Holy Water (41 page)

Shug beeps the horn in the driveway. Henry looks over his shoulder and can
’
t help but be impressed by the man
’
s audacity.

Madison Ellison continues.
“
For what it
’
s worth, if he doesn
’
t pay my company within the next two weeks, I
’
m going to be pulling out the tent stakes too. I imagine your company must be on the fence with this place as well.
”

Henry says,
“
I guess,
”
though in truth he has no idea.
“
They
’
ve had so much internal turmoil the last few months—layoffs, mergers, defaults, takeovers—I
’
m not sure they
’
ve been paying a lot of attention to the tiny operation in the works here. So you think he might like this?
”

She pauses again before answering.
“
I do. If it
’
s properly pitched. If he
’
s on the upswing of the manic-depressive, steroid rage pendulum. If he doesn
’
t further suspend human rights in the name of
capitalism and democracy. If he has a good meetin
g with the Wal
mart delegation. If there isn
’
t a nonviolent coup. Or a successful assassination attempt. If he doesn
’
t find out that your friend Madden is cutting deals behind his back and, on the other side of the ideological spectrum, that your girlfriend hates him with every bone in her body. All very distinct possibilities, from what I
’
ve heard.
”

The horn beeps again. Asshole.
“
If things really are this bleak,
”
he responds,
“
or if there
’
s a distinct possibility that any or all of this might come to pass, why are you still here?
”

For the first time during the conversation, Madison Ellison smiles.
“
That
’
s easy. If any or all of it comes to pass, it will create an entirely new and different set of circumstances, which will present us with an entirely new and different set of opportunities. And clients. You see, Henry, the reason this place works for me is, beyond growing my business, I
’
m not emotionally invested in it. I don
’
t fucking care. And I
’
m hoping, for your sake, that you don
’
t either.
”

~ * ~

“
We will be late,
”
Shug tells him, tapping his watch.
“
You were expected at the call center at nine-thirty.
”

Henry surprises Shug by getting into the front passenger
’
s seat.
“
I apologize, Shug. My fault.
”

Twice Shug looks over his shoulder and anxiously considers the empty backseat before turning the key.

“
You lose something back there?
”

Shug shakes his head.

“
Good. Anyway,
”
Henry explains,
“
the reason I
’
m late is I had an idea that I think might actually help a few people here in Galado who aren
’
t
beholden to the prince or the cultural preservationists or a corporation, and I wanted to ask Ms. Ellison what she thought about it.
”
As they back out of the driveway, Henry rolls down his window, then says,
“
She actually kind of liked it. In fact, if you don
’
t mind, Shug, I
’
d love to hear what
you
think of it.
”

Shug nods. It takes Henry about ten minutes to lay out a Shug-appropriate version of his proposal. If anything, he reasons, telling people such as Madison Ellison, Shug, Meredith, and even Norman
is helping him hone his pitch, trim unnecessary details, and answer questions he hadn
’
t anticipated. For instance,
“
How long would each straw last?
”
and
“
What happens when they run out and you have thousands of people who have grown dependent on them?
”
And
“
It is not our nature to accept charity without reciprocating. What do you propose for people to do to somehow return the favor?
”

All of which leads Henry to believe that Shug may approve of it and, by association, him. From his brief and guarded answers, Henry is able to discern that he doesn
’
t come from a river village but from a lowland town in the southern part of the country, where runoff pollution isn
’
t a major issue but raw sewage seeping into groundwater and wells is.
“
Many die because of this,
”
Shug says, with a weight that makes Henry think that included among the many was more than one of Shug
’
s loved ones.

