Page 444 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Jasper had been deep in conversation with Verena Marquand, sitting next to him. Now he looked irritated. "If you're planning to write an article about teenage romances that took place more than twenty years ago, and call it news, Suzy, all I can say is you must be sleeping with your editor."

Everyone laughed: Suzy was in fact married to the news editor of her paper.

Cam noticed that Suzy's laugh was forced, and her eyes glared hatred at Jasper. He recalled that Suzy as a young journalist had been fired from This Day after a series of wildly inaccurate reports.

Now she said: "You must have been interested to watch Jasper's show on TV last night, Cam."

Cam said: "Not interested so much as dismayed. The president and the CIA are trying to support the anti-Communist government in El Salvador."

Suzy said: "And Jasper seems to be on the other side, doesn't he?"

Jasper said: "I'm on the side of truth, Suzy. I know this is hard for you to grasp." Cam noticed that no trace of his British accent remained.

Cam said: "I was sorry to see such propaganda on a major network."

Jasper snapped: "How would you report on a government that murders thirty thousand of its own citizens?"

"We don't accept that figure."

"Then how many citizens of El Salvador do you think have been murdered by their government? Give us the CIA estimate."

"You should have asked that before broadcasting your show."

"Oh, I did. I got no answer."

"No Central American government is perfect. You focus on the ones we support. I think you're simply anti-American."

Suzy smiled. "You're British, aren't you, Jasper?" she said with poisonous sweetness.

Jasper looked riled. "I became a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago. I'm so pro-American that I risked my damn life for this country. I spent two years in the United States Army--one of those in Vietnam. And I wasn't sitting on my ass behind a desk in Saigon, either. I saw action, and I killed people. You've never done that, Suzy. And how about you, Cam? What did you do in Vietnam?"

"I wasn't called up."

"Then maybe you should just shut the fuck up."

Marybell interrupted. "I think that's enough about Jasper and Cam." She turned to a congressman from New York sitting next to her. "I see that your city has banned discrimination against homosexuals. Are you in favor of that?"

The conversation turned to gay rights, and Cameron relaxed--too soon.

A question was asked about legislation in other countries, and Suzy said: "What's the law in Poland, Lidka?"

"Poland is a Catholic country," said Lidka. "We have no homosexuals there." A moment of silence ensued, and she added: "Thank God."

*

Jasper Murray left the Lindeman house at the same time as Verena Marquand. "Suzy Cannon is a real troublemaker," he said as they went down the steps.

Verena laughed, showing white teeth in the lamplight. "That's the truth."

They reached the sidewalk. The taxi Jasper had ordered was nowhere in sight. He walked with Verena to her car. "Suzy's got it in for me," he said.

"She can't do you much harm, can she? You're such a big shot now."

"On the contrary. There's a serious campaign against me in Washington right now. It's election year, and the administration doesn't want television programs like the one I did last night." He felt comfortable confiding in her. They had been thrown together the day they watched Martin Luther King die. That sense of intimacy had never really gone away.

Verena said: "I'm sure you can fight off a gossip attack."

"I don't know. My boss is an old rival called Sam Cakebread who has never liked me. And Frank Lindeman, who owns the network, would dearly love to get rid of me if he could find a pretext. Right now the board is afraid they'll be accused of biasing the news if they fire me. But one mistake and I'm out."

---