Before she could move away, Ian touched her arm, holding her in place. Sliding his hand up to her neck, he drew her forward for a lingering kiss. His lips moved over hers, searching, worshipping. Not demanding, just asking for something. He sighed as he released her. “Did you know that executives who get a good bye kiss from their partner before they go to work are more successful?”
“There’s been scientific research into this fact?” Polly couldn’t help the smile breaking out.
He nodded. “Oh, yes. I want to start every workday—shoot, every day for the rest of my life—out this way.”
Polly’s heart raced, and warmth spread throughout her body. To her ears, that sounded like the best idea ever.
Chapter 19
Ian couldn’t help it. Even though he was certain he was about to lose his job, he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. Polly loved him. The idea made his heart and mind lighter than it had been since his divorce. Maybe even before. Her love, a gift he couldn’t deny, made him feel like the king of the world. Or maybe a god standing on the slopes of Olympus.
Which he now understood as a company run by gods. And Polly’s dad was the CEO. As he flashed his electronic ID over the security pad at the lab’s entrance, he almost laughed out loud at the knowledge.
All thoughts of laughter faded as he walked in to find two of his employees clustered around a third employee who was breathing through an oxygen mask.
Alarmed, he hurried toward where they’d gathered in the shadow of the fume hood. “What happened?”
Andrea, the lab manager, gestured at the hazy cloud dissipating under the exhaust fan. “We were working with the chemicals Argran insisted on using for the project. We didn’t count on the compound reacting to humidity.”
Anger flared. He was not going to approve something that could potentially kill innocents. “Dammit!” He looked at the tech with the oxygen mask. Tears coursed down her cheeks, channeling around the plastic covering her mouth and nose. “Tammy, are you okay? Has anyone called an ambulance? What about the rest of you?” He didn’t notice any effects on him, so the cloud was no longer a threat. He reached up and tweaked the control to draw the vapor out of the air faster.
Tammy hunched her shoulders. “I’m okay. I was careless and was right over the mixer when the cloud formed.”
“That’s it. I’m probably going to be fired, but I refuse to approve this.”
Andrea slapped her hands together. “Thank God! I worried you’d cave to the pressure from the new management. I’m with you on this. I refuse to be the scientist who killed off half the population of an already devastated country.”
The other two techs nodded. Smiles actually broke out on their faces, like they couldn’t care less about being unemployed in the extremely near future.
Ian considered what to do, fists jammed on his hips. “I’ll write up reference letters for you all. You’ve been good employees and I’ll do whatever I can to help you find new jobs. But, I anticipate we’ll all be escorted from the property by the end of the day.”
“Two weeks ago that might have bothered me. But now, under Argran’s overbearing thumb, I find my give-a-damn is busted.” Andrea crossed her arms over her chest.
A chuckle built in his chest, bursting forward with shocking hilarity. “Give a damn’s busted. Good one, Andrea.” He sobered. “Alright. I’ll get in trouble for this too… Grab empty flash drives from the supply cabinet and download whatever files you’ve created that you think you might need moving forward. We’ll take the morning to clean out our desks. I’m giving you all the afternoon off.”
“Won’t they suspect?” The plastic mask covering Tammy’s mouth muffled her voice. Air hissed softly as she breathed.
Ian looked over the hood, an idea glimmering in the back of his mind. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and grinned at his staff. “Everyone in your clean suits. The environment could be toxic. Safety first. Around noon, I’ll declare the lab too dangerous for us to continue working for the day. Andrea, to cement the idea, I want you to take Tammy to the infirmary and have her checked out. Tammy, how good of an actress are you?”
She coughed, a deep hacking sound, wheezed a breath in and grinned. “Good enough.”
“Perfect.” Ian clapped his hands, and then reached for the controls on the hood, twisting the knob until he had it running at full power. The updraft lifted the ends of his hair. “Time is limited. Everyone get busy but try not to look like you’re emptying your desks for a mass exodus.”
