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Robin, The Nighthawk in "She’s All In"   by Roberta J. Cabot This is another Robin Tibbles story, which is Danny Fairchild’s radio announcer alter ego. Like the other Robin Tibbles stories, this does not materially contribute to the main story, Danny, but is more like “a day in the life” type of story of the main character, Danny, though, in this particular one, it's Danny in his Robin persona. This is one of “Danny's Other Stories" (see https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book-page/72894/dannys-other-...). This story stands on its own, but it would be good to read Danny, even though it is unfinished so that you can get a background of Danny/Robin, the story, and a background of Danny’s friends (see http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14774/danny).

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CHAPTER 1: Robin – Conference

Tracey and I were sent by Mrs. P to attend the First National Communicators Conference. It was for three days and was being hosted at Hilton East Brunswick Hotel in New Jersey. Everyone was hoping for New York but it was the first conference, and sponsors and sponsorships were very thin. Hence here we are in New Jersey. The conference was all about “communicators” – reporters, newscasters, news writers, and editorialists, and the theme of the first conference was: “The Responsibility of the 21st Century Communicators In Today’s Interconnected World.” The organizers sent an invitation to the station, for Robin Tibbles to attend the conference, see the toys on exhibit, listen to the speeches, attend lectures, and most importantly, give a speech on the first day of the conference. It wasn’t as impactful as the keynote speech at the end of the conference, but the first speech of the conference was an awfully important one, as well. Mrs. P. practically ordered me to attend.

Before I could react, she said that Tracey would be accompanying me and that she would be taking care of most of the things that needed to be taken care of, but it was up to me to make the speech, and to schmooze, especially schmooze network and company bigwigs, and all of the famous broadcasters I think were worthy of establishing some kind of business relationship.

So, on the first day, I was given a card, and filled out and registered to attend speeches and seminars I thought were interesting, and I picked speeches from Erin Burnett, Savannah Guthrie, Jane Pauley, and Norah O’Donnell. I also included addresses by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Anderson Cooper. Tracey looked at my list and raised an eyebrow.

“What!” I said.

Tracey copied my card and she gave her and my card to the lady with us, so she could reserve seats. In our list, we made sure to leave time to go through the gadgets on display on the main floor, which was like catnip for Tracey. I was fine to make time for it.

I didn’t really give it much thought, and just picked out the lectures from the top of my head – our assigned hostess needed our cards right away as we were running late: we arrived just a couple or so before the start of the event: the flight was a little delayed and the airport limo wasn’t available. We had therefore arrived via a cab, in a rush, tired and sweaty. I was also missing a bag, but the airport people promised to find it and that they would get it to us at the convention.

I wouldn’t have worried much because it was only a small bag that contained only a few things that I could do without for this trip, except that it had my toiletries, PLUS Dr. Roberts’ special formula in a little spray bottle. I would definitely need that. The event was only three days so I thought nothing much could happen.

Our assigned hostess reminded us that we needed to attend the Friday Fellowship, and she asked us if we planned to do something.

“Plan to do something?” I asked.

“It’s a kind of party. Everyone is asked if they want to do something. Jon Stewart is expected to do a monologue. Anderson Cooper volunteered to MC, and some others had promised to sing some songs. So… can we expect KRPQ’s representatives to ‘do something’ for Friday?”

Tracey and I looked at each other. “I guess we can sing something?”

“Great!” And the girl scribbled on her clipboard. “What can I do to help?”

“Can you, maybe, find us a guitar?”

“Sure thing. I’ll send it to your room. Oh! Also, since it’s just a few weeks away from Halloween, Friday Fellowship is a costume party.”

“But… we didn’t come prepared.”

“Well, let me know how I can help. There are a couple of stores nearby. Maybe I can bring you to them so you can pick a costume you might like.”

 

CHAPTER 2: Tracey – Speech

I had a privileged spot in front, allowing me to record Robin, for the purpose of posting it on the website. We’ve been given permission, of course.

For this occasion, I had a setup that was similar to the one we used for the coverage of that fire we made back then, except I was plugged into the sound feed of the room instead of using a mic. I could have just used the event’s video coverage, but apparently, we had to pay for that. So that meant we had to take care of our own video.

