Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (25 page)

“Not really,”
said Venkdt.  “If I think of one I’ll drop it in.”

“No, no, no!”
said Christina in mock horror, “please don’t improvise!”

Venkdt
smiled.  “Okay, campaign manager,” he said.

Oscar Mason
was finishing up.  “Listen folks, you all know why we’re here today,” he was
saying, “we’re here in support of a man who can lead us into a bright new
independent future, a man who is in a great position to do that, and a man who
has for many years held most of our best interests close to his heart. 
I’d like to introduce you now to the man who is going to be the next -”
he stopped and pulled a funny face, “next?
first
?
whatever
! 
the
man who is
going to be the president of Mars.  Please, put your hands together and
whoop it up for Mister.  Charles. 
Veeeeeeeenkdt
!!!!”

Oscar Mason
gestured dramatically to the side of the stage and bowed down like a medieval
serf.  As Charles Venkdt ambled to the mic stand set centre-stage
Oscar Mason moved backwards, remaining bowed, and disappeared off the other
side of the stage.  Venkdt stood before the microphone and waved at the
crowds, soaking up the cheers.  He pointed to a few individuals and
appeared to mouth personal messages to them.  Christina, at the side of
the stage, couldn’t tell if this was genuine or if her father was such a consummate
politician already that he knew it would make him look good if it appeared he
had genuine friends in the audience supporting him.  He waited for the
roar of the crowd to die down.  Just as it was starting to fall away he
made a downward gesture with his outstretched hands, like he was a conductor.

“Thank you,”
he said into the mic, “thank you for such a warm welcome, and thank you to
Oscar Mason, for such a warm warm-up.”  Venkdt clapped towards the
side of the stage from which Oscar Mason had exited.  Venkdt quipped to
the mic, “By the way, that’s not true about the Venkdt refectories.” 
There was a ripple of laughter from the crowd.  “I wanted to, but they
wouldn’t let me.”  Another ripple of laughter.

Venkdt let
the laughter die away.  He paused so the crowd would give him space to
speak.  He held the space well.

“I stand
before you today seeking election to the great office of president of our new
nation, indeed our new planet.  Many of you will know me, in one way or
another, as your employer.  I hope you know I have always sought to do the
best for our enterprise, and to do the best for the people who are the core of
that enterprise.  I will seek to continue in that vein if you elect me as
your president.

“One of my
first acts on assuming the presidency will be to continue the disentanglement
of our affairs from those of our fellows on Earth.  I will seek to do this
amicably and with as little disruption as possible.  Venkdt Mars Corp will
compensate the parent company commensurate with the value of the Martian
operation plus ten percent.  I hope to do that by negotiation but if
necessary we will pay the funds and take what is rightfully ours.

“I will form
a police force.  To that end I will personally donate approximately half
of the personnel from what is currently Venkdt Security, and will continue that
funding for the next five years while the new Martian police force finds its
way.  Similarly, I will form a small Martian military to fulfil a
ceremonial role.

“I will
encourage the development of new businesses and trade with Earth, as this will
be at the core of our economic development and will provide us with great
wealth as we expand and grow into the future.

“I will do
all this with your help.  It will not be easy.  We are standing today
at the furthest frontier of humanity.  There are many challenges
ahead.  Our world is not a welcoming place, but through hard work,
determination and industry our forebears have turned it into something
great.  If you elect me as your president I plan to build on that
greatness.  In time, I will ask you for hard work, commitment and the
application of the strength I know you all have.  For now, all I ask for
is your vote.  Thank you.”

The crowd
erupted, and Venkdt held two hands aloft in salute to them, turning from side
to side, working the crowd.  After a few minutes of accepting their cheers
he walked back into the wings.  Christina turned him around and pushed him
back out.  The crowd went wild as he walked back onto the stage, smiling
and waving.  He did the point and chat shtick again, but he was very
careful to not overdo it.  Eventually, the crowd let him leave.

“How was I?”
he said to Christina as she handed him a towel to wipe his sweaty face.

“You did
good
,” said Christina.  “Listen to the crowd.”

Venkdt
listened to the crowd, and smiled.

Venkdt’s
opposition had all been minnows.  His name,
in truth, was the only one on the ballot that most people had heard of. 
In a way, for many years, he had been the unofficial mayor of Mars
anyway.  He had been a benevolent boss to most people at Venkdt and had
presided over huge expansion of the company’s operation on Mars.  His
closest rival had been a popular streamer whose manifesto was a teenager’s
fantasy and clearly not to be taken seriously.

When the
result came in shortly after 22:00 on election day Christina bundled a
reluctant Venkdt down to the transport bay of Venkdt Mars Corp and had him say
a few words to the crowd there.  He was gracious, thanking them as he
always did and reiterating his immediate plans, the most significant of which
was the buyout of the Martian arm of Venkdt.

As they were
walking back to his office after the impromptu speech Christina said, “Great
speech, Mr President,” with a mile-wide grin.

“It was, too,
wasn’t it?” said Venkdt in return.  He smiled at her and ruffled her hair.

Back at his
office he slumped into his chair and rubbed his chin.  “I guess there’s
work to be done,” he said.  He’d had his legal people working on the
buyout, but they had made little headway.  The parent company was
resistant to any buyout, flatly refusing its legitimacy and threatening all
sorts of legal actions.  Venkdt had his legal people working on it round
the clock but as a backup he also had Kostovich involved.  Kostovich’s
knowledge of software systems and encryption could be put to use if necessary
in forcing payment on the Venkdt parent company.  As Venkdt saw it he
could dump the money in their accounts and that would be the end of it, despite
any complaints they might have.  He’d rather do it the legal way, with
mutual consent, but he knew it was worth having alternate strategies to fall
back on.  It was that sort of thinking which had made him an effective
business leader and, he hoped, would make him an effective president.

