“Security screenings are going well” Belle Donnst’s voice droned on. Behind the woman, a smartglass display showed pictures of various security centers located around Chiwaukee. Next to each building, columns of text scrolled endlessly as they detailed specific facts and observations about the locations.

“The lokkel haven’t provided us with many technology transfers,” Belle continued, “but the chemical cocktail they’ve provided us with has proven incredibly effective at locating flash clones. We aren’t treating it as 100% effective, and additional methods are being used to ensure the loyalty of our forces, but simply pumping a small amount of the drug into the air circulation system of a building has been enough to trigger massive seizures in most of the dopplegangers.”

She waved a hand, and the images on the smartglass shifted. Rather than buildings, they now displayed a man in a business suit collapsing in a hallway. Guards in heavy armor ran up, one placing a boot on his chest and pointing a gun at the spasming man’s head. The other knelt down, cutting open the man’s arm and dipping a black metal box into the blood.

Lights on the side of the box blinked amber three times before all four of them turned red. The kneeling guard shook their head, helmet moving as they said something inaudible to the other officer.

The guard holding a rifle to their shoulder pressed it up against their shoulder and the short video disappeared as the weapon’s muzzle flashed and its stock jumped.

“As you can see,” Belle finished. “Between the lokkel gas and our rapid tests, although I cannot tell you that we have eliminated 100% of the stallesp agents from our company, we are making great progress. Unfortunately, between NeoSyne and Millennium there are plenty of humans willing to-”

“Millennium,” a man interjected with a snort. “They haven’t been a serious threat in months. Security eliminated them. You can’t just bring them up now as some sort of goblin or bugaboo that goes ‘bump’ in the night in order to request extra funding Donnst.”

Under the conference room table Kat squeezed her hand into a fist, focusing as best she could on the all comforting feel of her fingers pressing into her palm as she tried to keep a neutral expression on her face.

“Millennium is far from dead,” Belle replied, shooting a frosty smile that showed a bit too much teeth at the other speaker. “Mr. Daniels, I believe you recall my presentation when GroCorp security was trying to pursue Millennium after the… unpleasantness where we discovered that they were working with the stallesp. I certainly remember you turning down the funding request for additional intelligence efforts to track down their safe houses.”

The heavyset man’s face reddened, and he thrust a meaty hand in Belle’s general direction, finger pointing accusingly. He practically quivered as he shook his fist at Belle.

“Now just one second missy, this is supposed to be a security briefing. Not some sort of excuse for you to drag out tired excuses about why you let that Jackson fellow get away.”

A spike of pain erupted from Kat’s hand as her nails began to dig in. She forced her face into a smile around a clenched jaw. Around the table four or five other shareholders on the security subcommittee were watching the dispute between Blake Daniels and Belle Donnst with interest.

“You may be a shareholder now Belle,” Blake continued, waving his hand back and forth as if it were some sort of talisman, “but that doesn’t change how you let GroCorp down. I always said you were too aggressive and ambitious to do the job right as security chief, and here we are. You’ve clawed your way into the upper ranks, and now you’re saying that you couldn’t manage to eliminate a simple street gang. Maybe you were too focused on your own advancement to do your job properly.”

“Your opinion has been noted and assigned the value it is worth, one percent shareholder Daniels,” Belle replied dryly. “Regardless of how much your lack of foresight is to blame for the predicament we find ourselves in today, it changes nothing. We have methods to detect and destroy stallesp infiltrators, but that means nothing in the face of more conventional threats.”

“Why, you-” Daniels sputtered, jumping to his feet as his face turned an ugly shade of purple. “You jumped up TROLLOP! Just because you were able to acquire a little bit of equity, you think that you can tell me what to do?”

He rounded the side of the conference table, thrusting his right hand into Belle’s face while he waved his left in Kat’s general direction.

“Your dog might bare her teeth and snarl at us,” Daniels continued, quivering with rage. “But it does not change the fact that you do not understand the gravity of being a shareholder. You were not born to this job, you were not raised to understand the importance of having the quarterly earnings statement rest on your shoulders. My mother explained dividends to me as she nursed me. My father taught me about monetary theory as we played catch. Being a shareholder isn’t just a matter of equity. It’s a question of blood.”

“And yet, despite all of that, you continue to fail and cost GroCorp valuable profits,” Belle responded dismissively.

Daniels took a step closer, his mouth opening and closing like that of a dying fish as his index finger moved even closer to Belle’s face.

