The Last Network - Chapter 47
Sixty-Eight Guns
Em watched that rat weasel slink down the hallway. She’d been waiting all weekend to confront him, playing the conversation out in her head, unable to put it aside. She didn’t know why she put faith in people. She hated how easily they dismissed potential threats. Why couldn’t they see the world the way she did? Some people weren’t smart enough to see all the angles—Em could forgive that. What she couldn’t forgive were the people who saw all the angles but didn’t have the spine to nip the bad ones in the bud.
Sonny had lied to her. It was a lie of omission, but that didn’t make it any better. What bothered her most wasn’t this lie, it was wondering what else was out there. When she wasn’t spending Sunday having imaginary conversations with Sonny, she was wondering what other shit Rabbit had gotten them into. She thought Sonny and Paolo were with her as backstops. Instead, they just told her what she wanted to hear and then never followed through on it. Fucking pointless.
It was showtime. She got up from her desk and followed Sonny down the hall.
“Sonny, can we talk for a minute?” she asked, stepping between him and the door to his office.
“Of course Em, what can I do for you?”
“I met a Peared employee this weekend. It was the funniest thing—she said she worked for our call center in Tijuana. I told her that was impossible, we didn’t believe in call centers, and we certainly didn’t have an office in Mexico. She looked at me like I had two heads and then asked if I really worked at Peared. It was quite an odd back and forth. Eventually she showed me a picture of her, Rabbit, and yourself.” Em paused for a moment, watching Sonny’s face to see how he was going to play this. She continued. “She’s hot—I can see why you’d take a picture with her. The problem is, she’s also a real social climber. Will say anything to get ahead. In fact, she told me exactly what she does for us.”
“I see.” Sonny mustered.
“So, I’m listening to her and getting angrier and angrier as she tells her story. At first, I’m mad that we are doing something that’s galactically stupid, but then I start getting mad at myself for not knowing about this; finally I realize where my anger really belongs. It’s at you.” Her sharp fingernail jabbed him in the chest. “What the fuck happened to sharing information, Sonny?”
“I decided not to in this case.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? What are you four years old?”
Sonny ran his hands through his short-cropped hair and let out a long sigh. “I was stretched thin, trying to juggle a facility build-out and my work here. Telling you would have just created all sorts of drama.”
“As compared to now? Two hundred people in Mexico trolling our competition was exactly the sort of stupid, narrow thinking I was trying to prevent in the first place. Only I can’t do it if my ‘allies’ act just as stupid and shortsighted as fucking Rabbit. This is the sort of decision he needed to be checked on.”
Sonny took a moment, weighing his words before picking a side. “Em, I work for Rabbit. I report to Rabbit. He pays me. This is his company. It’s not yours and it’s not mine. I should have never created an expectation that I would share confidential information with you. That was my mistake and I regret that.”
“This is going to bite us in the ass. It’s always the stupid fucking shortcuts that cause all the problems later. Tell me this, is there any other dumb shit going on?”
“Not that I know of. I suppose you are going to fly off the handle on Rabbit, then I’ll get dragged into it?”
He motioned for her to step aside so he could enter his office. She stood firm.
“No, I’m going to talk to Paolo and see what other shenanigans we’ve got going on around here. After that, I’ll figure out what I want to do. No point in raising hell if I’m the only sensible person at Peared. This is a great example of why I should stick to freelance projects. Hang around people for more than three months and they’ll disappoint you.”
Sonny leaned in until they were eye to eye. He spoke slowly in a strong but emotionless tone.
“Em, you have a much higher opinion of yourself than you ought to. Like I said, this isn’t your company. It’s Rabbit’s.”
“And you have far too low an estimation of the damage he can do.”
“We’ll see,” Sonny said as he brushed her aside and walked through the doorway of his office.
“Oh, we will,” Em said to Sonny and his door as he closed it on her.