Wyatt in here.”
Enoshi bows and hustles off.
Ohara sips his tea and goes through the memos in his queue. Most require a simple yes or no. He hits Y or N and then TRANS to shoot his answers back to the appropriate parties. Nothing very complicated today. Taffy Lee, simsense star extraordinaire, still refusing to accept the terms of her eighteen-country forty-six-city tour to promote her new line of chips. Persuade her? Yes. Obviously. The biff owes everything to Exotech and she’ll do the tour at the prescribed terms or spend the rest of her life fighting lawsuits over it.
Jeff Wyatt comes in.
“Look at this,” Ohara says, slapping at the monitor, spinning it toward Wyatt. “Our Hermetic line’s outselling practically everything else on the market and now Bairnes comes along proposing some cybernetic warrior drek. You don’t change winning strategies. You enhance them. Doesn’t anyone around here know anything!”
Wyatt just glances at the display, seems to clench his teeth, exhale deeply. “Bairnes is a techie. He doesn’t know marketing.”
Ohara compresses his lips. There is no excuse for ignorance. “The Summoning of Abbirleth hit number one on the charts in its first week of release and stayed there for almost nine months.”
“Six months.”
“Don’t argue with me! Night of the Enchanter followed the same track. Doesn’t that suggest anything to anyone but me? How do you suppose this corporation gained twenty-three percent market share in just under a year? Do you think the skag you were peddling before is what put this organization at the top of the market?”
Wyatt looks unmoved, much as Ohara expected. “You should have asked me for a recommendation, not Bairnes,” Wyatt says. “I’m the V.P. for Product Development. Special Projects is in my division.”
This very unnecessary reminder sends prickles of heat up the back of Ohara’s neck. “Save me your territorial imperatives. This is my show. Understand?”
“I don’t remember questioning that.”
“Why do I always get the feeling that you’re just waiting for an opportunity to usurp my authority? Is there a problem, Jeff? Do you have a problem taking instructions?”
“Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ.” Ohara swings his chair aside, struggling to suppress his anger. Goading him to a fit of temper is one of Wyatt’s foremost talents. “What do you think I want? I want a replacement for Neiman! You may recall that our Special Projects Section is the fire that got this corporation going ! Without it, the Hermetic line’ll get buried!”
“Do we at least wait till after Neiman’s funeral to announce his successor?”
Widows and orphans wait for bodies to go into the ground—business doesn’t. “Maybe you’d like to be buried along with your former director.”
“Is that a threat, Mister Ohara?”
“If you can’t find a replacement for Neiman, I’ll find someone who can.”
“I think I can handle it.”
“Then get on it.”
Ohara swings back to face Wyatt and makes a point of smiling his most vicious smile. Wyatt’s private agenda is quite apparent to him. Wyatt wants control of Exotech. He plans to get it by making Ohara look bad in front of the directors of KFK, Exotech’s parent corporation. Ohara must remain constantly on guard, take every opportunity to turn the man’s treachery against him. That is why Ohara picked Bairnes to serve briefly as Neiman’s heir apparent. He knew Bairnes would never do. By the time he’s finished, he’ll make it look like Wyatt wanted Bairnes and that only Ohara’s constant vigilance prevented a debacle.
Before Wyatt can leave, another man enters, coming through the side door from Enoshi’s office. The new arrival is heavily built and wears a rumpled trench coat over a rather untidy suit. Both the trench coat and the suit look like they were purchased straight off the rack. Ohara has never seen the man before. He is certainly not an
Enoshi bows and hustles off.
Ohara sips his tea and goes through the memos in his queue. Most require a simple yes or no. He hits Y or N and then TRANS to shoot his answers back to the appropriate parties. Nothing very complicated today. Taffy Lee, simsense star extraordinaire, still refusing to accept the terms of her eighteen-country forty-six-city tour to promote her new line of chips. Persuade her? Yes. Obviously. The biff owes everything to Exotech and she’ll do the tour at the prescribed terms or spend the rest of her life fighting lawsuits over it.
Jeff Wyatt comes in.
“Look at this,” Ohara says, slapping at the monitor, spinning it toward Wyatt. “Our Hermetic line’s outselling practically everything else on the market and now Bairnes comes along proposing some cybernetic warrior drek. You don’t change winning strategies. You enhance them. Doesn’t anyone around here know anything!”
Wyatt just glances at the display, seems to clench his teeth, exhale deeply. “Bairnes is a techie. He doesn’t know marketing.”
Ohara compresses his lips. There is no excuse for ignorance. “The Summoning of Abbirleth hit number one on the charts in its first week of release and stayed there for almost nine months.”
“Six months.”
“Don’t argue with me! Night of the Enchanter followed the same track. Doesn’t that suggest anything to anyone but me? How do you suppose this corporation gained twenty-three percent market share in just under a year? Do you think the skag you were peddling before is what put this organization at the top of the market?”
Wyatt looks unmoved, much as Ohara expected. “You should have asked me for a recommendation, not Bairnes,” Wyatt says. “I’m the V.P. for Product Development. Special Projects is in my division.”
This very unnecessary reminder sends prickles of heat up the back of Ohara’s neck. “Save me your territorial imperatives. This is my show. Understand?”
“I don’t remember questioning that.”
“Why do I always get the feeling that you’re just waiting for an opportunity to usurp my authority? Is there a problem, Jeff? Do you have a problem taking instructions?”
“Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ.” Ohara swings his chair aside, struggling to suppress his anger. Goading him to a fit of temper is one of Wyatt’s foremost talents. “What do you think I want? I want a replacement for Neiman! You may recall that our Special Projects Section is the fire that got this corporation going ! Without it, the Hermetic line’ll get buried!”
“Do we at least wait till after Neiman’s funeral to announce his successor?”
Widows and orphans wait for bodies to go into the ground—business doesn’t. “Maybe you’d like to be buried along with your former director.”
“Is that a threat, Mister Ohara?”
“If you can’t find a replacement for Neiman, I’ll find someone who can.”
“I think I can handle it.”
“Then get on it.”
Ohara swings back to face Wyatt and makes a point of smiling his most vicious smile. Wyatt’s private agenda is quite apparent to him. Wyatt wants control of Exotech. He plans to get it by making Ohara look bad in front of the directors of KFK, Exotech’s parent corporation. Ohara must remain constantly on guard, take every opportunity to turn the man’s treachery against him. That is why Ohara picked Bairnes to serve briefly as Neiman’s heir apparent. He knew Bairnes would never do. By the time he’s finished, he’ll make it look like Wyatt wanted Bairnes and that only Ohara’s constant vigilance prevented a debacle.
Before Wyatt can leave, another man enters, coming through the side door from Enoshi’s office. The new arrival is heavily built and wears a rumpled trench coat over a rather untidy suit. Both the trench coat and the suit look like they were purchased straight off the rack. Ohara has never seen the man before. He is certainly not an
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