The Artifact (31 page)

“We could demand our chosen air schedules,” Sammy continued, “or threaten to withhold further transmissions. Since an uplink takes only seconds to transmit, no one could trace it unless they knew the precise time, satellite, and frequency employed.”

“But a real pro when you get him off-camera,” T.P. continued. “Excellent sight-reader, understated, dramatic delivery, and doesn’t try to infuse the script with his own ideas.”

“He doesn’t
have
any ideas,” Andrea whispered.

Sammy dialed a number from memory, and after a five-minute wait, Dr. Lawton came on the line, then listened patiently to his concern regarding Andy’s worsening symptoms and their specific problem with her almost unintelligible speech.

“Is there anything you can do to make her voice more intelligible?”

“There are several communications enhancements from scribble pads to computer-aided speech and voice synthesizers,” Lawton replied. “Stay on the line and my secretary will give you the numbers for the Washington chapter of the ALS Association. Give Andrea my best, please, and have my secretary set up an appointment for her within the next two weeks.”

The two other news people had listened to Sammy’s end of the phone call in silence.

“Maybe there’s a way to have Andy make a short intro using some kind of electronic

device,” Sam said, holding his hand up to forestall protests from Andy. “Let me check it out before you shoot it down, OK?”

T.P. turned to Andrea, his warning laced with sympathy. “Just don’t get your hopes up. The initial explanation of the autobiography will be critical to comprehending the content, making it a ‘must’ listen for the entire international population.”

Sammy’s pleading gaze held Andrea’s eyes, troubled with uncertainty. “If there’s a way for you to do this,” he asked her “you’ll do it, right?”

She moved her head up and down, her eyes bright, her lips mouthing the word, “Yes!”

Andrea believed she could cut almost any deal she devised in her offer to air their planned wrap-up on whatever medium she chose, but decided on NBC, whose V.P. News Director she had known for years.

Dick Nuzzo did not take or return her calls until her fourth attempt. After his brief commiseration regarding her unfortunate illness, he listened to her imprecise explanation of her request.

“You’re asking me to consent to air a panel discussion you won’t describe, whose content you will not disclose, and participants you will not reveal?” Nuzzo sounded sympathetic to her impaired speech, but outraged at her request. “Pay you the reward we promised for discovering this so-called priceless treasure, now a mysterious ancient document, sight unseen ?”

“You’re a pain in the butt, Andy. You’ve alienated all of the people you ever worked for, most of your associates, half of your peers in broadcast news, ninety percent of the people you’ve interviewed--do you have any friends?”

Andrea closed her eyes, blinking tears away as Sammy lowered the phone and broke the connection. She took as deep a breath as her condition allowed before urging Sam to dial their next call.

Callaghan looked through the open doorway of Andrea’s bedroom to make certain she was awake, then knocked on the doorjamb. “Are you up for a bit of company?”

“Absolutely.”

The general closed the door behind him and folded his lank frame clothed in army fatigues into the chair drawn up to the side of her bed. The casual uniform was shorn of rank and other adornments, his expression serious. He aligned the chair to face her head propped up on incline of the hospital bed and double pillows. “We haven’t had an opportunity to talk other than as adversaries, and I wanted to extend my profound sympathy for your condition.”

“I’ve watched you on TV reporting the news from various trouble spots around the globe, many times in the thick of it, tsunami aftermath, 9/11, toxic fires. I was impressed by your courage when you tried to jump into northern Iraq with Bravo Company with a bum leg.”

“Didn’t stop you from booting me off.”

“Then our meeting at Fort Bragg. I might never have had the intestinal fortitude to tell you these things under normal circumstances, but I felt a certain, I don’t know, chemistry, I guess, at least on my part.”

“Clyde, please.” He resumed his seat, more relaxed. “I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Old Soldiers Home twenty years from now, castigating myself for not telling you.”

“You’ve never married?” she asked.

They exchanged backgrounds, during which she moved her hand to the side of the bed and he placed his upon it. They talked about liaisons with the wrong people for the wrong reasons, imprudent marriages, the wariness that comes with romantic failures, the still lingering question of parenting children, abandoning them to traipse around the globe, the difficulties of busy, dedicated people finding the time and will to place anyone ahead of their driven pursuit of success.

Late afternoon shadows were creeping across the unlit room when Andrea brought them back to their meeting in his Fort Bragg office. “I recall we agreed that your business was keeping secrets and mine exposing them.”

