Heaven's Fire (12 page)

"But
, as I understand
--" Bryan was interrupted by the siren song of his own name being called by a female. A young female. He waved over his little blonde assistant, Lillian, who nodded hello to Jake, and then leaned down to whisper in Bryan's ear.

Aamot was observing closely, but Jake didn't know if he was trying to listen or looking at Lillian's
breasts bouncing in
the tight Lake Days T-shirt.

Bryan stood up. "Simon, have you met Lillian White?"

Aamot stood up, too. "No," he said, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Aamot and Lillian shook on it, and Bryan picked up his orange soda and drained it. "I'm afraid
, according to Li
llian
,
we have a fire to put out.
"
He smiled at the irony of his words, then turned to Aamot.
"
It’s been a pleasure meeting you,
Mr. Aamot,
although I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances.
"

He and Aamot shook hands, too. There was a whole lot of shaking going on, Jake thought. She didn't
partake
,
settling for
a cheery little goodbye.

As the two Festivities people walked away, Bryan doing all the talking, Aamot said: "Please don't tell me the Whites named their little girl 'Lily.'"

Jake laughed. "At least she has sense enough to use Lillian." She picked up the empty cup Bryan had left behind and tossed it across the table and into the trash. Basket! The crowd roars. "I'm still cleaning up after him," she muttered.

"
Still?
"

"
I used to be Lilly White," Jake said.

Aamot cocked his head, not understanding.

"I was Bryan's first assistant when he started Festivities," Jake explained,
pausing to give
that fact some thought.

Criminy, she'd been buxom and blond back then,
just like Lillian.
Funny, it had never occurred to
Jake
that Lillian White was an awful lot like
yesterday's--or more accurately, last decade's--
Wendy Jacobus.

"
I thought you'd been at the station for ten years," Aamot said. "You work for Williams when you were twelve?
"

"
I’m older than I look.
"
But not than she felt
. "I worked for Bryan for two years when he was just starting out. He sold sponsorships and I managed the events. In other words, I did all the work, and he got all the money and glory.
"

"
He’s done very well,
"
Aamot said mildly.

Jake shrugged.
"
Bryan
’s smart. And he’s a very good salesman. Take Lake Days. He sold
my
station on the idea of a live broadcast of the fireworks and then turned around and encouraged our competitors to line up along the street to shoot the finale for their news. Not
his
fault, he says. It's a public street, how could he stop them?"

"Slick," admitted Aamot.

One man's slick is another man's oily, Jake thought.

T
he ATF agent was nodding
. "I
t's like giving NBC the rights to broadcast a baseball game and then letting CBS, ABC, Fox and ESPN show the bottom of the ninth live."

"Exactly," Jake said with a smile. "Bryan
secured
a live broadcast of his event, with the ad revenues associated with it, and still didn't have to sacrifice coverage on the other stations.

"And
you're right, he is slick," she continued. "His only problem is he considers himself a 'big picture' kind of guy, and sometimes a detail or two falls through the cracks." She pointed at the Refresh Yourself Lake Days banner flying above them. "See this? Refresh Yourself, the sports drink, is the title sponsor of Lake Days. They paid big bucks to buy the sponsorship, only to have CoolSplash ambush them."

Aamot didn’t seem to follow.
"
Ambush them how?
"

"CoolSplash is Refresh Yourself's biggest competitor. That's their beaver." Jake gestured across the street with her now tepid gyro. An even bigger banner there proclaimed
"
Make a SPLASH at Lake Days.
"

"So, let me get this straight, the beaver is ambushing someone?" Aamot seemed to be having trouble keeping a straight face.

"Uh-huh." Jake knew what he was thinking, but she wasn't going to give him the chance to be beaver clever. Okay, so she could be sophomoric, too. "Ambush marketing is fairly common in events. It used to happen a lot with the Olympics. A company pays a huge amount of money--millions, in the case of the Olympics--to have official sponsor status. They are the 'Official Whatever' of the Olympics. That’s fine, but it doesn’t buy them anything but the right to call themselves 'The Official Whatever of the Olympics.' They have to buy their own ads to promote the sponsorship.

