Chapter 92

The alarm rang again. Lauren rolled over and felt for the clock. She had been able to grab some more sleep after getting up earlier to call in sick. Her throat was sore, so she hadn’t really been lying. Lauren suspected Linus wouldn’t buy her excuse, but that was tough. With a little luck, she had passed her germs along to him. If his throat started to scratch, then he might believe her.

Groaning inwardly, she recalled the party the night before. It was too bad Jerome was dead, but Lauren felt far worse that Yelena had walked in on her and Linus. That wasn’t going to help in her quest for Constance’s job. As far as Lauren could tell, Yelena was one uptight woman, and Lauren strongly doubted the news president would shrug off the compromising scene. If Yelena wasn’t on her side, Lauren could kiss her ambitions at KEY good-bye.

She pulled the sleep mask from her eyes and searched for the remote control. KEY to America was just beginning. Standing on the stage, Constance Young was resplendent in a bright red suit.

“Good morning. Today we come to you from Radio City Music Hall, home of the world-renowned Christmas Spectacular. A cast of one hundred and forty people, including the dazzling Rockettes with their famous eye-high kicks, will be with us this morning, and we’ll have a visit from Santa Claus, who has sneaked in from the North Pole, but first we have the morning headlines.”

It was so incongruous, thought Lauren, as she studied Constance. The happy banter of the scripted opening leading to the serious news. But they had to get the viewers into the tent, Linus always said, promising them a good time if they could just sit through the nitty-gritty.

“Anthrax has taken the life of thirty-six-year-old KEY News Producer Jerome Henning, a staff member of our broadcast. Henning, who had been in critical condition at a New Jersey hospital, died yesterday. Police found anthrax in Henning’s home and are investigating a possible link to anthrax taken from a lab where the former KEY medical correspondent, Dr. John Lee, shot his report on the availability of the deadly substance. In his report, Dr. Lee claimed to have obtained his own container of anthrax, but tests showed that substance to be powdered sugar.”

Lauren rose from her bed and went into the bathroom. As she splashed cold water on her face, she mapped out her morning. The first stop was the doctor’s office. Before she did anything else, she was going to get that Cipro. If this sore throat was the beginning of anything more serious than a cold, she had to be protected.