There were two podiums – one for the host and moderator - Anderson Cooper, and another for the speaker. I requested our hostess to set a half apple at the foot of the speaker’s podium, but the half apple might be a little low, so I asked for a full apple.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Anderson started, “It is the first time for our first speaker to be heard speaking in a public event like this. And some may argue that other broadcasters might be more appropriate to speak at our conference. But I do not agree with that.

“Some may argue that I have a proprietary interest in our speaker since it was my program that brought attention to her coverage of that fire in her small hometown in Middle America. Some will argue that it wasn’t a real news piece – that it was more a kind of stunt to increase her audience. But learning about the circumstances, and having met her since, I firmly believe that she was just doing her best, and be a credit to her little radio station, and help the people of her little town. She did her best to bring word of vital importance to her community in the best traditions of American radio and TV journalism. And having discharged that role, she risked her life to save people. Let us welcome the first speaker of the First National Communicators Conference, broadcaster Robin Tibbles, of radio station KRPQ.”

 

CHAPTER 3: Robin – Communicators

I had worn a sexy-looking office-friendly LBD – something Danielle picked for this occasion. She said my speech would probably be featured somewhere, so I should look my best. Mrs. P also said that Tracey needed to record my speech so that we wouldn’t need to get it from other sources. She also had gotten permission, so Tracey wouldn’t have problems.

I was also working without a bra, as a lot of my underwear was in the missing bag, but at least the dress had some substance and foundation to it - it had underwire support so the dress held its shape, but it didn’t help to hide my… bouncing. But the dress still helped a lot. I also went bare-legged as all my stockings were in the missing bag itself. I had to wear my one spare black gaff since my fancy underwear was also in the bag, but I had about three left. I washed the pair I wore, and left it to dry hanging in my bathroom’s curtain rod - since I would have to rotate the three, just in case I didn’t get my bag back on time.

I stepped up on the apple box and this allowed me to appear to be like five-eight or so. The podium was shaped in such a way that my legs couldn’t be seen from the knees up, so no embarrassing pictures.

Everyone clapped as I stood behind the stage, and had to wait for everyone to settle down. As usual, I worried that they were paying attention to my looks instead of anything else.

Since I didn’t have Dr. Roberts’ formula, I didn’t have the usual protection I relied on. But I was at least a good fifteen or twenty feet from the audience, so that might help. So, instead of the formula, I scrubbed myself really well, and put a lot of Tracey’s perfume (I was thinking of using the ones in the bathroom, but Tracey had a couple of different perfume sets, and she gave me one).

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” I said. “Thank you, colleagues, fellow broadcasters and communicators…” I suppressed a giggle.

I paused before I started reading my speech from the index cards I had prepared... “I apologize. I find it funny and strange to say such a thing to a room full of what I consider heroes and mentors. My credentials are very thin. I have been on the job at my station for less than a year, yet I have the gall to say ‘colleagues, fellow broadcasters and communicators’ …” Everyone laughed good-naturedly.

“As communicators, it’s our role to inform, educate and entertain. My program on KRPQ does the entertainment part of the equation and we do our best. We have been doing more than adequately, and we do our best to keep our audience’s interest in the program. We were expecting this to be the case one particular Saturday, but then we got word that there was an ongoing fire in town. From what we knew at the time, the authorities were not aware of the situation.

“We took it upon ourselves to inform the authorities and the public about the situation. And we decided to cover the fire until mainstream media was up to speed.”

I sighed. “I suppose, when I took it upon myself to get involved with the rescue was not, let us say, appropriate. It’s one thing for trained rescue professionals to risk their lives doing their jobs, it’s another for a civilian to risk his. There really is no excuse for it. After the event, I have since talked about that on the air, and it was a topic of lively debate on the show. My personal view is that I shouldn’t have done it. I am taking full responsibility for that.”

Lots of people in the audience booed that. I waved them away.

“Thank you for your support, everyone, but I disagree… Yes, it reflects badly on me, but as people who also ‘educate,’ it is part of our role to let people know. I have owned up to my bad decision, and, though what happened turned out fine, that will not be the case all the time, so we have to leave it to the professionals.

