Insurance - part 16

[miriam_e]

(2227 words)

total so far:

31,752 / 50,000
(64%)

Damn. I'm late getting this one posted. Hopefully I can get the next part done early in the morning.

Let me know what you think of this chapter.

Note that what follows contains adult concepts.
The love of two females for each other is central to this story so if you are offended by that stop reading now.

16 - work (3)

Sally was standing in the bath while Rachel painted the clear dye-removing catalyst onto her. The green dye ran off Sally's skin in rivulets, down the drain. Sally watched in dismay. She had been enjoying passing as human. Now with her pale skin undisguised they'd have to be careful of public displays of love.

She sighed, "Are you sure this is necessary, honey?"

Rachel stood, rubbed at an itchy eyebrow with her upper arm, holding her green-dripping hands over the bath. "I'm sorry sweetie. The city managers are more dangerous than the cyborgs. Some of them love to exercise what little power they still have. They'd be only too happy to have you destroyed for impersonating a human. And there is no way I can risk that." Her lips hovered near Sally's, longing to touch. The tip of Sally's nose bumped Rachel's. Rachel sighed and squatted again to continue the dye removal.

She looked up to Sally and said, "Don't worry, we have more than enough to turn you green again afterward..." She noticed Sally smiling. Rachel humphed, "I have a spot of darker green on the tip of my nose don't I?" Sally smiled brightly and nodded.

---

Sally and Rachel waited for Dina at the courtyard outside the city manager offices. Sally was in standard white bikini and white sandals, looking like some kind of glowing dream with her pale, non-green skin. Rachel was back in her boring, formal, black halterneck and miniskirt, with black ankleboots.

The courtyard was enormous. It was so large that it accommodated several large trees, an extensive lawn, and a big fountain in the middle which fired streams and short jets of water in arcs. The background hissing and splashing sounds of the fountain made the courtyard seem even bigger than it was. There were sparrows cheeping, and pigeons cooing and strutting in spite of the fact that it was 52 levels below the surface. The sparrows may have snuck in, but the pigeons were probably deliberate. Rachel wondered how large the light collectors must be that piped sunlight down here. She thought to herself what a waste it all was.

"There she is!" said Sally.

Rachel followed Sally's look. Dina was sauntering sexily toward them dressed in her white work outfit -- white bikini top, miniskirt, and sandals, but not the gloves. The blue android walked beside her. Sally scampered over and gave Dina an enthusiastic hug and walked back to Rachel holding the blue android's hand. Rachel thought it looked a little surprised, though it was hard to tell. The smooth, blue, androgynous face was almost expressionless.

Rachel said, "Right on time."

"Not really," Dina frowned. "Would have been here a bit earlier, but the blasted elevator started giving me lip about being reserved for humans. I told it that it could either take me voluntarily or I would rewire it so it would take me anyway. Damned thing refused to believe I was human. So I gave it a, um... personality upgrade."

Rachel wasn't sure, but it looked like the blue android was faintly smiling.

The four entered the main offices. The foyer was huge and echoey, and built out of polished, pink granite. They walked over the slippery, smooth floor to the receptionist android who directed them down a long hall to a chamber at the end. While they were walking down the hall Dina whispered "Do you reckon they need such gigantic structures to accommodate their oversized egos?"

They opened the big, ornately carved wooden door at the end of the hall to a conference room with the biggest, polished, black table Rachel had ever seen. It must have been five meters long and two meters wide. They seated themselves and waited. After a couple of minutes one of the managers that Rachel knew came in. He wore a light brown t-shirt, beige shorts, and dark brown sandals. He had a strong build and big hands. His grey hair was thinning and had hints of brown still in it.

He greeted her, "Hi Rachel. Nice to see you again, it's been a while." They shook hands.

She replied, "Ed, you're looking well. How are Dot and the kids?"

He smiled, "They're great, thanks." He looked at Dina.

Rachel introduced them. "Dina this is Ed Baker, my insider among the city managers. Ed, this is Dina, psychologist at the android plant. She came to me fearing this friction between the city managers and cyborgs could get out of control."

Dina gave her warmest smile and shook hands.

Rachel introduced Sally as her android (and felt ashamed doing so), then the blue court android.

He nodded then ignored them. He sat at the table and said in a quiet, confidential voice to Rachel and Dina. "The rest will be in shortly. Two of us don't want this conflict. The other three are the source of the problem, but you really only need to worry about two. The third is really just a follower. The worst is Judge Arthur -- 'Judge' is just his first name but he treats it like a title. Lost some of his businesses when workers revolted during introduction of robots in the early days. He hates workers but thinks the world has gone soft because almost nobody works anymore. Believes strongly that work defines who you are. Doesn't really have a lot of respect for anyone."

Rachel frowned. "Hmmm. Doesn't like people who do work, and doesn't like people don't work. Oh, he sounds like a happy soul."

Ed nodded, "The other, Dennis McTimms, is not as nasty, but really has it in for cyborgs. I've always suspected he's religious. It may be connected."

Rachel asked, "And the third one? The follower?"

Ed said, "Yeah, Frank Draper. You don't really have to worry about him. He'll just follow the strongest. Not very smart. His family is very close to the McTimms family... has been for years. I'd concentrate on winning over one of the two strongest ones. If you get McTimms then you get Frank for free."

Dina asked, "Who is the fifth city manager?"

Ed answered, "James Tong. He's a nice guy -- brilliant engineer. He just wants the city to run properly. The two of us think all this crap of annoying people is too much like hard work. Why make life difficult when it can be easy? If cyborgs enjoy their work then, heck, why stop them? They're doing us a favor."

Dina nodded and smiled. He had her vote.

