"Hello. My name is Cassidy Shaw. You might know me from Channel 4 news, but I'm here tonight at the KNWS studio, where I am being held hostage." Cassidy enunciated each word carefully.
So it was true, then. The police had already told Allison about the spate of false 911 calls. She had been hoping that this was just one more.
Cassidy continued, her voice slow and even. "I've been asked to introduce this important message about our nation's food supply. I have been told that I will be shot if I do not comply. You may think that this is some kind of joke, but I can assure you, it is not." Her voice dropped. "This is real."
Unexpectedly, Allison found herself smiling. Even with a gun trained on her, Cassidy was still a professional, still using her tone, choice of words, and well-placed pauses to command attention.
Then another woman's voice broke in, angry and strident. "Wake up, America! When you sit down to eat, when you give your children a hamburger or milk and cookies, how do you know it's safe? How do you know there isn't salmonella in your spinach, campylobacter in your peas, Listeria in your cheese, Shigella in your bean dip, E. coli in your hamburger?
"Well, you know what? You don't know. Every forkful you put in your mouth is a gamble. Every day our food supply can and does kill someone. Our food is being contaminated by rats and cow manure, mold and dead birds, bacteria you can't see, taste, or smell, but that can still kill you. It's not just a matter of turning your stomach. It's a matter of life and death.
"And you know who is the most likely to die? Our most vulnerable. Your baby, your grandmother, your friend who is fighting cancer. And maybe when they die you'll think it was the flu, or old age, or some kind of bug--but it was completely preventable. Thousands are dying each year who don't need to.
"Now weigh that against the fate of a single man. A man who called people like me 'Chicken Littlest Who mocked us as the food police and supporters of the nanny state, and falsely claimed that it was too expensive to really keep our food safe. You know what? Tell that to my dead sister. Tell her that it cost too much to keep bacteria out of her peanut butter. Tell the kids whose kidneys fail that safe food is too much of a hassle. Tell your grandmother that it's too much of a burden to make sure her salad isn't teeming with pathogens.
"Because that's what Jim Fate did. He mocked those of us who cared. Millions of people listened to his lies. And as a result, Jim Fate had the blood of innocents on his hands.
"We must demand that the federal government take on the responsibility of policing our food. That inspections are frequent, and the consequences dire. When a company weighs whether to keep contaminated food off your table, they need to know that they might go out of business if they don't."
Despite Cassidy being held at gunpoint, despite Jim Fate's murder, Allison found Willow's words striking a chord with her. The girl's approach was dead wrong--but were her ideas?
Up ahead she saw the flashing lights of emergency vehicles. It was like a nighttime replay of the day Jim Fate had died, minus the panicked crowd on the street.
It was a nightmare.
Thank goodness you're here," Nicole told Allison on the sidewalk outside KNWS. Leif nodded, and the three of them huddled close. They were surrounded by uniformed cops, guys in suits holding cell phones to their ears, and men in black commando outfits complete with helmets, bulletproof vests, and submachine guns. "We called Willow, and she actually answered. But she'll only speak to you."
"Me?" Allison echoed in surprise. "Why me?"
"She says she liked you from when you interviewed her." Nicole's smile was rueful."I reminded her that I was there, too, but I guess you're the one Willow liked. So you're going to have to be our negotiator:'
It was suddenly hard for Allison to draw a breath. "But I don't have any training."
"I'll be right here so I can guide you," Leif said. "I'll be able to listen in on an earpiece. There's no other way to get Cassidy out, not if we don't persuade Willow. She's holding her in the station's control room." He pointed to the building's entrance. "There are cameras on the front and back doors so that whoever works at night can buzz people in. Unfortunately, they feed into the control room. We can't risk spooking her. We're working on breaching the windows, but again, we can't make any noise."
"Is there a window into the control room?" Allison asked. "Could you use a sniper?"
Leif shook his head. "No exterior windows. The only good shot would be if we could get someone inside, get them into the main studio, and have them shoot through the glass that separates it from the control room. That's if we could get them inside. Even then the board operator says the glass is four panes thick."
"What about using tear gas or some other kind of gas?" It would be an ironic twist.