“In the interim, I have joined a volunteer EMT and rescue program, and I got my certification a few weeks ago. If something like what happened happened again, I’d be fully qualified to join the first responders. My point, I guess, is that we shouldn’t take matters into our own hands.”

Someone raised a hand. “Yes, ma’am?”

“I understand what you are saying, Ms. Tibbles,” the lady who raised her hand said (I think it was Abby Philip, though I wasn’t sure, except that she was just as gorgeous), “but I guess I would point out that without your efforts, that fireman and that little girl might have died. How do you respond to that?”

I paused. “Well, no one can be sure of that…”

“Many are, Ms. Tibbles, including me…”

“… well, regardless – from a safety point of view, I shouldn’t have taken the risk. If things happened differently, Fireman Hoskins and little Phoebe might have perished.” I raised a hand. “Yes, like I said, everything turned out well, but it might not have…”

“You’re right, of course, Robin, but I’m sure the family and friends of fireman Hoskins and little Phoebe are thankful that you did.” There was applause from the people in the room.

- - - - -

I gave everyone a heartfelt thank you, and I continued with my speech, which was all about recognizing the responsibility that we in the industry have, and that we shouldn’t take unwarranted responsibility for things we do not have the authority or ability, or training for, that our role as communicators comes with responsibilities attached to it. Just like a movie, TV, or book critic, we, who hold sway to what people read, watch, or listen to, need to accept that, as we pontificate about how a writer wrote his story, or how a movie or TV show portrays a topic, we have to have more than just a lot on the ball, and not just opinions. I also mentioned “gotcha” comments – that our comments should be more than just pointing out mistakes.

Someone who looked like Abby Huntsman raised a hand. “Ms Tibbles,” she said, “wouldn’t that make things a little bit Pollyanna-like?”

“Well, there are two things that may be relevant here: Just like my mom or dad, I’m sure your folks have also said something similar to ‘if you have nothing nice to say,’ et cetera. So, if it were just that, then that would surely be Pollyana-ish… But if that’s not all that one wants to say, then I would suppose that it would be relevant to ‘communicate’ that.”

“What if it’s not negative? Say it’s not a ‘gotcha’ comment, but just a, say, a positive message of no moment as well…”

I shrugged. “I would suppose something like that would be… as they call it on TV, a ‘feel good’ piece. And under the heading of ‘entertainment.’ For me, that is. I’m sure some would not agree. But that’s my opinion.

“In any case, as ‘communicators,’ we must apply our own sets of values to what we do.”

I went on with my theme, elaborating on the ideas of informing, of responsibility and relevancy, and for doing good instead of not. I did entertain questions as I went on. Seems no one wanted to wait for the Q&A at the end of my talk, and it lengthened my talk to something longer than the hour and a half allotted to me, but my MC let my talk meander. But, at least, I got an excellent reaction to my speech. At the conference party, our hostess told Tracey and I that my speech seemed to be the most popular one, even though I wasn’t able to satisfactorily answer the main question they seemed to have: what did I really think of wrongly taking things into my own hands, and kept relating it to rescuing the people I rescued.

I thought that they were taking me to task, but it was something they really wanted to know.

 

CHAPTER 4: Tracey – Business Cards

Danny… I mean Robin… finished her speech, and, judging by the response, I think that it went really well. But then Danny always had that magic touch. Robin and I attached a small GoPro on our tops in place of a brooch. They were the new versions that had their own transmitters that I had slaved to my laptop.

We had to explain that we were covering the event for KRPQ so that no one made a big deal of it. I had adjusted the audio pickups so they would be sure to get the audio around us, but not to include us. Robin and I made sure that everyone knew we were recording so they’d be okay with it.

As we walked around the display floor, we had a large following, obviously trailing us. Well, Robin, actually.

Various people: executives and VIPs, would hand Robin and me their business cards, and all of them ask for appointments with Robin, me, or Mom. We told them we’ll reach out later.

But the crowds didn’t really thin out. What was great, though, was that, as we walked the floor, the exhibitors gave us lots of free merch and swag. So we were going home with loads of t-shirts, pens, new wireless mics, noise-canceling headsets, a prototype portable teleprompter, one-year complimentary postpaid accounts, and lots of other cool stuff.

