The Evening News (42 page)

"I'll take one of the cars
,”
Carlos said
.”
I know where to go in
Hackensack. I'll be careful
.”

"Use the Plymouth
.”

It had been repainted dark blue and had license plates
not previously used, as Rafael had pointed out
.
After leaving Carlos, Miguel sought out Baudelio. He found him, with
Socorro, in the large room on the second floor of the main house which by
this time resembled a hospital ward. Baudelio, appearing like a patient
himself, had dressings over the right side of his face, covering the
stitches he had put in following Jessica's wild slashing during her brief
consciousness
.
Normally Baudelio appeared gaunt, pallid and older than he was, but today
the effect was intensified. His face was sickly white and his movements
clearly required an effort. But he was continuing with preparations for
departure and after Carlos informed him of the 7:40 P.m. time, Baudelio
acknowledged, "We will be ready
.”

Under prompting from Miguel, the ex-doctor confirmed that his day and a
half of experimenting with the drug propofol had shown him how much should
be administered to each of the three captives to achieve deep
unconsciousness for specific periods. This knowledge was necessary for the
times when each "patient
”
would be left unattended and unmonitored in one
of the sealed caskets.
Also, the enforced starvation period for all three-which would be fifty-six
hours by departure time-was satisfactory. There should be no vomiting or
aspiration into the lungs, though as extra precautions against choking and
suffocation, Baudelio added, an airway tube would be placed in each throat
and the bodies turned on their sides before the caskets were closed
.
Meanwhile, the intravenous injection of fluids had prevented dehydration
.
From transparent bags of glucose, on stands beside each of the unconscious
trio, drip tubes led to catheters in their arms
.
Miguel paused, looking down at the three bodies. They appeared peaceful
,
their faces untroubled. The woman had a certain beauty, he thought; later
,
if opportunity arose, he might make use of her sexually. The man looked
dignified, like an old soldier at rest which, according to news reports
,
he was. The boy seemed frail, his face thin; perhaps the enforced
starvation had left him weak, which didn't matter as long as he was alive
on arrival in Peru, as had been promised to Sendero Luminoso. All three
were pale with only a little color in their cheeks,
but were breathing
evenly. Satisfied, Miguel turned away
.
The funeral caskets into which Angus, Jessica and Nicky would be moved
shortly before the general exodus to Teterboro Airport were horizontal on
trestles. Miguel was aware, because he had watched Rafael do it under
guidance from Baudelio, that a series of tiny vent holes had been drilled
into each. Almost invisible, they would admit fresh air
.”
What is that
?
”

Miguel pointed to a jar of crystals next to the caskets
.”
Soda lime granules
,”
Baudelio answered
.”
They're spread around inside to
counter carbon dioxide from exhaled breath. There'll also be an oxygen
cylinder, controllable from outside
.”

Mindful that during the difficult hours ahead Baudelio's medical skills
would be vital to them all, Miguel queried, "What else
?
”

The ex-doctor motioned to Socorro
.”
Tell him. You'll be doing it with me
.”

Socorro had been watching and listening, her face inscrutable as always
.
Miguel still had questions in his mind about the
woman's total commitment, but today was distracted by her provocative body, its sensuous movements, her blatant sexuality. As if she read his thoughts, there was a hint of taunting in her voice
.”
If any of them needs to piss, even unconscious, they might move and make
noise. So before closing those"-Socorro pointed to the caskets-"we'll
insert catheters. That's tubes in the men's cocks and the bitch's cunt
.
-
Entiendes
?
”

Miguel said testily, "I know about catheterization
.”

On the point of
telling her his father was a doctor, he checked himself. A moment's
weakness, the influence of a woman, had almost led him to reveal a detail
of his background, something he never did
.
Instead he asked Socorro, "When we need it, can you cry
?
”

As part of the planned tableau, she also would be a grieving mourner
.

Baudelio added, with the professional pride which occasionally surfaced
,
"I will place a grain of pepper beneath each of her lower eyelids. The
same for mine. The tears are then copious and will not stop until the
pepper is out
.”

He regarded Miguel
.”
I will do the same for you if you
wish
.”

"We'll see
.”

Baudelio completed his strategy catalog
.”
Finally, in all three caskets
will be tiny monitors to record breathing and depth of sedation. I'll
have a connection to read them from outside. The propofol infusion can
be adjusted from outside too
.”

Reviewing their exchange, and despite earlier misgivings, Miguel felt
satisfied that Baudelio knew what he was doing. Socorro too
.
Now it was simply a question of waiting through the day. The hours ahead
seemed interminable.

