American Shutdown - Chapter 17: News Conference

The stage had been set for a news conference. Because of the national exposure Bernie had attracted, the affair would be held in the town auditorium. Agent Ramos was instructed to be on the stage ready to answer any questions handed-off to him by Police Chief Russo. M-Mtek’s representative would be corporate Vice President of Operations, Harold Smith, who was still in town as the point man for the company.

Sam hitched a ride with Agent Ramos to town hall. During the trip he was thinking to himself how he always wanted to ride in a black F.B.I. S.U.V. with tinted windows. As they approached the town hall parking area they could see that it was buzzing with news media communication trucks. Reporters were already testing the signals and giving preliminary live reports to their viewers.

Their driver pulled around to the back of the lot where the police had cordoned off a secured gate to the auditorium’s rear entrance. They were all able to jump out and scamper into the door without notice. Sam never saw so many F.B.I. agents with ear plug sets in his life.

Police Chief Russo called for a quick briefing on how he was going to handle the presser. It was a fairly standard drill. Most important was the safety of the hostages, trying to get the perp out alive, limiting information about potential blasts being set off and keeping M-Mtek’s role limited during the Q & A.

When Chief Russo finished he saw that Captain Jim had been assigned to help escort them on to the auditorium stage. As they followed him to the area behind the podium he was again taken by the mass of lights and cameras assembled in the lower section of the seats. Apparently the media saw this as a big story. Jim went off to their flank to await Chief Russo’s entrance. Sam looked left and right off-stage and again noticed it was filled with F.B.I. agents. Why so many, he wondered?

Walking smartly from among the F.B.I. cluster stage left, Chief Russo took the podium. He proceeded to give a brief chronological account of the M-Mtek hostage events, starting with the 10 AM announcement of the shutdown at its plant cafeteria. He finished with a brief summary of the inter-governmental cooperation and support being employed to help bring the situation to a safe and timely close. Chief Russo then opened the news conference to questions.

“Chief Russo,” are the three young ladies who were released OK? Were they treated well? And, what did they have to say about Mr. Soloff?” a pantsuit-clad lady reporting for a local TV station was first to ask.

“Yes,” Chief Russo replied holding his hand above his eyes to cut down the glare. “We were lucky enough to rescue them through a skylight on the roof in a third floor bathroom. Once we heard that the subject was willing to let them go we acted quickly and by the grace of God we were able to extract them without incident. Many thanks to the private contractors who were on site for the shutdown move, the F.B.I., our S.W.A.T team officers and other support agencies who helped make that possible.”

Sam’s mind was wandering. He wondered why it was that at public catastrophe press conferences the chief honcho always made sure emphasis was given to the stellar teamwork and inter-governmental cooperation no matter what their origination or outcome. Then he realized Bernie was probably somehow listening and thinking the same thing only for a different reason. He focused back on the questions from the media.

A veteran flagship broadcast anchor from a Boston TV station muscled his way to being called on. He question to Chief Russo was, “Could you further explain the details of the hostage-taker’s demand for M-Mtek to unconditionally reverse its decision to shutdown the plant? And, did he say he’d give up the remaining hostages and surrender if they did?”

The Chief tried to buy some time for answering the question with a short synopsis that duplicated what he had said earlier about Bernie’s demands. He finally got around to the crux of his answer to the TV anchor’s question by saying that they had no assurances in that regard. He said that only through further negotiations could that be ascertained.

It was not what the media mob wanted to here. In unison they threw up there hands in a cacophony of questions that confronted the chief at the podium. Chief Russo tried calling for some order to the onslaught. While he was attempting to calm down the crowd an F.B.I. agent came up to the podium to whisper something in Chief Russo’s ear. With the agent at his side, the Chief turned to his audience and said, “We must curtail the Q & A session. I’ve been informed something’s come up that needs my immediate attention. Thank you for your cooperation. I must go.”

Chief Russo motioned Captain Jim and Sam to follow him as he began walking off the stage. Agent Ramos was already in the wings absorbed into speaking on his ear set. Sam guessed Bernie had been listening in and had a new deal to make. He hoped it was a sane one.

Agent Ramos called out to the awaiting hostage team, “Everyone head back to the M-Mtek command center, pronto. Soloff is acting unstable and has a new take on things that doesn’t sound very good. We need to talk him down and get him to release the other hostages before it’s too late.

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American Shutdown by Benjamin F. Campanelli
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