I called Mom and sweet-talked her to ship all our stuff back home, and Robin got the hotel folks to keep our stuff until the last day, and, as usual, Robin got her way.

Most of the convention was like that, but I found myself with a lot of time flying solo. I never noticed that Robin liked to shower a lot – just before breakfast, just before the lunch break, in the middle of the afternoon, and just before the dinner hour. It’s like Robin’s paranoid about dirt and sweat…

Anyway, everything was going great, and we were making progress with the networking. But then something happened Friday afternoon.

 

CHAPTER 5: Robin – Hostage

I have wondered why the “non-serious” part of the convention was in the afternoon, and then we were told that everyone had to be in costume.

When we were brought to the store the previous day, the pickings were pretty slim. Tracey lucked out and was able to find a great Princess costume, and she looked fabulous in it (I did have to sweet-talk the concierge at the hotel to do a quick dry-clean, though).

For myself, there weren’t any nice costumes in my size except a not-so-realistic Wonder Woman costume. It wasn’t realistic since it was a “slutty” Wonder Woman costume. But I had no choice – it was the only one that fit. The only nice thing about it was that it was complete, with all the parts, like the gold wrist things, the gold lasso, the gold tiara, and the tall boots.

After lunch, we all were required to be in our costumes, in preparation for Fellowship Night. So after lunch, we went to our rooms and changed into our costumes. I still didn’t have bras as my missing bag has not turned up yet. So I made sure my Wonder Woman costume was zipped up tightly to give me some support. I clipped my GoPro between my boobies, and since the outfit didn’t have pockets, I tucked my smartphone in the only convenient place. I clipped my ID to the top of the bustier and then went back to the convention floor with Tracey in her costume as well.

Arriving there, we went to Colbert’s talk. I tried not to be noticed but it was a futile wish.

During Colbert’s lecture, though, four armed people in policeman costumes and masks barged in.

“Everyone raise your hands and don’t move!” the biggest masked man yelled. “All we want is Caesar Conti!”

I leaned toward the guy beside me. “Who’s Caesar Conti?”

“He’s the president of one of the networks.”

“Oh…”

One of the plainclothes house detectives brought out his gun, but before he could fire, two of the kidnappers hit the detective on the shoulder, spun him around, and knocked him down.

After they grabbed Conti, they rushed out of the room. No doubt they were on their way down to the lobby. One of the organizers called the lobby, and then the police.

“Okay, folks,” he said. “The building security and the police have been alerted. All the stairway doors and elevators are being locked down. Everyone, however, is required to stay here until Security has given us the all-clear.”

I thought about it. Maybe the kidnappers weren’t going to the ground floor. But if they weren’t…

I heard one of the elevators open, and I sprinted outside.

I saw several people in suits step out of the elevator and I dived through the closing elevator doors.

“Hey!” one of the security people exclaimed.

“Send people to the roof!” I said and pressed the button for the roof.

I nervously watched the numbers go up and when the elevator doors opened, I leaned back against the elevator wall and kept my finger on the “open” button.

No one jumped out so I peeked outside. No one was around. Thinking I could use some support, I pressed the convention floor and closed the elevator.

What I saw was a narrow hall with a short stairway on the left that went up to a door that probably led to the rooftop, three dumpsters beyond that, and an exhaust fan at the end. I looked to the right and there was a fire escape door. I checked it out and it wasn’t locked. I might actually be right.

Given how many floors the hotel had, I knew I still had a minute. I looked around and found a two-by-two. I picked it up and waited.

I heard the clatter of feet in the fire escape and stood beside the door.

When the door opened and one of the masked men peeked out, I clobbered him on the head. The guy sprawled on the floor unconscious. Another guy looked out and he pointed his gun at me. I hit him in his hand and knocked his gun out of his hand. I hit him on the head as well.

The two knocked-out kidnappers were blocking the door so I pulled them through by their collars. I then reached out and slammed the door closed. I jammed my two-by-two into the emergency door and the jamb.

I then used my lasso and tied the two unconscious men with their hands and ankles back to back. I picked up the guns the two dropped. I ran up the stairs to the roof, and their helicopter was coming in to land. I ran out to the helicopter pad and started firing at the chopper.

