dance with the devil
Dr. Peter Stormer was in the chair behind his desk, thinking about Gvot plans for Nagas if they made it to the Blue Planet. As was his custom when thinking of matters involving the government, he was 90 degrees away from his normal sitting position, his head down, his elbows on his knees, his eyes fixed on the pattern in the Persian carpet.
"Ah, there you are! Are you hiding or praying or may I come in?"
Her voice was cheery and full of sunshine. Peter Stormer had already lost his heart in one meeting with La Devereaux.
He smiled. "Just going over things for the future if there is one." He rose and beckoned. "Please, come in. I miss you not being just across the way from me."
She entered with all the confidence on show that she'd won him with in their previous meeting. "It can't be all bad, you still have the meetings with Aggie & Rails every day."
He laughed. "Yes, I do, and I'm dying to know the truth about the plumbing incident! They tell me nothing about it, and you will probably fill my ears with the real truth and then my day will be complete!"
She laughed. "I think for that, I'd better close the door!"
She didn't move.
"Please, sit, I'll get the door." He walked around the desk and closed them in.
For Suzanne that was transaction one. The truth about Aggie & Rails and the steel toilet in exchange for proof Stormer would be a good little dog.
Next the eyes.
"I don't really feel like shouting it out, may I move the chair closer?" She looked schoolgirlishly conspiratorial.
He was already behind his desk again. He began to rise.
She motioned to him to stay seated as she shuffled the chair forward and ducked her head down low, almost at desk level. Suzanne wasn't particularly busty, but his eyes engaged briefly enough that she was satisfied with transaction two.
Finally, the voice.
She locked her eyes on his, and in a low voice she initiated the very first Stormer-Devereaux conspiracy discussion. Low voices, closed doors, only-we-know.
This was intimacy at a level Stormer barely recognized these days beyond Aggie and Rails, and the difference was Aggie & Rails were his symbolic daughters, and Suzanne Devereaux was a sophisticated, powerful woman of great charm and beauty with whom he had already shared a significant secret, Leon Freedman.
The coup de grace was always a bonus shared secret. Gvot were notorious for returning like-for-like.
"What Cyrus didn't tell the Air Force was that during rigorous testing, the moulded steel shell had a design flaw which would break if subjected to a vigorous rocking motion, and I'll leave that to your imagination because I didn't see it happen either, but I can pretty much guess how that occurred."
They shared a few minutes of laughter and throw away lines before Stormer raised a cautionary hand. He covered his mouth with the same hand as Aggie and Rails came into view.
Suzanne burst out laughing as Rails saw them and said something to Aggie. Aggie looked in with lightning in her eyes as Rails buried her head in Aggie's shoulder. They moved fairly briskly after that, leaving Suzanne and Stormer shaking with genuine laughter.
Suzanne looked down at the carpet this time as she spoke softly again, making him work to hear her. "I imagine my life with those two will be hell for a few days!"
Stormer hadn't laughed like this in years.
So it was as it finally faded that Suzanne Devereaux said. "Leon Freedman."
Stormer sobered up markedly.
"What about Leon Freedman?"
"I've grown to care about this courageous man in the short time I've known him. What is the Government's intention, if you know?"
Stormer took inventory. The smile was still there, check. Was there a steely glint in the eye that had been missing during the tale of the toilet? Was there a slight metallic tinge in the voice now?
He leaned on his desk, hands clasped, a Melf trick to signify composure. "I have no doubt you have compassion for Leon. As for the Government's plans for him, they know nothing of his ... peculiar history, so no plans I am aware of."
She dropped her smile to signify disappointment in his lack of influence. "But you're the de facto Secretary of Health. You would be the architect of the Government plan, would you not?"
He dropped his voice back to the conspiratorial level. "I was made Health Secretary because Dr. Vance died during the execution phase of the escape plan and because Copernicus Nagas strongly suggested I be made so. Don't assume from that I feel compelled to disclose Leon's secret to Richardson and Melf."
She looked genuinely disappointed. "So you are powerless?"
