by Paul Byers
Cain took the tiny shard and placed it on a coaster and tried to light it. They all watched expectantly but instead of igniting the chunk, the flame simply melted it.
“I know what I saw.” Pike said. “The piece here is probably too small to burn. But don’t you see? It wasn’t the juice that was flammable; there is something in the ice itself that burns!”
“So you’re telling me that this entire iceberg is made of, well, ice that can catch fire?” Mallory said, her voice heavy with skepticism.
“This isn’t regular ice, remember? It’s a blend of water, wood fibers and whatever else you put in it to strengthen it and retard melting. There must be something in the mixture that when combined is flammable. Until we find out what that is, we don’t dare sail into New York harbor or any other harbor for that matter. In an enclosed harbor setting do you know what would happen if the entire iceberg caught on fire or exploded? The damage would be catastrophic.”
“Aren’t you overreacting just a little here?” Mallory said, “We don’t even know what we have here yet and you already have half of New York going up in a ball of fire.”
“That’s the point! We don’t know what we have here. We’re two days out. I’m sorry, but if we can’t come up with an explanation and a solution to the burning ice, I’m afraid I can’t approve the entrance to the harbor. I know there is a lot at stake here, Mr. Cain, I really do, but I think you would agree that the safety of thousands of people is more important than meeting a deadline.”
“Are you serious Gabe?” Mallory said, anger replacing the skepticism in her voice. “I don’t understand. We can’t and won’t shut down this immensely important project just because you had a Moses at the burning bush experience.”
“Mallory, please.” Cain said looking at his assistant. “I believe Gabriel here is sincere in his belief that there may be a hidden danger built into the iceberg but,” he said, looking at Pike, I’m not entirely convinced of it either. We still have time to investigate further and gather our facts to make an informed decision when the time comes.
“Now then, did K.D or Brad see the ice burning or does anyone else know about this?”
Pike shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think they were too busy cleaning up the table to notice and I took off in such a hurry I didn’t have time to relay my suspicions.”
Cain nodded his head, “Good, let’s keep it that way. We don’t need to raise any suspicion or create a panic until we have all the facts. Agreed?”
Both Mallory and Pike nodded their heads.
“Excellent. Elizabeth and I will start the ball rolling on our end.”
“What am I going to tell K.D.? She must think I’m nuts from the way I ran out of there.”
“Just tell her you got back to back pages, one from me and one from Nigel, and you were confused. She’ll believe that.” Mallory said.
Pike frowned at her. “Thanks a lot.”
Mallory just winked at him.
“Now, now children, play nice.” Cain interjected.
“Seriously, I wouldn’t say anything at all.” Mallory continued, “in fact, I don’t think you should see her for the rest of the day. Don’t you have some work to do or is this just the Love Boat? Don’t worry,” her tone softened a bit, “I’ll tell her I’m being a slave driver and that you haven’t earned time off for good behavior yet.”
“Understood. I’ll keep you posted,” Pike said as he turned and left.
Mallory couldn’t help smiling, he looked like a dejected puppy.
As Pike left, Cain turned to his assistant. “I’m going to go talk to Miles to see what he has to say about all this. You?”
“The clock is running, I’m going to talk to Marilyn to see if she has any insights into all of this, see if there was anything in their reports from this morning. I’ll check in with you later.”
Cain nodded as he went out the door and Mallory headed toward the phone on the desk.
Chapter Forty
“Beth, hold up a second,” Robert Thornton called out. Mallory was walking down the outside walkway but not paying attention to the beautiful scenery; her mind was on other things.
“Hi Robert,” she replied, barely breaking stride.
“I need to talk you,” he said as he ran the last few steps to catch up to her.
“Can this wait? I have an important meeting to get to.”
“It’s about the Senator.”
Something in the tone of his voice made her stop and for the first time she looked at him and saw the worry and concern on his face.
“What about the Senator?” she asked cautiously.
Thornton shook his head. “I don’t know what happened between you two in the office or what you talked about but when I came back he was furious. I have never seen him that angry before. He had kicked over his chair and was pacing back and forth like a raging bull. His face was so flush with anger that I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
“As he was pacing, he kept muttering something like, they can’t do this to me, who do they think they are, stuff like that. He told me to call a press conference for first thing in the morning, then he ordered me out. When I tried to talk to him, to ask him what was wrong, he swore at me with words I never heard before and if I hadn’t left that second, I think he would have come over and physically kicked me out.”
“What time did you call the press conference for?”
“At 9:00 am. He’s going to use his pull and have it interrupt regularly scheduled programming.”
“It’s okay,” Mallory said, placing her hand on his shoulder, “you did the right thing by telling me.”
“What’s going on Beth? I’ve never seen him like this before and quite frankly it scares me a little.”
“Don’t worry. You know Pug when he goes off on one of his tangents. By tonight he’ll be yelling at you for calling the press conference, telling you you shouldn’t have listened to him when he’s upset . I’ll have Nigel talk to him later tonight and get this whole thing ironed out. In the meantime, I suggest you lay low and keep this under your hat for now. When this all blows over, the less anyone knows the less embarrassment there will be to go around.”
