Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Her computer proved clear of babysitters or spies.
She remained circumspect in her research into RainFire. Nothing that couldn’t be explained away as her attempting to educate herself about her neighbors. There were no pictures of the pack members online, but she did find a small article in a business journal about their indi-mech arm.
Per the journalist, RainFire Mech was “an increasingly strong player in the lucrative and underserved niche.” It also looked like their current clientele—the ones the journalist had been able to interview anyway—were very happy with their work.
She checked her mother’s holdings, the information available on their unrestricted internal network. She’d remembered correctly: Shoshanna had bought a majority stake in a company that needed individualized pieces of mech on a regular basis. And from the look of things, their current supplier was charging above market rates, likely because they were entrenched and believed they had no competition.
Her heartbeat kicked up a notch.
“Auden?” Charisma stood in the doorway, a strange expression on her face. “I thought I imagined you there.”
“I haven’t been here often, have I?” Auden said lightly, because she needed to keep Charisma on her side while she set up her plan. “I barely fit behind the desk as it is.” She indicated her belly, careful not to cradle it, careful to be the perfect Scott.
“Why are you putting yourself to such discomfort?” Charisma walked over. “I could have provided you with a new organizer.”
“I was curious about the RainFire leopards.”
Charisma went motionless. “Did they approach you?”
Auden found herself saying, “No.” Then she played up her naiveté, leaning into how Charisma had viewed her for years. “I just saw the information in the dossier you gave me.”
“Oh yes, of course.” Charisma’s spine relaxed. “I do recall looking the pack up. They’re fairly insignificant.”
“Yes, but read this.” She called Charisma around to her side of the desk and indicated the article.
“Hmm,” Charisma murmured. “Interesting area for changelings.”
“That’s what I thought. Then I remembered a deal of Mother’s, and glanced over the files. See the latest invoices on this work?”
Charisma examined the paperwork, then gave Auden a long and penetrating glance. “Your memory is excellent,” she said in an eerie tone that Auden couldn’t pinpoint.
It took effort to keep her voice even, to not give in to the shiver that threatened to rock over her. “Mother took me to tour a warehouse once, a long time ago. We didn’t often do things together, so I remembered.” A wholesale lie, but one Charisma had no way to check—not after so many years.
The other woman’s attention was back on the screen. “I see what you mean on the pricing. Our supplier is getting too comfortable, isn’t he? I need to get the general manager there to tighten the negotiating screws.”
“I was thinking we switch to RainFire,” Auden said before she could second-guess herself.
Charisma’s eyes were unblinking when they looked at her. “Scotts have never worked with changelings.”
“It’s strategy.” The words fell off Auden’s tongue with a speed that made her blood run ice-cold. “We give one contract to the cats and our prior supplier will come crawling to us with a better deal than we could ever negotiate. If we even want to stick with them, because here’s what else I found.”
She showed Charisma another four-paragraph article that most people would’ve missed; it spoke about the innovations RainFire had made for another company that had led to increased output and a resulting rise in profit.
The CEO had nothing but glowing praise for the leopard pack.
“I don’t think our current supplier is doing any R&D,” she said. “We contract RainFire before anyone else of our size or caliber finds them, and we can monopolize their skills while our competitors rely on companies with outdated methods of design and composition. Doesn’t matter if they’re changeling, human or Psy, the family needs to control the market on the components in order to surge ahead.”
Charisma didn’t smile—she had been too deep into Silence for too long, but her expression warmed in a way that was as close to a smile as she might ever get. “That’s the same call your mother would’ve made,” she said, a whisper of awe in her tone. “Small, intelligent moves with the long term in mind. Brilliant, Auden.”
Her cheeks frigid, Auden closed down the computer. “Thank you.”
“I’ll action it.” Charisma made a note in her organizer. “Per the file I just pulled up, our old contract expires within the month, so we’ll have to move fast—and hope the pack has enough capacity to accommodate us.”
“I think they’ll make the capacity with a contract this large.” Pushing back from the chair, she rose to her feet to stretch her back. “Since I discovered this, what do you think about me dealing with the cats?”
“I’m afraid you’re in too exposed a state,” Charisma said, her voice gentle. “We can’t have you at risk.”