"On the contrary, as I have all the knowledge of the matter of Leon's ... peculiarities, I have a queen on the chessboard the Government cannot even see."
A wakeup call for Suzanne, a reminder to never underestimate the man before her.
She nodded slowly. "May I ask if you've considered ... how shall I say this ... taking Leon into private care?"
"To do so would take power and resources I do not possess." He had his hand over his lips. He was censoring himself on the fly.
"So someone with the power and financial assistance to keep Leon from being a Government-run guinea-pig would be a useful ally?"
He paused, smiling only a little. "Well played with the toilet story."
She arched her brows. "You think I came in here specifically to manipulate you?"
"Did you?"
Suzanne knew this was not a time for lying. "I came here in part to share life with Lori and Rails because you care deeply for them, it's clear, and in exchange I wanted to look after my own self-interest." She looked at him as if she were laying herself bare. "Fair enough?"
"So both? Quid pro quo is the adventures of Aggie and Rails and I listen to what I suspect is a power play plan which will give you similar longevity to Leon's?"
She kept the eyes honed in. "Yes. Is that so terrible?"
He borrowed Aggie's wagging finger. "You are used to power, you know I live a life of comparative solitude, that I am Gvot, that I will deal only in private with the honest. Am I a .. a .. what is the word? ... a 'mark' to you?"
She wasn't lying. "No. You are the only man I can deal with."
There was a pause as he took the words in. "Here it is in a nutshell. When PlanetFall happens, if it does, I am to remain Secretary of Health until either Richardson dies or we have open elections. I am to have a state-of-the-art research facility into which I wish to take Leon Freedman. As long as we are being frank, we can do business. I tell you the truth, you tell me the truth. It is non-negotiable."
She nodded. "Agreed."
"What is said in here stays between you and me."
"I wish for that too."
"I trust Richardson and Melf like I trust the wind on the sea." An Aggie finger surfaced again. "Cyrus did business with me on these terms. I never heard a word leak from him to my enemies."
Suzanne's eyes got the steel back. "You can expect exactly the same from me."
He tilted his head. "Can I, indeed?"
She leaned forward. "On his grave, I promise you."
He snorted a bit, a laugh of sorts. "So much you promise. Promise me a separate private facility with guards from the Gvot community, protection for Aggie and Rails from Boyette and his goons."
"You shall have it."
"Aggie, Rails, Leon, my people, it is all I have." He was offering a chance to step aside.
She declined. "If I said it once, it means what I say it means."
"Cyrus loved you, he believed in you. That carries weight, but I am not in love with you, but sleep with me regularly and you have a deal."
"No." Suzanne knew well the ways of the Gvot from Cyrus.
"Once then, to show good faith."
"No. Don't push me, Gvot."
"Why not?" Stormer removed his finger from in front of his lips. He knew the answer.
"Sex is pleasure, this is business."
He finally smiled again. "Good, you pass the honour test either because you are honourable or because Cyrus taught you well, perhaps a little of both. Sweeten the pot a little in a way this poor Gvot can understand."
"You'll need test subjects, humans."
He looked at her blankly. "I am not in the human trafficking business."
Suzanne shook her head. "I'm not asking you to be."
He leaned back in his chair again. "Cyrus' hit list? You have it?"
She nodded. "I do."
"So we are cleaning out the pool, thinning the herd so to speak?"
"We're avenging not only Cyrus and Leon Freedman, but the enemies of your people."
He nodded slowly. "Vengeance is an honor for Gvot, not for your husband. His hit list was more ... figurative."
"I loved him. I know where the cancer came from. His hit list has passed to me. My way of seeing what I must do is different. Vengeance is now mine, as it is yours."
"We must be prudent and patient."
"I know. And we must ally now, before PlanetFall."
"Then the objective will be twofold? The hit list and the work on Leon Freedman is for what I believe will be a vaccine to prolong lives?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Then you must do one thing for me, then we have a deal."
"And that is?"
"You will need to build a traditional Gvot Rifle." He smiled. "Do you think you can do that?"
"I can do that."
