Red Decker moved away from the helicopter and reactivated his GPS unit, waited for it to get the bounce- back ATIS signal, then shook his head. 'This is nuts,' he said as he got the same reading.
'What!' Mickey was losing patience.
'Our big dish is a C-band and this GPS receiver is only for K-U band transmission, so it can't be our signal. . But it's coming from the same place. How can that be?'
'They're on the fucking roof with that stolen dish, asshole!' Mickey turned and ran to the helicopter and jumped in
Red watched as some of the men in the helicopter grabbed up automatic weapons and began pulling the slides, chambering rounds. He saw the chopper take off and lean to starboard. Then the rotor changed pitch as they streaked off toward UBC and the final confrontation.
Chapter 71
C. Wallace Litman and his wife Sally had invited Karen and Max Jergenson over for a game of bridge. Litman always kept the UBC broadcast on low in the living r oom. He had one eye on the TV as he looked at his hand.
Diamonds were trump. C. Wallace pondered his opening lead. Then he saw a picture of Joseph Alo on the TV. He reached for the remote control and turned up the volume.
Sally and the Jergensons swung around to look at the screen.
Cole's voice still carried the narrative: '. financing that set up the broadcasting empire of C. Wallace Litman came from Meyer Lansky's offshore Bahamian company Mary Carver Paints. This painting supply company, which had been acquired in the sixties, was a corporate shell funneling offshore cash payments from Meyer Lansky to C. Wallace Litman. These cash transfers occurred all throughout the seventies and into the eighties. It was these underworld funds that enabled C. Wallace Litman to purchase his broadcasting empire.'
'What. .?' C. Wallace Litman got unsteadily to his feet, torn between turning off the set so the Jergensons wouldn't be able to see it, and keeping it on to hear what was being said about him. Then he heard his own tape- recorded voice talking to Meyer Lansky.
'Good to talk to you, Meyer.'
Meyer's brittle voice answered.
'Did you get the package, Wally?'
Pictures of Meyer and C. Wallace Litman from old magazines that Naomi Zur had collected from the wire service were side by side on the screen.
'Sure did, but we're gonna hold it in the paint company offshore until we need it.'
`That's you, Wallace,' Sally said, a look of pure confusion on her face.
'Okay, good,' Meyer continued. 'I think you should level off on the newspaper and radio. We got four chairs but I'm much more interested in television.'
'I agree, Meyer. I got my eye on United Broadcasting. They're a group of independent stations, but I think they can be bought for the right price. We can leverage the buy. And I'd recommend that because I think we're gonna need a lot more cash downriver to acquire additional stations and fund programming.'
C. Wallace Litman was frozen, unable to turn off the TV or stop this searing indictment. The Jergensons laid down their cards and looked first at Wallace, then at each other, as the conspiracy between their host, Meyer Lansky, and the Mafia came into sharper focus.
'How's Teddy?' Litman said on the tape, referring to Meyer's wife.
'She's fine. And Mrs. Litman. .?'
'She's fine. You two are gonna have to meet sometime.'
We can't meet. Joseph wants you in the clear. If he puts a man in the White House, you're the one who's gonna do it. You and that TV network. Once we own the Man, we're gonna put all these fucks in the Justice Department out of business.'
The Special Report ended with film footage from FBI hidden cameras, first of Joseph Alo and Meyer Lansky, then one shot of Joseph Alo with Litman in the Vegas e levator of the Frontier Hotel twenty years ago. Litma n s till had hair, but the billionaire was plainly recognizable.
Cole wound up the broadcast as the camera came back to the Madison Junior High video lab. He was still sitting on the edge of the desk:
'It is not hard to understand why an organized crime family in this country would attempt to buy a President. In Italy, in 1993, government corruption from the Mafia went all the way to the prime minister. It destroyed the institutions of that government. As Haze Richards stands on the threshold of the White House, you can bet that he has made a pledge of obedience to the men who financed him and controlled his candidacy, men who created his image and popularity through the subtle use and manipulation of network broadcasting.' The camera moved in closer.
'This report was prepared by four people, including myself, who are currently being sought by the FBI. We have been accused of planning the assassination of Haze Richards, a charge that was made to discredit us and this report. All of the material we have gathered is available now to the press and law enforcement agencies. Voice prints will validate the accuracy of the audiotapes. The film speaks for itself.'
'Naomi Zur, Lucinda Alo, Ryan Bolt, and I will offer ourselves up for arrest. A brave man, retired FBI agent Solomon Kazorowski, gave his life for this story and for his country.'
The camera was now in an extreme close-up as Cole concluded: 'I have devoted my life to the concept of a free and open press. In a democracy, the press is the watchdog for the evils men commit, but what happens when the press has been capWred? What happens if our greatest freedom is sold to society's villains? What if free speech is constrained by media conspiracies? If the pen is to remain mightier than the sword, then it must be defended passionately…. Defended by. .'
And the broadcast was interrupted. The screen turned to snow.
The helicopter hovered low over the parking garage as two of the Italian 'cousins' leaned out of the bay and riddled the SNG truck with.223-caliber copper-jacketed devastators. They shot off the 'feed flow' and took the pirate transmission off the air. Naomi Zur ran out from behind the truck, her eye glued to her Nikon. She strobed fifteen pictures of the helicopter before she got caught in the hailstorm.
She was hit twice.
One bullet went through the palm of her right hand. The other went through her chest, puncturing her heart.
She was dead before she hit the ground.
Cole urged John to take off on foot. His part of the plot was over and Cole didn't want the engineer exposed to more danger. They could hear the gunfire in the distance. The RF engineer carefully shut down his equipment in the MCC and took off into the rainy night.
In the basement next door, Ryan and Lucinda had taken cover behind the generators as the security guard, his eyes watering from Lucinda's blast of carbon dioxide, moved into the dark room with his gun out. Ryan hurled himself at the man as he approached. and drove him back against the wall. The security guard was a sixty-seven- year-old ex-cop from Brooklyn. He folded up, wheezing out a lungful of smoker's breath. His gun flew from his hand and landed next to the wall. Lucinda grabbed a flashlight and went to scoop it up as Ryan snatched the handcuffs off the guard's belt and cuffed the old man to one of the pipes in the basement.
'I'm sorry,' Ryan said to the security guard, who was unable to answer as he struggled to get his breath.
They climbed the stairs, Ryan's leg quivering from the effort. When they went out into the alley, it was dark and a heavy rain was falling. They could hear automatic gunfire, and as they ran to the mouth of the alley, they could see the gray and red helicopter hovering above the parking structure with four men leaning out, firing. He sensed that Mickey was in the chopper. The moment Ryan had predicted was upon them.
The cold rain drenched them as they took off running, moving as fast as Ryan's leg would allow. They reached the staircase where the mobile control room was parked. The helicopter was now hovering above, but the