I didn’t know much about guns much less fire straight, but I did manage to scare them off. The chopper flew away. At least the assholes won’t have a getaway vehicle, but they still had their hostage…

I threw away the now-empty guns and jogged back to the door. One of the remaining two kidnappers, what I think was the leader, was just emerging from the door and then he saw me.

For some reason, I decided to run at him. He saw me running towards him and he fired. He cocked his rifle, and as I zigged and the guy shifted his target, and I zagged just as he fired again. I was running full-tilt, and by the time he had cocked his rifle again, I was upon him. I kicked and jumped up, and, with my feet leading, I hit him full in the face, knocking him backward. I picked myself up and picked up the guy’s rifle.

The gun this guy had didn’t seem to be appropriate for kidnappers, but it was enough for me.

I peeked around the door and saw the last remaining guy holding onto the TV executive.

I cleared my throat and used my most authoritative voice. “If you know what’s good for you, you better let your hostage go.”

“No!” he said in a trembling voice.

That sounded weird. I peeked again. And I saw him in the corner, trembling. I giggled a little bit at that. I cleared my throat again and stepped out.

The guy fired wildly and I had to duck back. He kept firing until I heard his gun go dry.

I stepped out again, this time taking one of those Wonder Woman poses.

The guy pointed his gun at me, and, even though it was already empty, he kept firing.

“Throw that gun away.”

Trembling he threw his useless gun away.

“Now you let your hostage go.”

He pushed away Mr. Conti.

“Mr. Conti,” I said, “sir – come towards me. Slowly.”

Mr. Conti walked towards me.

“Now, go to the elevator. Press the button and go to the convention floor.”

Mr. Conti pressed the button. “Someone’s coming up,” he said.

The elevator opened and building security and police came out.

They looked at me, and then at the knocked-out kidnappers and the one remaining kidnapper trembling at the far end of the room.

The cops holstered their sidearms.

“Okay, Wonder Woman. Thanks. We’ll take it from here.” He solemnly winked. I tried not to giggle. “Why don’t you escort Mr. Conti back down?”

I gave him a salute. “All right officer.”

I walked into the elevator with Mr. Conti. I pressed the button and, as soon as the elevator doors closed, Mr. Conti and I laughed our heads off.

 

CHAPTER 6: Tracey – Wonder Woman

As soon as Robin and Mr. Conti Stepped out of the elevator, everyone exploded in cheers and applause. Everyone followed the events as they were unfolding: the organizers requested to see Robin's video live, and we followed what was happening as they were happening.

And after everyone had hugged and shaken Robin’s hand at least a dozen times, needless to say, the rest of the convention was canceled. Friday Fellowship was moved earlier, but none of the speakers who got bumped were complaining.

One of the things that the organizers requested was that I share the GoPro video. I got Mom to help with the negotiations but we were able to share Robin’s GoPro after Morgan and my crew had gone through the video and enhanced the audio and video to something close to 4K, and also put KRPQ’s logo in the lower-right corner. The organizers, however, gave us a copy of the hotel’s security video, but it was raw and unenhanced.

In less than thirty minutes, I got Morgan and the guys to make a new version, with the hotel security video and our video time-synchronized and side-by-side. I then shared it with the convention people, and with Robin’s permission, the organizers screened the video during Fellowship.

We watched the video in real-time. The entire video was a total of about twenty minutes, from the moment the kidnappers showed up until Robin and Mr. Conti stepped into the elevator.

The four kidnappers were going to be interrogated by the FBI but we heard from the police, that the last of the kidnappers whom Robin got shaking and crying had been spilling the beans since the police put him under custody, and it rumor is that the mastermind of the kidnapping was one of Mr. Conti’s disgruntled former employees who planned to ransom him back to his company.

The GoPro video had audio, so we heard the complete blow-by-blow, and everyone cheered and clapped as Robin did her Wonder Woman thing. And when the elevator closed on Robin and Mr. Conti, everyone clapped and applauded, just like people watching the end of a great movie.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Anderson said – “Ms. Robin Tibbles: Wonder Woman!”

to be continued...

 

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