Chapter #5The Vulcans by: Seuzz   Previously: "Fortunate Son" 
"This is more your line of work, Steve," you say. You rest your chin in your hand and gaze at him with a slight smile. "It's a job for Diana."
Patterson's lips twitch into a mirroring smile, and he looks at the third of your trio. "Prescott's the expert," he smugly says.
Julian Dey--your immediate supervisor--glowers back at Patterson, then gives you a sidelong, slit-eyed glare. "Expert technician. Not of operations."
"As an operation it's a no-brainer," you retort. "Diana does impersonations and infiltrations. We just handle the machinery."
"The point of the infiltration is to handle the machinery," Dey says. He presses a finger into the concave side of the mask and spins it gently around. "You have to be there--"
"No I don't. My job doesn't start until the loot's back here."
"But it has to be disassembled," Dey says. "We can't afford to fuck anything up, so you need to be on hand to supervise. Besides, it's not like you don't have experience with impersonations."
"It's been three years since I've been inside a mask," you say. "Well, except to test out models and designs. This is infiltration work."
"Jamie says you were the best at it," Dey says. "Even without training." He looks at Patterson. "Steve says so too."
You lean back and twine your hands behind your head. You stare at the mask gleaming on the desk. You know that Dey is right. It's just an extremely unpalatable job, and you'd rather leave it to someone else. "So I go in with the team," you shrug. "I still don't have to supervise from inside--"
"If you're going to infiltrate, infiltrate this way," Dey says.
"I wouldn't have to infiltrate at all. From what Knotts says--" You push the mask away with the tip of your finger. From what Knotts says, it's a really gross place to be. "From what she says, it's a major undertaking, requiring a few dozen people at least. Diana hasn't the manpower for an infiltration of that scale, so most of the team would just go in as support. That's how I'd go in. If I have to."
Dey and Patterson both look at you, then they look at each other. It amuses you to see the invisible blades feinting and flashing as each tries to dominate the other. Three years ago--hell, only six months ago--you'd have bet on Patterson prevailing. But you've had a lot more experience with Dey recently, and aren't so sure now.
But Dey is the first to break off. That doesn't mean he's given up, though. "I'll have to take it up with Jamie," he says.
You sigh. Jameson Hyde-White. The Director of Project Vulcan. Dey's boss, and yours too. The man who recruited you to Fane; recruited Patterson, too. The latter keeps his demeanor smooth, but you imagine a tremble passing through him.
Poor Steve, you chuckle silently to yourself. He thought he was getting Diana for his own when Fane activated Project Vulcan six months ago, and shifted Professor Hyde-White from his old department--Project Diana--to the new one. The professor took you and Dey with him, and gave Diana to Patterson. At the time it seemed like another remarkable step in Patterson's meteoric rise through the ranks at Fane; it has since become obvious that giving it to Patterson was just Hyde-White's way of keeping Diana under his control even as he ramped up Vulcan.
Maybe having a long-distance relationship with Patterson has made you soft on your old nemesis; you certainly find it easier to deal with him than with Dey, who is eight years your senior. And there's that link you share with Patterson: both from Saratoga Falls, former classmates, co-conspirators (with Steve as the very senior partner) in a scheme to impersonate and replace school friends with duplicates crafted with the Libra Personae, the book of disguises that you had found during your senior year in high school. When you talk these days, it's mostly to reminisce over the few things you had in common, and chortle softly over the mischief you'd gotten up to, even if most of it had been planned by Patterson and brutally forced on you by him.
"Well, you know my opinion," Patterson sighs, and stands up. "And I trust Will to convey it to the professor." You smile tightly at the compliment, but return his fist bump without hesitation. Steve gives Dey a plainly ironical salute, and leaves.
"God damn it, Prescott," Dey explodes once Steve is out the door. "You fucking little prick! Where the fuck do you get off arguing against me?"
You don't flinch a muscle. Let the asshole scream; you're untouchable. "I'm the chief engineer, Mr. Dey," you coolly reply. "I'm supposed to give my opinion, and fuck the politics."