His smile broadened. "Then I think we can do business."
She smiled, rose, and extended her hand.
He laughed quietly, waving her hand away. "The handshake is when you hand me the rifle."
"Ah, there you are! Are you hiding or praying or may I come in?"
Her voice was cheery and full of sunshine. Peter Stormer had already lost his heart in one meeting with La Devereaux.
He smiled. "Just going over things for the future if there is one." He rose and beckoned. "Please, come in. I miss you not being just across the way from me."
She entered with all the confidence on show that she'd won him with in their previous meeting. "It can't be all bad, you still have the meetings with Aggie & Rails every day."
He laughed. "Yes, I do, and I'm dying to know the truth about the plumbing incident! They tell me nothing about it, and you will probably fill my ears with the real truth and then my day will be complete!"
She laughed. "I think for that, I'd better close the door!"
She didn't move.
"Please, sit, I'll get the door." He walked around the desk and closed them in.
For Suzanne that was transaction one. The truth about Aggie & Rails and the steel toilet in exchange for proof Stormer would be a good little dog.
Next the eyes.
"I don't really feel like shouting it out, may I move the chair closer?" She looked schoolgirlishly conspiratorial.
He was already behind his desk again. He began to rise.
She motioned to him to stay seated as she shuffled the chair forward and ducked her head down low, almost at desk level. Suzanne wasn't particularly busty, but his eyes engaged briefly enough that she was satisfied with transaction two.
Finally, the voice.
She locked her eyes on his, and in a low voice she initiated the very first Stormer-Devereaux conspiracy discussion. Low voices, closed doors, only-we-know.
This was intimacy at a level Stormer barely recognized these days beyond Aggie and Rails, and the difference was Aggie & Rails were his symbolic daughters, and Suzanne Devereaux was a sophisticated, powerful woman of great charm and beauty with whom he had already shared a significant secret, Leon Freedman.
The coup de grace was always a bonus shared secret. Gvot were notorious for returning like-for-like.
"What Cyrus didn't tell the Air Force was that during rigorous testing, the moulded steel shell had a design flaw which would break if subjected to a vigorous rocking motion, and I'll leave that to your imagination because I didn't see it happen either, but I can pretty much guess how that occurred."
They shared a few minutes of laughter and throw away lines before Stormer raised a cautionary hand. He covered his mouth with the same hand as Aggie and Rails came into view.
Suzanne burst out laughing as Rails saw them and said something to Aggie. Aggie looked in with lightning in her eyes as Rails buried her head in Aggie's shoulder. They moved fairly briskly after that, leaving Suzanne and Stormer shaking with genuine laughter.
Suzanne looked down at the carpet this time as she spoke softly again, making him work to hear her. "I imagine my life with those two will be hell for a few days!"
Stormer hadn't laughed like this in years.
So it was as it finally faded that Suzanne Devereaux said. "Leon Freedman."
Stormer sobered up markedly.
"What about Leon Freedman?"
"I've grown to care about this courageous man in the short time I've known him. What is the Government's intention, if you know?"
Stormer took inventory. The smile was still there, check. Was there a steely glint in the eye that had been missing during the tale of the toilet? Was there a slight metallic tinge in the voice now?
He leaned on his desk, hands clasped, a Melf trick to signify composure. "I have no doubt you have compassion for Leon. As for the Government's plans for him, they know nothing of his ... peculiar history, so no plans I am aware of."
She dropped her smile to signify disappointment in his lack of influence. "But you're the de facto Secretary of Health. You would be the architect of the Government plan, would you not?"
He dropped his voice back to the conspiratorial level. "I was made Health Secretary because Dr. Vance died during the execution phase of the escape plan and because Copernicus Nagas strongly suggested I be made so. Don't assume from that I feel compelled to disclose Leon's secret to Richardson and Melf."
She looked genuinely disappointed. "So you are powerless?"
"On the contrary, as I have all the knowledge of the matter of Leon's ... peculiarities, I have a queen on the chessboard the Government cannot even see."
A wakeup call for Suzanne, a reminder to never underestimate the man before her.
