An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (56 page)

“That
’
s not my decision
.
I leave such matters to
my employer
.”

“Very well
.
When will I hear from
this person of substance?
”

“Before the day is out,
m
iss
.
If you will excuse me, I have other arrangements to make.”

Augustine snapped up the speed as Carmine spent a good portion of that day pacing around her living
room
.
Tedious to watch
.
The memories
snapped
back
to normal speed when
Carmine’s
per
comm went off
.

“Carmine
here
.”

“Miss Carmine,” came a smooth baritone voice
.
Augustine grabbed Tony’s eye as the
y
looked at one another at the same time
.
The educated tones
held
their
own distinction
, one familiar to both of them
.
“Your offer tested my curiosity
.
I will be honest in saying I’m not often intrigued.”

“Tony can be just the first of many assignments I can help you on.”

“Al
l
right, I agree to your terms
.
I’ll give you a drawing account for each
,
umm,
client
I send your way
,
based on its difficulty
.
Any of the account you don’t
spend on the job
is yours
.
I won’t offer any additional sum
,
except in cases of extreme opportunity or a mistake in my judging the difficulty of the case
.
For Mr. Sammis
,
I offer an additional fifty thousand
.
Welcome to the payroll, Miss Peligran.”

The rest of Carmine’s memories showed nothing they hadn’t already determined
,
although Tony watched Carmine’s last moments intently
.
It was like watching oneself be murdered
.

“I don’t know if this will
sway the rest of the GAM
, Tony
,”
Augustine
said
,
snapping off the recording
.
“
It’s
convincing
,
but
no
t definitive.”

“I know
.
By the way, you mentioned you wanted to talk to me about something
.”

Augustine adjusted something on her computer mainframe that didn’t need adjusting
.
Then
,
for good measure
,
she wiped off the dust accumulation
.
She didn’t know how to share what she absolutely had to share
.

“Sonya reached a political compromise about the leadership of the group
,
”
she finally managed.

Tony sat down on the arm of the sofa, facing her
.
There was no rancor in his face
.
It seemed more tired than anything.

“Not unexpected
.
Who got the bag
?”
Augustine cocked her head to one side
.
“Oh, come now
.
I’m not naïve
,” Tony continued
.
“
After that session yesterday
,
I knew there was no way to put me in without the efforts you and I
just did
, assuming they paid
off perfectly
.
They didn’t
.
Even if
they
had, some of them wouldn’t accept it
.”

“An incredibly astute judgment.”

“Worse, I don’t even want the farking job.”

“Huh
?
You’ve been fighting like you want
ed
it as soon as Sonya announced she was ill.”

“Do you
want to know
why
?
I
personally
hate the political in-fighting
.
The thought of taking the job makes me want to puke
.
But
I made a promise to Sonya
.
She sees me as some kind of super weapon that will bring her dreams to fruition
.
Between you and me, though, her dreams of open fields, rainforests
,
and free-roaming bison is a world of the past
.
There are too farking many people
.
We can’t wish them away
.”

Tony’s statement almost pulled
Augustine
from the net completely
.
She furrowed her brow as she refocused on the six different tracks her net
-
self worked down
.
“Then what are we fighting for, Tony
?
You’ve always known
.
I think the rest of us have lost our way
.
I don’t even know anymore.
”

“
Simple
.
We’re
fighting for r
epresentation
.
Our government
—
no
,
not the one in
Washington
, but the one that really runs things
—
is an oligarchy
. It’s
a group of people making decisions over the lives of all of us without our input
.
Everyone in the world knows the corps run things
.”

Tony, warmed up now
,
wasn’t about to stop
.
“The
United States
broke away from the
England
of several centuries ago for taxation without representation, for the right not to be seized
either economically or bodily
at the whim of a tyrant
.
Take what happened to me as an example
.
The
corps
decided it
.
They planned it
.
They did it
.
Was I asked
?
No
.
Did I do anything wrong
?
No
.
They did it to silence the people, the Greenies, from actively protesting their rule.

“But it
’
s a moot point
.
I doubt
I’ll
ever be the leader unless
a good portion of the
opposition dies, in which case
there’s
no group anyway
.
It’s
never easy to prove what
’
s in one’s heart
.
So who got left holding the bag?”

“I did
.”

Tony gave her a genuine smile that encompassed his entire face.
“I’m sorry for you, dear.”

“I have to admit I didn’t expect that reaction.”

“Posh
.
You
’
re my friend
.
Leadership is never an easy thing
,
but I’ll help you with it any
way I can
.”

An attention
-
interrupt:percomm broke
up the conversation
.
“Hold that thought
.
I have a
per
comm coming in.”
Augustine lift
ed
a pseudo-control of
an imaginary
old
-
fashioned
percomm
receiver to her ear
.

“Augustine,” croaked Sonya
.
“I need you to link me to the entirety of the membership.”

“Hold one
.”
Augustine reached for a pseudo-control of an old rolodex and plucked cards out, pressing them into the
percomm
.
One by one those cards lit up
.
“Go ahead
, Sonya
, I’ve put you on
per
comm with the entire GAM
.”

Sonya’s voice cracked roughly.
“Suet died last night at twenty
-
three thirty
.
She died quietly and without
any additional
pain.”

Tony stood abruptly
.
Snuffling
,
he paced as
tears leaked gently from his
eyes
.

“Preparations are underway and the ceremony will begin promptly at
noon
tomorrow
.”

Tony
’s legs gave way beneath him and he dropped to the
floor
in a sitting position
.
The slow leak turned into a cascade
over his cheeks
.

Augustine ignored anything else
.
She unhooked and went down to him, wrapping him in her arms
.
She thought to comfort him until she realized her own vision
also
blurre
d
.
They sobbed together in one
an
other
’
s arms.

* * *
 

“Few of you knew Suet’s
burial
wishes,” Augustine began
,
dressed in a black
floor
-
length gown with a high neck of white lace
.
It made a perfect background for the puffy redness of her face and the trail of fresh wetness down the side
s
of her
cheeks
.

Tony threw six kinds of fits when Augustine told him part of the political maneuvering required him to remain away from all funerals excepting Sonya’s, if that came to pass
.
He sat in a tiny room watching everything via solido
.
Sonya sat in the front row, a
blood
stained handkerchief covering her mouth
.

“I was one of the few who earned her trust enough for her to share
,” Augustine continued
.
“
She ran away from her humanity because of the pain it inflicted upon her
.
She feared moving to her next life forever being the machine even more
.
She exacted two promises of Sonya and
me
.

“First
,
to ensure her body was rehumanized with its original parts
.
She stored the original ones in cryo for this very purpose
.
She rests here now as before she became more than human
.
When I’m done
I’d
appreciate it if you would all pass here and say you
r
final farewells to the woman you never quite knew.

“Second
,
she didn’t wish to be shoved into the nearest calorie reclamation bin
.
She wished to be buried
.
I know this ancient custom
isn’t
practiced
anymore
. H
owever
,
some years ago, Suet purchased
this
actual plot of land for her ever after
.
I don’t think any of you can imagine the cost involved
.
Even with our
relative
riches now, any one of us would be hard
-
pressed to come up with that amount
.
She worked twenty long and hard years to come up with the cash
.

“I once asked her why she did it
.
She told me of the peace it gave her
,
knowing where
she’d
rest
.
Knowing that
there’d
be flowers or grass or even weeds left of her when she passed
.
So insecure in her place in life, she took comfort in what the next life might bring
.”
Augustine finally faltered
.
She
cleared her throat as she wiped the tears away
.
With a white linen handkerchief she
blew her nose.