Tammy’s face fell. “I’ve liked working for you, Ian. I wish you had a company of your own. I’d pay you to work there.”
And just like that, he understood the second part of Polly’s dream. With any luck, Zeus would consider Ian’s proposal and be willing to fund a brand new company under the Olympus corporate umbrella.
After spending two hours looking over the financials Sybil had provided, and with a few calls to the partisan for clarification, Polly knew exactly where she needed to dig for the meat of her investigative report.
She knocked on the door to Mary Rogers’s office.
“Yeah?” Mary jammed her pen into her messy bun and leaned back in the squeaky chair as Polly entered. “Hey, kid. Good job on the road improvement story with Mayor Alder. The phones lit up last night with people complaining about the project’s funding. Will you be ready for a follow-up by six?”
The blinds rattled against the door as Polly eased it shut. She grabbed the back of the chair across from Mary. “Can you give that to another reporter? I have a much larger story to chase.”
Mary whipped forward and steepled her hands. “Spill it.”
“Argran, the conglomerate buying Eos, has some questionable business practices in their history. I believe they’re a corporate raider that will empty Eos’s bank accounts, and then dismantle the physical assets piece by piece.”
“You’re wrong.” Mary’s eyes went flinty, the way they did whenever a reporter suggested a story too controversial to touch. “Argran is a triple A rated company with a stellar record as a corporate citizen. They sponsor charity runs and fund hospitals, for God’s sake.”
Polly struggled to stay detached, a marvelous feat since not chasing this story could result in her being dressed in black feathers for the balance of eternity. “What if I told you they forced untested products into the marketplace? Products that have killed millions in developing nations.”
“The FDA would never approve something like that.”
“The FDA doesn’t have jurisdiction in other countries. That’s why dog food from China was able to kill family pets in this country.”
Mary waved her hand. “Still no story there.”
“Corporate sponsored murder and drastic rises in unemployment are certainly stories worth investigating.” Her knuckles went white on the back of the chair. Polly didn’t understand why Mary resisted the possibility of chasing the story.
“So is the illegal funding of the street improvement project. That’s our priority.”
She studied the news director for evidence of supernatural possession. Nudging the woman when another immortal held sway over her could result in injury to Mary. Not seeing the telltale glazing of her eyes, Polly sent a gentle mental poke toward the woman, visualizing her agreeing to Polly’s proposal.
“This is important.”
Mary blinked as she received the suggestion. She dropped her hands to the desk, and toyed with the edges of the paper in front of her. “Do you have a solid source?”
For some reason, Mary seemed inclined to resist. Polly decided to chalk that up to the producer’s suspicious nature. “I’ve reviewed Argran’s financial records. My theory has been vetted and confirmed by a forensic accountant.”
“I’m not even going to ask how you came by those documents.” Mary looked away, studying the television monitors set up along one wall of her office. Network feeds, the 24-hour news stations, and their own channel’s broadcast played on the
eight or so monitors crowding the space. She knew the story had been approved from the woman’s quiet sigh. “I’ll reassign Jenkins to the City Hall beat temporarily. Bring me something I can use on the Argran story by the end of the day, or I’m killing it.”
Polly released her death grip on the chair. “Thanks, Mary.”
“Thanos.” The gruff timbre of Mary’s voice stopped her from leaving. “You’d better be right. Your career is on the line.”
Ordinarily, that might have worried Polly. She liked her job and wanted to stay in Delphi. But her future was with Ian. If he lost his job with Eos, he might not live in town much longer. She could find a job anywhere, but her family was here. Commuting from her new home wherever Ian took a job wouldn’t be a problem, thanks to the Hollow.
She’d make sure the story was solid before she filed it. Because not only her career but her entire existence was on the line.
Chapter 20
Polly opted to conduct her research from her condo, rather than linger in the office, where anyone could interrupt. Or distract her. Sybil had shifted into her living room three times in the past two hours. Finally, Polly told her either to stay put, or stop coming.
