'I couldn't do that.'
'Yeah, well, couldn't and should are-look, Paulie, I'm sticking my nose into something it's not supposed to be in, and I don't want to get you burned. So the first order of the day is cover your ass. Don't do anything that might draw attention to yourself. Don't post the stuff to me or call me about it, that's why I'm using a pay phone. I'll come collect when we do lunch, and I don't mind if all you've got is their annual filings and disclosures.'
'What are they doing?'
'I-I'm not sure. But, uh, sometime in the past year my relatives have come up with a genetic test for, uh, the family headache. And I was wondering how they did that when this other thing, the connection with this fertility clinic, crawled out of the woodwork and bit me. Paulie, there's something-stuff about some kind of W-star genetic trait-that gives me an itchy feeling. The same itch I got when we were investigating that money-laundering scam that turned out to be-well. I think it might have something to do with why they're giving me the runaround, why I'm being pressured to…'
'Pressured to what?'
'Never mind. One thing at a time, huh? Look, I've got to go soon. And then I'm going to be on the other side for a week. Let's do lunch, okay?'
'Okay, kid! See you around. Take care and give my best to Brill and Olga.'
'Will do. You take care too. Especially around, uh, the second job. I mean that, I want you to be around so I can buy you lunch. It's been too long, okay?'
'Yeah. Nice to hear from you!'
'Bye.'
'Bye.'
Transcript Ends-Duration 00:06:42
Differences of Opinion
What the hell do you think you're doing in my office?' Miriam asked in a dangerous voice.
The man in the swivel chair turned round slowly and stared at her with expressionless eyes. 'Running it,' he said slowly.
'Ah. I see.'
The office was cramped, a row of high stools perched in front of the wooden angled desks that formed one wall: they were the only occupants. Miriam had just stepped through the front door, not even bothering to go check on the lab. She'd meant to hang her coat up first, then go find Roger or the rest of the lab team before chasing up the paperwork and calling on her solicitor and then on Sir Alfred Durant, her largest customer. Instead of which-
'Morgan, isn't it? Just who told you you were running the show?'
Morgan leaned back in his swivel chair. 'The thin white duke.' He smiled lazily. She'd met Morgan before: a strong right hand, basically, but not the sharpest tool in the box when it came to general management. 'Angbard. He sent me over here after the takedown in Boston. Said I was too hot to stay over there, and he needed someone to keep an eye on things here. Anyway, it's on autopilot, just ticking over. Every week I get a set of instructions, and execute them.' His smile faded. 'I don't recall being notified that you had permission to be here.'
'I don't recall having given Angbard permission to manage my company,' Miriam said tensely. 'Never mind the fact that he knows as much about running a tech R amp;D bureau as I know about fly-fishing. Neither do you, is my guess. What have you been up to while I was in Niejwein?' It was a none-too-subtle jab, to tell Morgan that she had the ear of important people. Maybe it worked: he stopped smiling and sat up.
'Expansion plans-the new works-are on hold. I had to let two of your workmen go, they were insubordinate-'
'Workmen?' She leaned across the desk toward him. 'Which workmen?'
'I'd have to look their names up. Some dirty-fingered fellow from the furnace room, spent all his time playing with rubber-'
'Jesus. Christ.' Miriam stared at him with thinly concealed contempt. 'You fired Roger, you mean.'
'Roger? Hmm, that may have been his name.'
'Well, well, well.' Miriam breathed deeply, flexing her fingertips, trying to retain control. Give me strength! 'You know what this company makes, don't you?'
'Brake pads?' Morgan sniffed dismissively. Like most of the Clan's sharp young security men, he didn't have much time for the plebian pursuits of industrial development.
'No.' Miriam took another deep breath. 'We're a design bureau. We design brakes-better brakes than anyone else in New Britain, because we've got a forty- to fifty-year lead in materials science thanks to our presence in the United States-and sell licenses to manufacture our designs. So. Did it occur to you that it might just be a bad idea to fire our senior materials scientist?'
Morgan shook his head minutely, but his eyes narrowed. 'That was a scientist?'
I'm going to strangle him, Miriam thought faintly, so help me I am. 'Yes, Morgan, Roger is a real live scientist. They don't wear white coats here, you see, nor do they live in drafty castles in Bavaria and carry around racks of smoking test tubes. Nor do they wear placards round their necks that say scientist. They actually work for a living. Unlike some people I could mention. I spent five months getting Roger up to speed on some of the new materials we were introducing-I was going to get him started on productizing cyanoacrylate adhesives, next!-and you went and, and sacked him-'
She stopped. She was, she realized, breathing too fast. Morgan was leaning backward again, trying to get away from her. 'I didn't know!' he protested. 'I was just doing what Angbard told me. Angbard said no, don't buy the new works, and this artisan told me I was a fool to my face! What was I meant to do?'
Miriam came back down to earth. 'You've got a point about Angbard,' she admitted. 'Leave him to me, I'll deal with him when I can get through to him.' Morgan nodded rapidly. 'Did he tell you to shut down the business? Or just put the expansion on hold?'
'The latter,' Morgan admitted. 'I don't think he's paying much attention to what goes on here. He's fighting fires constantly at present.'
'Well, he could have avoided adding to them right here if he'd left me in charge; the one thing you can't afford to do with a business like this is ignore it. How many points are you on?'
Morgan hesitated for a moment. 'Five.' Five thousandths of the gross take, in mob-speak.
Ten, or I'm a monkey's aunt. 'Okay, it's like this. Angbard wants a quiet life. Angbard doesn't need to hear bad news. But if you let this company drift it will be an ex-company very fast-it's a start-up, do you know what that means? It's got just one major product and one major customer, and if Sir Alfred realizes we're drifting he'll cut us loose. He can afford to tie us up in court until we go bust or until Angbard has to bail us out, and he'll do that if we don't show signs of delivering new products he can use. I think you can see that going bust would be bad, wouldn't it? Especially for your points.'
'Yes.' Morgan was watching her with ill-concealed fear now. 'So what do you think I should do?'
'Well-' Miriam hesitated for a moment, then pressed on. What the hell can he do? It's my way or the highway! 'I suggest you listen to me and run things my way. No need to tell Angbard, not yet. When he sends you instructions you just say 'yes sir,' then forward them to me, and I'll tell you how to implement them, what else needs doing, and so on. If Angbard doesn't want me expanding fast, fine: I can work around that. In the short term, though, we've got to position the company so that it's less vulnerable-and so that when we're ready to expand we can just pump money in and do it. In the long term, I work on Angbard. I haven't been able to get in to see him for months, but the crisis won't last forever-you leave him to me. I can't be around as much as I want-I've got this week to myself, but they keep dragging me back to the capital and sooner or later I'm liable to be stuck there for a while-so you're going to be my general manager here. If you want the job, and if you follow orders until you've learned enough about the way things work not to sack our most important employee because you've mistaken him for the janitor.'
'Hah.' He looked sour. 'What's in it for me?'
Miriam shrugged. 'You've got five points. Do you want that to be five points of nothing, or five points on an
