Banksters 47: After the Fall

Grey was in my office first thing.

“You know, you could have told me you were going to push him out a window. Would have saved me a lot of time, and a hell of a lot of swallowing.”

“That makes this funnier. But I hadn’t been planning on that part. I expected him to resign. But he wouldn’t. So I suicided him.”

“Eh. He had balls beyond his years, and I can’t say I’ll miss having my face near them. But now the question becomes: did you mean what you said about the power on top of your throne? Or were you just blowing smoke up my skirt to try to stick your majesty up it?”

“To the victors, the spoils. I feel awfully victorious; and I intend to spoil the hell out of both of us.”

“You think they’ll give you control of the company?”

“Who else is left?”

“Well, I guess we’ll see this morning, won’t we? Because you just smashed the other basket where I had eggs.” She kissed me. “Good luck.” Then she left.

Daria came back. It was earlier than she scheduled to, but following Richard’s death, I hadn’t expected anything less. I met her in her office.

“At first, I thought you killed Rich, just like I thought you killed Cliff and Clarence.”

“Daria, I know we've had our troubles. But I'm the only executive level VP left in the company. I'm acting CEO, and that all but guarantees the board will make that position permanent. I don't care what you think of me, or whether you curse my name when you go to bed every night.”

“I never think about you in bed,” she said, protesting too much.

“But you will respect the position, even if you can't respect me. And if you can't, then I'll have you out on your ass. And I won't have the same kind of discretion about your drug abuse Richard did.” If she were armed, she probably would have shot me for that. But that had been one of the conditions of her leave; until she was cleared by the CEO, she wasn't allowed to carry on property. “Do we understand one another?”

“Absolutely.”

I wondered if I was going to have to find a more permanent solution for her. There was a chance she'd fall in line, not a great chance, probably 2 to 3 against, but a chance. And really I could use someone like her. She'd always been excellent at her job. And she saw me coming- which was more than I could say for most. But she also wasn’t done speaking, and as I was about to leave her office, she said.

“I wasn’t taking barbiturates. At least, I wasn’t supposed to be. I realize now my medication was tampered with. And at first I… I actually thought it was you. I spent the first couple of days of my leave trying to figure out how you could have done it. Interviewing neighbors to see if you’d been in my place. I probably would still be looking into it, but I remembered my pharmacist calling me, because there’d been a recall of my prescription- which in retrospect sounded fishy; I thought maybe you’d had something to do with that. But when I went to talk to him about it, he wasn’t there. The weekend guy was filling in, because my pharmacist had been arrested. He was using ketamine and other medications to knock women out so he could sleep with them. I don’t know what he had planned for me- but if his indictment is anything to go by I’d say rape.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve acted like a crazy person, and I don’t know that it’s enough to say that I was being drugged. Because now I’ve got a little more perspective. And I have to say, that what makes more sense in all of this is that I was paranoid, and delusional, and hunting for a bogeyman that didn’t exist. I loved Clarence, and I so wanted him to be innocent that I tried to help him frame you. And you’ve done nothing but try to help me, and in the end, you probably saved me from being raped.”

“I’m… I’m just glad you got better. I think Richard was right about that one thing: we work well together. You’re an asset to this company, as its conscience, and its superego. And it’s good to have you back. But I also want you to take it easy. You’ve been through a lot. And now that we’ve lost Richard, and Alice, and with all of the attrition we’ve suffered, I don’t want us to lose you, too. So the moment you feel like things are getting too tough, say the word, however much leave you need, I’ll see that you get it. And I’m sure Joel can keep your chair warm in the interim.”

“Thanks,” she said as I left.

It was almost time for the board meeting, so I headed towards the board room.  

The board had been decimated. I ran the meeting, as the only executive VP left standing. Our first order of business was to formally accept Ed Noakes’ resignation, even though he hadn’t been into the office for a week. Then we moved onto Richard’s death.

Warwick proposed we name him CEO. But he didn't have the votes. Arnie, who was acting VP of Finance now, put my name up for consideration. After all, I was the executive with the most experience now.

Then, of all people, George Morgan shoved his way into the board room. He said he wanted to suspend any voting until he could get a feel for what had happened. Warwick demanded a vote. George had two people with him, men in their early twenties. And inexplicably, they voted with George.

“My brother, Richard, had more voting shares in this company than anyone- in fact, he had enough for two votes. But he never used them, because he thought there might come a day when surprise might be more effective than naked power. I believe that day's today.”

“But,” Sam Warwick said, “Richard's shares are tied up. He had no will. You can't just exercise them as if you were his successor.”

“I'm not, but I needn't be. These are his sons.”

“He didn't have any sons,” Warwick said, indignantly.

“He had no legitimate sons- but that's not the same as having no inheritors.” George was invigorated; I’d never seen him like this.

Warwick was flustered. “Very well. Then I'll vote for this hold, as well, until we can get to the bottom of this.”

“He had bastards,” I said, only a little admiringly.

I knew George wasn't stupid enough to fake bastard children. This wasn't a soap opera, and that wouldn't pass legal muster. At best, he might be able to get himself put into a federal prison for fraud. So they were legit. Had to be. And it didn't take much digging to confirm that. Warwick was likely to demand blood tests, and pursue all manner of legal wrangling, but in the end it would come to naught, and make him look weaker in the interim. No, I wanted to tear this thing’s throat out, directly.  

Which worked out, because George was waiting in my old office. “I'm about 80% sure you killed my brother. I told the police as much. And they laughed. Because it wasn't the first time somebody had accused you of murder for personal gain. They even joked about arresting me, since the last time it was the guy who pointed the finger first who went to prison for it.”

“But that's fine. Legally, right now, I can't touch you. But I'll be damned if you'll have my brother's company. I'll stop your nomination, and then I'll see to it that the new CEO cans you, and in such a spectacular fashion that no other company in the world will bother even looking at your resume.”

“George,” I said, “we're not rivals in this. We both want what Richard wanted: what's best for the company. If you'd like to stand for CEO...”

“Get something straight, Dane. I've spent the last month pressing the flesh of the people in politics who are too slimy to ever be seen on camera, the ones who really control the money and the power in Washington. And you're good; as a liar, you're among the best. But I've had assholes blowing smoke in me for days on end, and I now recognize how completely full of shit you really are.”

“If you want to challenge me, go ahead. I have support of half the board.”

“And I own voting shares. I don't need to beat you. I just have to outlast you. And do you honestly think your machinations are that air tight. That there isn't someone out there whose gotten hold of a major piece of the puzzle, and is just waiting until you're the most vulnerable to use it.”

I want to tell him his fiance is a whore- professionally. But then I'd be blackmailing him, and he's pissed off and crazy enough he might just let me rat him out, then accuse me of blackmail, try take the both of us down. No, what I need to do is have Julee leak it. I knew Caprica would be sad. I knew she was enjoying his money, if not his aging balls.

But that was the point of the failsafe.

The beauty of the failsafe was I'd been using company money to pay her, and not just any company money, either. I'd made it look like Richard was raiding operational funds to put into his brother's election campaign- that was the last scandal that had broken before he tripped and fell out of a window. The part the press hadn’t heard about- yet- was that George then turned around and paid that money to a prostitute. It was glorious.