Carrie Vaughn - Dreams of the Golden Age

What a messed-up family. And nobody even saw it.

Paperwork, file folders, and spreadsheets were fanned over the table, and Celia was bent over them, chewing on the end of a pencil. Arthur sat next to her, leaning back, hands resting folded on his lean chest, looking amused. He always looked amused. It was his mask, so that he never had to let on if he was horrified by what he read in the minds around him.

“Smells good,” Anna said to Suzanne.

“Thank you, Anna. Can you give me a hand? Get out the cheese and lettuce from the fridge?”

Anna dropped her bag by the wall and went to help.

“And how was school?” Arthur asked.

“Fine.”

“Of course it was,” he said wryly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “It always is, and why not?”

She blushed. He knew something, he always knew something.

Her mother huffed at them both. She looked tired, Anna thought, and remembered their conversation from a week or so back. She was busy, of course she was busy. But there seemed to be more going on. Her short red hair, same bloody color as Anna’s, was disheveled, as if she’d been running her hands through it, and her face was pale and puffy. Suddenly, her mother didn’t look right at all. Just tired, she’d say if Anna asked what was wrong.

“What’s fishy?” Anna asked instead.

“Hmm?”

“You said something was fishy.”

“Oh. West Corp’s getting sued.”

Anna stopped and stared. “What?”

Celia shook her head. “Don’t worry, we get sued all the time. Usually it gets cleared up before ever going to court. But this suit was brought very publicly and very frivolously. I just have to figure out what the ulterior motive is.”

Suzanne directed Anna to chop lettuce and shred cheese for burrito toppings, and she did so, slowly, listening with interest to her mother’s arcane explanation. “Why sue?” she asked.

“Oh, lots of reasons. They assume West Corp has deep pockets, they want to embarrass the company, they want to embarrass me, they want to delay the planning committee vote, they want to distract us from something else entirely. All of the above.”

“How do you find out? How do you stop them?”

“Hmm, developing an interest in corporate politics?”

Heaven forbid. “Just asking.”

“We look to see if there’s anything suspicious in the public record, if there’s anything obvious they’ve done that attention would need distracting from. If they have any plans brewing that would be served by throwing roadblocks in front of West Corp. Trouble is, there’s not much on this company at all. Like they exist on paper and nowhere else. So I may have to turn to gossip and find out if anyone’s heard anything.”

Anna’s mind had started turning over a plan. She remembered what Eliot had said about someone trying to take over the city, not through terror and violence but through business and politics—the Executive. Maybe this thread was part of that web. Blocking West Corp certainly sounded like someone trying to influence the city’s workings. All Anna had to do was follow that thread. Maybe Espionage could take that on. Except that she still wasn’t talking to Teddy for ditching her in the face of danger. And she’d given up the whole vigilante thing because she was hopeless at it.

But this was personal. And if she didn’t want to talk to Teddy, maybe Eliot would help her.

“Enough business,” Suzanne announced. “Food’s up.”

While Arthur helped Suzanne with the food, Anna contrived to help Celia clear off the table and got a look at some of the pages, including the name of the company that was suing West Corp: Superior Construction, with an address in a downtown skyscraper.

Suzanne called for Bethy, who ran in and launched into a bunch of chatter about homework, and Anna finally realized that Bethy didn’t talk so much about her homework and math quizzes because she was worried, but because she actually liked math. Definitely taking after their mother. Anna almost felt better, knowing that at least one of them would be able to take over the business.

“You guys remember I’m leaving on that trip tomorrow, right?” Celia said. “Don’t destroy the place while I’m gone.”

Anna smirked, because the instruction was perfunctory, the kind of thing she’d said when they were nine. She was trying to be funny.

“What’s the trip for?” Bethy asked.

“I’m checking out a real estate development in Clarkeville for investment potential. Never trust the brochures, you know. It’ll only be for a couple of days.”

“Well, have fun. Take pictures,” Bethy said cheerfully.

“Will do.”

Everything was normal, nothing to worry about. Her father wasn’t looking up from his food.

“Be careful and hurry home,” Suzanne said.

“I always do,” Celia replied.

That night, Anna grabbed her backpack full of gear and went looking for Eliot. He’d never bothered e-mailing her, which pissed her off, and it was time to call him on it. While riding the late bus to the campus, she followed his progress on her mental map from the gym to Pee Wee’s and hoped he would stay there long enough for her to catch up with him. He did. She swung open the front door, stomping in out of the cold—and Eliot was sitting in a booth with a girl. A cool college girl with dyed purple hair and a ring in her nose. They had books and papers spread over the table, and they were smiling at each other. Study date or something.

Anna felt like throwing up right there, she was so mortified. Eliot hadn’t e-mailed her because why would he? Why would he find her, a lowly high-school kid, even the least bit interesting? Worst of all, he looked up and caught her eye right before she turned around and stomped back out.

She was across the street and halfway to the bus stop when she heard him shouting.

“Hey! Hey, Rose, wait up a second.” His footsteps pounded.

She slowed, then stopped. Reluctantly. It would have been more dignified to keep on walking. She didn’t need him.

“Rose.” When she didn’t turn, he stepped around until he faced her. Him and his smug college boy expression. “I didn’t expect to see you.”

“Why didn’t you e-mail me?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to e-mail about.”

That wasn’t the point … She stopped short of stamping her foot in frustration, which would have made her feel like she was about six years old. That was something Bethy would do. “Well, I’ve got something, and how was I supposed to tell you about it?”

“Seems like you’re doing just fine,” he said.

She maneuvered around him. “You’re busy. This can wait.”

“No, seriously, we’re just brushing up for a chemistry test, it’s not important. What have you got?”

She didn’t have anything, now that she thought about actually trying to explain it. “It may be nothing. But you know about the planning committee? The downtown development project?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s been in the news.”

“There’s some weird stuff going on behind the scenes—one company trying to block another from having any influence. It reminded me of what you said about the Executive, and I thought this might be something he’d try.”

“What’s your proof?”

“We have to go find the proof, but I can’t do it on my own. There’s a company, Superior Construction. It’s a front, and we need to find out who’s really running it. Actual evidence. The trail stops at a law firm. I want to find out who hired the lawyers to front the company.”

“Corporate espionage.”

“Yeah, kind of.” “Espionage” made her wonder if she ought to call Teddy and get his help as well—this was exactly his thing. But no, she decided, that would take too much time. Eliot was here, ready to help, better to get it done now. She pulled a page from her pocket. “Here’s the name and address of the firm, McClosky and Patterson. They’re in one of the downtown offices. I couldn’t find much about them online, just a plain business page.”