The Cold Cash War

7

"It's Pete, Eddie. Can I talk with you for a few?"

"C'mon in, Pete. I've been expecting you."

The door slid open, and Pete stepped into Bush's office. The opti-print on the wall was blue today, matching Eddies suit. Pete ignored it and sank into one of the numerous chairs dotting the office.

"Okay, boss, what went wrong?"

"With the meeting?"

"Yes, with the meeting. What happened?"

"You sound mad."

Pete blew a deep breath out, relaxing a little.

"A bit. More puzzled. I'm trying to be level-headed about all this but I get the feeling I'm not playing with all the cards."

"The meeting didn't go that badly..."

"It didn't go that well either. And it isn't just the meeting, it's the last couple weeks. All of a sudden you're dragging your feet on this thing. I just want to get the air clear between us and find out why."

Bush didn't answer immediately. Instead, he rose from his desk and keyed a cup of coffee from the Servo-Matic machine in the corner. Pete refrained from pointing out that there was already a steaming cup on the desk. He knew better than to crowd Eddie while he was collecting his thoughts.

"I guess you could say that I'm having second thoughts about our approach to this thing."

"The implementation or the basic idea?"

"Both. More the basic idea, though."

Pete closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The team had been busting their butts on this thing, but it wouldn't go if Number One didn't believe in it.

"Okay, let's take it from the top. We all agree that if this thing blows up in our faces, we've got to have public support behind us. Right?"

"Right. And mass media is the fastest way to get it." Eddie's voice sounded mechanical.

"Now then, to do the job up front, to set the stage and create the atmosphere, we're proposing a saturation campaign of movies and specials, all on a military theme, stressing the right of the individual to protect his personal property and emphasizing the evils of government intervention."

"Whoa! Right there. Our whole strategy is based on the assumption that something will go wrong, that word will get out. At best, it comes off as negative thinking. At worst, it sounds like an open accusation of poor security or lack of employee loyalty. We aren't going to be able to sell this program if we come on hostile."

Pete tried to hide his impatience.

"That's why we slant the entire presentation on a 'better safe than sorry' format. C'mon, Eddie. We've been through all this before."

"And that government intervention thing. Why drag the government into it?"

"Okay, from the top. If this thing hits the news, our problem isn't going to be with the Oil Combine. There we've already got the white hats on. We're clear on everything we've done because all we've done is protect our own property. First, we sent the mercenaries in to protect our copper mines when the revolution threatened them; then we merely continued to defend the mines when Oil got the idea of using their mercenaries to take over the mines themselves. Everything we've done can be publicized as being for the good of the customer, us keeping costs down to keep prices down. Hell, even using our own mercenaries fits the pattern. We're paying for this out of our own pockets instead of using vital taxpayer dollars by lobbying for government troops. It was even our idea to rent land from Brazil to fight the war on instead of endangering the mines with on-site combat. As far as us against the Oil Combine, we've got nothing to worry about."

"I thought it was their idea to use Brazil for the fighting."

"It was, but we got it in writing first. That puts it in our pocket as far as history or the press is concerned. We've got 'em cold."

"That's well and good, but what's that got to do with government intervention?"

"If word of this thing gets out, the real battle is going to be with the government. You know Uncle Sammy-anything he can't tax he doesn't like, and anything he doesn't like he meddles with. It's within possibilities that he'll try to make us compromise with the Combine and divvy up the mines. If that happens, there will be a brawl, both in the courts and in Congress. If we're going to win that fight, we've got to have public support solidly behind us. That's where the saturation campaign comes in. If we can get the spark started before the specific case becomes public knowledge, it will be easy to fan it and point it in a direction. Hell, Eddie, you were the one who pointed it out in the first place."

"Well, I was just..."

"You were just asking questions that we answered in the first week we had this assignment. Now I thought we had a pretty good working relationship going, Eddie. I could always count on you for a straight answer no matter how unpleasant it was. I'm asking you plain-what's going wrong? If you can't tell me, say so and I'll back off, but don't give me a smoke screen and pretend it's an answer!"

Bush was silent for a few moments, his eyes not meeting Pete's glare. Finally he sighed.

"You're right, Pete. I should have leveled with you sooner."

He opened a drawer on his desk and withdrew a sheath of papers, tossing them on the desk in front of Pete.

"Here, look at these."

Pete picked up the sheets and started leafing through them. They were photocopies of the rough drafts of some documents. Crossed-out paragraphs and note-filled margins abounded. Whatever they were, they were a long way from presentation state.

"What are they?"

"That's some of the rough drafts of Marcus's presentation."

Pete raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"Don't ask how I got them. Let's just say they got detoured past a copier on their way to the shredder."

"Do you have stuff from Higgins too?"

Eddie made a disparaging gesture.

"Some, but not as much. He's pushing for a joint effort with the Oil people to save cost. Frankly, I don't think it has a snowball's chance in hell of being accepted. Marcus is the man I'm watching."

"Okay, what's he got here?"

"It all boils down to one assertion. He says we should win the war."

"Win the...really? Just like that?"

"Oh, there's lots of back-up. He works off the same supposition that we do-that if the war lasts long enough, the word will leak out. But instead of trying to cover up afterward, he wants to finish it before it leaks."

"Does the boy wonder bother to mention how we're supposed to do this?"

"Rather explicitly. We're supposed to outgun them."

"Hire more mercenaries? We've already..."

"No, outgun them. Better equipment. So far everybody's been fighting with government surplus weapons modified for simulated combat. Anything really new the governments are keeping under top security wraps. He's saying we should go directly to the designers and manufacturers and outbid the governments for the new stuff. That would give us enough of an edge to finish the fight once and for all."

"That'd cost us an arm and a leg!"

"Not as much as you'd think. He points out how much the corporations pad any bill going to the government and suggests by exerting a little economic pressure, we could drive the price down considerably. Then again-pull page four out of that stack for a minute."

"Got it."

"What you have there is a document he intercepted. Apparently the bastard has inside information from the negotiating sessions."

Pete was scanning the page.

"What's a 'One-for-One Proposal'?"

"It's some new rule the Oil types are trying to push through. Basically it means the mercenaries would have to destroy equipment and Ammunition as if it had actually been used."

"That's insane!"

"Our negotiating team is giving it an eighty percent probability of passing. If it does, cost estimates for continuing the war go as high as fifty thousand dollars a day."

Pete whistled appreciatively.

"With that tidbit under his arm, Marcus' proposal doesn't sound nearly as expensive."

"So where does that leave us?"

Eddie pursed his lips.

"That's what's been bothering me. This proposed program has a lot of sparkle and romance to it. It's going to get a lot of support. If we decide to fight it, it's going to be an uphill battle."

A warning bell went off in the back of Pete's mind.

"Did you say 'if we decide...'?"

Eddie sighed.

"There's one more bit of information that I haven't told you. It seems that Becker, Mr. Big himself, has been talking with Marcus at least once a week, sometimes daily. If he's taking a personal interest in seeing Marcus get ahead, we might want to think long and hard about our own careers before we set out to try to make the golden boy look bad."