At the moment, Sybil was lying on her back tossing a ball in the air, while she waited quietly for Polly’s next question. Acting as if she lived there, she’d propped her feet on the low acrylic table in front of the sofa.
“You’re supposed to be helping me,” Polly complained.
“I am.” Sybil’s tone was aggrieved. “I’m sending you all kinds of positive accounting vibes. Don’t you feel them?”
All Polly felt was annoyed. But she was getting into the groove of navigating through the spreadsheets. Maybe the partisan was helping.
Mars had provided access to the Olympus mainframe, allowing her to surf faster and more efficiently than she could have on the station’s system. Plus, any broken or removed links were automatically restored via the supernatural computer. And Polly had discovered a multitude of those, all with damning implications.
As they’d hypothesized, Argran was building a monopoly, based on mortal companies and institutions. If they’d stuck to corporations run by immortals, they’d be nearly untouchable. Since they’d involved privately held and publicly traded organizations, they were exposed to sanctions from several government agencies, including trade commissions and the Securities Exchange.
Polly slapped her hand on the concrete counter, barely registering the sting. “Found it!”
Tossing the ball one last time, Sybil pressed her palm up, suspending the sphere in midair. “If you’d let me help, you’d have found it an hour ago.”
Polly scoffed. “I asked. If you remember, you refused, saying I’d never learn that way.”
“Oh yeah.” Sybil shrugged. “But I was happy to take paid time off from my real job to hang out here and help any way I could.”
Sybil let the ball fall. It rolled under the sofa as she sat up. Her thick blond hair dusted the ground as she laid low to retrieve the wayward tennis ball.
“I’ll make it up to you. But come look at this.” Polly swiveled the Mac laptop on the counter to share the screen.
Sybil joined her at the counter, reaching for the diet cola she’d left there. The glass started to fall over, but Polly snapped her fingers and it paused mid-tip. Sybil righted it with a sheepish look.
As she scrutinized the screen, Sybil let out a low whistle. “Someone wasn’t as careful as they thought. Pierus must have baboons doing his accounting.”
Polly snorted. The partisan had a unique sense of humor. “Maybe, but that’s to our advantage. Argran controls nearly eighty-five percent of all diamond distributors in the world. I’m not sure how they managed that without anyone noticing. And while the prices they pay miners has been going down, retail costs have risen astronomically.” Jax had left his last job with a Washington think tank over a fiasco involving blood diamonds and genocide. Coincidence?
“I just read something last week about the poor conditions in diamond mining camps. Squalor and filth, poor sanitary conditions, contaminated drinking water.” Sybil shook her head, the corner of her upper lip curled.
Anger steamed in Polly’s chest. “And now, they’ve bought the one company that could improve a lot of those conditions. Eos was poised to go in and make life better for a lot of workers, but Argran saw a way to capitalize on the deplorable conditions.” Greed wasn’t just a goddessdamned bird…it’s was ugly aspiration. And Pierus had joined with the one immortal capable of creating a smoke screen so the deceptive practices would go unnoticed.
Pierus’s biggest mistake was that he’d underestimated Polly’s investigative skills and her determination to win this challenge. She and her sisters would remain players in the game Pierus had orchestrated.
“I’m ready to start writing this story. You want to order some lunch and keep me company while I work?” she invited. Sybil might be her partisan, but Polly really liked the woman and welcomed her as a new friend.
“As long as you’re buying. Mars didn’t give me an expense account for this job.” Sybil’s smile was bright. Laugh lines appeared in the corners of her eyes. She reached for the phone, while Polly opened a new document and began transcribing the notes she’d jotted while researching Argran and the Eos connection.
Sybil had ordered pizza and when she went to the lobby to pick it up, Polly paused to check her phone for messages. She ignored the red badge sitting on the corner of her email app, telling her she had twenty plus messages, and tapped her text icon. Nothing from Ian. When she’d left him this morning, he’d been determined to try to resolve the company’s directive to approve the worst-case scenario. She sighed as she closed the application. No news was good news, she decided, and hoped she wasn’t deluding herself.