At CBA News headquarters on Saturday morning, the special task force meeting called for 10 A.m. had scarcely begun when it was abruptly interrupted
.
Harry Partridge, seated at the head of the conference table, had opened a
discussion when a speakerphone broke in-an announcement from the main
newsroom. Partridge paused as he and the six others at the table listened.

"Assignment desk. Richardson. This bulletin just in from UPI . .
.”
White Plains, New York-A passenger van, believed to be the vehicle used
in Thursday's kidnap of the Crawford Sloane family, exploded violently a
few minutes ago. At least three persons are dead, others injured. Police
were on their way to inspect the van when the explosion occurred in a
parking building adjoining Center City shopping mall. It happened as many
weekend shoppers were arriving in their cars. The building is extensively
damaged. Firefighters, rescue crews and ambulances are on the scene which
a witness describes as 'like a nightmare from Beirut
.”

Even as the bulletin was continuing, chairs in the conference room were
being pushed back, the task force members scrambling to their feet. As the
speakerphone fell silent, Partridge was first out, on the run, hurrying to
the newsroom one floor below, with Rita Abrams close behind.

Saturday morning in any network news department was a relatively informal
time. Most of the Monday-to-Friday staff stayed home. The few on weekend
duty, while sometimes under pressure, were aware of the absence of the high
command. For
this reason dress was casual, jeans predominating, and men showed up without ties
.
The main CBA newsroom was eerily quiet, with barely a third of the desks
occupied and that day's assignment manager, Orv Richardson, covering for
the national desk as well. Young, fresh-faced and eager, Richardson had
recently come to the network from a regional bureau. While not unhappy to
be in charge, the important breaking story from White Plains made him
slightly nervous. He wanted to be sure of doing the right thing
.
It was with some relief, therefore, that he saw a Big Foot correspondent
,
Harry Partridge, and a senior producer, Abrams, burst into the newsroom and
hurry his way
.
While Partridge skimmed a printout of the United Press bulletin and read
a follow-up story feeding in on a computer monitor, Rita told Richardson
,
"We should go on air immediately. Who has authority
?
”

"I have a number
.”

With a phone tucked into his shoulder and consulting a
note, the assignment manager tapped out digits for a CBA News vice
president available at home. When the man answered, Richardson explained
the situation and asked for authorization to take air with a special
bulletin. The vice president shot back, "You have it. Go
!”

What followed was a near-replay of Thursday's intrusion into the network
when the kidnap news broke shortly before noon. The differences were the
nature of today's report and the cast involved. Partridge was in the flash
facility studio, occupying the correspondent's hot seat, Rita was acting
executive producer, and in the control room a different director appeared
,
having come hastily from another section of the building after hearing a
"special bulletin
”
call
.
CBA was on air within four minutes after receiving the UPI bulletin. The
other networks---observed from control room monitors-broke into their own
programming at almost the same time
.
Harry Partridge was, as always, collected and articulate, the ultimate
professional. There was no time to write a script or
use a Teleprompter. Partridge simply memorized the contents of the wire reports and ad-libbed
.
The special broadcast was over in two minutes. There were the bare facts
only, few details, and no on-scene pictures
merely hastily gathered stills
,
projected over Partridge's shoulder, of the Sloane family, their Larchmont
home and the Grand Union store where the Thursday kidnap had taken place
.
A fuller report with pictures from White Plains, Partridge promised
viewers, would be aired later on CBA's Saturday National Evening News
.
As soon as the red camera lights went out in the flash studio, Partridge
phoned Rita in the control room
.”
I'm going to White Plains
,”
he told her
.”
Will you set it up
?
”

"I have already. Iris, Minh and I are going as well. Iris will produce a
piece for tonight. You can do a standup there and cut a sound track later
.
There's a car and driver waiting
.”

The city of White Plains had a long history going back to 1661 when it was
an encampment of the Siwanoy Indians who called it Quarropas-which means
white plains, or white balsam-after the trees that grew there. In the
eighteenth century it was an important iron-mining center and a
transportation crossroads. In 1776, during the American Revolution, a
battle on nearby Chatterton Hill forced Washington's retreat, but in the
same year a Provincial Congress in White Plains approved the Declaration
of Independence and the creation of New York State. There were other
milestones, good and bad, though none exceeded in infamy the explosion
engineered by the Medellin cartel and Sendero Luminoso in the Center City
Mall parking building
.
There was, it became clear later, a certain inevitability to the cycle of
events
.
During the preceding night a patrolling security guard had recorded the
license numbers and makers' names of vehicles left there overnight-a normal
procedure and a precaution against cheating by drivers who might claim to
have lost their parking stub and to have parked for one day only
.
The presence of a Nissan passenger van with New York241