Huddy could have checked on such matters himself but preferred to leave that phase of the operation to subordinates. He disliked talking to manual laborers. Beer and football were limiting topics for an intelligent conversationalist like himself.
He looked younger than his forty years, though the greying at his temples (carefully maintained by his barber to give him that distinguished young-executive look) hinted at his real age. He was tall and limber, an elegant scarecrow brandishing a pleasantly boyish grin which had gained him admittance to as many feminine chambers as corporate ones.
Ten years he’d been with CCM now. If everything went as planned and the county inspectors didn’t find enough left in the valley to raise a stink about (he smiled to himself at the pun) there should be at least a senior vice-presidency waiting for him. When word was sent to New York, he might even get the call to move to Headquarters.
His gaze shifted toward the road slightly below. A blue-jeaned figure was climbing toward him. In shape it differed considerably and deliciously from most of the workers cleaning up beyond. In addition to the success the operation promised him, there was also Ruth.
She was ten years younger than he was, wiser in some ways, much less so in others. She was not his assistant. But as assistant chief programmer for CCM’s Western States computer operations in West Los Angeles she had access to information outside his own department. Information to which he would ordinarily be denied access. She was his mole, his eyes and ears on the rest of the corporation’s activities. On more than one occasion he’d used her information to outmaneuver his colleagues and competitors at the meetings and board room warfare where corporate chiefs were made or broken.
It wasn’t unnatural that she be out on such a field expedition. Her own department would be busily altering dates and records and bills of lading to confuse inspectors and bureaucratic watchdogs.
Huddy planned to be present when the county inspectors finally got around to checking out the valley. He wanted to enjoy the looks that would doubtless come over their faces. They couldn’t completely obliterate the history of the dumpsite, of course, any more than they could do so to the chemicals which had leached into the ground. But it would be enough. When the sun finally rose here there wouldn’t be enough poison left in the valley to threaten anything bigger than a butterfly.
“Almost finished, Benjy,” she told him.
“Almost.” No one was watching them, so he allowed himself the luxury of a long embrace, a lingering kiss, and a delightful grip with both hands on her derriere.
“That was nice,” she murmured as she pulled away and smiled saucily up at him. “Have to do it again one of these days.” They’d been lovers for as long as they’d been intercorporate conspirators. “How about right now?” She reached for him again.
He put up his hands in mock defense. “Too many eyes around. Too many of the supervisors know me.”
“It’s dark.” Her hand traveled up and down his thigh. He backed off. Slowly, smiling to show her that he wasn’t irritated.
“Not here, anyway.”
“Listen, everyone knows we’ve been working together on this project.” She could be downright coquettish when she wished to, he thought.
“Yes,” he admitted, “but not how closely we’ve been working together.”
“Or exactly how we’ve merged our positions.” She turned serious for a moment as she glanced back down into the valley. “Be done inside an hour and out of here before sunrise.”
Huddy nodded. “It’s gone well. Look, in addition to the triple over, I want both of the foremen on the heavy machinery crews … what were their names?”
It didn’t surprise him that she recalled them instantly. Ruth was a lot like her computers. “Larson and Kilcallen?”
“Yeah. I want extra bonuses for them, on top of the promised.”
“I’ll mention it to payroll.” She frowned slightly. “I don’t know that they’ll buy it, on top of everything else. This is costing the company a hell of a lot.”
“Anderson gave me a blank check to go with the go-ahead I received from the board. You know that.”
“No need to be profligate,” she argued.
He shrugged. “A few individual bonuses won’t make a dent in the overall cost. I may want to make use of Larson and Kilcallen some day. It’s always a good idea to bind, men like that tight to you when you have the chance.”
“If that’s what you want, Benjy.” She made a mental note to inform payroll. Mental notes were the only kind that were necessary for Ruth Somerset to make. It was one of the things Huddy valued most about her. He disliked committing decisions to paper. Other people might read them someday.
Such a pretty head, too, he thought, though her coiffure hardly went with the sweatshirt and blue jeans. She’d forgotten to change that. He wouldn’t mention it. Ruth could be funny about having her mistakes pointed out to her.
Not for the first time he thought how fortunate he was. Already he was farther up the corporate ladder than most men half again his age and better connected than most. A beautiful, devious woman stood at his side to assist him. At a discreet distance from his side, of course. She was as intelligent and ambitious as he was. Yes, he was lucky.