The buyout
was a priority.  He had a mandate from the people and this had been one of
the major planks of his manifesto.  He decided it had to happen within the
week.  He fired off messages to his legal team requesting they make it
happen.  If necessary, they were to give the parent company an
ultimatum.  He sent a message to Kostovich, too.  He was to prepare
to pump the money into the Venkdt parent company’s accounts using his software
black magic should they refuse to accept the money by any other means.  He
was to liaise with
Venkdt’s
legal team.  Either
way, with their agreement or without it, the Venkdt parent company was going to
be paid off for their Martian operation within one week.  Shortly after
that Charles Venkdt would resign his position with immediate effect and take an
oath swearing him in as the first president of Mars.

“If there’s
anything I can help you with just let me know,” said Christina.

“I’ve taken
up far too much of your valuable time already,” said Venkdt, “and I’m
incredibly grateful for it.”

“
It’s
okay, Dad,” said Christina.  “What are you going
to do now?”

Venkdt leaned
back in his chair.  “I’m going to finish up a few loose ends here. 
Take maybe a week or so, then I’m going to resign and take up the
presidency.”  He smiled at his words and enjoyed them so much he said them
again.  “Take up the presidency.”

Christina
smiled too.  “That’s good,” she said.  “You deserve it.”

Venkdt
beamed.

“You’re going
to buy Mars back from Earth, is that right?” said Christina.

“Well,” said
Venkdt, “we’re going to buy all of Venkdt Mars from Venkdt Corp.  The
independent businesses are all Martian anyway.  I guess
Hjälp
Teknik
is a largely Martian
enterprise, although they are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.  What
they do is their business.  I guess foreign investment could be good for
our new economy.”

“And Venkdt
are happy to sell?”

Venkdt
frowned.  “Probably not.  But we’ll be buying them out anyway, a sort
of compulsory purchase.  Ruffled feathers in the short term.  In
twenty years everyone will have forgotten about it.”

“It’s going
to be good, Dad,” said Christina.

“I think so,”
Venkdt replied.

Venkdt met
with Foveaux in the morning.

“Congratulations,
Mr President,” said Foveaux.

“Thank you,”
said Venkdt.  “Please, call me Charles for now.  I wanted to speak to
you today with both hats on.  I’m still chief executive officer here at
Venkdt at the moment and I want to go over these plans for setting up the
police force and military.  It kind of crosses over into my new role as
president, so to avoid confusion and just for now, please call me
Charles.  Do you mind if I call you Maya?

“Not at all.”

“Good, good,
then let’s begin.  Now, I asked you about splitting Venkdt Security. 
I know that you’ve been overstaffed, if anything, for the last few years so I
guessed it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“It won’t
be,” said Maya.  “I sent you a copy of my proposals, did you read them?”

“I glanced
through them.  They looked good.”

“They are
good.  When would you like to put them into effect?”

“Well,” said
Venkdt, “I’d say do it as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” said
Maya, “I’ll get onto it right away.”

“You don’t
expect any difficulties?”

“I
don’t.  I’ll be taking volunteers from Venkdt Security and from the police
service at the garrison.  Man management may be an issue but I’ve got some
very good people to soothe any bruised egos.  It’s change.  Nobody
likes change, but I’m sure we can get it done smoothly and quickly.”

“That’s
good,” said Venkdt, “I think you can too.  I’ve been speaking to Daniel
Kostovich - do you know him?”

“I’ve heard
the name.”

“He’s been
working on some equipment that might be of use to you.  It’s more military
stuff than anything but if you introduce the new uniforms with body armour and
the like it might distract your people from the changes going on.  You
know, the new uniforms being from necessity and not part of some clever
psychological ruse to mould them into a new unit,” said Venkdt, with a twinkle
in his eye.

“I see. 
Does he have this equipment already?”

“I don’t know. 
He’s been working on it for the last few weeks.  I’ll send you his
details.  You two should get together and talk it over.”

“I’m not sure
what our needs are going to be.  The policing role has to be the
priority.  I might hold back on the military part, initially.  It’s
going to be symbolic anyway, right?  Providing an honour guard at state
occasions and that sort of thing.  I think we need to concentrate on our
immediate practical needs right now.  It’s not like we have any enemies,
is it?”

“Well,” said
Venkdt, “yes and no.  The main focus of your security force will be
policing.  That’s what you will be doing, offering a police service to the
Martian population when the garrison pulls out.  But we do need a military,
for psychological reasons if nothing else.”  He wasn’t sure if he should
mention the missile systems that Kostovich was building, and the reason he was
building them.  Since they would ultimately need some sort of military
oversight and support he decided to come clean.  “I guess you’re
right.  It
would
make sense to just have one service initially
but .
 . .”

“But what?”
said
Maya.

“The USAN are
talking about sending ships here.”

“Sending
ships?” said Maya, genuinely thrown.

“Military
ships,” said Venkdt.  “This is very highly classified information at this
time.  Don’t worry, it’s all for show.  But we have to bluff them
right back, so we need our military to be something a bit more substantial than
we might have preferred.”

“I see,” said
Maya.  Her mind was whirring with the implications, but she kept a calm
exterior.

“There will
be courts soon, too,” said Venkdt.  “When the garrison goes we’ll build
some new courthouses.  No more shipping the serious cases back to Earth.”