“Please remove your hand, Shareholder Daniels,” she continued icily. “If you lay a finger on me, you will be fitting yourself for a chrome replacement by this time tomorrow.”

Daniels blanched and took a step backwards, arm falling to his side like a flag without wind. He turned and looked at the rest of the table, as if seeking support. Kat glared at him, but most of the other shareholders refused to make eye contact. Finally, a middle-aged man spoke up.

“Sit down Blake, Shareholder Donnst has a two percent stake. It only makes sense that she be made a subcommittee chairwoman, and let’s be honest. She’s right on this. A bunch of us did underestimate the threat Millennium posed, me included. I’m more interested in fixing matters than rehashing old fights that I know I’m going to lose.”

Blake sputtered, silently, but no one else made eye contact with him. Finally after one last half-hearted scowl at Kat, he deflated. He stomped around the corner of the table before retaking his seat.

“Sorry about that Shareholder Donnst,” the second speaker apologized with a somewhat insincere smile. “I think Shareholder Daniels got a little overheated there. If you could continue with your presentation, I’m sure we’d all like to discuss your proposal. I for one have a lunch appointment, and I’d prefer to be on time if possible.”

The next hour or so went fairly quickly. Belle spelled out her concerns and plans for GroCorp’s security needs. The rest of the shareholders took notes and asked questions, but when the time came to discuss the proposal, Belle was met with silence.

After thirty or so seconds of awkwardness, one of the shareholders proposed shelving the proposal so that those present could ‘independently investigate’ Belle’s findings and mull over her figures. Suddenly, the room’s lethargy disappeared. Blake Daniels seconded the motion in a matter of seconds, and almost before Kat could tell what was happening the meeting was over and the rest of the shareholders were leaving the room.

She stood up, frowning at the backs of her new companions as they filed out before walking over to where Belle stood, leaning against the smartglass display. The older woman flashed her a quick, bemused smile as she waved Kat over.

“And so goes the best of GroCorp,” Belle said sardonically. “A breed whose proof is in time and deeds.”

“What?” Kat asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

“Oh nothing much,” Belle responded with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It’s a poem I learned when I was a girl. Back when Ike Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of GroCorp, was trying to emphasize regional pride in the managerial class. Something about using old pre-collapse poems to instill a sense of elan.”

“We are a breed whose proof is in time and deeds,” she recited, crossing her arms as she looked past Kat at the receding shareholders. “We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded, we are powerful and tremendous in ourselves, we are executives in ourselves.”

“What does any of that actually mean?” Kat questioned. “The words are pretty, but once you try to make sense of them and parse out their meaning, it sounds like a fancy self-help book.”

“The full poem is better,” Belle replied with a sigh. “I looked it up. The problem is that it’s trying to tap into an idea that doesn’t really exist. As much as we try to instill a sense of pride or identity in the company, we only manage to snag the most gullible of workers, and looking at our fellow shareholders, who can blame them?”

“They do seem to have their heads in the sand,” Kat remarked. “You were asking for an eight percent increase in defense spending. Thanks to our reverse-engineering stallesp technology, GroCorp’s profits are already up twenty two percent this year. Everything I’ve been hearing from the science teams assigned to the wreck indicates that this is only the beginning. Every other megacorporation is just salivating at the idea of getting their hands on one tenth of the profits we’re earning. Already, the 3445 has already thwarted three samurai teams that have tried to break into the research facility and steal some of the technology.”

“And it's only going to get worse from here,” Belle said unhappily. “Every report I’ve seen indicates that the other corporations are circling around us like vultures even as their managers and executives buy our products. We’ve tracked over five hundred named samurai that were last seen active in other regions in Chiwaukee. Half the time we couldn’t even find out how they got in. It’s like they just disappeared in Berlin, Rio, Hong Kong, and Tokyo and reappeared in the seedier parts of town with a beer in their hands.”

“Do we have any idea what they’re up to?” Kat asked. “The stallesp wreck is in a fortified facility just outside Schaumberg, so hopefully they won’t be able to do all that much from Chiwaukee.”

The older woman shrugged unhappily. With a motion of a well manicured hand, the smartglass display behind her flicked off.

“I would suspect that it’s just a matter of time before our new friends discover that,” Belle replied, leading the way out of the conference room. “A secret that big can’t be concealed forever. That’s part of the reason why we selected the Schaumburg area. The Shell isn’t big enough to sustain a large number of samurai, and the arcology is a closed community. Both of us have personal connections and influence there that we can use to keep eyes on the situation.”