He thought back one more time to the board meeting. Ridgeway had told them that New York had bounced the whole problem right back in their laps, and they’d damn well better come up with a solution fast. Hesitation among his colleagues, confusion as they filed out of the meeting room. His hasty call to Somerset to join him at his condo that night.
Then the working up of the plan. The myriad details to be attended to, the careful timing, the methods by which they would delay the county’s inspection: everything intricately plotted and graphed and then computer-printed and copied out.
Ridgeway’s expression the next morning when Huddy had confidently handed up the bound summary of the project. Waiting for word from New York. The official go-ahead with Ridgeway’s reluctant but nonetheless admiring blessing.
And now it was nearly finished. All the weeks of worrying and planning, the concern that a late summer rain would ruin everything, were behind them. Even the last-minute scramble to locate sufficient quantities of a certain chemical neutralizer when it was discovered that none was available in company warehouses hadn’t thrown them off schedule.
He chuckled at that memory. They’d been forced to purchase the neutralizer through a third and fourth party from one of CCM’s biggest competitors, who would have been delighted to withhold the stuff if they’d known it would have resulted in CCM’s public embarrassment.
Everything had gone as planned. Barring any last-second hitches the operation would be completed half an hour ahead of schedule.
He turned his attention from the valley where activity was beginning to diminish to the few lights from the small homes lining the far ridge. Streetlamps, mostly, he knew. It was too late for television and too early for coffee.
Greasers and wetbacks and bums, he thought dispassionately. He knew the names of every family that owned property bordering the dump. They’d been thoroughly and intensively researched. None seemed likely to make trouble about the dump. If any were so inclined they would have likely gone to the media long ago. None had.
A few of the houses had been here as long as the dumpsite. They were largely stucco over wood, with roofs of cracked red tile patched in places with corrugated steel. To Huddy’s early dismay he’d learned that a couple had small gardens facing the dump, which the poor owners cultivated assiduously. But he’d relaxed after seeing the photographs. The gardens were up high on the ridge line. Surely a few struggling heads of lettuce or celery stalks couldn’t send roots down far enough to encounter toxic wastes. Surely not.
No one had bothered to convey that information to the already frantic board. Huddy wasn’t about to enlighten them. Anyway, it was a false concern, as he’d already decided.
“I know for a fact there’ll be promotions out of this.” Somerset’s gaze was still on the magically changing landscape below. “If the bonus that comes with ’em is large enough I’d like for us to take off someplace.” She had the features of a movie star, he mused as she turned her face up to him. And behind it, the mind and morals of a piranha. “Let’s take a real vacation for a change. Tahiti. I’ve always wanted to see Tahiti.”
“You wouldn’t like it,” Huddy informed her. “Much too frenchified.”
“Well, someplace else, then.” She threw both arms around his neck, heedless of who might be watching, heedless of corporate propriety there on the hillside at sunrise. “Just the two of us on an island all to ourselves. The Bahamas, if you want to stay close to home. Jamaica. Barbados. I don’t care. As long as it’s got a warm beach and some privacy.”
He smiled down at her and put his arms around her back, pulling her close. “Alright, I surrender, sweetness. As soon as this is all wrapped up and put to bed and our promotions are finalized.”
“You know something yourself, then.”
“Enough,” he assured her. “It’s only logical. We’ve saved the corporate ass, and that’s always worth a step or two up the ladder.”
“Stennet’s job,” she murmured, her eyes glittering expectantly. “I’ve wanted that sucker’s job for more than a year. And when I’m head of all programming for Western Regional Operations and you’re Senior Vice-President–”
“Why stop there?” he interrupted her. “Ten years,” he said confidently, while admiring her aggressiveness, “give me ten years, and I’ll be Chairman. And not just of Western Operations.”
“What about me?” Her expression was full of mock-anxiety.
“You? You’ll be Assistant Chairman, of course.”
“How droll.” She tapped him lightly where she loved him. “What about Webster?”
“Forget about him. He’s a turkey, and no relatives in high places can change that. Not that he’s a dope, he’s not. But no guts. Hesitates to commit himself. New York would never name him to an important post because they know he’d vacillate over any deal he came in contact with.”
“Five years,” she decided, watching him. “You won’t need ten.”
“If we’re lucky. If CCM isn’t interested, there are other companies. When word of our success with this leaks out … and I’ll make sure it leaks all over the place … our competitors will fall all over themselves offering me switch bonuses and perks. But I’d rather stay with CCM. I know the operation. Of course, if Exxon gets really serious….”