“Thanks Beth, I really appreciate your help and advice.”
She smiled at him. “We underlings have to stick together.”
He nodded and turned and left. As soon as he had turned, the smile on Mallory’s face vanished. “Tick tock,” she said to herself as she continued to her office.
Mallory was at her desk working on her computer when she heard a knock and her secretary stuck her head in and told her that Marilyn was here. “Thanks, Cindy, send her in in five minutes please.”
Mallory was still at her keyboard when Marilyn was brought in. Mallory motioned for her to sit down but continued to work. Again, she was setting the tone for the meeting by making her wait.
“Thanks for coming Marilyn. We have a lot to discuss so if you don’t mind, I’ll get right to it.”
“By all means,” Marilyn replied.
“You know Gabe pretty well, though not as much as you’d like to. Once he has his mind made up, can he be swayed to change it?”
Marilyn thought the phrasing of Mallory’s question was a little strange but ignored its implications and answered the question. “It depends. He can be a little stubborn at times but he’s generally open to any suggestions. But if he’s passionate about his ideas at the time and he knows he’s right, then no amount of talking can dissuade him.”
“I bet you’d like to know a little more about his passion?” Mallory said conversationally then continued right on. “So having read his report and knowing him personally, if he decided not to sign off on the project to allow the berg into New York, no amount of logic would change his mind?”
Marilyn felt herself growing angry at Mallory’s questions and her innuendoes about her and Gabe. Still, she bit her tongue knowing the importance of the contract with Mr. Cain. She shook her head. “I’
m afraid that once his mind is made up and he sees it as a righteous cause, then nothing can change it.”
“Too bad he doesn’t have his mind on you.”
Contract or not contract, she’d had enough. “What’s this all about?” Marilyn said, proud of herself for keeping most of the anger out of her voice. “What’s with the double meanings and what does my relationship with Gabe have to do with this project?
Mallory leaned back in her chair looking Marilyn straight in the eye. “What I’m trying to do is to get into the mind of one of my employees, to understand their thought processes on how they make their decisions. Take you, for example: you are a very beautiful and desirable woman, every sailor’s dream, yet time and again, Gabe has spurned your advances. And now it looks like K.D. is going to succeed where you’ve failed. They had lunch together today you know. Don’t get me wrong; K.D. is not a bad looking woman but come on, she’s not even in the same league as you.
“When this is all over and you get back to your office, are you going to fire her because of your pride or will you keep her because she’s a good engineer? So, Marilyn, how does it make you feel that she won and you lost?”
Mallory could see that Marilyn wanted to explode but to her credit she channeled her anger. “I didn’t lose anything. I can’t help it if Gabe made the wrong choice. Besides, I don’t want to marry him so how could I lose, that’s not the goal here. And to answer your question, I’ll fire her within the first week we get back, sighting the company’s policy of not dating coworkers.”
“So you’d get rid of the competition.”
Marilyn laughed smugly, “what competition? Does that answer your question about my mindset?” she smirked.
“Well it answers one of them but we have one more key item on my agenda to discuss.” Mallory leaned forward and slid a piece of paper across the desk in front of Marilyn then held up her finger to suspend the conversation, then called her secretary on the intercom. “Cindy, would you bring us some sandwiches and coffee? We’re going to be here a while.”
“What’s this?” Marilyn asked.
“It’s the sign-off sheet for the iceberg inspection.”
Chapter Forty One
“Tick-tock,” Mallory said as she walked into Cain’s office, looking at her watch.
“What was that?” Cain asked.
“Nothing.” Mallory muttered as she walked by and started rummaging through her desk.
“Is everything okay?”
“It will be soon enough.”
Cain was puzzled by her response, but didn’t pursue it.
“Listen Nigel,” Mallory continued,” if you don’t mind, I need you to wine and dine Gabe tonight, work that old Cain charm on him to see if we can do this the easy way and have him sign off on the inspection.”
“I’m good,” Cain smiled, “but I don’t think that even I can persuade Gabriel to sign.”
“We’ll you at least need to try. Ah, here it is.” Mallory said, taking a small card out of her desk and shoving it into her pocket.
“You’ve got that look,” Cain said, looking at his assistant suspiciously. “I’ve seen it before; you’ve got something up your sleeve.” Mallory just looked at him and smiled.
“What time would you like me to work this miracle?”
“You know me all too well,” she said innocently. “If everything goes according to plan, between six and seven-thirty should do fine.”
“Do I even want to know?”
“Do you?”
Cain thought about it for a moment, “Not really.”
“Good choice. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.” She smiled and turned, disappearing out the door.
“Tick-tock.” He said quietly as he watched her leave.
Robert Thornton looked up in surprise and suddenly grew very nervous as he saw Mallory walking through the office door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Is the Senator in?”
“Yes, but you can’t go in there. He’s finally calmed down and he’s stopped yelling and throwing things.”
