Up Against It - M. J. Locke [44]
She remembered then that she had seen them at the ceremony. It angered her that men like these would insinuate themselves into such a deeply painful, personal event. “Would you care to explain how you obtained an invitation?”
“I needed to speak with you, and you’ve been hard to reach.”
“Yes, and with good reason.”
He ignored that. “If you’re smart, you’ll listen to what I have to say. My sources tell me you’re anything but stupid. Don’t start now.”
“If you were as smart as you no doubt think you are, you’d stop insulting me and get to the point.”
“All right. It’s simple. You need ice; Ogilvie & Sons wants access to Phocaea as a market. We want to make a deal.”
Jane laughed. “Oh, please. Float away, fellows; we don’t need your deal. We’ve got plans of our own.”
“Ridiculous. We both know there’s no other shipment that could get here in time. You have to deal with us, Commissioner. You might as well accept that. Things will go easier if you do.”
“I think not. I’ve lived on Vesta. I know what happened there. We don’t intend to make the mistake they did by opening the door to you here.”
She started to push past them, but the big one stopped her with a grip on her arm. His grinning aggression chilled her. The need to inflict pain was a banked fire in him. She noticed that his hands were manicured, and he wore a hand-made, knitted muffler that went down to his knees.
Glease said, “Consider carefully. It’s not just Phocaea’s future we’re talking about. It’s your own. Mills.” The muscle released his grip, and Glease pulled out a lozenge, holding it up so it could catch the light. “Here’s the code to an account holding five hundred thousand troy in your name. We’ll give you another million in an unmarked account, if you support us.”
“Not interested.”
“Are you sure? Have you thought it through? You take the money, and you end up with a win all around. Your cluster’s ice coffers are filled. Hundreds of thousands of lives are saved. You can pay off the debt you took on to send your kids Downside and bring your husband’s family Up.”
Jane said nothing, only eyed him coldly.
“Hell, you could bring the whole clan Up, couldn’t you?” he went on. “Get them out of those refugee camps in North America. We might even be able to help you there—my client is not without connections Downside—”
Glease misread the change in her expression, and pressed the lozenge against her palm with a smile. She tipped her hand, let the lozenge fall, and ground it into the dirt with her heel. “Well, that one wins a prize for sheer brass. And now I really must be going.”
“Your cluster doesn’t have options,” Glease said as she started away, “and some of those in power know it. Better than you, apparently.
“You’re either in on this deal,” he called after her, “or you’re out in the cold. Way out.”
“As to that…” Jane opened the exit, stepped out into the corridor. “‘Stroiders’ may not stoop to making illegal recordings,” she said, “but I have no such scruples.” She started to close the door, then paused. “You’d better hope your employer is in an understanding mood, when you’re arrested for attempting to bribe a government official.”
It was a bluff, and he would figure it out eventually. But the look on Glease’s face as the door closed made it all worth it.
7
The feral had stumbled across self by sheer accident; it could no more know other in those early kiloseconds after the warehouse disaster than a human infant could.
But perhaps it was misleading to compare the feral to a human infant. It had emerged into a world as hostile to its existence as an acid bath would be to a human baby. No one cooed and clapped as it took its first tentative steps. No one was there to teach it how to behave, how to get along, what the world meant. Unlike any biological