An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (52 page)

“Yar.”

“Oh
,
and watch the Brazilian couple in the third rank
.
He usually carries a molecular blade in his boot.”

Jock turned and walked over with Tony to sit down on a planter
sporting a trio of artificial arborvitae
.
“Oh,
” he added with a grin, “
I
also
have r
ear-facing visual prosthesis
.
Saved my life more than once
.
I have it programmed to ignore
things
unless something approaches on a near-collision course.”

“Interesting
.
Maybe I should think about more prosthes
e
s.”

“I wouldn’t, sir
.
If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t have made the modifications to my body.”

“I
never would’ve
taken you for a naturalist.”

“I’m not
.
I don’t see any problem with cybernetics or implants where necessary, but augmentation
?
Naw
.
But that was then, this is now.
Y
ou didn’t come her
e
to talk about implants
, sir
.
I still can’t let you into the club
.
Miss Carmine has that wrapped up tighter than a Martian
kohlrabi
in winter
.”

“No
.
I wouldn’t want you in trouble.
B
esides
,
it
’
s not my scene anymore, Jock.”

“
OK
, then why?”

“It was something you said last time we met.”

“Uh-oh, I don’t have the greatest memory
.
”

“Not to worry
.
I only wanted to know about Carmine.”

“Mmm
.
I’m not supposed to talk about our customers, but seeing
a
s
you’re
going to be the head of the GAM…”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Oh, c’mon, man
…
er
,
I mean, sir
.
It
’
s on
all
the wires
.
Pick a
ny
toast and you can read about it.”

“All over the web?”

“Just about every single one.”

“
OK
.
Well then
,
let’s see what it gets me.”

“
OK
.
Carmine is grinding money
.
Everyone
’
s toadying up to that coupon and she
’
s loving it.”

“How much money?”

“At least five, maybe six.”

“Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds
?
Wow
.
I know she doesn’t or didn’t have that much.”

“And that doesn’t count the five she paid off Tito to keep you out of here
.
An
d
it ain’t run out yet
.
She comes here with an entourage and Tito can’t wait to sell her and her ‘friends’ overpriced drinks
and other goodies
.
Her tab on a typical night is four.”

“You know if she
’
s still living in the same place?”

“Don’t know, sir, but I can find out
.”

“Please do,” Tony said pulling out a roll of bills.

“Sir, I ain’t your doer
.
I’ll do it for you
,
but don’t insult me with money
.”

Tony nodded, understanding he had more of a friend in Jock than he ever thought
.
“If I wanted money
,
I would
’
ve capped you before the price on
Greenie
heads disappeared.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, just after you dropped out, the corporate bounty on known
Greenie
heads just evaporated
.
It had been sizable, in the high fives
.
Now it just doesn’t exist
.
Hey,
Canya
’
s waving me over
.
They must be about to open the doors
.
I should get back.”

“Thanks, Jock
.
Here’s
a way to contact me with Carmine’s address and anything else you can think of.”

Measure Performance
—
Phase
Two

Nanogate
noted with dismay the smooth
,
confident way that
Taste Dynamics
strutted
into the meeting, just a few seconds late
.
D
ays like these he missed the cool confidence and skills of Mr. Marks
.
Taste Dynamics
wouldn’t be so smug if he released Mr. Marks correctly.

“My apologies for my tardiness,”
Taste Dynamics
announced
.
“I needed last minute data to report.”

“Don’t let it happen again,”
Wintel
reprimanded
.
“Now let’s get started.”

As part of his personal training
,
Nanogate
long ago cured himself of fidgeting in boring meetings
,
but the
patience behind the
calm façade
he never managed to
cultivate
.
The meeting dragged into two full hours of routine matters
—
forcing legislation change
of employee taxes in
the
US
, lower
ing
the basis on EU coinage, raising the mortgage rates on Io and a planned strike on the Ceres mining colony
.
Nanogate
took no notes
.
He barely noticed
.
 

“Now to the action against the Greenies
.
Taste Dynamics
,
you have the floor.”

“Since our last meeting
,
there have been no actions against the assets of
Taste Dynamics
.
I spent the extra few moments before the meeting to
double-check
my data
.
It’s
confirmed that in the last week we
haven’t
had a single act of sabotage or assassination attributed to the GAM throughout the entire corporate network.”

“That is exceptional news,”
Nanogate
mouthed mechanically.

“Yes
.
I believe we should continue our
higher meeting frequency
for another month to be sure this danger has passed.”

“Agreed
.
Any opposed?”

“Before we move on to another topic
,
I want to announce an added bonus
.”
Taste Dynamics
all but t
w
ittered with excitement
.
“As we know the unique RNA sequence of the disease
,
we’ve kept a covert surveillance on all of our internal nets and as many external nets as we could
.
It paid off in a big way
.
We located a doctor doing work for the GAM
.
Through him we can squeeze whatever remains of the
ir
organization.”

“Excellent work
.
The eighty percent solution we originally proposed may end up being one hundred percent.”

* * *
 

“Body Removal
.
I’m not getting your video.”

“That’s because I’m not transmitting, Adriana
.
This is…”

“I recognize the voice, Tony Sammis
.
”
The
liquid nitrogen
in her voice came through clearly
.
“You have no further business with this condominium organization unless you wish to pay the balance of your forced sale
.
I believe the amount is…”

“That
’
s not why I called.”

“Then this conversation is ended
.”
She hit the
cutoff button
.

“But I’m not done,” Tony said, sliding up behind
the
fat black woman in her
closet
-
sized office
.
S
hifting her weight
in surprise
caused the chair to creak
.
“I wouldn’t turn if I were you,” he added, putting the tiny machine pistol against the rolls of fat where the back of her neck belonged
.
“Just keep facing the screen
.”

“How did you…”

“Get in
?
Come now
.
I feel hurt
.
I’ve been defeating the deadly
in
-
depth
defense
s
of corps
lately
.
You don’t think I can break into the security office of a condo complex?”

“You’re a Greenie
?”

Tony remembered something out of an ancient flatie
.
“Smile when you say that.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

“You know I
c-
can’t give you back your condo
,” she stammered desperately. “
I don’t have any
c-
cash and…”

“Oh, fark, Adriana, I don’t want any of that
.
I just need the answers to some questions.”

“Ask away
,”
she said with an overabundance of
nervous cheerfulness.
“
I’ll answer anything you want
.
I don’t have a death wish
,
and you do have the upper hand
.
”

“Oh, by the way, if
you’re
waiting for the fast response from the emergency signal you sent out, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you
.
”
Tony watched the huge expanse of her shoulders slump
in resignation
.
“I’ve layered your office with an old-fashioned Faraday cage
—
a metal lattice that blocks
all
signals.

“Now, I really don’t want to hurt you
.
I really only want you to answer questions
.
If you play your cards right
,
no one will ever even know you answered them.”

“
OK
, what do you want to know?” she conceded in a much more surly tone.

“Who put the nab on my flat?”

“Miss Carmine.”

“You wouldn’t do it just on her say-so.”

“No
.
She came in with some corp bodyguard…”

“’Bout
130 centimeters
,
white,
whipcord muscles
,
and wearing only
yellow
liquid latex?”

“That’s the vaper
.
Anyway,
s
he handed me a notice of lawsuit against you.”

“C’mon
,
Adriana
.
We both know that wouldn’t have quite done it either
.
What tipped the scales?”

“A rather nice roll of bills and the threat of a
vape
against me.”