Free Free Fall by Rick Mofina Page B

“strong.”
    Her exclusive interview with Captain Matson was used by 1,149 English-language newspapers and websites in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, parts of Africa, Europe, South America and the Caribbean.
    The Seattle Times , the Boston Globe , the Washington Post , the Toronto Star , The Times of London, the New Zealand Herald , South Africa’s Daily Sun and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post were among those who’d given it play.
    This is pretty good, Kate thought.
    She checked her public email box for the address tag at the end of her story. Readers could use the feature to contact a reporter directly. Most reporters loathed it because, while much of the spam was filtered, what they nearly always received were emails from political zealots, religious extremists, grammar experts, scam artists, nut jobs and idiots. It was rare that a story yielded a genuine lead.
    But you gotta check. You never know what you can find there.
    Usually, for Kate, an article would result in anywhere from a handful to more than a hundred emails, depending on the story. She was skilled at plowing through them quickly.
    Like searching for buried treasure .
    Her story had generated sixty emails so far and she’d sorted through about a third of them, flagging four to consider later.
    â€œWhy didn’t you use my work in the story, Kate?” Sloane F. Parkman stood over her desk, arms folded, tie knotted, every hair in place. He was not wearing the grin today.
    â€œBecause it was wrong, Sloane.”
    â€œI wrote that according to litigation and FAA records. There was nothing of consequence regarding the actual plane for Flight Forty-nine Ninety, or the RT-86 in general.”
    â€œYou editorialized. I checked those very records and listed what the history was, what the facts are. Then I contacted an industry expert who put that history in context, saying all of the incidents and civil actions were in keeping with what was to be expected given the new model and EastCloud’s size as an airline. I put the facts on the record, Sloane. You chose not to report them. Why is that?”
    â€œThere was nothing of significance to report!”
    â€œYou’re not the expert to make that call! Why’re you downplaying the facts, Sloane?”
    â€œWe’re supposed to be working together on this story. Why did you remove my byline, Kate?”
    â€œI didn’t. I put it on the story—”
    â€œI took it off.” Chuck stared at them. “Let’s take this into my office. Now.”
    They entered and Chuck closed the door.
    â€œNobody sits down. This will be quick,” Chuck said.
    â€œWhere’s Reeka?” Sloane asked.
    â€œGot called to a meeting. Sloane, your effort was half-assed. Your contribution added nothing to the piece, so I removed your byline.”
    â€œBut I did what you requested, Chuck. I consulted the records.”
    â€œWhat you submitted was akin to a street cop at a crime scene telling people there’s nothing to see here. You kept facts from the light. End of discussion.”
    â€œBut there was nothing—”
    â€œEnd of discussion.” Chuck put his hands on his hips. “Senior management liked the story, liked that we challenged the New York Times , got it on the record and got serious pickup. It shows subscribers are paying attention. Now I’ve asked our business reporters to dig into EastCloud and Richlon, to look into their histories. And I’ve asked our Washington bureau to start pumping members of the House Transportation Committee and the House Aviation Subcommittee. Maybe they’re hearing something on the big players here. They’ll feed whatever they get to us. We need to keep digging on this.”
    â€œSounds good,” Kate said.
    â€œWant me to keep checking with my aviation sources, too, Chuck?”
    â€œYes. But Sloane, we need to be sure we can put names