Read Online The Flux by Ferrett Steinmetz - Free Book Online Page B

palms muffled his voice. “You could have made this office look magnificent. Instead, you pissed it away.”
    “It’s a setback, David,” Paul said.
    He glared at Paul. “The fact that you do not realize how bad things are, Paul, shows me exactly how ill-suited you are for this job.”
    Paul squirmed. “It’s one bad fight. But catching ’mancers is what I do. We’ll get there.”
    “And if your job was to catch ’mancers, I would be reassured.”
    “My job is to catch ’mancers. That’s right on the paperwork.”
    “No.” David shook his head. “Your job is to make the mayor look good. Which you do by making New York’s citizenry feel safe. You have failed at that job, time and time again.”
    “…you’re telling me that I’m a figurehead?”
    “No. Though that is why we appointed you to the job – a man without a scrap of political savvy who nevertheless made headlines. Imani assured me you could pick up the skill of making connections .”
    Paul winced. He’d disliked lying to City Hall, assuring everyone how bad ’mancers were, how he took great satisfaction in tracking those universe-warping bastards down. So he’d skipped the meet-‘n’-greets, hoping sheer efficiency would keep him in the role.
    “But no,” David continued. “We’ve gone almost eighteen months with no ’mancers. After Anathema promised we’d have a tide of magicked-up freaks storming our bastions. You could have claimed credit, told the news of the horrible things that would have happened had not Mr Paulos Costa Tsabo scared the ’mancers away. But no! You expressed bafflement – repeated bafflement – that Anathema’s dire predictions weren’t coming true. You asked for more funding to investigate this strange quiescence. Truth be told, you sounded a little disappointed more ’mancers hadn’t arrived.”
    Paul had been disappointed. Anathema had told him all sorts of ’mancers would be popping up all across New York. That’s why he’d taken the job, even though he’d known the politics would be interminable: as the first responder to any ’mancer incident, he’d planned to shunt the helpful ’mancers off to safer places, playing a sort of Oskar Schindler.
    Paul had anticipated moral dilemmas, sorting out which ’mancers were worth saving.
    What he hadn’t anticipated was no ’mancers at all. None.
    “Don’t you think it’s a little odd?” Paul asked, leaning forward. “ No ’mancer activity for eighteen months? In a city this size? Not so much as a single bookiemancer? Hell, Los Angeles averages ten ’mancer incidents a year, Chicago twenty–”
    “And we are safe , Paul!” David spread his hands. “That’s good news! Why couldn’t you tell the media that was the result of your fine preventative work?”
    “Because it’s not true?”
    “How do you know it’s not true? Maybe they’re terrified of your manly presence. Christ, Paul, I’m not asking you to lie, I’m just asking for good spin .”
    “You know I don’t like talking to the media, David.”
    “Yeah, well, that’s
    a strange allergy for someone who’s in fucking politics .”
    “Politics,” Paul shot back, “often stops shit from getting done.”
    A cold silence.
    David reached for a glass of water with the aggrieved air of a man cutting Paul some major slack. It was all Paul could do not to remind David that oh, yeah, remember how you slept with my wife while we were still married , and I haven’t brought that up even once ?
    “It sounds,” Paul said stiffly, “Like you’d be happier if Lenny hadn’t gone after Psycho Mantis at all.”
    “No.” David planted his index finger on the table’s dark-wood surface. “We should scour the city for all ’mancy-related threats. Yet Psycho Mantis was not a risk at the time . Lenny didn’t scout the zone, and he endangered lives – all on an anonymous tip .”
    Paul winced. David had a point.
    “The media wants someone strung up,” David continued. “Lenny