John Marden sat forward and said, "Mr. Sanders, please continue with your presentation. In your view, how long will it be until the line is repaired and fully functioning?"
It was noon. Sanders sat in his office with his feet on his desk and stared out the window. The sun was shining brightly on the buildings around Pioneer Square. The sky was clear and cloudless. Mary Anne Hunter, wearing a business suit, came in and said, "I don't get it."
"Get what?"
"That news tape. Meredith must have known about it. Because she was there when they were shooting it."
"Oh, she knew about it, all right. But she never thought I'd get it. And she never thought she'd appear in it. She thought they'd only show Phil. You know-a Muslim country. In a story about executives, they usually just show the men."
"Uh-huh. So?"
"But Channel Three is the government station," Sanders said. "And the story that night was that the government had been only partially successful in negotiating changes in the DigiCom plant-that the foreign executives had been intransigent and uncooperative. It was a story intended to protect the reputation of Mr. Sayad, the finance minister. So the cameras focused on her."
"Because . . ."
"Because she was a woman."
"Foreign she-devil in a business suit? Can't make a deal with a feringi woman?"
"Something like that. Anyway, the story focused on her."
"And you got the tape."
"Yeah."
Hunter nodded. "Well," she said, "it's fine with me." She left the room, and Sanders was alone again, staring out the window.
After a while, Cindy came in and said, "The latest word is the acquisition is off."
Sanders shrugged. He was flat, drained. He didn't care.
Cindy said, "Are you hungry? I can get you some lunch."
"I'm not hungry. What are they doing now?"
"Garvin and Marden are talking."
"Still? It's been more than an hour."
"They just brought in Conley."
"Only Conley? Nobody else?"
"No. And Nichols has left the building."
"What about Meredith?"
"Nobody's seen her."
He leaned back in his chair. He stared out the window. His computer gave three beeps.
30 SECONDS TO DIRECT VIDEO LINKUP: DC/M-DC/S
SEN: A. KAHN
REC: T. SANDERS
Kahn was calling. Sanders smiled grimly. Cindy came in and said, "Arthur's going to call."
"I see that."
15 SECONDS TO DIRECT VIDEO LINKUP: DC/M-DC/S
Sanders adjusted his desk lamp and sat back. The screen blossomed, and he saw the shimmering image resolve. It was Arthur, in the plant.
"Oh, Tom. Good. I hope it's not too late," Arthur said.
"Too late for what?" Sanders said.
"I know there's a meeting today. There's something I have to tell you.
"What's that, Arthur?"
"Well, I'm afraid I haven't been entirely straightforward with you, Tom. It's about Meredith. She made changes in the line six or seven months ago, and I'm afraid she intends to blame that on you. Probably in the meeting today."
"I see."
"I feel terrible about this, Tom," Arthur said, hanging his head. "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything, Arthur," Sanders said.
Kahn smiled apologetically. "I wanted to tell you earlier. I really did. But Meredith kept saying that you would be out. I didn't know what to
do. She said there was a battle coming, and I had better pick the winner."
"You picked wrong, Arthur," Sanders said. "You're fired." He reached up and snapped off the television camera in front of him.
"What're you talking about?"
"You're fired, Arthur."
"But you can't do this to rue...," Kahn said. His image faded, began to shrink. "You can't-"
The screen was blank.
Fifteen minutes later, Mark Lewyn came by the office. He tugged at the neck of his black Armani T-shirt. "I think I'm an asshole," he said.
"Yeah. You are."
"It's just . . . I didn't understand the situation," he said.
"That's right, you didn't."
"What're you going to do now?"
"I just fired Arthur."
`Jesus. And what else?"
"I don't know. We'll see how it shakes out."
Lewyn nodded and went away nervously. Sanders decided to let him be nervous for a while. In the end, their friendship would be repaired. Adele and Susan were good friends. And Mark was too talented to replace in the company. But Lewyn could sweat for a while; it'd do him good.
At one o'clock, Cindy came in and said, "The word is Max Dorfman just went into the conference with Garvin and Marden."
"What about John Conley?"
"He's gone. He's with the accountants now."
"Then that's a good sign."
"And the word is Nichols was fired."
"Why do they think that?"
"He flew home an hour ago."
Fifteen minutes later, Sanders saw Ed Nichols walking down the hallway. Sanders got up and went out to Cindy's desk. "I thought you said Nichols went home."
"Well, that's what I heard," she said. "It's crazy. You know what they're saying about Meredith now?"
"What?"
"They say she's staying on."
"I don't believe it," Sanders said.
"Bill Everts told Stephanie Kaplan's assistant that Meredith Johnson is not going to be fired, that Garvin is backing her one hundred percent. Phil is going to take the rap for what happened in Malaysia but Garvin still believes Meredith is young and this shouldn't be held against her. So she's staying in her job."