He turns very red and curses again. "Even if it means losing us a new set of toys? Losing yourself a new set of toys?"
"We won't lose them," you serenely reply. "I don't have to be inside this mask in order to supervise. And most of the team members that go in will have to be from Vulcan."
Dey stabs at the mask with his finger, sending it skittering away. "But this is the key. Whoever is inside it will know where all the pieces are. Diana will be able to hold some back just by not telling us about them all."
You blink in bemusement. "Why would they do that? They'd risk crippling themselves, coming away with less than they could get than by letting us--"
"And maybe they'd rather cripple themselves than let us get ahold of everything!"
All the shit that goes on inside Fane leaves you rather tired. Dark Stars--the gigantic project that includes Projects Vulcan and Diana and a slew of others as components--is a vipers nest of rivalries and backstabbing. Dark Stars even gets in fights with other parts of the Fane organization. Insofar as you worry about the politics, it's to sigh over the waste and inefficiency from all the turf wars. Sure, Diana might try to cripple things by clutching new acquisitions to itself; but Dey could equally cripple it by grabbing all the pieces for Vulcan. It seems to you that Dark Stars could only be improved by greater internal cooperation, and that a little generosity would go a long ways toward improving everyone's prospects.
"Well, let's talk to Hyde-White," you sigh. "Since you've played the nuclear card."
* * * * *
"I understand your concerns, Dr. Prescott," Professor Hyde-White says. He slices off a bit of prime roast and drops it onto his plate. "I share them. These rivalries, these ceaseless bickerings-- Do refresh your glass, Mr. Dey," he says with faint sarcasm as Julian drains the last of the cabernet from his cup. Dey ignores his tone and grabs the bottle up. "I hope my arguments don't seem self-serving," Hyde-White continues, "when I say that our managing this expedition would lead to the most efficient dispersal of resources."
"How so?" you ask, and help yourself to a little more lamb. Hyde-White prides himself on his table, and on his hospitality.
"Because of our position within Dark Stars," he replies. "We are the engineers, the ones that the other Projects depend upon to execute their plans. It only makes sense--and Huangdi fully concurs with my reasoning--that we handle the, ah, 'toys' that the other Projects design, discover, or need."
"I can see that," you say. "But that doesn't mean that I have to be the one to make this infiltration."
"But, as your immediate supervisor--" You don't miss his reference to Dey's superior position--"has emphasized, infiltration via this route will give us the best information as to what we will find and where to find it. I do not mistrust Mr. Patterson, far from it. But as one of your American presidents said, 'Trust but verify'. Besides, there must also be the appearance of fair dealing amongst the Projects."
"How does our supervising things count as 'fair dealing'?" you ask. You know you run a risk of angering your boss by persisting in argument. But over the years you've grown to trust that he trusts your own honesty.
"Because Diana and Vulcan are not the only Projects interested in Cuthbert. Diana's preliminary reconnaissance has already piqued Nerio's interest. They will also take part in this expedition, and there may be others. They will trust us more than they trust Diana to share the bounty."
"Why? There's less overlap between Nerio and Diana than between Nerio and Vulcan."
"We overlap equally with all. We preserve the balance."
"You mean that we cheat them equally."
"Why Mr. Prescott," Hyde-White says with mild amusement. "I am appalled by your cynicism. Besides, I trust you to be ruthlessly honest in your communications with the other Projects. You will not hold back anything that you think our partners would find useful." He smiles.
You smile back, more tightly, for you know he's trapped you. Are you worried about fair dealing, Prescott? is his subtext. Then you supervise the expedition to Cuthbert so that you can decide which Projects get what goodies.
So you surrender. "When is the expedition supposed to go in?"
"The pieces are being assembled even as we speak. In Saratoga Falls," he pointedly adds. "You can fly out tomorrow and begin supervising. Or catch up with old friends and acquaintances. But I do expect you to use that mask."
"Yes sir." And to demonstrate your acquiescence, you tuck hungrily into the lush dinner.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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