Part 19 (1/2)
”So here's what we need to do.
”We need to spend that time repairing the company's image. The Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp has a huge image problem, and it won't just go away. We can't just sweep it under the rug. We keep fighting this same battle for dignity over and over again, day after day, and it's got to stop. The strongest hand we have to play now is public trust-and we don't have any.
”So how do we repair our image? We hold a press conference as soon as possible like any normal, ethical company would. Tel the world we have nothing to hide. Once that's done, we get to work clearing up these charges from the Meme Cooperative. Settle them, plead guilty to a few if we have to, it doesn't matter-just get everything resolved as quickly as possible so we can move on.
”The most important thing is to postpone this MultiReal exposition indefinitely. We can say we're doing it out of respect for Margaret Surina so we don't completely lose face. We just need to back off and let things simmer down. Then, in a few weeks-when we have a better hand-we sit down with Magan Kai Lee again and start the dialogue in earnest.
”So who's with me?”
n.o.body answered. A confused silence hung over the parlor like smoke for several minutes. Final y Jara pursed her lips, walked back down the hal to the room she had appropriated as an office, and shut the door behind her.
23.
Friday began with a death threat and only degenerated from there.
Jara received the message only minutes after confirming her reservation for an auditorium at the Surina Enterprise Facility. The threat was written in a hackneyed Cyril ic font that only the uneducated or imbecilic would find sinister.
COME TO CASED Su51wii LW1D WC WILL KILL 4OU JUST LIKE 4OU KILLED MAAGWIEUT.
The a.n.a.lyst sighed and beseeched Beril a's ceiling for deliverance from craven anonymity. She knew the wise course was to ignore the message altogether and let Surina security deal with any errant a.s.sa.s.sins. Isn't that what Natch would do? Instead, Jara lay on the vinyl couch and ruminated on the issue for twenty minutes. Was it in poor taste to discuss the dispensation of Margaret Surina's business in her own auditorium? Or was it a fitting tribute?
Jara couldn't tel .
She decided to cancel the reservation and move the press conference to a Creed Objectivv auditorium instead. It was her first real decision as de facto master of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp. Already she felt like a failure.
Jara stretched, corral ed her wayward hair the best she could, then shambled down the hal in search of food. The servants she pa.s.sed gave her curt nods, but none of her etiquette training had prepared her for how to respond. We're cras.h.i.+ng in someone's house without permission because our company's founder has been murdered and our company itself is on the rocks. Should we be grateful that Beril a hasn't kicked us out yet, or irritated that she hasn't been more welcoming? Jara decided on the former and quickly scoured the Data Sea for an appropriately humble expression to throw on her face.
But if dealing with the household staff was awkward, that was nothing compared to dealing with her own staff.
When Jara final y stumbled into the kitchen, she found Horvil, Merri, Benyamin, and Vigal already a.s.sembled and sporting looks of weary fort.i.tude.
They al clammed up the instant she rounded the corner. She supposed they were trying to make sense of the scene in the parlor yesterday, trying to figure out why Natch had made such an abrupt departure and whether he was real y gone for good. But what could she say? What could she tel them that wouldn't sound petty and self-serving?
Jara poured a cup of nitro from the carafe on the counter. ”Al right,” she said. ”Let's get started. Let's fix some things.”
n.o.body responded. Four pairs of eyes watched her and waited.
Wil ing herself to be calm, Jara took her nitro over to a barstool and sat. ”First things first. Has anybody tried to track down Quel yet?”
”Council stil isn't saying anything,” said Horvil glumly. ”They've probably taken him to the orbital prisons by now.”
”Wel , we're going to need him. Try again. See if you can find out where he is.”
The engineer leaned back in his chair and wedged one chubby knee against the edge of the table. ”How?” he said. ”You think Len Borda'l answer a Confidential Whisper?”
”Not today, please, Horv,” sighed Jara, chugging down her cup of nitro and immediately getting up for a refil . ”I have no idea what happened to Quel .