"
S
o," Jake continued, "
a competitor theoretically could come in and buy up a whole bunch of ad time on other stations or rent all the billboards in town, congratulating the athletes. Now, even though Company A is the Official Whatever, Company B is all over the air and all over the city. If it's done well enough, the public perception is that Company B is the sponsor.
"

"
Sounds l
ike a big problem for the event itself
.
"
Aamot rubbed his chin.
"
Why would someone buy a sponsorship if you can ambush it for nothing?
"

"Exactly."
Jake gathered up the rest of their trash and stuck it in the barrel as she stood up.
"
That’s why you have to prevent it.
"

"
How?
"

"
Well, for one thing,
"
she said,
"
you make
darn
sure you reserve the park across the street, so they can’t fill it with giant beavers.
"
She saluted the CoolSplash Beaver with one finger and giggled.

This time Aamot beamed his approval.
"
You’re what? Thirty?
"

"
Thirty-five. Told you I was older than I look.
"

"
Still. So young to be so cynical.
"

She laughed.
"
It’s been a long thirty-five years, believe me.
"

"
What about this microwave truck? Who really pays for it?
"

"
Sore subject,
"
Jake warned.
"
Tread there and, rest assured, cynicism will follow.
"

He didn’t say anything.

She sighed.
"
Okay, okay. I’m hoping that the station’s insurance will cover it.
"

"
Why wouldn’t it?
"

They were approaching the production truck now. Jake picked her hair up off her neck. The air was getting sticky again.
"
They could argue that losing a microwave van off a barge during a fireworks show was beyond what they consider a 'normal business risk,' even in our abnormal business. If that happens, either we go after Firenze’s insurance company or the station takes it out of my hide.
"

"
You’re the one who decided to put it out there?
"

Jake shrugged.
"
I’m the one who let Bryan talk me into putting it out there. Just like Pasquale let Bryan talk him into making those big shells
, no matter what spin Bryan
is trying to put
on it now
.
And
see where it
's
got
ten us
?
"

Simon followed Jake back into the production van.
"
You think they’ll fire you?
"

Jake settled into her chair at the console and
slid
the box of videotapes he’d left there toward him. Interesting woman, he thought, looking down at her. Strawberry blonde hair, but eyes so dark brown they looked black.

She shrugged now.
"
I don’t know. You can’t lose some
thing that big, that expensive...
"
She broke off with a laugh.
"
But life goes on
--or not--one way or another.
You know that verse,
'The Indispensable Man?' by the
prolific poet, Anonymous?
"

He
smiled, but
shook his head.

"It's used by a lot of inspirational speakers. I may be paraphrasing, but here goes." She clasped her hands theatrically.

"
Sometime when you’re feeling important

sometime when your ego’s in bloom.

Sometime when you take it for granted,

you’re the best qualified in the room.

Sometime when you think that your going

would leave an unfillable hole,

just follow these simple directions

and see how they’ll humble your soul.

"
Take a bucket and fill it with water,

put your hand in it up to the wrist.

Pull it out, and the hole that’s remaining

is the measure of how you’ll be missed.
"

She grinned at him as she continued.

"
You can splash all you want as you enter.

You can stir up the water galore,

But stop, and you’ll find that in no time

it looks quite the same as before.

"
Now the moral of this quaint example

is do just the best that you can.

Be proud of yourself, but remember

There is no indispensable man.
"

"
And you find this inspirational?" To Simon, it sounded downright depressing.

"
I find it...reassuring,
"
Jake countered.
"
No one’s as important as they thin
k they are--not me, not you, nor even Martha Malone,
Bryan Williams or the honorable Clementine Cox."

She smiled now, and it lighted up her face. She just missed "beautiful" when she smiled.

"
Would you--" Simon started and then stopped.

"
Would I what?
"

Damned if Simon knew, but he
feared
he had been about to ask her out. Not a good idea in the middle of an investigation
, as past experience had proven
.

Yet he lifted up the uppermost tape in the box and
asked,
"
Would you go over these
with me?
"

"Me?" She looked surprised.
"
Why?"

Simon
was fumbling for a reason, and now one--
lame, though it might be--
came to mind.
"
Because
I assume you have something more efficient than a regular VCR to view them on. Besides, I'm hoping you can provide context. Who's shooting and such
.
"

"
I can, but right now
I have to get ready for a three-thirty News Break, and then get back to the station for the Six O’clock News. If you
can
wait until after that, we could use the editing suite there and
go through the footage
frame by frame. But
...," the
"lameness" of Simon's request s
eemed to be sinking in, "
aren’t you worried I’ll leak something to our news guys?
"

"
I don't think you'd do that," Simon said, honestly. "Do you?"

From Jake's expression, she apparently wasn't as sure.

*****

Kathy McCutcheon looked up from her desk when the electronic access pad on the ATF office door beeped. Three seconds later, Simon Aamot entered.

"
Howdy, cowboy.
"