She nodded slowly. "May I ask if you've considered ... how shall I say this ... taking Leon into private care?"
"To do so would take power and resources I do not possess." He had his hand over his lips. He was censoring himself on the fly.
"So someone with the power and financial assistance to keep Leon from being a Government-run guinea-pig would be a useful ally?"
He paused, smiling only a little. "Well played with the toilet story."
She arched her brows. "You think I came in here specifically to manipulate you?"
"Did you?"
Suzanne knew this was not a time for lying. "I came here in part to share life with Lori and Rails because you care deeply for them, it's clear, and in exchange I wanted to look after my own self-interest." She looked at him as if she were laying herself bare. "Fair enough?"
"So both? Quid pro quo is the adventures of Aggie and Rails and I listen to what I suspect is a power play plan which will give you similar longevity to Leon's?"
She kept the eyes honed in. "Yes. Is that so terrible?"
He borrowed Aggie's wagging finger. "You are used to power, you know I live a life of comparative solitude, that I am Gvot, that I will deal only in private with the honest. Am I a .. a .. what is the word? ... a 'mark' to you?"
She wasn't lying. "No. You are the only man I can deal with."
There was a pause as he took the words in. "Here it is in a nutshell. When PlanetFall happens, if it does, I am to remain Secretary of Health until either Richardson dies or we have open elections. I am to have a state-of-the-art research facility into which I wish to take Leon Freedman. As long as we are being frank, we can do business. I tell you the truth, you tell me the truth. It is non-negotiable."
She nodded. "Agreed."
"What is said in here stays between you and me."
"I wish for that too."
"I trust Richardson and Melf like I trust the wind on the sea." An Aggie finger surfaced again. "Cyrus did business with me on these terms. I never heard a word leak from him to my enemies."
Suzanne's eyes got the steel back. "You can expect exactly the same from me."
He tilted his head. "Can I, indeed?"
She leaned forward. "On his grave, I promise you."
He snorted a bit, a laugh of sorts. "So much you promise. Promise me a separate private facility with guards from the Gvot community, protection for Aggie and Rails from Boyette and his goons."
"You shall have it."
"Aggie, Rails, Leon, my people, it is all I have." He was offering a chance to step aside.
She declined. "If I said it once, it means what I say it means."
"Cyrus loved you, he believed in you. That carries weight, but I am not in love with you, but sleep with me regularly and you have a deal."
"No." Suzanne knew well the ways of the Gvot from Cyrus.
"Once then, to show good faith."
"No. Don't push me, Gvot."
"Why not?" Stormer removed his finger from in front of his lips. He knew the answer.
"Sex is pleasure, this is business."
He finally smiled again. "Good, you pass the honour test either because you are honourable or because Cyrus taught you well, perhaps a little of both. Sweeten the pot a little in a way this poor Gvot can understand."
"You'll need test subjects, humans."
He looked at her blankly. "I am not in the human trafficking business."
Suzanne shook her head. "I'm not asking you to be."
He leaned back in his chair again. "Cyrus' hit list? You have it?"
She nodded. "I do."
"So we are cleaning out the pool, thinning the herd so to speak?"
"We're avenging not only Cyrus and Leon Freedman, but the enemies of your people."
He nodded slowly. "Vengeance is an honor for Gvot, not for your husband. His hit list was more ... figurative."
"I loved him. I know where the cancer came from. His hit list has passed to me. My way of seeing what I must do is different. Vengeance is now mine, as it is yours."
"We must be prudent and patient."
"I know. And we must ally now, before PlanetFall."
"Then the objective will be twofold? The hit list and the work on Leon Freedman is for what I believe will be a vaccine to prolong lives?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Then you must do one thing for me, then we have a deal."
"And that is?"
"You will need to build a traditional Gvot Rifle." He smiled. "Do you think you can do that?"
"I can do that."
His smile broadened. "Then I think we can do business."
She smiled, rose, and extended her hand.
He laughed quietly, waving her hand away. "The handshake is when you hand me the rifle."
