Up Against It - M. J. Locke [106]
Benavidez rolled his eyes. “Listen to yourself, Jane.” He sighed and rubbed at his face. “They’re pirates, I grant you. But even they can’t go that far over the line. It would be financial suicide. You said it yourself. With Upside-Down watching, they can’t afford to indulge their worse excesses.”
“What are you going to do when they land with their ships full of soldiers?”
“Val is training squads of his own. If they play that card, we’ll be ready with our own troops to meet them. Tit for tat.”
“One-week recruits, against professional mercenaries? Look around you!” She waved her hands. “‘Stroiders’ can’t protect you! Even if they couldn’t just wait for an offline period, you are in the biggest ‘Stroiders’ broadcast shadow in the city. All they have to do is march a squad in here, subdue your staff, put a bullet in your head, and then tell the world whatever fabrication they want.”
She leaned across his desk. “Mr. Prime Minister, I know these people. I was in Resource Allocation on Vesta when they took over. I saw it all. I learned their methods. Why do you think they want me out? They can’t get around me. I have almost three decades’ experience keeping them at bay. You’re a fool to let me go.”
“Enough!” he bellowed. Benavidez lowered his voice. “Face it, Navio. There is nothing more you can do.” He shoved the document toward her. “Sign this, and we’ll have the ice in three weeks. Thousands of people’s lives saved. The math is simple.” He leaned back. “It’s for the good of the cluster. You have dedicated your life to helping Phocaea. All I need is this one last act from you, and you are free.
“You’ve had a good run, Jane,” he said. “You still have your whole future ahead of you. You will have your connections. Sign, and I’ll see to it you’re rewarded with a lucrative consulting contract.”
She did not bother to read it.
“If I refuse?”
He shrugged. “You want it hard, we can do it hard. I’ll fire your ass. No severance, no pension, and I’ll no longer shield you from Parliament. They’ve been pressuring me to bring you in as a witness. They want to prosecute you for criminal negligence. You may well end up in prison.”
“I haven’t broken any laws.”
“They’ll manufacture something. They need a bad guy.”
“I’ll fight them.”
But Benavidez was already shaking his head. “Jane, you don’t have a handhold. Yesterday you stood in front of the press and said there was nothing wrong with our life support, and now everybody knows that the disaster was caused by a feral in life support. They think you lied to them. Your sammy quotient is tanking. Haven’t you seen this morning’s numbers?” She wondered how much of that was him, working behind the scenes to make it easier to fire her. “You know how it works,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said bitterly. “I know how it works.”
He gestured at the document. “Take a look. A million troy in your bank account. Full health benefits. A six-month-long expenses-paid vacation for you and your husband. And you keep your pension fund, fully vested.” He sat back. “It’s up to you.”
She read through the document. It was a generous offer. Incredibly generous. They could bring the rest of Xuan’s family Up in no time. “A vacation on the moon?”
“Till things calm down.” He paused. “Sisyphus leaves on Wednesday. I’ve arranged for you to have a two-bunk berth on it.”
Jane gaped. “You’re turning the ships loose before the ice gets here?”
“We have no need to hold them, once the Ogilvie ice is on its way. The sooner we get the regular shipping lines moving again, the better.”
“Sir … frankly, that is sheer idiocy. You’re throwing away any chance of getting even a portion of your people off Phocaea, without those ships.”