BZRK: Reloaded (BZRK 2)

Thrum, thrown off guard by the question, reddened and stammered, “Yes, I’m sure it is.”

“Mr Stern gets paid twice what’s he’s making now, and although he informs you of all relevant security issues, he works for me.”

That brought a frown to Thrum’s face, but only a frown.

Ah, Plath thought, hiding her emotion, keeping her eyes steady, her mouth straight. Ah, you didn’t see that coming, did you?

Plath stood up. Keats did so as well, a few seconds later.

“Ms Thrum, Mr Jellicoe, Mr Stern. The day may come when I want to take a more active role in the company. I may want to choose additional board members. But right now what I want is for the three of you to treat me with respect, to do what I ask you to—and I don’t intend to ask much—and to take care of my father’s company. Each of you in turn, I’m going to ask that you remain loyal to my father, and to me. Mr Stern?”

“I’m a McLure man,” he said. “Your man.”

“Mr Jellicoe?”

“I’m your lawyer,” he said, and smiled.

“Ms Thrum?”

“I’m in.”

“Okay, then,” Plath said. “My father was a smart and good man, who chose his allies well. I’m not as smart. I’m also not as good. For example, I’m not as forgiving as he was; I hold grudges. I can be a bitch.” She softened that with a slight smile. “And I’m the bitch who owns the company.”

That at last brought an honest smile from Thrum, who actually threw her head back and laughed.

In the elevator on the way down Keats said, “That was absolutely amazing. I mean …you just bossed those people around. You’re no older than I am and you were like a captain of industry. A bloody capitalist.”

Plath nodded. She was distracted and sad and worried. “I could have fired all three of them. They didn’t know what crazy thing I might pull. They were all three relieved.”

“Yeah, but just to stand up there with that total-domination voice, like that.” He sighed. “Hot.”

Plath said nothing. She just stared at Keats.

“What?”

“It was too easy,” she said. “At least one of them is a traitor.”

“You don’t know that,” he said, but he was nervous, eyes flicking back to her, to the floor indicator, then back to her.

Plath shook her head. “If they try to kill us on the way out, then they’re innocent. If not then it’s a setup. It’s Thrum,” she said. “She’s the traitor. Jellicoe could easily have lost the will and substituted another. Stern had plenty of opportunity to kill me off when I was recovering. So it’s Thrum: she’s working for the Twins.”

“I’m pulling out of aneurysm work,” Keats said, buying in. “I can at least keep one eye out for nanobots.”

“If they’re AFGC, they’ll know I’ll be checked at the nano level. This is old school: they’re going to track my money, see where I spend it.” She bit her lip. “I’m not important as a foot soldier for BZRK. I’m only important for what I can reveal. They want my father’s technology, and they want BZRK.”

She wondered how Keats would react. Boys didn’t always like clever girls, and if he said something stupid now, well, at least then love would be off the table. She would never love a dull boy.

Keats’s absurdly blue eyes narrowed. “If they think you don’t know …That’s an opportunity for us, then.”

So, not stupid. Not that she’d really had any doubt.

Damn.

The elevator reached the lobby. The McLure security men were waiting. Caligula was nowhere in sight. The limo steamed at curbside.

No TFDs.

The limo driver had changed.