Distraction - Bruce Sterling [113]
Felzian leafed delicately through his papers. “How on earth do you arrange things like this? You’ve scattered them all over the country. It’s amazing.”
“Thank you. It’s a difficult project, but with modern techniques, it’s doable. Let’s just take Dr. Moulin, for instance. Her husband’s from Vermont, and her son’s in school there. Her specialty is endocrinology. So, we input the relevant parameters, and the optimal result was a small genetics firm in Nashua. The firm wasn’t eager to take her on a placement-service cold-call, but I had the Senator’s office call them, and talk about their domestic competition in Louisiana. The company was very willing to see reason then. And so was Dr. Moulin, once we queried her on those eccentricities in her lab’s expense accounts.”
“So you deliberately targeted her for elimination.”
“It’s attrition. It’s distraction. It looks perfectly natural. Those four are influential people, they’re local opinion leaders. They’re smart enough to create real trouble for us—if they had a mind to try it. But since they are, in fact, very smart people, we don’t have to beat them over the head with the obvious. We just point out the reality of their situation, and we offer them a golden parachute. Then they see sense. And they leave.”
“This is truly monstrous. You’re ripping the heart and soul out of my facility, and nobody will know—nobody will even see it.”
“No, sir, it’s not monstrous. It’s very humane. It’s good politics.”
“I can understand that you have the ability to do this. I don’t understand why you think you have the right.”
“Dr. Felzian … it’s not a question of rights. I’m a professional political operative. That’s my job. Nobody ever elected people like me. We’re not mentioned in the Constitution. We’re not accountable to the public. But nobody can get elected without a campaign professional. I admit it: we’re an odd class of people. I agree with you, it’s very peculiar that we somehow have so much power. But I didn’t invent that situation. It’s a modern fact of life.”
“I see.”
“I’m doing what this situation requires, that’s all. I’m a Federal Democrat from the Reform Party Bloc, and this place needs serious reform. This lab requires a new broom. It’s full of cobwebs, like, let me think … well, like that casino yacht in Lake Charles that was purchased out of the irrigation funds.”
“I had nothing to do with that matter.”
“I know you didn’t, not personally. But you turned a blind eye to it, because Senator Dougal went to Congress every session, and he brought you back your bacon. I respect the effort that it takes to run this facility. But Senator Dougal was chair of the Senate Science Committee for sixteen years. You never dared to cross him. You’re probably lucky you didn’t—he’d have crushed you. But the guy didn’t steal just a little bit—he ended up stealing truckloads, and the country just can’t afford that anymore.”
Felzian leaned back in his chair. Oscar could see that he was beyond mere horror now—he was finding a peculiar gratification in all this. “Why are you telling me these things?”
“Because I know you’re a decent man, Mr. Director. I know that this lab has been your life’s work. You’ve been involved in some contretemps, but they were meant to protect your position, to protect this facility, under very trying conditions. I respect the efforts you’ve undertaken. I have no personal malice against you. But the fact of the matter is that you’re no longer politically expedient. The time has come for you to do the decent thing.”
“And what would that be, exactly?”
“Well, I have useful contacts in the University of Texas system. Let’s say, a post in the Galveston Health Science Center. That’s a nice town, Galveston—there’s not a lot left to the island since the seas have risen, but they’ve rebuilt their famous Seawall and there’s some lovely old housing there. I could show you some very nice brochures.”
Felzian laughed. “You can’t outplace every last one