St Kilda Consulting 02 - Innocent as Sin

up immediately.”
    “Perhaps Brazil needs a new president. It could be arranged, yes?”
    “Not soon enough. If the arms aren’t on the way to overthrow Neto’s New Camgerian Republic very quickly, I’m out of a job. And you, my Siberian friend, you are dead.”

5
    Manhattan
Thursday
12:15 P.M. EST
    F ormer ambassador James B. Steele rolled into the conference room on the fifty-seventh floor of the UBS Building as if he owned the television network headquartered there. He was fifteen minutes late and he didn’t apologize. He had more to bring to this meeting than the five people he’d kept waiting.
    “Good afternoon,” Steele said to everyone and no one.
    He guided the electric wheelchair over to the rosewood conference table. An overstuffed leather armchair blocked him from taking his place.
    “Oops. Okay, I’ll get that,” Ted Martin said quickly.
    “Thank you.”
    The field producer had been Steele’s principal UBS contact for the past two months of research and negotiations. As Martin scrambled to shove the armchair aside, Steele rolled forward. His position put him opposite the most important man in the room, Howard Prosser, executive producer of The World in One Hour.
    Steele greeted Prosser and nodded to the most famous face at the table, Brent Thomas. Being the best-looking guy in a warzone drew a television audience, but Steele had seen his own war zones. They hadn’t been nearly as pretty as Thomas, who was one of the network’s hottest correspondents. And the most ambitious. Fortunately for Steele’s plans, Thomas was as smart as he was camera-ready.
    “Deb Carroll is our senior researcher,” Martin said, gesturing toward a woman who hadn’t attended any of the previous meetings. “She’ll be in charge of fact-checking all material before it hits the air.”
    Steele nodded. “I’ll look forward to your questions.”
    Carroll’s smile said she doubted it.
    “Stanley Carson is our corporate counsel,” Prosser said. “He insisted on attending the meeting.”
    Steele’s eyebrows, nearly black despite his silver hair, lifted. “You’re wasting your time, Mr. Carson. Truth is an absolute defense against both libel and slander.”
    “We prefer to forestall suits rather than defend them.”
    “St. Kilda Consulting has no such aversion to conflicts, legal or otherwise,” Steele said pleasantly. “Mr. Thomas may be a pretty face, but he’s not stupid. He has documented the leads we gave him very carefully, as I’m sure Ms. Carroll will discover.”
    “I ran up thousands of miles on some of the worst airplanes that ever got off the ground,” Thomas said, his trained voice a mixture of rue and enthusiasm. “All to track down those former rebel commanders you recommended. Great tape on all of them, great interviews. It puts human faces to the arms traffic. That’s why Mr. Prosser is thinking about giving us the whole hour for the piece.”
    Prosser grimaced. “The final decision hasn’t been made to air the segment, short or long. There are crucial elements missing, including an interview with our subject, Mr. Bertone.”
    Steele shook his head slightly. “When we’re certain of his location, we’ll tell you, so that Thomas and a camera crew can confront him. But Andre Bertone won’t give you an interview. It isn’t in the man’s nature.”
    Prosser grinned. “No problem. Our audience sees silence as an admission of guilt.”
    “Hold it,” Carson said. “Before I allow this network to air an attack on a man who is an extremely wealthy businessman—and a United Nations diplomat, according to Thomas—I want to see proof.”
    Steele already knew about Bertone’s diplomatic credentials, but he was surprised they did. He looked at Thomas.
    “Nice work,” Steele said. “If you ever want to leave television, come see me at St. Kilda.”
    “Actually, St. Kilda Consulting is what we wanted to talk about today,” Prosser said quickly. “We’re a little, um, concerned about some aspects of your organization—”
    “And how your company’s rather unsavory international reputation might impact ours,” Carson cut in. “There are reports spreading in the European press that St. Kilda Consulting is a private army that hires itself out to the highest bidder. This network can’t afford to associate itself with mercenaries. Period. That sentiment comes all the way down from the sixty-first floor.”
    Steele looked at the researcher, who was examining her nail polish