"The jeopardies are bad," she said slowly and carefully in English. "On Laak'sa, forgiveness for such is..." She searched my mind, tapped my knowledge, for the right word. "Heresy."
Christophe chuckled. "No, he will not be executed. Others may have his head for his heresy," he said, using the word she'd be able to relate. He still hadn't grasped that he could use whatever words he chose and she'd be able to feel the meaning. However, I knew it pleased her that he made such attempts. "There are some who would kill him for what he's done. But not Reginald. Not StarTech."
"Who are these others?" she asked.
I sat up a little. "Yeah, who?"
Christophe placed his cup on the table. "Names would be unimportant to either of you, but I'll lay out the scenarios. There are many ways to do business, but it can be boiled down into two categories. Lawful and unlawful."
"But unlawful could just mean lying or conning. You're talking murder."
Christophe gave a cool shrug. "If you break one law, the next is easy to justify. Tell me, what is the difference between stealing someone's life savings and killing them, really?"
I scoffed. "A big difference!"
I believe your primary really does understand our thinking, Jake.
"He's not my primary," I snapped at her.
He is not saying that you are a murderer.
It was just like her to get to the root of it. I felt my face get hot. He had inadvertently hit way too close to home.
"Reginald would be the primary," he assured her. "And that is why we have punishments in the first place, Jacob. Those who are not punished make the next step and the next until they run their entire lives above, around, and through the law. And that does mean killing."
"Why don't people stop them?"
"If we, if StarTech suddenly decided to say to rot with it all," he flung his hand dramatically and made a haughty face. "We don't need anyone! Say we did not decide to get the approval of the governments and the blessing of the IOC. We took all our resources, pulled them, pooled them, and sent ten thousand human pairs out to the corners of the universe. Who would stop us?" I opened my mouth, but he held up his hand. "No, think about it. Really. How did you get here? You bought your way up."
My face got hotter. "Now that's not how it happened."
"In this nutshell of reality, yes, boy, it is."
He has a point.
"You paid people, they broke the law. Not just silly contracts or employment agreements or regulations. The law. The absolute law. You are just a boy. A Cosworth, yes. Your pockets run deep. But ours, they run deeper. You were able to bribe a kid and a conductor. I guarantee that if we had to, we could bribe the majority of the IOC, the international police bureau, innumerable prosecutors, and a hefty chunk of the presidential representatives. Not only would we get away with it, we'd get approval on paper, too. And still have enough to fund whatever we'd like to do.
"StarTech was on the verge of doing just that. The previous leadership of the company was not opposed to crossing whatever lines they deemed...cumbersome." Reginald's father. That was the 'previous leadership'. "By the time Reginald was able to gather enough support to take control, there were offenses committed daily without apparent care. As soon as he took the reins, he cleaned house, as we say. He not only got rid of the top leadership, but any and every employee who had done anything illegal. When that was done, he turned in the names and evidence against those he fired to the governments."
"Even his father?"
"Not 'even', Jake. Especially."
"What happened?"
"He served the rest of his natural life in prison and was denied the right to use doppel technology. He was gone in body and mind."
I whistled. I had no idea Reginald had that kind of anger in him.
The history impressed Ashnahta. Your primary is a great leader! To oust such a force is heroic. And a man, at that.
Men can do anything women can do, you know. It was the same argument we had for years.
"The only reason we stay to the letter of the law," Christophe continued, "is because that is what we have decided to do. It is the moral and ethical code Reginald demands for his company, for his life. I know he seems like a man's man, a friendly guy, the life of the party. He is. But I believe his easiness even in the most dire of times is due to the fact that at the end of the day, he can say that everything he did was above board, legal, beyond reproach."
Until I stepped in and mucked it all up.
In the three long, torturous days I had to wait for my meeting with Reginald, I thought about what Christophe had told us. The history of StarTech. The history of Reginald. And by the time I stood at his door waiting to gain entrance, I had worked up a good hatred for myself.
The guards did not join me. I walked like a condemned man, for that's exactly what I was. Reginald was at his desk, sitting stock still, official. I forced my leaden legs to move me to the chair.
"Sit."
I sat.
He had his hands folded before him. They were tented. He was thinking, assessing. He sat back, keeping his hands tented but across his stomach, and assessed me. I felt my face flush and tried my best to look him in the eye.
"I'm not going to yell, Jacob."
"You're not?" I hated the childish hopeful tone of my voice.
"I'm not. I don't believe it would do any good, would it?" He didn't wait for me to answer. He sat forward quickly, and while his voice was still controlled, his fingers tapped on the desk letting me know how angry he really was. "No. It wouldn't do a bit of good because no matter how much we've tried to stress your importance in everything we've worked so hard for, you're never going to see the bigger picture, are you?"
That was an unfair statement. How dare he say that I, of all people, couldn't see the bigger picture? I lived my whole life on a tin can for this bigger picture. I didn't have a childhood like everyone else. Okay, so I didn't miss it. But still. Maybe I would have if I knew it existed when I was still a child. Didn't see the bigger picture? Was Reginald really so stupid? Seriously?
"Oh, I struck a nerve," he said with a cold smile. "Tell me, Jacob." He made a come on motion with his hands. "Lay it on me once again how rough all this is. How horrible Earth is. How evil I am for making you help us out a little. Come on. Let me have it. I can take it. Tell me how horrible the good life is. How you hate money. How you only ever deign to use it when it's for your own selfish purposes. Come on. Tell me. Get it out."
He succeeded in goading me past my silence. "Don't mix up issues, Reginald. If you're mad that I hopped off Earth and came back, that's fine. You should be mad at that. But don't bring my whole life into this. Don't act like I'm some kid who doesn't understand the bigger picture. Of course I understand the bigger picture. While you were here fighting to make people like me legal, I was actually out there living it!"
"Then why, why would you possibly want to jeopardize that?" He ran a hand through his hair and it went all crazy. He looked like Dad when he was hot on a topic, too engrossed in his philosophizing to notice or care. "You come back here and tell us how wonderful everything is out there." He waved a hand towards the windows. "And then you hold this key, the key to give that wonder to other families. Families, Jake. Real families. Not just cold hearted scientists. Not just loner techies with only the bots for company. Families. Honest and true and legitimate human expansion. You have the key, you are the key. And you put all of that on the line...for what? A buddy. A girl. A little flame of puppy love or..."
The insinuation infuriated me. "If it was Christophe you'd do the same thing and you know it." He was too shocked to reply. "I'm sorry I put everything in jeopardy. But what was I supposed to do? Ashnahta's here. How could you possibly think I could know that and not come to help her?"