Read Online Interzone #244 Jan - Feb 2013 by Various - Free Book Online Page A

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 ther e , 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 Caldwel l 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 going into space, he said.”
    “ What’d he know about Angela Caldwell?” I asked.
    “ He worked on the stadium too. He was off sick when one end of the lower tier collapsed. She was apprenticing