Up Against It - M. J. Locke [105]
Outside Benavidez’s conference room, the staff members welcomed her; one made her comfortable in the lounge webbing with a bulb of coffee. Thomas Harman floated through. “The prime minister wants to move his direct-reports meeting back—” he told one of the staffers there, and then saw her. “Commissioner,” he said politely.
An emergency meeting with all his direct reports, and she had not heard about it. Jane peered at Beatnik Jesus. He seemed to gaze directly at her from atop his surfboard, but not unkindly.
Christ as deity. She wondered if he had actually heard God’s Voice in his head, and whether medications would have made a difference. She wondered whether events had simply gotten away from him, there at the end. Downside, back in the CFAS, such a thought spoken into the wrong ear could have landed her in prison. Such thoughts, spoken to her own family when she was a teen, had earned her exile. Her own Voice, thankfully, remained silent on the subject.
She was ushered in. Benavidez was at his desk, editing something. She waited. He looked up finally. He did not offer to brush hands.
“Fill me in,” he said.
“The warehouse incident was certainly sabotage,” she told him, “and all indications are that the Ogilvies are behind it. No hard proof yet, though.” She gave him a quick sketch of the facts that Sean had transmitted to her yesterday afternoon, regarding the homicide investigation. Benavidez nodded and she guessed he must already have heard about this from his own sources.
She also gave him a rundown of their revised resource budget. She also, with the barest of hesitations, informed him of Aaron’s assessment that today was the day to make an offer to Ogilvie & Sons. After this, it would be more expensive and much more difficult to get them to change course for Phocaea.
“What is the latest word on the feral sapient?” he said.
“Dead and gone. Tania is pressing for more resources to try to recover it, but her people already have a huge task ahead of them, putting our computer systems back together.” She spread her hands. “It could be a long time before they recover anything useful.”
“A long time?”
“Weeks. Months. Years. There’s no way to know.” She leaned forward. “But this evidence of sabotage changes things, sir. If Ogilvie & Sons is provably responsible for the disaster, we can force them to capitulate—lower their price, change their terms. Force them to repair the damage they’ve done.”
He looked at his desk and rubbed at his lower lip as she said this, and looked up at her again when she had finished. The look in his eyes told her what was about to happen.
“I didn’t want it to come to this, Jane, but I don’t see a choice. I—”
She interrupted, “I can come up with something. Give me more time.”
“I’m going to have to ask you to resign.”
Jane stared. You fool, she thought in disgust. You bloody idiot. “I need to think it over.”
“There’s nothing to think over,” he replied. She only looked at him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We need the ice, Jane. Many lives are at stake. You said yourself that today’s the day, if we’re going to deal with Ogilvie & Sons. They’re the only game in town.”
She still did not reply.
“Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be. We need to get this settled and move forward.”
“‘Move forward?’” she repeated. “‘Get this settled.’ Why not call it what it is? You’re sacrificing me, and the whole cluster while you’re at it, to stay off Ogilvie & Sons’ shit list. Smart move.”
Anger rose behind his eyes. “You’d be wise to choose your words more carefully.”
“Well, I’m not feeling wise at the moment. The truth is, you’ve let yourself be outmaneuvered, and you’re jettisoning the one person in the best position to keep the bad guys out. If you don’t regret it now, you’ll regret it before too much longer.”
“Be careful who you threaten.”
“That wasn’t a