She typed a message to Milo, then one to her staff outlining the situation. She tasked the logistics team with hunting down water purification options, Dario to co-ordinate with medical agencies on the ground while they worked on identifying any common elements that might explain what was happening.
Beyond that, she needed to sleep. Just a few hours, enough to reboot. Massaging her temples, she blinked a few times. She was actually seeing double.
In the staffroom Charles had curled up on the smaller sofa, his legs flopped over the end. He’d left her the three seater, even though he was taller. In spite of the day, the everything, she smiled at him, zonked out, like Lily able to sleep anywhere.
Painkillers, then sleep for her too. She took the cushions from the staffroom sofa and laid them on her office floor, closing the doors between her and Charles so at least he could sleep uninterrupted if Milo called back.
The sound of her name made Eva claw her way back from her welcome oblivion.
“I’ve heard of taking your work home with you, but this is new.” Stuart was standing over her.
Dream-addled, her brain took its time to catch up. Sleeping in her office, not an ideal way to be found by anyone, and definitely not the Chairman. She rolled up and off the sofa cushions that had parted company during her short night. Still sore from her pavement tumble, she stretched out the kinks in her back while she checked her laptop. No missed calls.
“Sorry, Stuart, I don’t have time to chat but Charles is in the staffroom, he’ll be happy to have coffee with you.”
“Right now I’ve got damage control to deal with.”
“I’m waiting for a call about Seitu, but a similar thing is happening in Tirupudur. Milo’s been trying to call me, he’s on the ground—”
“Not Africa or India, I’m talking about here, with you.”
“That’s not important when we’re looking at people falling sick.” She checked her laptop screen again, hit refresh.
“I wish I had your confidence. Annabel Grayson is beyond reason, she’s threatening to blacklist us.”
“For what? You know what happened, don’t you? I wasn’t filming her, I was waiting for a call. I don’t make it my business to film people having sex in toilets. I don’t care what they were doing. I’m the one who should sue her for attacking me and smashing my phone.”
“It’s in the media so it’s truth for the public and our donors.” His voice softened. “You must see how damaging this is to Every Drop’s image. Annabel Grayson has dynamite contacts we can’t afford to alienate. And then there’s the matter of not capitalising on a whale donor. I’m afraid we have no choice.”
He held out a sealed envelope.
17
“Sorry I’m late.” The journalist who’d accosted Eva at the hotel walked into her office as though she worked there. “Stuart Worthington, Chairman of the Board.” She stuck her hand out at him alongside Eva’s own, reaching for the envelope that he withdrew. “Amelia Moore, I’m here to interview Eva, I can do you too, Stuart, two for the price of one, excellent.”
Eva didn’t have time for this today. “I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted trip, Ms Moore, I still haven’t heard anything.”
Amelia’s gaze sharpened. “The sickness spread so much?”
Eva aimed for dismissively calm. “It’s Africa, communications take longer, break down all the time. As I’ve already told you, it would be irresponsible of me to speculate on anything. I’m afraid you’ll have to come back.” If she and Stuart would both go, she could get on with her job.
“This is me coming back.”
“Did you cover that the Every Drop infrastructure hasn’t made anyone ill?” Eva looked at Stuart, it hadn’t? “It’s the other suppliers who have the problem. Every Drop is honouring its promise to provide clean, safe water for all.”
Since when had he taken a PR pill?
“How does that reconcile with your comment that no one has an inalienable right to water?” Amelia snapped back.
“Taking remarks out of context, I’m sure you can do better than that.” Stuart fixed her with his steely gaze. “You must excuse us, that’s all we have time for.”
“How did your fundraiser go?”
She’d seen? Eva felt a flush rising up her face. Of course she had. Along with far too many other people. “It’s too early to say, but we’re hoping to reach a significant milestone with the donations.”
“What happened—”
Eva cut her off. “As I said yesterday, you’ll be the first I call once I know anything. Sorry you’ve had a wasted trip.”
“Oh, nothing’s ever wasted.”
That was what Eva was afraid of.
“I’ll show you to the lift.” Stuart handed his envelope to Eva as he fussed the journalist out.
The contents were something she’d never expected to see, something she’d never have predicted pushing her from calm to raging quicker than Lily, when she’d been the tantrum queen of two-year-olds. Eva’s wild gaze around her office snagged on the black-and-white photos Stuart should have paid attention to: moments of Every Drop’s successes measured in the smiles of children around a standpipe, relief on the faces of pregnant women, a high five almost like a prayer, one hand black, one white, an angled shot of the expanding labyrinth of their ground-breaking aerial network of pipes.
“I imagine you’ll need a couple of minutes.” Stuart looked in her door.
“You can’t do this.” She jabbed the paper at him.
“It’s legal, all the Board members signed it last night.”
“It might be legal, but it’s wrong.”
“What’s all the shouting? Stuart, hello.” Charles shook his hand like everything was normal. “Good to see you.”
Eva brandished the letter. “They’re putting me on sabbatical.”
“There was an incident last night between Eva and one of the guests. It has the potential to bring Every Drop into disrepute with some key donors. We’re only asking her to step back for a time—”
“How long?” She interrupted. The letter’s open-ended ‘until further notice’ made her nervous.
Stuart