“Even before I knew its content, the dates on the manuscript indicated it could have profound historical implications. Unearthed by the representatives of a warring Christian nation in a desert surrounded by Muslim states that would probably destroy it, I realized that on the basis of ownership alone, it could only exacerbate the Mid-Eastern crisis. To be frank, with all the political dissention going on here lately, I didn’t even trust my own government to handle the document responsibly. They’d either bury it in some dank archive, hand it over to a contentious religious consortium or outright destroy it. Surrendering that parchment to any authority with a vested interest would probably see it lost to mankind, edited, refuted, contradicted and debated out of context; the veracity of the author, the entirety of his intended message hacked to shreds. I bypassed the chain of command, took it to the Secretary of State with certain stipulations.”

“At which point, your career was walking a high wire, no net.”

Frank Morrissey’s truly limited imagination, characteristic insecurity—or rare instance of good judgment, resulted in his initial reluctance to vacate his lucrative anchor desk at NNC. Whatever his misgivings, they were eventually overcome by T.P.’s repeated assertion that after his momentous radio broadcast, Frank could expect to command almost any broadcast job in the country.

With Frank on board, T.P. contacted the major radio networks with only a vague description of the biographical document. Unlike the cut-throat competition among other news outlets, those second-tier radio executives relied on the integrity and reputations of Anthony Viola and Andrea Madigan to justify grabbing the opportunity to scoop all other media by making a tentative commitment to air the document pending proof of authenticity and approval of content. They agreed to work in concert and feed program content to other nations via satellite for translation into their respective languages and rebroadcast.

“I suggested they warn foreign stations in advance,” TP said, “they’ll need a sight reader like the UN translators. English to their own language.”

“What about print media?” Andrea asked.

“TP gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Let ‘em struggle with it. We want them behind the curve of the radio broadcasts anyway, to prevent their instant editorializing.”

Viola planned to issue advance notice of the special radio programs to all media, accompanied by the startling disclosure that the rumored antique treasure was in fact a first century autobiography written by the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The ancient document would be presented in its entirety in two separate one-hour radio broadcasts on the following Monday and Tuesday at seven P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Immediately following each radio segment, hard copies of the content would be distributed to all TV, international news services and print media via e-mail. Television networks would be encouraged to schedule panel discussions of religious leaders following the final radio broadcast.

“Thursday midnight,” T.P. told him. “After the eleven o’clock news and the morning papers are put to bed. Give them Friday to digest, reflect, decide if and how to run it. Let them blast the concept out Saturday, and importantly, Sunday, all day Monday.”

“Do you think some news outlets will refuse to run it?” Cassandra asked.

“They couldn’t afford not to,” T.P. said, “with our accompanying authentication, knowing its universal release. When they report it and how they spin it is something else.”

T.P. passed out copies of the strategy memo he had prepared with Andrea, and they all scanned the pages in silence until reaching the final sheet, the proposed press release they studied for several minutes.

For Immediate Release

2,000 year-old autobiography of brother of Jesus

by Andrea Madigan

During a hostage confrontation in the Syrian Desert with

Arab nomads last April in the initial stage of the Iraq war,

this correspondent learned that a purported priceless treasure

had been excavated from the Syrian Desert and smuggled

back to America by unknown troopers of the 82
^nd

Airborne Division, as described by yours truly on national

television in September of this year.

Subsequent investigation has determined that the

ancient artifact in question does not contain gold or

precious gems as suspected, but is in reality an autobiography

written in the year 72 CE by Shimon, the younger brother of

Jesus of Nazareth.

Although government and military officials have denied know-

ledge of any purloined artifact, interviews with current and discharged

army personnel, plus other inquiries have recently located the so-

called thieves, and the artifact itself, which has been confirmed as

the Shimon Autobiography originally written in Aramaic on

carefully preserved papyrus. During the past eighteen months,

the document has been translated into English, authenticated by

ancient history experts, renowned anthropologists and paleontol-

ogists. This manuscript has been translated into the vernacular

Shimon would have used today, rather than the awkward sentence

structure and stilted vocabulary resulting from the more literal

rendition of biblical and similar ancient documents.

The remainder of the press release described the radio program schedule and virtual simultaneous international distribution to other media via the Internet in encoded e-mail.

Less than an hour after that startling promotional broadcast, the White House Press Secretary issued a supportive and sympathetic announcement: the President had issued carte blanche amnesty to the ‘discoverers’ of the ancient manuscript and ordered all law enforcement agencies in the country to harbor and protect both the precious autobiography and people involved. The Administration fervently urged the discoverers to contact the nearest F.B.I. office for their own safety and that of the document. The Government would take every possible precaution to maintain the integrity of the original scroll, ensure its authenticity, the accuracy of translation and dissemination to the world population at the proper, most auspicious time.