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.And how cunningly they had linked it up with NAMES! Nixon, Narcotici, Boss Tweed.The WhizKid was now positioned with criminals! How convincing! Who could doubt it?The other papers were the same.This story would be bouncing coast to coast and even around theworld.TV would be carrying that photo as a still.Radio would be spot-newsing it every hour.Whatcoverage! An avalanche!And, my Gods, it was also all over the sports pages! They were running still shot reviews of the race!That meant TV sports programs would be running the moving color footage!All was revealed! So this was how news was made! Madison was right.I had not really been aprofessional PR.But wait a minute, how was Heller taking this?Chapter 7I got the viewer on.Heller was driving the old cab down the Jersey side of the river.He had a stack of the newspaperson the floor under the meter and was glancing at them from time to time.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHe was PERTURBED!I turned back the strips.Yes, Heller had been summoned by Geovani when he had reached theoffice.Geovani had simply said, "You better get over here, kid, but I advise you not to come." That voicewas very tense.Heller was in trouble!Ah, PR, PR, what a beautiful tool for trouble.I realized now that nobody was safe from such aweapon.It might strike anywhere at anyone.There was no predicting it at all! One minute he had beenhappily going about his business and then, bang, through no action of his own, he was shot by PR.Andhe didn't even have any inkling it was a shot.Maybe he thought it was just how the world ran: thatnewspapers were unreliable or made mistakes or simply catered to the public taste for sensationalism.An expert in hand-to-hand combat, a Fleet combat engineer that could blow up fortresses and baseswithout a single scratch, Heller was a leaf in the wind before the mighty hurricane of PR, just a chip to beexploded at will by a master like Madison.And Heller not only didn't know, there was absolutely no onehe could fight, nothing whatever he could do about it! Madison had reduced him, with a few paragraphs,to a helpless pawn!All Heller knew was that he was in trouble.He drove that way.He had even ignored a disguise whenhe left New York.Just a pile of paper.A pile that could be burned with a single match.But that pile of paper was on itsway to wrecking Heller!I could tell it just from Geovani's voice.At Babe's he parked the cab.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlGeovani met him in the elevator."Kid, I wouldn't go in."Heller handed Georgio a tan, leather trench coat and cap but Georgio wouldn't take it.It fell to thefloor.Heller knocked on the living-room door.It did not open.He turned the knob and went in.No Babe.Some sounds were coming from beyond another door across the room.Heller went over andopened it.It was a sort of den.It had a fireplace but there was no fire in it.A crucifix hung on the wall.The rugwas black.And there sat Babe.She was crumpled up on her knees.She had a sackcloth over her head.Shehad taken ashes from the fireplace and was smearing them on her face."Mia culpa," she moaned."Mia magna culpa.It is my fault, it is my great fault."She was crying.She sensed someone had entered.She looked up, tears coursing through the ashes on her face, making two clean streaks.She saw him.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html"Oh, Jerome," she groaned."My own son a traditore!" She bent over, weeping."My own son, myown son!"Heller tried to walk forward to her."Mrs.Corleone, please believe me."Rejection was instant.Palms flat toward him, she blocked his further approach with a gesture."No,no, do not come near me! Somehow, somewhere you have tainted blood! You have stained the honor ofthe family! Do not come near me!"Heller dropped to his own knees, distant from her."Please, Mrs.Corleone, I did not have [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]