Free Fall

Forty-Five

Manhattan, New York

Eyeglasses were repositioned, pens were tapped and sections of text underlined as Newslead’s senior editors studied the three Zarathustra emails and the FBI’s request to publish them.

Everything was on one page, provided by the FBI.

The FBI had also given Newslead a short timeline of events and the edited email text they’d wanted published. Additionally, they’d provided notes on the hold-back information that would help authenticate any tips, should people call the news service.

“Absolutely nothing leaves this room,” Lincoln began. For the next several minutes he, Chuck and Kate recounted all Newslead had uncovered on the London and New York incidents.

“You have the facts as we know them,” Lincoln said. “Since we received the first email, we’ve been mindful of our journalistic duty and respectful of the roles of law enforcement and federal aviation investigators. But the story has intensified with the latest email. The FBI’s request raises ethical concerns. The question we need to answer is do we publish or not. Let’s go around the table. Jerry?”

“I say no,” Jerry Lemothe, deputy national editor and a perpetual gum chewer, said. “This is meant more for this Zarathustra than the FBI, but nobody should dictate what we write. We can’t allow stories to be extorted from us. If we did this, we’d set a precedent, and we’d open the floodgates to every malcontented crazy out there.”

National features editor Ellen Markon pushed her glasses to the top of her head and turned to Lemothe.

“But Jerry, it’s our job to inform the public,” she said. “And to protect the public’s right to know.”

“True,” Howard Kehoe said, “but we’d run the risk of being perceived as a branch of the police, an investigative tool. It’s not our job to aid police. We shouldn’t do it.”

“What about when we publish most-wanted info for police?” Marisa McDougal asked. “We certainly aided police last month in their search for the convicts who’d escaped from prison in Texas, and last week when that mother and her child were abducted in Los Angeles. I don’t see how this is much different.”

“Marisa makes a good point,” Markon said. “There’s an overriding safety concern, a real possibility this person can do what they claim.”

“Is there?” Lemothe asked. “So far the NTSB and the FAA have not indicated any such thing.”

“Jerry’s right,” Kehoe said. “Nothing’s been proven to show this disturbed person has the resources to control airplanes. We shouldn’t rush to cede editorial control. If we feed this nut job’s ego, then we’ll run the risk of copycats and more demands.”

Ellen Markon shook her head.

“No, I say we publish it. We have an obligation to do all we can to help identify this person,” she said. “I’m concerned about what we’ve seen here-the EastCloud incident, the Shikra tragedy with fifteen deaths. Look at Sloane, his ties to Richlon-Titan and the unbelievable aspect of Kate being followed. There’s so much we don’t know, so much at risk.”

“That’s right,” Marisa added.

“No, the more I think of it,” Ellen said, “the more I believe we need to expose the facts and see where they take us.”

“Chuck, what do you think?” Lincoln asked.

“Everyone’s made solid arguments,” he said. “But we have to look at the bigger picture. Newslead knows more about what’s at stake than any other news outlet. We’re not bending to the will of Zarathustra. We’re not publishing a manifesto, and the FBI isn’t asking for editorial control. They want us to agree to use the portion of the Zarathustra email they’ve edited so as not to alarm the public.

“The FBI needs to identify Zarathustra to assess the validity of the threat. At the same time, to the best of our knowledge, aviation experts have yet to report anything that would confirm, or even suggest, that a cyber hijack was behind the two incidents. We’ve told the FBI how we would frame the story, and it is our story. Remember, we went to them first and since then the relationship on this has been respectful. But if we say no to publishing this excerpt, there’s nothing to stop the FBI from arranging some deal with a news competitor.”

Chuck waited for his comments to sink in.

“So far, this information is exclusive to us. It could yield a tip that would be exclusive to us. A reader may recognize the writing, the phraseology. The peculiarity of the sentence construction of the message might ring a bell that leads to an arrest, or something more.”

“Chuck, are you leaning toward publishing?” Lincoln asked.

“Yes, I say publish.”

“And you, Kate?”

“Publish.”

Lincoln removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.

“Well, I think we should publish and it appears we have a consensus to do so. Kate, pull a story together, go as long as you like with it, and we’ll get this thing moving. Chuck, when we’re ready I’ll take a look at it. Then we’ll alert subscribers to what’s coming.

Kate grabbed a coffee, returned to her desk, got into her zone and began writing.

Within five minutes, she’d crafted her lede:

A potential puzzle piece has emerged in the mystery surrounding the horrific crash of a jetliner at London’s Heathrow airport and the near-tragic incident experienced by a New York-bound commuter plane.

She then drafted what was known in journalism as “nut grafs”-a few tight paragraphs containing the news facts and background details of Shikra Flight 418 and EastCloud Flight 4990. She followed them with:

But in a new twist, Newslead has learned that the FBI is examining cryptic communications made by someone claiming to have knowledge of what is behind both events.

Assertions of responsibility are not uncommon during the course of an investigation. And while American and British investigators have stated that nothing has yet surfaced to suggest terrorism or even criminality is behind the incidents, the FBI is attempting to locate “a person or persons of interest.”

She provided a timeline on the two cases, interspersing the section with comments she’d obtained from aviation experts, and referencing the emails sent to Newslead and the Kuwaiti Embassy in London by a person using the name Zarathustra.

Using the section of Zarathustra’s email that had been edited by the FBI, Kate wrote that in one message, the sender had said:

“…tell the ordinary masses that we are extraordinary people destined to soon achieve a monumental victory of a colossal scale, the likes of which the world has never seen. We will take civilization to unprecedented heights, lighting the way forward for all of human existence. We are Zarathustra, Lord of the Heavens.”

Kate had called a professor of literature at Columbia University, requesting his thoughts concerning Zarathustra, and the connection to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Kate then quoted official spokespeople from the NTSB, the FAA, and British and Kuwaiti agencies, who’d stated that their investigations were ongoing and that they could not elaborate or comment on the Zarathustra emails.

She ended the story with a closing quote from an aviation expert.

“It’s not possible to hack into a system and take remote control of a commercial airliner, a so-called cyber hijack,” he said. “In the end you’ll find the boasts and wild claims made in the cryptic messages stem from a troubled and fantasy-driven mind. It’s a sad fact that disturbed individuals who have such delusions create this sort of widespread, groundless fear.”

After polishing her story, she proofread it, then sent it to Chuck.

Kate then finished her coffee and texted Grace and Vanessa. She needed to hear from them.

All was fine.

Then, to cope with her anxiety, she went to Chuck’s office, where he’d just finished reviewing her article. He’d passed it along to Lincoln, who would send it to the news desk to handle and send out.

“It’s going global,” Chuck said. “Good job, Kate. Good storytelling.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t feel good about it.”

“Why’s that?”

“It leaves me wondering if we’ve eroded the line between a free press and the police, and in the process, have we just given a criminal the world stage that they’d craved?”

“Time will tell, Kate. Time will tell.”