Up Against It - M. J. Locke [17]
“The ice could be here in about three weeks,” Aaron finished.
“About?”
“Twenty-two days, soonest, according to my calculations.”
“Right in the very nick of time,” Sean said.
“What a strange and remarkable coincidence,” Jane said archly.
Tania said, “I can’t see Ogilvie & Sons giving us a trillion troy’s worth of ice out of the goodness of their hearts.”
“No,” Aaron agreed.
Jane said, “Very well. Thank you. Sean, what about the warehouses?”
“Repairs of the housing structures and storage tanks will start soon,” he replied. “Our biggest problem right now is the disassembler circulatory system. We don’t have all of the parts we need to actuate the manifolds, and the codes for reassembling them were damaged during the incident. But my people are jury-rigging a bypass we can use till the parts come Up from Mars in six months. It’ll be crude, but we can make it work. I expect it to be operational by next Tuesday or Wednesday.”
“Make it Tuesday.”
“You got it.”
“So what about stores? Give me the numbers.”
“At least one hundred forty million troy’s worth of pressure-sensitive goods in our warehouses were destroyed. The rest is inaccessible till our crews and equipment are freed up. The owners are screaming bloody murder. Several critical undamaged shipments are being held up due to the ship confiscations. I’m getting complaints out my ass. Shipping’s clients are screaming. The insurers have their investigators breathing down my neck.”
“Who would have thought it.”
“We’ll lose business. Pallas, Vesta, and Ceres are vying to cut us out.”
“I know. Can’t be helped. Until we have a source of fuel on its way, we have to be conservative. “
“Yes, ma’am.”
She grinned at his reflexive use of the military honorific. “I’ll set aside some time tomorrow to make a few calls and smooth things over with your customers and talk to the insurers. Ask Marty to set up a couple of calls.”
“It would be a big help.”
“Zap Marty the names and addresses, and copy me.”
He nodded, and scribbled with his finger in midair. She scanned the list as it came across her waveface. As she had suspected, two of last night’s callers were on the list. “What about the driver?” she asked. “Any more details on how it happened, or why?”
That angry look moved onto his face. “The police are investigating Kovak’s background. I’m meeting with Jerry and getting a full briefing at noon.” The chief of police, Jerry Fitzpatrick, was a good friend of Sean’s.
“What do we know?”
“Apparently he was in a group marriage. A month ago his partners ran off with each other and the children. He’d been on antidepressants and seeing a spiritual guide.” Great, a religious nut. Jane sighed. “It appears he killed himself with an overdose,” Sean finished. “Why he chose to take his coworkers out with him.…” He hunched his shoulders.
“It may not have been a deliberate act—”
“It might as well have been,” he snapped. “Suicide-murder. If he were still alive I’d kill him myself. Space the fucker.”
Jane pinched her lip, observing him. Finally she couldn’t help herself. “None of us saw this coming, Sean.”
“Don’t patronize me!” He slammed a palm down, making them all jump and sending himself into a slow backward spiral. He righted himself. “I watched a kid die while we were trying to get the doors open. It’s Kovak’s doing. He deserved