The Journalist (26 page)

Jim stood. “Wait a minute. How do we know
who’s on this tape, where it came from? This is unadulterated
bullshit.”

Zack jerked him down. “Sit down and
listen.”

Joe said, “Novak speaks first—like I said,
the recording is intermittent, we had a problem with the microphone
on Benny’s yacht, but you can get the gist.”

He turned the machine on and they
listened:

Sound of throaty marine motors in the
background, Lande: “It’s all perception, gentleman. Create the
perception, and they’ll follow like sheep.”

Mac: “What about the goats?”

(Snickering)

Lande: “How do most people know for sure that
China is really there? Read about it, see it on TV, scan the
Internet–nobody feels the goods anymore. It’s all virtual, the only
reality is water, fire, earth, the elements, atomic numbaahs,
atomic weight, how they’re put together is all in the head of homo
sapiens.”

Mac: “I’d say there’s a little more to
reality than that.”

Novak: “Lande, I think you should stick with
communications, lay off the science, and most of all get rid of
those nasty cigars. ”

Lande: “Brain tissue stirs ideas and out of
the mouths of the word-making-mammal comes meaning, and the meaning
becomes deeds put down toward the reordering of history that ends
one reality and begins another.”

Novak: “And where is that from, Doctor?”

Lande:“My dissertation.” .

Novak: “Let me recap what President Armstrong
and I discussed this past week at Camp David.” He cleared his
throat. “As you know, with the latest unconscionable act in France
the President believes that the time is ripe for a conclusive
solution to international bickering, economic chaos and insane hit
skip terrorism. He has no doubt in his heart that it is his
divinely appointed destiny

a unique moment
in the annals of this planet, in the context of history, that is,
to conceive a new world order, to move forward in our combined
human evolution with freedom and democracy for all the earth’s
people.”

(Static) Novak continued, “The President also
desperately wants to make the streets of America safe again for the
average freedom-loving Joe and Jane Doe. In tackling the
knucklehead global bad boy syndrome at its root, he intends to
forge a new world peace under American protections and freedoms at
home and abroad.”

“He wants to utilize our cyber attack
superiority, the military’s satellite pre-emptive missile
technology while we’re still on top.”

Lande: “I always liked up top best.”

Mac: “Jesus Christ.”

Novak: “So, Doctor Lande, why don’t you
expand on this plan you have to accomplish the President’s
mission?”

Lande: “As I was saying, gentlemen, it’s all
perception

(static)

in roughly three months we’ll have

(static) I’ll produce a video

(static)

routine traffic
stop

cops pull over a

(static)

buxom
female

”

Mac: “Professor, tell me I’m not hearing
this

”

Novak: “Just a minute, this is not a
made-for-television movie script, Babs. Grasp the global aspect of
our mission.”

Lande: “May I finish?

(static)

get the big
pictcha

setting will be some remote area,
nighttime, rough video

wide
shots

”

Mac: “

shittin’
me

”

Novak: “Then what?”

Lande: “The cops

(static)

will then have their
way with the female drivaa

her

(static)

bang her, blow
job

drug paraphernalia around

leak the video

(static)

to a local TV station
and, bingo, add water, stir

a feeding
frenzy

(static)

President steps in

”

Mac: “You gotta be off your Boston rocker. I
can’t believe you

”

Lande: “Why?”

Mac: “What cops are stupid

(static)

it’s a Section
Eight.”

Lande: “General, the scene will be
staged

(static)

actors

(static)

wet backs, drug addicts, porno star, snort of cocaine,
few thousand bucks, whatevaa

(static)

they participate in a
video. When it’s ovaa, well, the lady will be history, and the
would-be cops

(static)

you work out the details on that, Mac, dear.”

Mac: “Novak, this will get our

(static)

cut off. Leak to a TV
station

(static)

past a receptionist let alone a news director.
Besides, too many loose

(static)

actors, drug dealers.
How you going to keep them from

(static)

too many loose
ends.”

Lande: “General, you have an explosive news
video

(static)

get
it to TV news director starved for ratings

exclusive story with red-hot video

wham, bam, thank ya, ma’am, second coming stuff, the
actors will have a memorable time, one and only performance, know
what I mean?”

Mac: “You’re certifiable

”

Novak: “The general just said you couldn’t
get it past a receptionist, let alone a TV news director.”

Lande: “Professor, that’s

Let me explain, some

(static)

news director, dead
last in the ratings, would give their firstborn

(static)

it’s called ratings,
survival, you should understand survival, General.”

Mac: “Yeah, I do and this idea gets
us

(static)

by the
unsurvival nuts.”

Novak: “There is just one thing, Ms. Lande.
What about your female victim? The media will be clamoring for her
identity, now, won’t they?”

