Turn 22 - Advisors and Rats Oh My
“Take a seat, Ms DiGriz.” you say calmly, firmly setting the credit chip down on the blotter of your desk. “We still have a few things to discuss.”
“Oh, I’m doing this free of charge, gratis!” Jane says airily as she takes a seat at the desk, not seeming at all concerned. “And rescuing the poor abandoned fractional pennies from digital oblivion and giving them a good home in my bank account is not, in fact, illegal.”
“Perhaps not, but you may be surprised that I do read the papers, Ms DiGriz. I’ve seen your name a few times in the past attached to such little things as bank fraud, insurance fraud…” you smirk. “And tagging police stations with ‘you missed me, cuz!’”
Janet growls “We are not related in any way!”
“But we have the same first name!” Jane cheerfully ripostes. “And I’ve never been proven to have done any of that!”
“Mostly because we can never find you to arrest you to put you on trial!” Janet fires back.
You clear your throat pointedly. “Ladies.” you say with a deceptively mild tone.
You glance over both of their shoulders towards where Sekhmet is sprawled out, then look Jane in the eye.
“I don’t care about your history.” you say flatly. “For bringing me this information you have my thanks.” you pause, wait for the younger woman to open her mouth, probably with another smartass comment. “You’re hired. Janet, get with General Potter and Harry to run down these leads.” you nod at her, causing your friend to purse her lips and rise to her feet.
“Just don’t put her in Justice!” she comments on her way out, earning a chuffing laugh from Sekhmet.
When Jane moves to stand up as well.
“Still not done with you.” you say, frowning at her. “As I said, you’re hired. I will not have somebody as capable and skilled as you are running around without adult supervision.”
“I’m..”
You interrupt her indignant protest. “Sekhmet, the Eldest was mentioning that this was the sort of hunt he was familiar with. Introduce Ms DiGriz to the Eldest.” you smirk then. “And…” you scoop up the credit chip and toss it to the young woman. “Consider this your signing bonus. Janet will have the paperwork for your pardon by the time Sekhmet gets you to the Eldest.”
Jane is pouting. It’s almost cute. Sekhmet then chuffs and Jane squawks as she is hauled off the chair by the scruff of her blouse and carried out of the room protesting that she hadn’t signed up for this.
You shake your head, a little distraction from the hell you were going through was welcome. The fact that it came accompanied by what you were certain would be an absolutely critical lead in the hunt for the assassin? Gravy.
You could use agents of the throne. Your grandfather had used a few people as direct personal agents, bypassing the bureaucracy in order to get things done. And you figured you had your first recruit.
She’d gotten one of the more impressive Licks of Approval you’d seen in a while, after all. Sekhmet was a wonderful judge of character.
Janet returns to your office, big steaming coffee mugs in hand. She looks a bit disgruntled. “That… that…” she shakes her head.
“Your cousin?” you tease.
“I AM NOT RELATED TO THAT WOMAN!”
Note to self, another thing to thank Jane for, teasing material for your best friend.
“I’m reestablishing the old Throne Agents my grandfather used.” you get serious, after taking an appreciative sip of the black blood of life. “Might keep her out of mischief if there’s something that engages her skills on the right side of the law.”
Janet grumbles at that. “Thought you’d never resurrect that particular institution of your grandfathers, but it’s probably a good idea. Would at least reduce the heartburn medication budget.”
You grin, taking a sip. “Well, she’ll be drawing at least some of her budget from your office.”
“NO FUCKING WAY!” Janet erupts, and you can no longer hold in the laughter. It’s frail, but this has managed to get your mind off of your daughter and husband, for a little while at least.
Dr Palmer does send you a memo, if you focused all of the research labs on the genome project program this year you’d be able to practically guarantee completion.
[] Yes
[] No
Most of your advisors send you their proposals via memos this year, respecting your desire to be with your family while you wait for your youngest and your husband to come out of their comas.
But you still have to do the work.
General (if you got promoted, so did she, damnit!) Swanson is requesting a full battalion (9 units) of the Wolfhound hovertank to provide either a solid punch for the RRF by giving them a relatively heavily armored hovertank to back up the lighter units they currently rely on, or assigned to 1st Armored to give them a fast battalion for 1st Regiment. In addition she is requesting that a RFP be sent out for a traditional ‘assault’ tank to anchor 1st Armored.
General Reyes is requesting that the Gyrfalcon plant be switched over to Eagle production as well as be expanded to permit 2 units of Eagles per turn. She also requests a second flight of Goshawks for the orbital forces.
Captain (the slippery sailor evaded promotion to General by having the temerity to use logic in pointing out that she’s navy, and thus would have to be promoted to Admiral, but that Parliament had yet to officially create such a rank. Sophistry) Stinnet requests funding for a second flight of four Persistence-class ships in order to permit 1st Flotilla to explore and chart the waters around 5 Fingers to make the major petrochemical find there ready for commercial use.
General Potter endorses his subordinates recommendations, and adds in a recommendation to purchase a pair of lances of
Ambush mechs and a lance of
Pathfinder mechs for 1st Armored’s mech regiment as well as hardening more of the factories against attack.
Bridget’s memo to you is incredibly succinct, in contrast to her normal rapid fire babble of delivery.
- Complete Current Projects
- Build Orbital Factory for Endosteel
- Build second Space Station at L5 point.
Well, it’s much easier to read at least than it is to write notes fast enough to keep up with the Bridget-babble.
You kind of miss it, actually.
The memo from Isoroku recommends selecting the neo-Olympics as this year's Cultural event, on the grounds that it would probably do everybody good to have something that large numbers of their fellow citizens can actually participate in.
Jake Awesome Polish Name (seriously, his email address is
jakeawesomepolishname@griffinsroost.gov, you have no idea how he managed to talk the IT people, who from personal experience have no sense of humor whatsoever, into doing that) sends you a note with an analysis of the press office and ways to reorganize it to be less reactive and more proactive.
Intelligence is still busily extracting intel from the DEST operatives, and Justice is completely focused on catching the attempted assassins.