Windswept Read Free Page B

here with nothing, did the same shit-work we all did, and he earned his way up and out. If a nice guy like him can make it, you’re a shoo-in.” She laughed, and I blinked away my numbers.
    “It hasn’t happened yet,” I said. “Besides, those people might not Breach after all. Some other recruiter might nab them for their headcount. Carmody or Leslie Paik. Even Neil Scoon might rouse himself from his tomato patch to get ’em.”
    “Or Saarien,” said Big Lily.
    “Es pecially Saarien,” I said. “You know how many Breaches he’s pinched from me?”
    “I think we all do, Padma.”
    I sagged onto the bartop, careful to avoid the stain. “Every time I’ve gotten close to adding someone to my headcount, he snatches them away. Like those economists! You have any idea what we could do with that kind of expertise in Brushhead?”
    Big Lily shook her head.
    “Me, neither, but I’d have done something with them. Instead, he keeps ’em all working in that deathtrap he calls a refinery, sucking away funding from the rest of us. Hell, now he’s talking about turning Sou’s Reach into an artisan community!”
    “That’d be something,” said Big Lily.
    “He stood up at the last Union Board meeting and said, ‘We need to acknowledge and nurture our innate creativity.’ Walked away with a hundred thousand yuan to make glassware or some crap like that. Just because he has the highest headcount on the planet.”
    “I know he’s pissed you off by poaching bodies from you, but that’s how it was even during the peak times. Everyone wants out of their Slots, and recruiters want to make their numbers.”
    “Yeah, but does he have to be such a dick about it?”
    Big Lily shrugged. “Evanrute Saarien may an asshole, but he’s a loyal asshole.”
    I almost spat on the bar, then thought better of it. “To himself, sure.”
    “And to the Union,” said Big Lily, wiping the highball glasses clean. “He’s gone to the mat for his people, got his head cracked in the same picket lines as the rest of us. He may get wrapped up in all his speeches about the Struggle, but we’re on the same side, Padma.”
    “His ego crowds out anyone else on his side.”
    Big Lily shook her head. “You sure you’re not pissed because of what he used to do? A little transference, maybe?”
    “Saarien isn’t the only former Corporate recruiter here,” I said. “What about Chenisse Lau? I used to hang out with her a lot.”
    “You used to get in fights with her a lot,” said Big Lily. “Remember that year I banned you both from here?”
    “She started it,” I said, looking into my tea. “Saying I didn’t pay attention to my Ward. What the hell did she know?”
    “My point, Padma,” said Big Lily, “is that, while I can appreciate your desire to get your payout, there’s still plenty here to focus on. Chenisse was right: your Ward has to come first.”
    “If you’re trying to tell me to go along with Bloombeck for the good of the Ward–”
    “Oh, hell, no!” Big Lily laughed. “But what you did for Odd? That’s what you should be doing more of. Especially since it gets you stuff like this.” She put a plate of kumara cakes before me.
    I smelled the sweet steamy cakes. “Oh, you are a doll.” I broke open a cake and took a bite, the hot filling burning my tongue.
    Big Lily shook her head, then took out a fluted tasting glass off the rack behind her. She set it down in front of me, next to the bottle of Beaulieu’s.
    “I told you, it’s not after six,” I said, reaching for another cake.
    “It’s not for you,” she said, nodding to the other end of the room. I followed her chin and saw a guy sitting by the window. He wasn’t really my type, but he had a chest like a rum barrel and eyes that didn’t look too hard. “He’s been watching you all afternoon.”
    “You have the best way of looking out for your customers.”
    “It’s my job to know what my customers need,” said Big Lily, throwing me a wink