasha?” Matt asked, poking the camerawoman in the arm and changing the subject. “Want to come with me to Iowa, cover the presidential? Get away from Handsy Hal?”

  “No, I stay,” Dasha said, looking at Natalie in the rearview mirror, her eyes glittering fiercely. “Bibb and I have conversation. She wants I should work with Greasy. I say, okay, I make deal. I work with Greasy. You pay me double. Report to Bibb, no Hal. Is good. I stay and cash check. Fuck Hal.”

  Natalie reached forward to give Dasha a squeeze on the shoulder.

  Matt looked at Natalie. “You don’t have to go back to Bibb, you know. You could go to any network now. Hell, you could get an anchor job. Write your own ticket. You want to do a morning show? It’s all wide open for you.”

  Natalie wasn’t listening. She was reading the messages from viewers on Instagram. “Can you explain how the president got that money from the Lystras?” “Do we still take oil from Venezuela?” “Is it legal for the president to invade Venezuela?” “Are we going to war?”

  “Look at this,” Natalie said, mostly to herself.

  “Yeah, I can’t explain why they’re all idiots,” Matt said, eyeing the messages on her screen.

  “They’re not idiots. They don’t spend all day researching this stuff like we do,” Natalie said excitedly. “They just want to understand.”

  Natalie smiled shyly. “What if I just reported here?” She held up the phone.

  “Seriously, Natalie? You’re going to make bank on TV and be a star. No way you give that up to vlog on Instagram from your apartment. You’re just overtired.”

  She considered what he said. It’s true, she was tired. And it did sound crazy. “But if I just reported directly to real people, they wouldn’t care about my hair. No gatekeepers.”

  Matt shook his head and laughed ruefully. “Let’s talk about this once you get some sleep.”

  After that, they were quiet and Natalie looked at the endless stretch of thawing mountains glittering in the afternoon sun. It was a strange, fierce, beautiful landscape.

  It wasn’t the North Lawn, but she was starting to think she could uncover more about the country from outside the White House gates than within.

  Matt looked up from something he was typing on his iPhone. “Hang on a sec. How can you be so confident you’ll get an audience. Do you have something else, like another story to break?” He squinted at Natalie. “Are you sitting on a lead on something else?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” She shrugged with a knowing smile.

  “Tell me. What’s it about?” he demanded. “Karima? POTUS? Oil? Bieber?”

  “You know what they say in Reportuguese.” Natalie grinned at him mischievously. “Stay tuned.”

  33

  That Happened

  “Cronkite! Colin Powell!” James’s voice was firm and commanding. The dogs had just raced past them and were careening toward a family on the other side of the Washington Monument. At the sound of his voice, they slowed to a trot instantly.

  Natalie laughed. “That was impressive.”

  “It’s all about making clear what you want,” James said.

  Natalie was pretty sure they were talking about more than the dogs.

  She felt herself blush and, looking up at him, couldn’t remember the last time she felt this at peace.

  She’d even left her phone at home to ensure she’d give James her uninterrupted attention. Since she’d landed back in DC, she’d again been inundated with requests to speak to the reporter who’d broken Lystragate.

  Honestly couldn’t they
come up with anything more creative? Natalie had wondered. She thought of the email from Bibb and the voice mail from the Chief, full of praise and pretend camaraderie. As if she’d ever consider going back. Suddenly the arbiters of advancement had determined that she was a brilliant young reporter who needed a big TV job, stat! She knew that, like everything in the news cycle, this glow of triumph would pass. It was all a shimmering illusion.

  She glanced over at James in his worn jeans and navy T-shirt. James wasn’t an illusion. He was real and present and seriously hot.

  You can make this work.

  Feeling a little flush, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

  “You gonna let it go natural, now that you’re not on TV?”

  Puzzled, she saw that James was eyeing her ponytail.

  “My hair?” she asked. “It doesn’t work that way. All that formaldehyde is still in there.” She shook her ponytail to make the point. “Takes time for it to wash out.”

  “Really, how long?” he asked with more than benign interest.

  She shrugged, playing coy. “Maybe six months.”

  “Nah.” He gave her a teasing glance. “There must be ways to get the real Natalie back faster.”

  “Well, there are some things that can be done,” she said playfully. “Swimming in chlorine.”