For a brief moment, she considered opening the link between them and checking in. But he hadn’t had much practice using the connection, and if he was in a meeting with Cronin or Peltier, she didn’t want him freaking out. Not to mention the possibility they’d overhear anything she said to him.
About the time she and Sybil had finished eating, Polly had made the last tweaks to her story and moved forward with video notes. These were ideas for shots she and Bill could set up, to provide a visual backdrop to the story. A long shot of the Eos headquarters from the front lawn. There’d already be some file footage of their conversation with Peltier. She’d check the network’s archives for any shots of the Argran building, or any of its executives.
Polly saved her document, and then passed the laptop to Sybil to review. “Can you check the accounting aspects to verify I have it right?” She stood and stretched, working out the kinks that came from sitting still for too long.
While Sybil read, with her lips moving, Polly pulled a water pitcher from the refrigerator. She added a splash of lemon juice to her glass and then leaned against the sink and waited. The first sip puckered her lips, but the next was only refreshing, not sour or tart. Just the way she liked it.
“You nailed it.” Sybil lifted her gaze and smiled. “Are you prepared to go to the FTC and file paperwork?”
“I’ll have to check in with the station’s legal advisor, but yeah. I’m ready.” She swung the laptop around and opened an email to Mary. She attached the script and added an all caps subject line requesting approval. Satisfaction laddered along her spine when, giddy as a schoolgirl, she clicked the button to send.
“Better tell Ian.” Sybil pushed Polly’s phone across the counter.
Before Polly could pick it up, Ian’s voice exploded in her mind. “Can you shift over here? I’ve just dismissed my staff and I want to talk to you before I head to the executive office.”
She looked at Sybil. “Did you hear that?” She only hoped that Pierus and Apate didn’t catch it, since Ian wasn’t technically immortal. But if they were monitoring her side of the conversation, it could still be dangerous for him.
The guardian nodded. “He sounds excited. You�
�d better go. I’ll clean up here, and then pop out.”
“Thanks.” Polly beamed a message back to Ian. “Anyone around? Can’t shift there in front of mortals.”
“I’m on the nature trail on the grounds. Meet me at the small pavilion on the far side of the pond. Lots of trees there. No one will see you land.”
“Be there in a few minutes.” She looked at Sybil. “I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for your help. We’re going to beat him, aren’t we?”
Sybil propped her fists on her hips. “Pierus? It’s in the bag.” The woman’s confidence was infectious.
But there were plenty of hurdles to clear before Polly could expose Argran to governmental scrutiny, which in term would lead to declaring victory. She could only hope her feet were on the right path. Cronin was an unknown, especially if she was working for Apate.
Too much could go wrong, but Polly’s fate, and the fate of the world depended on things going remarkably right.
Ian paced between two sycamore trees, their white bark eerie in the overcast noon-day sky. As he marched back and forth, he kicked the gigantic leaves to the side. The thick, musty air coated his sinuses. His gut twisted, anticipating his next move, which would be to hand in his resignation.
His only fear was that Zeus might not see the advantage of funding a new operation designed to help the world’s poorest citizens. Maybe nepotism would rule the day. He fully intended to marry Polly once this challenge was over. Hell, he’d marry her this afternoon if he thought she’d agree. But, he wouldn’t distract her from her efforts to win. Either way, magpies mated for life, so if the worst happened, he’d ask Zeus to change him into a bird, to be with Polly for eternity.
Pressure gathered around his chest. He lifted his head, looking for an incoming immortal. He stopped pacing and turned. Pale rose mist shimmered against the white-gray tree bark as Polly shifted out of the Hollow. The air around him squeezed in, pressing down on his shoulders and lungs. A strong pulse of lavender glowed in the center of the vapor, identifying the point of her life force.
Greed: Goddess of Delphi (Goddesses of Delphi Book 3) Page 17