But the Defense and Wel ness Council has to have a public relations liaison or something who can point you in the right direction. If al else fails, just fol ow the drudges.”
Horvil nodded. Jara wasn't sure she could trust him to find anything-he hadn't exactly pul ed out al the stops to locate Natch after his disappearance a few weeks ago-but she couldn't afford to spend any more of her mental reserve worrying about it. She moved on.
”So can we stil work on MultiReal?” continued Jara. ”Did Quel or Margaret leave any doc.u.mentation behind?”
The engineer pursed his lips. ”Technical y. But if you think my notes are hard to fol ow, you should see theirs. Might take me years to wade through al that c.r.a.p.”
”Wel , do the best you can. Ben, where are we with the rol back issue?”
”Handled,” said the young apprentice, trying his best to avoid looking Jara in the eye.
”Wel , it'l be handled soon. I cal ed in a few favors on the floor, and it looks like thesabotage' was a little overblown. A few pranks here and there. I think we'l have everything back to normal in about a week.”
”And ... your mother?”
Ben shrugged. ”She's not interfering.”
Jara exhaled in relief. A lack of interference from Beril a was about the best she could hope for at this point. She remembered the puzzled and fearful look the matriarch had given her yesterday after Natch stormed out of her office; Jara could only guess what she had been thinking.
”Now ... Merri and Vigal.” The a.n.a.lyst turned to face the pair. ”I'd like you two onstage during the press conference this afternoon. Otherwise it'l just be me and Robby Robby up there-not the most trustworthy people in the world right now.”
The two fiefcorpers nodded, their faces barren of emotion. Jara was trying to make a joke, but now she realized it hadn't come out like that.
”I can't believe you're actual y going through with this stupid press conference,” said Benyamin in characteristical y high dudgeon. ”We don't have a working product. We don't have a fiefcorp master. s.h.i.+t, Jara, you're the only person with a business license from the Meme Cooperative right now. What are you going to say?”
”I'm not going to say much of anything, if I can help it,” snapped Jara. ”The point is not what I say. The point is that I'm going out there and saying it. I'm giving notice.”
”Notice of what? That Natch is gone?”
”No, I don't want to spil that for a few more days, until things calm down a little. I'm just giving notice that the Surina/Natch Fiefcorp has changed. That we're an honest company now.,, ”So ... you're going to tel the drudges we're an honest company, and then you're going to mislead them by implying that Natch is stil running it?”
The irony slapped Jara in the face and made her blush. She hadn't thought of it that way.
Benyamin grimaced and shut up.
”Listen,” said the a.n.a.lyst, her fingernails plowing long, tired rows on her scalp. ”I'm not trying to get this business going again just as a matter of principle. Don't forget, while your business licenses are suspended, the fiefcorp can't pay you. Now Horvil and Benyamin might be able to weather a few thousand years without a fiefcorp stipend-”
”Presuming Aunt Beril a doesn't cut us off,” muttered Horvil.
”-but I'm wil ing to bet Vigal and Merri can't. I certainly couldn't. So unless we get this business rol ing soon, some of us could be in a real heap of trouble.”
Jara guzzled down her third cup of nitro, wel on her way to a personal best. She discarded the cup on the counter and surveyed her fel ow fiefcorpers.
The room felt cloistered, devoid of oxygen, and the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp felt more like a mythical ent.i.ty than a viable business. Why can't I inspire this company the way Natch does? thought the a.n.a.lyst. What am I doing wrong?
”Al right,” she said final y, realizing that the rest of the fiefcorpers were waiting for a word of dismissal. ”Let's get to it.”
If the vibe at Beril a's estate was one of dejection, the vibe backstage at Creed Objectivv was more upbeat, thanks to Robby Robby's relentless optimism. The channeler was indeed a wonder. It seemed like some divine force had wound him up forty years ago and left him to cruise in a smooth, unbroken line ever since. Jara wondered if he'd ever expe rienced a moment of doubt, whether he'd ever had a cheating companion or a malicious boss or a friend who had lied to him.