Kate Daniels 05.5 - Magic Gifts

ten grand from your standard life insurance. The next question is, when did the first guy take off? If he did it once the fight started and the danger was evident, the Guild is entitled to garnish his wages, because his abandonment in progress becomes abandonment in imminent danger. How much do we garnish, Bob?"
    Muscles played on his jaw. "I don't know."
    "Then we move on to disability. How much do we pay? What's a hand worth? Does it matter if he was right or left handed?"
    "I don't know," Bob said again. His eyes told me he didn't like where I headed.
    "Neither do I. But you know who does? Mark. I can call Mark right now and he'll rattle it off the top of his head. Let's talk contracts. Who provides the ammo for the Guild supply room? How much of a discount we get from them? The Guild has a deal with Avalon Construction to clear the magic hazmat at the prospective construction sites. It's a sweet contract, so you know there were perks. Bribes. Gifts. How much and to whom?"
    Bob growled a bit. "All this stuff can be learned."
    I nodded. "Sure. But how long will it take you? The Guild has been without a leader for what, six months now, and you still haven't learned any of it. Would it even matter by the time you finished learning?"
    Bob crossed his arms. "You could do it."
    "No, I can't. First, it's not my job. I've got my hands full with the shapeshifters and my own business. Second, what little I know I've learned only because it came up during my tenure as a liaison. It would take me ages to find it in the Guild's Manual. For better or worse, Solomon made Mark the sole brain behind this operation and Mark has years of experience. You don't have the knack for wheeling and dealing, Bob. You're a good solid tactician. You know what the gig needs and you're good at picking the right people and getting it done. The mercs look up to you. But bargaining isn't your thing."
    Bob's eyebrows crept closer together. "You'll be backing Mark then?"
    "I will tell you what I told him. I don't know yet."
    Bob nodded and handed me a piece of paper. I scanned it. Formal summons with my name on it. Top left corner boasted code X in bold. Priority ten. Either I made this meeting, or the Guild would suspend me.
    "Not that it would matter," Bob said. "But we did all manage to agree that you need to pick somebody by Monday."
    Ivera got up and put her hand on Bob's shoulder. "We should go."
    He started to say something and changed his mind. I watched him get to his feet. He nodded to me. "Later."

    *** *** ***
     
    I dragged myself upstairs to the infirmary. Roderick was playing checkers with a shapeshifter boy. The collar on his neck had gone from orange to canary yellow.
    I climbed the million stairs to our quarters, asked the guards to order some food from the kitchen, and took a shower. When I came out, Curran sprawled on our giant couch, his eyes closed.
    I flopped next to him. "Help."
    The blond eyebrows rose a quarter inch. "Mmm?"
    "The mercs aren't going to reach a consensus." I lay next to him on my side, propping my head up with my hand. "No matter who I pick tomorrow, they won't like it. Marc can run the Guild, but the mercs despise him. The mercs can do the jobs, but the admin stuff leaves them clueless."
    "Make them work together," Curran said.
    "Not going to happen. They hate each other."
    "If fourteen alphas can meet in the same room every week without killing each other, so can Mark and the mercs. The Guild has been without leadership for months. The people are tired and they want a strong leader. Not a tyrant, but a leader who inspires confidence. You need to walk in there and roar until they cringe. Demonstrate that you are strong enough to be take away their freedom to choose, make sure it sinks in, and then give some of the choice back to them on your terms."
    Hmm.
    "Tie it back to Solomon Red, too," Curran said. "It's basic psychology: under Solomon things ran, when he died, they broke. The more time passes, the more rosy times of Solomon look to an average merc. So if you attack them from 'Let's go back to the good old days' angle, they will fold. Make them think that following you is what they want to do."
    "You scare me sometimes," I told him.
    He yawned. "I'm totally harmless."
    Someone knocked on the door. A bit early for food.
    "Yes?" Curran called.
    Mercedes, one of the guards, entered. "There is a man outside, my lord. He is big, he's wearing a cape, and he's got a giant axe. We're also pretty sure he's