Part 45 (1/2)

Sony, girl, bad news.

What is it, Grandpa?

Victor's Nigerian office has just called in. Three of the survWors the coast guard picked up from the Colonel Maitland's wreckage are now unaccounted for. lt looks like they sneaked out of the hospital some time last night. Two nurses have been Injured, and a porter's vanished.

b.u.g.g.e.r.

374.

One of the missing survivors fits Leo! Reiger's description.

I imagine he would, she said.

* Victor is already putting a snuff deal together. Reiger won't hazard anyone for much longer, Juliet.

He won't have to, this situation is very close to being resolved, one way or another; twenty-four hours at the maximum.

You're probably right Why don't you call Clifford, see if you can settle your differences peaceMly?

I might.

Talking never hurt anyone.

Yes, thanks, Grandpa.

Always here for you, Juliet. And today's company status review is still waiting here with me.

Oh, Lord. All right, let's get started.

The sprinklers had risen out of Wilholm's lawn on metre-high metal stalks, like incredibly thin mushrooms wound with a spiral of flexible hose, pumping out long white plumes of spray. Julia stood by the study's window, listening to the faint whup whup sound of the water as it left the nozzles under high pressure. Puddles were forming in the indentations left by undercarriage bogies. Water was streaming off the wings of her Pegasus.

Matthew was back in the pool, practising his dives under Qoi's vigilant gaze. He could already do a forward somersault flip. Julia watched him try a back flip, landing on his side with a big splash, limbs flailing. He got out and tried again.

Daniella was just visible in the paddock below the lake, riding her horse. Brutus trailed along after her, tail drooping in the mid-morning heat.

They normally invited their friends round to Wilholm in the holidays. Julia enjoyed the sound of the youngsters rampaging through the manor; they seemed to wake the old place up, breezy laughter blowing out the encroachment of dutiful solemnity. And the games they played roaming around the grounds gave the security team headaches. The defence hardware and gene-tailored sentinels all had to be repro- 375.

grammed to cope. Julia wasn't about to impose restrictions on the kids, childhood was too precious for that. And the s.h.a.ggy woods and unkempt fields were a magical kingdom when you were that age.

But they hadn't asked anyone to visit today; or more likely Daniella had bullied Matthew into not asking his friends, mistakenly believing they'd be helping her.

There was a knock on the door, and Peter Cavendish came in, dabbing at his forehead with a navy-blue silk handkerchief. His face was heavily flushed, pure white hair damp with perspiration.

Julia turned away from the window and gave him a welcoming smile. If it hadn't been for the fact he was wearing a different suit from yesterday she would have said he hadn't been home, he certainly looked like he hadn't slept at all. 'Sit down, Peter, you look like you've been overdoing it to me?

He slipped into one of the black chairs round the table, sighing gratefully. 'I don't understand it, Julia. Negotiating with Mutizen is like wrestling fog. We've had our contractual team sitting up with their Mutizen counterparts for eighteen hours solid, and every time we look like we're reaching an agreement, they throw us a blocker. I'd say they're deliberately stalling, but that doesn't make any sense. They came to us, remember?'

'Yes. But I'm afraid you're right, they are stalling. They are not in possession of the generator data, nor have they ever been in possession. The offer was purely an attempt to goad me into taking some hasty action.'

'Oh, for Christ's sake!'

'I'm sorry. I only found out myself early this morning.'

'Great. h.e.l.l, what now?'

'Fall back on Clifford Jepson and Globecast. How's that negotiation going?'

Peter Cavendish tucked his handkerchief back into his suit pocket. 'Second disaster. We've thrashed out a more or less satisfactory contract with Globecast's lawyers, but it hasn't been costed out yet. And it won't be until we submit it officially. We were waiting for Michael Harcourt to come through with the data on the other bids, like you said.'

376.

'Oh, Lord. .. Sorry, I haven't decided if I'm going to take Harcourt up on that yet. It turns out he's Jepson's cyborg, so we probably couldn't rely on his figures anyway. But David Marchant has made a counter-bid for our co-operation, quite a good one.'

He gave her a long look, then slipped a couple of centimetres deeper into his seat. 'h.e.l.l, Julia, I'm not sure if I belong here any more. Nothing stays stable long enough to establish a picture these days. I mean, we get a perfectly ordinary contract finalized. Then it's not just the goalposts which get moved, we're not even playing the same game we were when we started. I've got to have something that doesn't twist on me, Julia, a set of values I can depend on.'

She returned his mournful gaze. 'It's not us, Peter. We're not at fault.'

'Yes, sure, in a perfect world.'

'Something like that.'

'But in the mean time-'

'We do what we can.'

'OK, Julia, you win.'

'Just think how the other side must feel.'

'Some comfort. You want me to go ahead with the Clifford Jepson partners.h.i.+p, then?'

'Yes.'

'OK, how high do you want us to bid?'

'How high is up?' she murmured. 'I'll get the Finance Division to work out what sort of bid we can realistically afford, and commercial intelligence to provide estimates on the opposition's bids. Then we'll sit down this evening and decide what to offer Clifford. One piece of good news, I can have Treasury backing any time I want.' She didn't mention the price tag which came with it; Peter didn't need to know. Come to that, would he care about Wales?

'Right,' he said. 'At least that's something concrete.'

'Have you managed to bring any of the kombinates in on our side, put in a joint offer?'

He shook his head. 'Ha, no chance. There's no alliances in this war. Everyone wants atomic structuring, and they want it exclusively. You should see the Stock Exchange this 377.

morning. There's not a share moving. The floor's waiting to see what's going to happen after the bids are in.'

'Maybe nothing will happen. I have yet to be convinced Clifford Jepson has the generator data.'