  “We need to get you in a bathing suit?” he asked. “Noted.”

  She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Or the ocean.”

  “Beach getaway, also doable.” He gave her a lopsided grin and tilted his head. “What else?”

  Feeling her heartbeat quicken, she forced herself to breathe. “If I take lots and lots of showers, that’ll help it along,”

  He moved directly in front of her and took a wide stance, bringing his chest closer to hers. “So you’re saying you need to go on a beach vacation. Spend lots of time in the ocean and the shower. And then I’ll get the real Natalie.” He was beaming at her. “Is that right?”

  “I guess that’s right,” she whispered.

  He bent over and kissed her softly on the lips.

  She rose onto her tippy toes, and when he kissed her again, it wasn’t nearly as gentle. She leaned into him and felt his warmth and his strength. Crushed up against his chest, she forgot about the phone calls, her interview, her previous day, weeks, everything.

  Then she was hit by a sudden worry. “Wait,” she blurted. “I want to make sure you know something.” She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “I’m not done. I mean, I’m going to keep reporting.”

  “Well, yeah,” he laughed. “That’s what makes you amazing. Be noisy.” Then he gave her a conspiratorial look and whispered, “But I’ve got a secret for you, Savage.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s okay for you to be happy, too.”

  As he leaned down to kiss her, she couldn’t hold back the smile that spread all over her body.

  THE EARLYBIRD™/ WEDNESDAY / 5:43 A.M.

  SPECIAL CRUSOE CRISIS EXTRA

  THE E-NEWSLETTER TRUSTED BY WASHINGTON'S POLITICAL ELITE

  Good morning, EarlyBirders™. During the ongoing crisis in the White House, EarlyBird™ is expanding our one-minute-read to bring you more EarlyNews™ on these extraordinary events.

  SENATE JUDICIARY HEARINGS, DAY 1: Three weeks after filing for divorce, First Lady Anita Crusoe will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the president’s involvement with the Lystra family.

  EarlyPoll™: America Loves the First Lady, Again

  With skyrocketing popularity, FLOTUS has the American people on her side. POTUS’s slumping approval rivals Nixon’s pre-resignation numbers.

  Savage Bombshell: In her latest Instagram bombshell, reporter Natalie Savage details the transactions that brought Lystra family money into Patrick Crusoe’s campaign coffers. It’s the fourth part in her series on political corruption and foreign interference that’s already prompted Senate action. The majority leader tells EarlyBird™ he plans quick passage of the Tax Transparency Act, legislation that will require candidates to release their taxes so that “Crusoe level corruption can never happen again.”

  Spotted: At Karima Sahadi’s soiree last night in honor of Natalie Savage’s new digital media company power couples Natalie Savage and James Harding; General Fred Harding and his wife, socialite Anne; newly minted Iowa reporter Matt Walsh, in town for a state visit, with his ex-wife Laura “in tow (reunited and it feels so good?)”; ATN’s Dasha Karimov, whose new contract with ATN is said to be the most lucrative for a cameraperson in recent history.

  Breaking Media News: American Services Industries CEO is out with a $50 million pay package. ATN Chief Reginald Bounds has the inside track on the parent company’s CEO suite. Under Bounds, ATN has seen its profits surge 10 percent. With Bounds moving up, smart money is on DC Bureau Chief Bibb Connaught to get the top ATN job with either Deputy Bureau Chief Hal Thomas or Assignment Planner Andrea Jackson expected to run the DC bureau. Check back for ongoing EarlyUpdates.

  Welcome to Washington: Lysa McGrew, new morning anchor for ATN. She’s replacing Jazzmyn Maine who tells EarlyBird™ she’s changed careers and is heading to law school where she plans to pursue employment law.

  **EarlySponsor™: GlobalCom’s™ MakeWell™ Pharmaceuticals. Every day the news brings stories of tragedy. The latest studies show anxiety-related illnesses are at an all-time high. Our pioneering treatments in the fields of anxiety, stress, and trauma are charting new paths to mental wellness. Don’t be afraid to turn on the news any longer. When days bring danger, MakeWell™ brings relief.**

  * * *

  ISBN-13: 9781488037399

  Savage News

  Copyright © 2019 by Jessica Yellin

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