The comment puzzled her. “Use in what way?”
“Well, clearly the Peruvian Government will do everything possible to find the kidnapped Americans and free them—using Peru’s military and police. So while they’re doing that, let’s ensure they get proper credit, with upbeat pictures on our TV news. Then I can call President Castañeda, whom I know personally, and say, ‘Hey, we’re making you and your government look great!’—which should help us when Globanic Financial and Peru put together the final pieces of our debt-to-equity deal.”
Even Margot hesitated. “I’m not sure about going quite that far, Theo.”
“Then be sure! I know what you’re thinking—that we’re manipulating the news. Well, in something as important to us as this, so be it!” The Globanic chairman’s voice rose. “Jesus Christ! We own the goddamn network, don’t we? So once in a while let’s put that ownership to our advantage. At the same time, remind your news people that this is a competitive, profit-oriented business which pays their fancy salaries and they are a part of it, like it or not. If they don’t like it, they’ve a clear choice—get out!”
“I hear you, Theo,” Margot said. While listening and making notes, she had decided on a modus vivendi which would have three stages.
First, she would call chippingham to insist that CBA News indicate clearly the Peruvian Government’s innocence of involvement in the kidnappings, precisely as Theo urged. Second, she herself, as president of CBA, would contact the U.S. State Department, asking for immediate pressure on Peru to do everything possible—including use of their military and police—to rescue the three Sloane family members. Third, the cooperation of Peru’s government would be reported by CBA headquarters for general release. At the same time, CBA News would report positively the actual efforts made.
Almost certainly there would be difficulties and argument, but one thing Margot was sure of: Her relationship with Theo Elliott and loyalty to Globanic were paramount, overriding everything else.
Les Chippingham was growing used to Margot’s unpredictabilities; therefore receiving another call from her so soon after their earlier conversation did not surprise him. The subject matter, though, made him uneasy because this was direct corporate meddling in news content, which happened occasionally at all networks but almost never with a major story. Fortunately, in this instance it was possible to be reassuring.
“All of us know the Peruvian Government was not involved in the kidnapping,” the news president said. “I’m sure that in our news tonight that will be implied and evident.”
“I want more than implication. I want a positive statement.”
Chippingham hesitated, knowing he should take a strong stand about news department independence, but aware of his precarious personal dependency on Margot. “I’ll have to look at scripts,” he told her. “Let me call you back in fifteen minutes.”
“Don’t make it any longer.”
Ten minutes later, Chippingham called. “I think this will please you. It’s something Harry Partridge wrote before he left for Peru and is in our news for tonight: ‘The government of Peru and Sendero Luminoso have been fierce enemies for many years, dedicated to each other’s destruction. Peru’s President Castañeda has declared, “Sendero’s existence imperils Peru. Those criminals are a knife thrust in my side.”’ That last statement will be a library shot and sound bite by Castañeda.”
Chippingham’s voice reflected relief as well as humor. “I guess Harry read your mind, Margot. I hope it satisfies.”
“It will do. Read it again. I want to write it down.”
After the phone call ended, Margot summoned her secretary and dictated a memo to Theo Elliott.
Theo:
Resulting from our talk, the following will be in the National Evening News tonight:
“The government of Peru and Sendero Luminoso have been fierce enemies for many years, dedicated to each other’s destruction. Peru’s President Castañeda has declared, ‘Sendero’s existence imperils Peru. Those criminals are a knife thrust in my side.’”
Castañeda will be seen and heard making the last statement.
Thanks for your suggestion and help.
Margot Lloyd-Mason
The memo was to be hand-delivered by special messenger to Globanic Industries headquarters.
Margot’s next call was to Washington—the Secretary of State.
Throughout Friday at CBA, until the National Evening News first feed at 6:30 P.M., security was strained while outsiders nibbled at its edges, attempting to gain access to the exclusive information about which CBA News had been titillating viewers and competitors all day. News staff at other TV networks, radio stations, news wire services and the print press telephoned friends and contacts at CBA, attempting—sometimes directly, but mostly by inventive ruses—to learn the gist of what was coming. But within CBA, by carefully limiting the number of people with knowledge, and temporary isolation of an inner core of computers, the line was held and secrecy preserved.
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? What could we have done, but didn’t? Why 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 a
t 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 thatch 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 canceled for five weekdays—one full week.
“Two: In place of the canceled 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 they 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.”