An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (53 page)

“That would do it
.
I know how difficult
a price on your
head
makes life
.
OK
, I think that’s all I need
.
By the way, just how much do I supposedly owe the association?”

“Giving bad news to a man with a gun isnnnnnt…”
Because of the bulk, her head barely tilted
.
The contact agent on the muzzle of his gun should keep someone of her bulk out for no more than five minutes
.
Tony didn’t waste a second, slipping out through the hole he
’d
cut in the water closet wall
.
His
own
bodyguard stood patiently in the hall waiting for him and fell in behind Tony as he walked.

“
Bathrooms again,” Tony said
.
“Such an obvious security failing
.
Glad I put security in the commode long before this.
”

“Augustine,” Tony
went on
, calling on an open line through his percomm
.

“
You
get what you went for?”

“Yup
.

“Carmine?”

“Yup
.
Carmine again, although this time we had a corpie
escort
.”

“Bodyguard?”

“Yup
.
Same vaper
.
I think
it’s
time to move on my ex
.
Pleasant thought
.
I
’m sure not too many get the chance for such revenge
.
Any word from Jock?”

“He called not ten minutes ago
.
She moved
,
but he doesn’t have her new flat.”

“
OK
, Augustine, you
’
re the ice jockey
.
Follow the money
.
It must
’
ve left some trail
.
It should lead right to her.”

“Bloodhound on the trail.”

* * *
 

The small pump room reeked bitterly of raw crude
oil
and mold
.
The
defunct Alaskan Pipeline
’s abandoned pumping station
offered a safe meeting place
.
Prior to the GAM scouts
who
found it, not a single person stepped foot in
side
for the better part of two decades
.
The dampness clung to every surface
,
and the tiny
60
watt incandescent bulb barely cut the gloom
.

“We
’
re here to discuss…” Sonya stop
ped
to take a breath
.
Her words
were extremely
labored
.
Her breath capacity fell off each day
as the disease
now
fully involved her lungs
.
T
his environment helped her not at all
.
She knew her time measured itself not in weeks, months or even years, but days
…
maybe even hours
.
She took as large a breath as she could before continuing
.
“…the future leadership of our organization
.
I choose not to vote
…
as a veto
.
My vote will count exactly
...
the same as everyone else.

“Just so
we’re
clear
…
Suet, Martin, Tolly, Colin
,
and Jonah are all too ill to vote
.
Linc
, Andrew
,
and I are
all showing frank symptoms
…
but are
clear
-
headed enough to cast a valid vote.
“Discussion?”

“Shouldn’t you speak first, Sonya
?
”
Linc
asked
weakly over the telecomm.

Sonya leaned back against one of the smaller pipes in the room, rusted and far larger around than she
.
“I’m reserving my right to speak last.”

Augustine spoke up first
.
“Tony has performed every function that Sonya has
.
His plans have passed every test we can throw at them, especially those that really count
.
They work
.
He directed us down a path that has us looking at victory
.
I nominate Tony for leader.”

“Victory?” Andrea took the fight up instantly
.
“
We’re
all dying…all except Tony
.
I’ve got
the disease
now
.
According to Sonya I have less than a
thirty percent
chance of living through it
.
I don’t want the man who killed us leading the rest of the team right into the corporate maw
.
I think he should be vaped
,
not elected leader
.
I for one won’t let this team be in any more jeopardy than it already is.
I suggest
Frances
for our new leader
.
Her combat and planning experience in the Metros makes her an ideal candidate.”

“I really don’t want this opportunity,
”
Frances
rebutted
.
“A
nd while I don’t feel quite as vehemently as Andy, I have to agree
with her opinion of Tony
.
I personally don’t care if Tony is guilty or not
.
Even if we rebuild our cadre, I don’t know how he can lead us without making us sick.”

“Even if I were to live,” Linc said, “I wouldn’t go back to our old
,
sloppy
,
hit
-
or
-
miss tactics
.
That isn’t any reflection on Sonya, but Tony has put us o
n the right path.
Can
Frances
implement Tony’s direction
?
Possible
.
But I don’t feel comfortable
that
she can improvise or adapt to changes.”

“I haven’t spoken up much because I understand and respect all of your feelings.” Andrew grimaced in pain
.
“I
’
m afraid of
what’s
ahead of me, but I believe in Tony
.
He saved me more than once
.
I’m not likely to forget that.”

The conversation died
with the sides clearly
drawn
.
Sonya’s fears found their way up from her soul
and
spilled in this room
.
The pain in her body manifested in her dream torn asunder.

“Tony, do you have anything to say?” Augustine prompted, her eyes widening and her face attentive.

“I don’t
.”

Sonya gave the tiniest of smiles
,
knowing Tony couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk
.
Pain in her abdomen wiped the pleasure in less time than it took to experience
.

Despite his claim otherwise, Tony spoke anyway, just as Sonya knew he would.
“Those against me feel
I’m
a menace
,
whether I acted with malice or not
.
Despite their feelings
,
I intend to prove to all my friends here, not just those behind me
,
that I never intended to do anything but help this group to its objectives
.
I never aided, planned
,
or agreed to be some kind of biological bomb.

“And one last thing
—
I never wanted to be leader
.
I’d rather have all your good will
…your friendship
.”

A long pause followed.
“If there are no more comments
…
” Sonya waved for Augustine to continue as she bent double, wracked in a coughing fit
.

“Aren’t you going to speak, Sonya
?”

She violently shook her head back and forth as she bent over
,
hacking like a
fifty-
year smoker
of the old tobacco sticks
.

“Sonya is calling for a vote
.
This vote is to be secret
.
I
would’ve
made it electronic
,
but people might
’
ve thought I’d hacked the election
.
Instead
,
you
’
re each being provided a bag containing
one
each of
three
different colored marbles
.”
Augustine wrote in chalk on the least abused of the
ceramcrete
walls as she talked
.
“Here I have a bag
.
I will come
by
and each of you can drop one single marble into the bag:
red for Tony, blue for Andrea or a clear marble if you abstain
.
Linc, I’ve got a mechanical arm
here
programmed to drop a marble for you
. Just
push one for Tony, two for Andrea, or zero for abstain
.”

Augustine moved quietly around the room collecting the marbles
.
With e
ach
,
a sharp click
echoed through the room
as the glass
orb
hit one of its brethren in the black velveteen bag
.
When the last person dropped their
marble
, Augustine rolled them around and dumped them into a dish for all to see
.
Four red, four blue and two clear balls rolled around
.

“It appears we need more discussion,” Sonya said optimistically.

Three hours and six votes later
,
they still needed more discussion
.
The vote changed to five red and five blue, but the debates
didn’t cause any other alterations
.

“Linc and I are too tired to continue
.
We
’
ll resume in two days,” Sonya said stiffly as she barely kept the pain from lashing out at her friends.

* * *
 

Tony started
,
awake in a strange bed as his percom
m
shrilled its urgent tone against his skull.

“Good morning?” Tony said
,
craning his neck around to find the
time
in the massive room of the Seattle Grand
Hilton
.
The clock proclaimed him
correct by a little over seventeen
minutes
.

“Al
l
right, Tony, I have what you were looking for,” Augustine said without preamble
.
“Carmine went up.”

“Sorry, I’m still
groggy
.
Not too much sleep in the last few days.”

“Yeah, I’ve been on dazers myself for over a week
.”

Tony realized
why
Augustine
’s
abrupt manner
se
e
med
more
like a burn when he talked to her lately. “
OK
, I think I’ve finally got my head screwed on straight
.”

“Carmine went up.”

“That’s what money will do for you
.
Where?”