Read Online Interzone 244 Jan - Feb 2013 by TTA Press - Free Book Online Page A

was interested to see if she’d
follow up.
    “ Probably. He’s answerable
for costs once a project’s on site. Or it could have been Head
Office.”
    “ And who approved
it?”
    “ Angela Caldwell, most
likely.”
    She nodded and dropped the subject, only to
come back to it the next day.
    “ I still don’t get the
equal and approved thing,” she said. I was pleased she was bright
enough to keep asking the right questions, although I was glad we
were talking suit-to-suit again. I hoped I was the only one whose
ear she was bending.
    “ Those brands,” she said.
“I looked them up. The Boltefast are lower grade. They’re not equal
to SureEng. Their shear strength is lower.”
    “ Lower but high
enough.”
    “ Who says?”
    “ If Caldwell approved them,
Caldwell says.”
    “ It’s your initials on the
change request.”
    “ Then I made the suggestion
and Caldwell approved it. It’s pretty routine.”
    She stayed quiet for a moment, pulling out a
bolt and looking at it. She was getting pretty good at fine
manipulation wearing gloves.
    “ They’re cheaper,” she
said. “Who makes the saving?”
    She’s nearly there , I thought,
willing her to work it out. I didn’t answer. When she spoke again,
she seemed to have changed the subject.
    “ There was this guy I
worked with before,” she said. “His wages went further than
everyone else’s. He had the latest tech, ate out a lot, nice
clothes. I liked him. Always got the first round in at the
pub.”
    “ Uh-huh?” I
said.
    “ His sister-in-law, see,
she ran a galvanising firm. Hot dip and powder coating. We used her
on almost all our contracts. Must have been good.”
    I knew then she was the one – my ideal
successor. She confirmed it with her next question:
    “ Do you think Boltefast is
good in the same way?”
    “ Yes,” I said, looking
straight at her, “I’d say it’s good in exactly that
way.”
    She nodded. Time to put my exit strategy
into action.
    “ I’m thinking of requesting
retirement,” I said. “I’m too old to be wielding a podger. But, I
need someone up here to take over the paperwork.”
    “ Doesn’t the Gaffer deal
with it?”
    “ He’s never been
interested. I’d prefer to pass it on to someone else. Someone who’d
keep me in the loop, as it were.”
    “ That person would be
taking a risk, wouldn’t they? Perhaps half the risk?”
    “ I wouldn’t say half.
Eighty:twenty, perhaps?”
    “ Sixty:forty,” she
countered.
    “ It takes time to build up
contacts,” I pointed out. “Eighty:twenty for the first three years,
seventy:thirty when you finish your apprenticeship.”
    “ Hey!” called the Gaffer,
on the open channel. I looked up and he was coming our way. “You
two are getting behind. Problems, Peggy?”
    “ No, nothing,” I
said.
    “ Girlie?”
    “ Nah.”
    “ Get a move on,
then.”
    We finished the shift in silence. I was
happy to let her mull it over.
    * *
    “ Is it true Caldwell got those scars working on the London Olympic stadium?” asked
Murray.
    We’d just come in from a shift, a couple of
days after I made my offer to the kid. I was waiting for her reply,
confident it’d be yes. Who doesn’t want to earn a little extra on
the side?
    Construction was a day ahead of schedule,
the Gaffer was whistling happily, and Diego had gone easy on Murray
for a few hours.
    “ That’s the rumour,” I
said. “Must be forty years ago. How’d you hear? She doesn’t talk
about it.”
    “ One of the tourists.” The
Gaffer stopped whistling and turned to look. We weren’t supposed to
fraternise.
    Murray continued. “Old guy. Used to be a
labourer.”
    “ What were you doing in the
hotel?” asked the Gaffer.
    “ He came over here,” said
Murray. “Wanted to see how we did things.”
    “ More to the point, what’s
a labourer doing in the hotel?” asked Diego. “Won the
lottery?”
    The Gaffer and I laughed. Murray shook her
head.
    “ Nah, he’s been saving all
his life. Always dreamed of