ADS: Like A Phoenix

[Thexare]

The face of Alice Whittington appeared once again on Johnathan Jones' console for a status report. "Boss, I'm planetside on Houston right now. Our old factory is still functioning."

Jones was visibly quite surprised by this. During the Octavarian retreat from Kansas, they couldn't possibly arrange shipping. After a moment, he spoke. "Get me the manager." Alice nodded and walked away. She returned with a dark-skinned woman with long black hair and a serious expression.

"Irene Bowman, acting manager. You must be the Director I've heard so much about."

"Yeah, that's me. Sorry we've left you in the dark so long," he apologized, pulling up the financial data Alice had sent with the message.

"Alice explained. Fucking Gallia. I've been able to keep things moving on my own out here, but getting more reliable shipments would be good."

"Of course, of course." Jones paused and lowered his voice some. "You said earlier you were the acting manager. Explain what you meant."

Irene's left eye twitched a little bit at the question. "The one before me was just letting the place fall apart. One of the men here caught him embezzling what money we had. Jack didn't like being called out and pulled a gun. I was faster. To hear the pigs tell it, he still has a twitch in his leg from me draining half a battery into him."

"Good old Model 9," Jones laughed. "I'm going over these reports, and you completely turned things around with no help at all. Why didn't you just go to another company?"

Irene shrugged. "Pride, maybe. And for a lot of us, this was our first real chance to go straight. I leave, they're back in the streets. Or worse. I'm not giving the police more slave labor."

That was a familiar attitude. When the previous Director had gotten killed in botched negotiations with the Mollys, Jones could've cut and run alone. But there were other people working for Aquila that needed the money, and the possibility of further Molly retaliation was a real risk. Irene had a bit of a criminal record herself; nothing violent, she appeared to have been working as a fence and an intermediary for smugglers. But as far as the reports showed, her Aquila work was completely legit, and experience with the Commission taught him how to find the holes crooks hide behind.

"I'll be down there as soon as I can arrange transit. In the meanwhile, I'm promoting you to full Manager and arranging for bonuses for you and all your employees as an apology. Shipments will resume and I will be in touch soon."

"Thank you, Director. My workers will really appreciate this."

"You've all earned it."

That'd be a long trip, Jones mused. But that makes it all the more important, for what he had in mind...