“Whip is working on improving the facility’s electronic defenses, and Baker has the 3445 drilling daily,” Kat said firmly. “Even if one of the samurai teams can bribe a scientist, I don’t think they’ll be able to get past the guards. The 3445 are incredibly loyal, and at least twenty percent of the monitoring systems are using repurposed stallesp tech on an entirely different network. They won’t even know what to look for.”

Belle nodded in satisfaction, sweeping through the tastefully appointed hallways of the office suite en route to one of the building’s luxury elevator. The minute the two of them left the room, a quartet of guards fell into step behind them.

Theoretically their security details were supposed to be the best of the best, but every grated on Kat’s nerves. Every move they made felt noisy and amateurish. Sure, both of her guards were much better shots than Kat, but neither of them could do much more than hug cover and wait for a mobile opponent to flank and kill them.

Still, they were better than nothing, and there was something to be said for a pair of large men in suits and sunglasses standing at your back when dealing with a problem. Plus, they were a requirement. Even if most of the GroCorp shareholders considered Belle, Jasper and her to be outsiders, none of them were willing to accept the morale blow of losing a shareholder to assaination. GroCorp would become the laughingstocks of the other corporations.

Internally, dissent and power struggles were a day to day occurrence, but externally it was an unspoken rule that the shareholders presented a united front. Of all the customs and unspoken understandings Kat had been introduced to in the last couple of months, this sense of false unity was one of the few things that made complete sense to her.

The elevator doors closed in front of them, and the stiffness left Belle’s shoulders. She glanced back at Kat, pursing her lips for a half second before speaking.

“You know Miss Debs, originally I was quite upset with you for forcing me to become a shareholder.”

“Forcing?” Kat asked, raising a single eyebrow quizzically.

“I don’t think you understand,” Belle replied with a low chuckle. “I was born to some power, but almost all of my achievements I accomplished with my own two hands. I didn’t develop a reputation for ruthless efficiency and almost brutal pragmatism without reason.

“Then you come along and hand me all of my dreams, neatly wrapped and with a bow on top,” she continued shaking her head. “A two percent shareholder? What was there to even hope or strive for after that? My biggest goal had been to set one of my children or proteges up in a position where they could marry into a shareholder family, and here I am, with barely any notice or fanfare, one of the bigger shareholders in the entire company.”

“I’m sorry?” Kat said incredulously, struggling to try and find a proper response to Belle’s bizarre monologue.

“Oh don’t be,” the older woman chided her. “I was upset and rudderless for about a week before I had another goal. I swear that half of the board is content to squabble with each other while invasion ships land on Michigan Avenue. If a couple of us don’t step up and knock this company into shape, it’s going to dissolve, crush itself under its own growing weight.

“What about Ricardo Waggoner or Chairwoman Kowalski?” Kat questioned. “I don’t understand all of the nuances of the various political debates, but they seem to have good heads on their shoulders.”

“Waggoner understands what’s coming,” Belle agreed. “At some point, Earth will begin integrating financially into the Galactic Consensus. The amount of wealth that such a transition will bring is staggering. The sooner we are in a position to do so, the better, but the most important factor is making sure we enter on our terms. The Consensus is almost certainly going to insist on better treatment of hereditary employees, so it is better to do that now and seem magnanimous rather than have the observers force that change upon us.”

“Chairwoman Kowalski understands, but she still wants to drag her feet a bit,” Belle continued. “She’ll come around eventually, but I get the impression that it will take a little time for her to goad her faction into position. The real problem is the traditionalists like Ricket and Daniels. They foolishly cling to a past that is no longer possible, content to attack the harbingers of change even if the change itself is inevitable.”

Kat groaned, nodding at the other woman’s assessment. The full board rarely met, mostly leaving the shareholders to their weekly subcommittee meetings, but when it did, Richard Ricket made Blake Daniels seem positively friendly. The man seemed incapable of speaking without erupting into a litany of bluster and threats.

“You know Shareholder Donnst,” Kat remarked. “I kinda miss the good old days. It was simpler then. If someone tried to pull these sorts of stunts, we’d just put together a plan to crack their security and I’d stick a knife in them while they slept. I mean, it was dangerous as all hell, but it was so much less of a headache.”

A genuine smile cracked Belle Donnst’s emotionless porcelain face, and the taciturn woman quickly raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a chuckle. A moment later, she was back to her usual robotic efficiency as she replied.

“I should have you over for wine sometime, Shareholder Debs. We can raise a glass to the good old days.”