The Evening News (13 page)

"New billing
”
meant:
if the situation changes
.”
Roger
,”
Julio acknowledged curtly
.
Replacing the cellular phone, Miguel glanced at his watch. Almost 7:45
A.M. In two hours all seven members of his group would be in place and
ready for action. Everything that would follow had been carefully
planned, with problems anticipated, precautions taken. When the action
started, some improvisation might be needed, but not much.
And there could be no postponement. Outside the United States, other
movements, dovetailing with their own, were already in motion.

Angus Sloane gave a contented sigh, put down his coffee cup and patted his mouth and silver-gray mustache with a napkin
.”
I'll state positively
,”
he declared, "that no better breakfast has been served this morning in all of New York State
.”

"And not one with higher cholesterol either
,”
his son said from behind
an opened New York Times across the table
.”
Don't you know all those
fried eggs are bad for your heart? How many was it you had? Three
?
”

"Who's counting
?
”

Jessica said
.”
Besides, you can afford the eggs, Crawf
.
Angus, would you like another
?
”

"No thank you, my dear
.”

The old man, sprightly and cherubic-he had
turned seventy-three a few weeks earliersmiled benevolently at Jessica
.”
Three eggs isn't many
,”
Nicky said
.”
I saw a late movie once about a
Southern prison. Somebody in it ate fifty eggs
.”

Crawford Sloane lowered the Times to say, "The movie you're speaking of
was Cool Hand Luke. It starred Paul Newman and came out in 1967. I'm
sure, though, that Newman didn't really eat those eggs. He's a fine actor
who convinced you that he did
.”

"There was a salesman here once from the Britannica
,”
Jessica said
.”
He
wanted to sell us an encyclopedia. I told him we already had one, living
in
.”

"Can I help it
,”
her husband responded, "if some of the news I live with
sticks to me? It's like fluff, though. You can never tell which bits will
stay in memory and what will blow away
.”

They were all seated in the bright and cheerful breakfast
room, which adjoined the kitchen. Angus had arrived a half hour earlier, embracing his daughter-in-law and grandson warmly and shaking hands more formally with Crawford
.
The constraint between father and son-sometimes translating to irritation
on Crawford's part-had existed for a long time. Mainly it had to do with
differing ideas and values. Angus had never come to terms with the easing
in national and personal moral standards which had been accepted by most
Americans from the 1960s onward. Angus ardently believed in "honor, duty
and the flag"; further, that his fellow countrymen should still exhibit the
uncompromising patriotism that existed during World War 11- -the high point
of Angus's life, about which he reminisced ad infinitum. At the same time
he was critical of many of the rationales that his own son, in his news-
gathering activities, nowadays accepted as normal and progressive
.
Crawford, on the other hand, was intolerant of his father's thinking which
,
as Crawford saw it, was rooted in antiquity and failed to take into account
the greatly expanded knowledge on all fronts-notably scientific and
philosophical-in the four
plus decades since World War 11. There was another
factor, too -a conceit on Crawford's part (though he would not have used
that word) that having attained the top of his professional tree, his own
judgments about world affairs and the human condition were superior to most
other people's
.
Now, in the early hours of this day, it already appeared that the gap
between Crawford and his father had not narrowed
.
As Angus had explained on countless other occasions, and did so once again
,
all his life he had liked to arrive wherever he was going early in the
morning. It was why he had flown from Florida to La Guardia yesterday
,
stayed overnight with an American Legion crony who lived near the airport
,
then, soon after dawn, came to Larchmont by bus and taxi
.
While the familiar recital was proceeding, Crawford had raised his eyes to
the ceiling. Jessica, smiling and nodding as if she had never heard the
words before, had prepared for Angus his favorite bacon and eggs, and for
herself and the other two served a more healthful homemade granola.

"About my heart and eggs
,”
Angus said-he sometimes took a few minutes to
absorb a remark that had been made, and then returned to it-"I figure if
my ticker's lasted this long, I shouldn't worry about that cholesterol
stuff. Also, my heart and I have been in some tight spots and come through
them. I could tell you about a few
.”

Crawford Sloane lowered his newspaper enough to catch Jessica's eye and
warn her with a glance: Change the subject quick, before he gets launched
on reminiscences. Jessica gave the slightest of shrugs, conveying in body
language: If that's what you want, do it yourself
.
Folding the Times, Sloane said, "They have the casualty figures here from
that crash at Dallas yesterday. It's pretty grim. I imagine we'll be doing
follow-up stories through next week
.”

"I saw that on your news last night
,”
Angus said
.”
It was done by that
fellow Partridge. I like him. When he does those bits from overseas
,
especially about our military forces, he makes me feel proud to be American
too. Not all your people do that, Crawford
.”

