Scissor Link by Georgette Kaplan (novels to improve english .txt) 📗

anyway. Plus, if anyone overheard that, I could be very popular around here.”

Wendy did think someone gave her a thumbs up as she left.

One plus to having a girlfriend, even a presently head-up-her-ass girlfriend—no more gay bars. Wendy got to meet with Tina at a café. It was nice. Quiet music, drinks with names that weren’t euphemisms for anything, actual chairs to sit in. It was like going to grandmother’s house, with bottle service.

Wendy liked it. She was getting too old to pretend to be good at dancing.

“So here’s the thing,” Wendy said, “if a guy hits on you, first you turn him down, right? See if he’s okay with rejection. Better to know that now than when he’s hitting you up for anal.”

“That’s not a real thing people do,” Tina said.

“Yes, it is, it totally works! It’s like getting a mammogram. Wouldn’t you rather know than wonder?”

“Okay, how many dates have you been on that you’re suddenly the master of relationships? That is why we’re in a place that plays actual music, right? Or did you just woman up and make peace with dying alone?”

“Does it have to be one or the other?” Wendy reached into her purse and brought out her tablet. “But let’s set aside my expertise at having sex and being in love, and go to your expertise in radar shit.”

“Whoa, whoa—” Tina held up her hands. “You know I don’t have security clearance for any of this?”

“You don’t need it. It’s proprietary technology, hasn’t been sold to the military yet. As far as they’re concerned, it might as well be Microsoft Flight Simulator.”

“That’s some flimsy shit right there.”

“Tina, c’mon, no one knows this stuff better than you. Just look it over and tell me if I’m on the right track. After you tell me which track I should be on.”

Tina groaned and took Wendy’s tablet. “You’re picking up the tab.”

“Yes. Oh hey—” Wendy slightly inclined her eyes to Tina’s left. “Hottie on your six, coming your way.”

“How would you know?”

“Just because I’m not ordering doesn’t mean I can’t read the menu. Remember, turn him down first.”

“This is stupid—”

“Trust me!”

The man put his hand on the table. “Hi there. Tom Willis. Mind if I buy you a drink, miss? You look like you’re running on empty.”

“That’s all right,” Tina said. “I’m just not in the mood right now.”

The man shrugged. “All right. Enjoy your evening.”

“Hey there,” someone said, and Wendy turned around to see a woman gesturing from the neighboring table. “If that money’s burning a hole in your pocket, I could use a refill.”

“Sure thing,” the man said, moving over. “What’ll it be?”

Wendy turned back around to find Tina glaring at her.

“Barkeep,” she called, “could I get a bottle of your finest brandy? Thanks.”

First thing the next morning, Wendy rued how fucking bright it was. But second thing, she rode to the office. “Janet, you are not going to believe—”

Her seat was taken. By Mary Borchard. “Mary. Hi there. I knew I recognized you from somewhere. ”

Wendy only let herself be abashed for a half-second. Then she slapped the tablet down on Janet’s desk. “I know what you’re up to.”

“Do you now?” Mary asked.

Wendy faced Janet. “RadarVoid works too well. It doesn’t just screw up the instrumentation of computers targeting it, it messes with everything. Other helicopters can’t engage their targets. Planes can’t accurately drop ordinance. As soon as the Hawkowl’s in the area, the entire C2 breaks down.”

Mary wasn’t fazed in the slightest. “That was a problem in initial tests, but we corrected it.”

Janet spoke for the first time. “You mean you changed the tests not to check for that. Then you mixed them all together so no one would ask why you ordered multiple series of tests.”

Mary shrugged. “So this is it, then? You found a few bugs in my program—is that really why your little helper monkey’s been sniffing around my people? Well, I’ll raise you.”

She picked up a file folder from Janet’s desk, dropped it on top of Wendy’s tablet.

“What’s that?” Wendy asked. No one answered. She reached for it—

“Don’t,” Janet said, but Wendy ignored her.

They were pictures.

Blown-up, glossy, perfect reproductions of the pictures Janet had sent to Wendy. In exchange for her fingers.

“I’m sure it would interest the higher-ups very much to know that Janet here is sleeping with someone in a different security classification. One whom she’s let run amok with proprietary technology. It really doesn’t take long to look like corporate espionage, if not counterintelligence.”

Wendy tightened her fists into neutron stars. “You wanna see counterintelligence, lady?”

Janet held up a hand and Wendy froze. “You must know this’ll come out, Mary. As soon as the military finds out the tech doesn’t work, the contract won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on.”

“But it’ll still be printed,” Mary said. “And thanks to you, Wendy, everyone will know the sale was made on the strength of the RadarVoid system. I’ve already gotten offers from Boeing and Lockheed. So years from now, when the Hawkowl is in production and I’m making eight figures at a new company, I don’t think it’ll really matter what happens to Savin Aerospace. For any of us.”

“Fuck you,” Wendy said.

Mary stared into Janet. “Is that your answer, too? Savin’s a sinking ship, but you can get in the lifeboat with me. That tablet won’t change anything, but it’s still aggravation I don’t need. Make sure no one sees it and I can get you through the door right behind me.”

Janet sat still as a statue behind her desk. It seemed to take a great deal of effort for her to rotate her chair, for her to be turning from side to side, lost in thought. And it took her a long time to raise her downcast eyes.

“You heard her,” she told Mary. “This company’s been good to me. I’ve devoted my life to it. I’m not going to help slit its throat so you can get a corner office.”

“Fine. Don’t help.