Lande: “Like I said—drug related. A
hookaa

sacrifice

greater good

”

Mac: “I’m not believing

you’re getting more ridiculous

(static)

”

Lande: “Why, General?”

Mac: “If you don’t see the holes in this
so-called plan, you flat-ass just can’t see

”

Novak: “What about police records

they record

(static)

”

Lande: “No record exists

cover-up. Perfect. The community goes bananas. TV
networks, cable, pick it up and

(static)

basic
ingredients

anarchy

infiltrate protesters with our people

(static)

ball is then in your
court, Professor. That’s when your habeas corpus and all that
legalese

(static)

red-level terror alert

Constitutional pizzazz kicks in.”

Novak: “Yes, Article One, Section
Nine

(static)

Article Four, Section Four

(static)

Four,
Four

(static)

invasion and domestic violence

(static)

the Executive when
the legislature cannot be convened

executive emergency powers

”

Lande: “Gives the President legal authority
to

(static)

kick
some ass, right, General?”

Mac: “Well

he is the
Commander-in-Chief.”

Novak: “It gives the President extraordinary
powers to maintain the peace and security in times of domestic
violence, external threats.”

Lande: “Whatevaa. Then the clinchaah, a major
incident

we’ll link terrorists

responsible

”

Novak: “Incident

”

Lande: “Chemical, biological

(static)

”

Mac: “Jesus Christ.”

Novak: “

casualties?”

Lande: “Have to break some eggs
to

baby cakes

President can press his joystick

order invasions of

”

“Mac: “Jesus Christ, I

this is like

movie.”

Lande: “Better, baby cakes.”

Novak: “This cop plan of yours, where would
you start

what city?”

Mac: “Novak, you can’t be going along with
this lunacy.”

Novak: “Go on, Babs.”

Lande: “I did a little research. Happens to
be a hot news battle in the Sunshine State

(static)

one TV station is
getting its ass handed to it

static)

sixth in a three-way
news rating’s war.”

Novak: “After the video is presented, then
what?”

Lande: “Like I said

(static)

supplement the
initial tape with staged

a few
incidents

(static)

key cities

TV news live-eye
units roll

(static)

keep the press people busy with breaking news, air
crash

sabotage

whatevaa

knock out a few key
communication satellites. President

(static)

martial law, throw in
a couple incidents, label them terrorist

(static)

President orders
strikes

it’s really

(static)

duck soup, baby
cakes

sheep to the slaughter, so to speak.
American people will rally round Benny

”

Novak: “Sounds too simple, too easy. What do
you think, Bill?”

Mac: “Those TV news people don’t
trust

(static) You’re not going to feed
them anything. They verify

(static)

everything.”

Novak: “If your mother tells you, listen, but
verify, isn’t that what they say, Babs?”

Lande: “That’s Moon Man and Otto Edward R.
Morrow history, if it evaa was true

(static)

hot news
video

(static)

smell a scoop, slam dunk, get it on fast, first, beat
the competition

self-preservation,
survival

name of the game.”

Mac: “That’s bullshit, they still
verify.”

Lande: “General

(static) You know how they

(static)

a hot news
story

(static)

leaked, whatevaa

(static)

they use that source
as verification

so and so reports,
‘reliable sources say, unconfirmed reports told us

(static)

speaking
to

on conditions of anonymity

Jack Dick confirms, experts announce’

(static)

fill in the blanks,
General, like shooting fish in a

(static)

telling ya, baby
cakes

(static)

kicker is, terrorist involvement

(static)

threat to national
security, that’s the President’s excuse

(static)

go global.”

Novak: “So, General, what do you think
now?”

Mac: “Well, if this bean town hotshot is
right

”

Lande: “PR line will be this is essential to
preserve the Union, the peace, the family unit, democracy, hell’s
bells, the children, apple pie, religion.”

Novak: “And it is just that.”

Lande: “One thing can screw it up.”

Novak: “What’s that?”

Lande: “Time frame. All has to happen like a
bat out a Mathaa’s Vinyard. Two days. Hands down, three, in the
bag

(static)

like I
said

(static)

Labor
Day weekend would be perfect. If it goes any longer than three days
some drink water jerk journalist is gonna start asking
questions

(static)

snooping around.”

Mac: “I can take care of communications
links, satellites, Internet—that can go down anytime.”

Lande: “Not anytime. Friday the Internet,
Labor Day the media satellites, cable, TV

”

Mac: “

right.”

Lande: “Like I said, it’s all perception,
good people.”

Novak: “And so, Dr. Lande, just one thing
concerns me.”

Lande: What’s that?

Novak: “What is the out for the President if
this thing goes boo in the night?”

Lande: “Easy—some crackpot white supremacist
Ku Klux

(static)

nut cake

faked a video, TV got
snookered in, we all nearly got had. Lesson for the press. Ben’s
clean as a Jayhawker’s dick.”