"Unfortunately there's a joker in there, Dad
,”
Sloane said
.”
Harry
Partridge isn't American. He's a Canadian. Also you'll have to do without
him for a while. Today he starts a long vacation
.”

Then he asked curiously
,
"Who, of our people, doesn't make you feel proud
?
”

"Just about all the others. It's the way almost all you TV news folk have
of denigrating everything, especially our own government, quarreling with
authority, always trying to make the President look small. No one seems to
be proud of anything anymore. Doesn't that ever bother you
?
”

When Sloane didn't answer, Jessica told him, sotto voce, "Your father
answered your question. Now you should answer his
.”

"Dad
,”
Sloane said, "you and I have been over this ground before, and I
don't think we'll ever have a meeting of the minds. What you call
'denigrating everything' we in the news business think of as legitimate
questioning, the public's right to know. It's become a function of news
reporting to challenge the
politicians and bureaucrats, to question whatever we're toldand a good thing too. The fact is, governments lie and cheatDemocrat, Republican, liberal, socialist, conservative. Once in office they all do it
.”
Sure we who seek out the news get tough at times and occasionally-I admit
it-go too far. But because of what we do, a lot of crookedness and
hypocrisy gets exposed, which in older days those in power got away with
.
So because of sharper news coverage, which TV pioneered, our society is a
little better, slightly cleaner, and the principles of this country nudged
nearer what they should be
.”
As to presidents, Dad, if some of them look small, and most of them have
,
they've accomplished that themselves. Oh sure, we news guys help the
process now and then, and that's because we're skeptics, sometimes cynics
,
and often don't believe the soothing syrup that presidents hand out. But
skulduggery in high places, all high places, gives us plenty of reason to
be the way we are
.”

"I wish the President sort of belonged to everybody, not one party
,”
Nicky
said. He added thoughtfully, "Wouldn't it have been better if the Founding
Fathers had made Washington the king, and Franklin or Jefferson the
President? Then Washington's kids and their children and grandchildren
could have been kings and queens, so we'd have a head of state to feel
proud of and a President to blame for things, the way the British do with
their prime minister
.”

"America's great loss, Nicky
,”
his father said, "is that you weren't at the
Constitutional Convention to push that idea. Despite Washington's kids
being adopted, it's more sensible than a lot else that happened then and
since
.”

They all laughed, then becoming serious Angus said, "The reporting in my
war-that's World War II to you, Nicky-was different from what it is today
.
We had the feeling then that those who wrote about it, talked on the radio
,
were always on our side. It's not that way anymore
.”

"It was a different war
,”
Crawford said, "and a different time. Just as
there are new ways of gathering news, concepts
about news change too. A lot of us don't believe anymore in 'My country right or wrong.'
“
Angus complained, "I never thought I'd hear a son of mine say that
.”

Sloane shrugged
.”
Well, you're hearing it now. Those of us who aim at truth
in news want to be sure our country's right, that we're not being fed
hocus-pocus by whoever is in charge. The only way you can find out about
that is to ask tough, probing questions
.”

"Don't you believe there were tough questions asked in my war
?
”

"Not tough enough
,”
Sloane said. He paused, wondering whether to go
farther, then decided he would
.”
Weren't you one of those who went on the
first B- 17 bombing raid to Schweinfurt
?
”

"Yes
.”

Then to Nicholas: "That was deep in Germany, Nicky. At the time, not
a nice place to go
.”

With a touch of ruthlessness, Crawford persisted
.”
You told me once that
the objective at Schweinfurt was to destroy ballbearing factories, that
those in charge of the bombing believed they could bring Germany's war
machine to a halt because it had to have ball bearings
.”

Angus nodded slowly, knowing what was coming
.”
That's what they told us
.”

"Then you also know that after the war it was discovered that it didn't
work. Despite that raid and others, which cost so many American lives
,
Germany never was short of ball bearings. The policy, the plans, were
wrong. Well, I'm not saying that the press in those days could have stopped
that awful waste. But nowadays questions would be asked-not after it was
over, but while it was happening, so the questioning and public knowledge
would be a restraint and probably lessen the loss of life
.”

As his son spoke, the old man's face was working, creased by memory and
pain. With the others' eyes upon him he seemed to diminish, to sink into
himself, suddenly to become older. He said, his voice quavering, "At
Schweinfurt we lost fifty B-17s. There were ten people in a crew. That's
five hundred fliers lost that single day. And in that same week of October '43, we lost another eighty-eight B-17s-near enough nine hundred people
.”