“I’ll be in there less than a minute.”
“But...” Thornton started to protest but Mallory shoved him aside and went in, locking the door behind her. When Williams saw her, his eyes sprung open, first in fear then in rage. He started to reach for something on his desk to throw at her but there was nothing left. Before he could utter a sound, she spoke.
“I’m sorry, Senator Williams, for my actions earlier today; there is no excuse for my behavior other than my passion for my work, something I’m sure you can understand. I come waving a white flag and I bear a peace offering.” She paused to read his expression. He was still angry but he was still Pug Williams so the gesture of a peace offering held him at bay for the moment.
Mallory slowly walked over to the desk and laid down a room cardkey. “I have someone who would like to meet you. She is a very big fan. She also understands the meaning of discretion and knows that there may never be another opportunity like this for her to be able to see you and spend time with you. She’s also asked me to tell you that she is a little shy about all this and not to be alarmed when you enter the room and find it dark.
“This is a small iceberg, so timing is critical in order to assure discretion for both parties. Please arrive promptly at 7:00.”
“Who is it?”
Mallory smiled coyly. “I’m not going to tell you, though you could find out if you really wanted to, but then that would spoil the anticipation wouldn’t it? Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. And, to anticipate your next question, no this is not a trap or a set up. The offer is genuine and she is real.”
She bowed slightly as she backed toward the door. “Again, my apologies and I hope this will mend some of the fences I tore down.” Mallory left the office and walked passed a stunned Thornton who expected World War III to start. After Mallory left, he rushed into the office half expecting to see the senator lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Instead, he was sitting quietly at his desk wearing a strange smile.
Chapter Forty Two
“Thanks for asking me out for drinks.” K.D. said, sitting at the bar in the Crystal Palace, sipping on a rum and coke. She was looking down through the acrylic ice counter top of the bar at a prehistoric fish frozen in the ice. It was about two feet long with tiny eyes and an extended jaw with razor sharp protruding teeth and a tail like an eel. She smiled to herself. She didn’t know why, but it reminded her of her high school drama teacher.
“The boys aren’t the only ones who need to unwind after a tough day at the office.” Mallory replied.
“Here, here!” K.D. said as they raised their glasses in a toast.
“This must be a little bit different work than you’re used to back home?” Mallory asked.
“You can say that again. We don’t get many exciting projects, though we did do a little work on the implosions of the Kingdome and then some work on Qwest and Safeco Field.
“Oh, I almost forgot, I’ve arranged a little surprise.”
“Really?” K.D. replied, not trying to hide her excitement. “What is it?”
“It’s not a what, but a who, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed,” she winked. “Schedules are tight and there are more snooping eyes and ears on the barge than at grandma’s quilting bee, so timing is everything.” Mallory looked at her watch. “It’s 6:00 now. We’ll hang out here for another twenty minutes then you head back to your place and be there at exactly 6:30.”
“This is kind of exciting.” K.D. said.
“Here, let me freshen up our drinks, I’ll be right back.” Mallory grabbed both their glasses and headed toward the bar. She looked backed and smiled at K.D. who was in her own little world, thinking about what the evening had in store for her. The bartender refilled their drinks, and while no one was looking, Mallory took a small vial out of her pocket and poured it into K.D.’s drink.
Mallory glanced at her watch as she returned
to the table and handed K.D. her drink. “Bottoms up.”
K.D. was feeling woozy and a little light headed when she reached her door. With her head spinning, it took her three tries to swipe her keycard though the lock. With the door open, she staggered into the room like a drunken sailor on leave. She couldn’t understand why she was feeling this way; she knew she hadn’t had that much to drink. She saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and started to call out Gabe’s name. She wanted to apologize to him for being this way, for ruining his surprise; but she never got the chance. The last thing she saw wasn’t Gabe’s face, but a dark blur swing toward her head, then a sharp pain in her temple. Then darkness.
Marilyn Talbot strategically placed the brass candleholder she had just hit K.D. with on the floor beside the bed.
“Pick her up and throw her on the bed,” she said.
Tony Roberts felt like throwing up as he looked down at his lifeless coworker. “I-I didn’t sign up for this,” he said, his voice trembling.
Marilyn calmly walked over to him then shoved him hard, pinning his neck against the wall with her left forearm and grabbing his crotch in a death grip with the other.
“Listen lover boy, you were all hot to trot when the lights were down low; now it’s time to pay the piper. You’re in this now just as deep as I am and I can’t do this alone.”
She loosened her grip, going from terminator to temptress. “Listen, Tony we’re making a lot of money here, a lot of money. Just think of the freedom we’ll have with this money, think of all the things we can do together. She leaned forward and kissed him hard and passionately, but even while kissing him she knew it was a lie; she was already getting bored with him.
Tony struggled as he dragged K.D.’s body to the bed, then picked her up and tossed her on it. He straightened up and rubbed his lower back. “They make this look so easy on television.” Marilyn ignored his comment and tossed him a small package.