They indulged in small talk for a while before James Tong entered. He was clearly of Asian descent, sharply good looking, and wore a black t-shirt, tight black shorts and black sandals. He was introduced to Dina and Rachel, then Sally and the blue android, and surprised the girls by shaking hands with the androids as well as the humans, saying he was glad to meet each of them. Sally flashed him her megawatt smile and he smiled back.

James said the same thing that Ed did. "Madness stirring up division among our constituents. Our job is to ensure things run smoothly with as little fuss as possible, not to introduce problems where none existed."

Dina asked, "Shouldn't the others have been here now?"

Ed growled, "They do this to everyone. They don't have anything better to do but they like to keep people waiting. I actually heard Judge say once that it was good psychological procedure to make people wait."

Dina's eyebrows went up, "More like a rationalisation for taking pleasure in others' discomfort."

James chuckled, "Yep, sounds like a good description of Judge."

Eventually the other three managers walked into the room.

One of them glowered at the two androids and said, "They will have to leave."

Dina asked, "Why?"

Sally said meekly, "It's alright, we'll wait outside." She and the blue android left.

One of the other older managers said imperiously, "Article 596 of the city constitution."

Dina paused a moment and said, "That article deals with voting rights of androids. It has nothing to do with presence at discussions. I thought you guys were supposed to be competent? You turn up late to meetings, don't know your own constitution, you cause discord among the community, and bring about a situation where parts of the city could get shut down inconveniencing everybody. You should be more like these two fine fellows here, Mr Tong and Mr Baker."

Two of the older city managers went very frosty, while the other one looked quite panicked. One of the displeased ones demanded, "And just who are you?"

Dina answered smoothly, "Ah yes, you missed the introductions. Try to be on time next time... though there may not be a next time for you. I'll be recommending the contracts for you two be terminated."

He replied angrily, "I don't know who you think you are miss, but we do things differently here -- and take those blasted shades off when I'm talking to you!"

Dina was completely unruffled. "If you'd got here when you were supposed to, you would know who I am. I'm not wearing shades you superstitious moron -- they are implants."

Rachel sent to Dina, Careful Dina, don't lose your cool.

Dina sent back, Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm doing. I've realised the perfect way to work this.

Her opponent humphed and gave a significant look to his fellows, "I should have known. A cyborg."

"What have you got against cyborgs? I, and about a million other voters would love to know. Elections are less than a year away. The rest of Australia has laws in the works now to remove the percent rules. The tide of public opinion is against you. You will be unemployed inside a year." She dismissed him with a flick of her hand and looked at the other angry old man, who now looked a little like he was weighing up his options. "So, do you want to get some work done here or do you want to tell your citizens that you are not interested in fixing the city's problems. Problems you've created, I might add."

The third old man licked his lips, looking very worried. He sat at the table and said, "I don't have anything against cyborgs, or androids. I'm Frank Draper. The job of the city managers is to help its citizens."

One of the other old men growled, "Get up Frank. This is bullshit."

Dina spoke to the growling one, "And your name is? I don't think the listeners caught it."

His eyes widened for a split second then he said, "Bah!" and stormed out of the room. The other angry old man was undecided for a moment then followed him.

Rachel, Ed, and James were blinking in stunned surprise. Frank said, "What can I do to help?" And Dina smiled like a cat.

---

When they left the building Dina and Rachel had a signed agreement to remove the percent rule and had organised a meeting between the cyborgs and the three cooperating city managers tomorrow.

Rachel asked Dina, "Whatever possessed you to use that approach?"

Dina smiled, "It suddenly hit me that it wasn't a matter of winning over one of the two old reprobates. You made the point the other day that it is rare to move people from an extreme into the middle ground. Those two old guys were extremists. The trick was to get the weak guy. To do that I needed to take charge. I needed to be stronger than the others. Simple."

Rachel arched her eyebrows. "So you weren't really transmitting, were you?"

Dina laughed, "No, but it sure got those monkeys ruffled didn't it."

Rachel laughed too. Then she said, "I didn't know there were moves afoot to remove the percent rule."

Dina grinned, "There is now."

Rachel shook her head, "Wow, I wouldn't be able to bluff like that. I'd be a bundle of nerves."

Dina chuckled. "Bluffing is easy if you're a cyborg who has total control of her endocrine system. It also helps to have the blue android listening in and commenting on the city laws."

They walked across the grass toward the fountain where Sally and the blue android were sitting. Sally waved as Rachel and Dina approached, "Smalt and I had a nice chat."

Rachel looked around. "Who's Smalt?"

Sally put her arm around the blue android and said, "Everybody should have a name so I named him."

"Smalt?"

Sally nodded, "I thought it was appropriate. Smalt is a blue pigment."

The blue android smiled gently and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry I wasn't more help for your meeting."

Rachel said, "No. I should apologise for that man's rudeness in there, and I'm sorry you both were excluded like that."

Sally smiled meaningfully at Rachel and said, "You can make it up to me tonight."

The four talked about the success of the meeting while they strolled to the elevator at the edge of the courtyard. When there, it dinged and the doors slid open. They stepped inside and the elevator spoke in a deliriously happy voice, "Oh wondrous humans, allow me to whisk you away. My greatest pleasure is to take you to whichever level you desire."

Three heads turned to Dina.

"What?" she feigned innocence.

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Comments

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

Yay for Dina! She kicks butt, I love her psychological warfare and re-programming of the lift. Lovely details! I'm also a big fan of Smalt too.

This chapter is great, really easy to read and your character descriptions are really detailed and true. I feel like the men we met in this chapter are actual people.

The plot is really moving along, I'm getting a feeling of real progress as the story is developing. Wonderful!! Keep going with it. I'm really enjoying reading this.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)
You manage to make the mountain ahead look not quite so intimidating. I am very grateful.