In his heart, Sammy had known this was coming. Hackelberg would beat him to the committee -- never let him present his side. Watching the lawyer get up stiffly and leave with slow, dignified steps, Sammy had a moment's intuition about what it must be like to be that man -- possessed of a kind of cold, furious power that came from telling everyone that not obeying you to the letter would put them in terrible danger. He knew that line of reasoning: It was the same one he got from the TSA at the airport before they bent him over and greased him up. *You can't understand the grave danger we all face. You must obey me, for only I can keep it at bay.* He waited for the rest of the committee to file out. None of them would meet his eye. Then it was just him and Guignol. Sammy raised his eyebrows and spread out his hands, miming *What happens now?* "You won't be able to get anything productive done until IT gets through with your computer. Take some time off. Call up Dinah and see if she wants to grab some holiday time." "We split," Sammy said. He drank his water and stood up. "I've just got one question before I go." Guignol winced but stood his ground. "Go ahead," he said. "Don't you want to know what the numbers looked like?" "It's not my job to overrule legal --" "We'll get to that in a second. It's not the question. The question is, don't you *want to know*?" Guignol sighed. "You know I want to know. Of course I want to know. This isn't about me and what I want, though. It's about making sure we don't endanger the shareholders --" "So ignoring this path, sticking our heads in the sand, that's *good* for the shareholders?" "No, of course it's not good for the shareholders. But it's better than endangering the whole company --" Sammy nodded. "Well, how about if we both take some time off and drive down to Hollywood. It'd do us some good." "Sammy, I've got a job to do --" "Yeah, but without your computer..." Guignol looked at him. "What did you do?" "It's not what I did. It's what I might have done. I'm going to be a good boy and give Hackelberg a list of everyone I might have emailed about this. All those people are losing their computers to the big magnet at IT." "But you never emailed me about this --" "You sure? I might have. It's the kind of thing I might have done. Maybe your spam-filter ate it. You never know. That's what IT's for." Guignol looked angry for a moment, then laughed. "You are such a shithead. Fuck that lawyer asshole anyway. What are you driving these days?" "Just bought a new Dell Luminux," Sammy said, grinning back. "Rag-top." "When do we leave?" "I'll pick you up at 6AM tomorrow. Beat the morning traffic." #