Neither speaks for the last five minutes of the drive. When the truck stops in front of the call center, Shug turns to Henry.
“
So this is what your company intends to do here in Galado? This. . . straw?
”

Henry shakes his head. He notices several dark blue Toyota work vans and an old Mitsubishi bucket truck parked alongside the back wall of the building. Phones!
“
It
’
s what I am going to try to
get
them to do,
”
he finally answers.
“
There are, as Madison Ellison told me and I
’
m sure you can confirm, a lot of variables. But yeah, I
’
d like to make it—the straw, cleaning up the water somehow—part of the mission here.
”

Shug lifts his chin toward the building.
“
She gonna help you?
”

“
Maya?
”
Henry opens the door, gets out, and leans back inside.
“
I don
’
t know. I hope so. I think so. I know that I
’
d like to help her.
”

Shug stares at the call center, as if looking intensely enough might summon her outside.

“
Do you. . . do you think she
’
s a good woman?
”
Henry asks.

The older man inhales deeply before almost imperceptibly nodding.
“
I know her people a long time,
”
he answers.
“
Father, mother, brother, and nephew. They
’
ve been through a lot.
”

Henry taps the roof, closes the door, and walks away. As he
reaches the entrance of the call center, he hears the SUV
’
s horn beep again. He turns:
What?

Shug leans across the front seat and says through the open window,
“
No later than three p.m. We cannot be late for the prince.
”

After thinking about it for a moment, Henry turns and flashes his middle fingers at Shug, and to his surprise, the audacious bastard smiles.

~ * ~

Inside, Mahesh is talking to a group of three workers while the others are broken up into groups, earnestly going over, Henry presumes, his freshly amended and simplified scenarios. Mahesh looks up, waves, and smiles. Henry responds with an exaggerated salute.

In the back of the room a man in a gray suit is supervising three men in green jumpsuits who are threading long clumps of thin multicolored wires along the base of the wall. Outside, another worker feeds mere wire through a recently drilled hole in the wall. Henry is fairly sure that the man in the suit with his back to him, bent over at the waist and barking orders in Galadonian to the tech guys, is the minister of future commerce.

He feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns, surprised that Maya is here this early, but he
’
s not about to say so.
“
You had a busy night,
”
she says, showing her copy of the deck.

“
I was on fire.
”

She smiles and holds his gaze for a moment before tilting her head toward the bent-over man in the suit.

“
The minister?
”

“
He says he got your e-mail in the middle of the night. He was here before we opened and has been looking for you all morning.
”

“
Good.
”

“
He said we should have service by the end of the day.
”

“Nice.
“

“
What did you write to him?
”

“
Nothing, other than variations of
‘
My very good friend the prince, unnecessarily angry and extremely disappointed.
’”

“
‘
Mister Henry,
’
he calls you.
”

“
I prefer Master Henry. Or the minister of all things aquatic, but fine.
”
He points at the deck.
“
So what do you think?
”

She waves him toward a corner table.
“
I think . . . it
’
s a great start. But I have some thoughts.
”

~ * ~

Royal
Playdate

“
Where
’
s the fish tank?
”

“
What fish tank?
”

“
There was a giant freaking fish tank right here the last time I visited.
”

The chaperone looks at Shug and Henry, then shakes his head.
“
You must be mistaken. No fish tank.
”

Shug dips an elbow into Henry
’
s side.
“
We really should be moving along, Mister Tuhoe.
”

Henry doesn
’
t move along. Instead he steps closer to the dark-paneled wall where the fish tank was the first time he visited the prince and runs his forefinger along the fade lines left by the missing tank.
“
Right here. Gaily. The blind bottle-nosed Galadonian river-fish. Used sonar to catch smaller fish. The last known in existence. According to the prince, up until now it had survived for twenty million years without incident. Tell me,
”
Henry presses,
“
when did Gaily, um, pass?
”

The chaperone shakes his head.
“
No Gaily.
”

“
I wonder how many years it took to kill it. Render it extinct.
”

“
No Gaily. No overfish. No tank,
”
the chaperone curtly says.
“
You must not speak of this with the prince. And technically, for a species to be functionally rendered extinct, decades must pass before a quorum of international scientific organizations can make it official.
”

Another royal aide appears and tells them that the prince is
running late.
“
I presume you received the message that he would be unable to power-lift with you today because he is quite busy, and he may have torn a pectoral muscle.
”