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in history books hated the swastika on their snappy uniforms as much as he
hated the insignia of the Global Community. How he would love abandoning the
whole look.
And it wouldn't be long.
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He stopped with his hand on the inside door handle.
Though he was better, he still felt the fatigue of one whose body was trying
to heal itself. Part of him wanted to stretch out on the bed and not move for
twelve hours, to simply lie there in his grief and embrace the gnawing
emptiness. David found some solace in Hannah's insistence that Annie would not
have suffered even for a split second. But why couldn't the power that
obliterated her nervous system and baked
her vital organs also destroy the longing in him she could now never fulfill?
No lightning bolt of any magnitude could extinguish a love so pure.
He bowed his head and prayed for strength. If he had, say, two months, he
might have allowed himself the luxury of another day or two to take the
hardest edge off his pain. But even the time he had was not really enough for
all he had to do. For
Annie, he told himself as he headed for his office. And he would remind
himself of that every few minutes for as long as it took to keep himself
going.
His relegating Annie to a sacred, protected part of his mind was not helped
when he encountered Viv Ivins in the corridor outside his office. I need to
see you, she said in her crisp, delicate voice and Romanian accent. My
office or yours?
He was so glad she had not begun with the obligatory He is risen, which he
and
Mac and Abdullah and Hannah had decided they would respond to with He is
risen indeed, privately knowing they were referring to Christ. Perhaps Vivian
eschewed the formality because technically she was outside the hierarchy. She
did not even wear a uniform, though her light blue, dark blue, black,
charcoal, and gray suits were uniform enough. She wore sensible shoes, and her
blue-gray hair was teased into a helmet-like ball.
Giving David the option of meeting with her in his own office was unusual, for
while Ms. Ivins bore no official title, everyone knew she was akin to the
boss's daughter, or, in this case, the boss's aunt. She was not a blood
relative, as far as anyone knew, but Carpathia himself made it plain that she
was as close to him as anyone in the world. She had been a dear family friend
and had, from almost the beginning, helped his late parents raise their only
child.
She did not overtly lord it over anyone that she had clout without title.
There was simply an unspoken knowledge between her and everyone. What she
wanted she got. What she said went. Her word was as good as Carpathia's, and
so she didn't have to assert herself. She employed her understood power in the
same way everyone else accepted it.
Please, David said, come in. He enjoyed the brass of having someone so
close to Carpathia sitting in his office, not six feet from the computer he
used to subvert the potentate's efforts.
His assistant greeted him with a concerned look as he passed. David merely
said, Good morning, but she slowed him with, Are you all right?
Better, Tiffany, thanks, he said. When she noticed his visitor, she lurched
to her feet. Ms. Ivins, she said. Viv merely nodded. David held the door for
her, and once she was inside and he shut it, she stood waiting for him to pull
out a chair for her. He imagined saying, Is your arm broken? But there was
almost as much feminist power in her expecting his chivalry as there would
have been in her not doing so.
I heard you say you were feeling better, she said, opening a folder in her
lap and
pulling a pencil from behind her ear. So I won't belabor that. I trust you're
able to get past your unfortunate incident with His Excellency?
Throwing up on the leader of the world, you mean? he said, eliciting a
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grimace from her. Except that such news travels fast and I doubt there is an
employee in
New Babylon not aware of it, yes, I try not to dwell on it.
Senior management understands, she said.
He wanted to ask if they understood that barfing on the big boss was actually
an answer to a desperate prayer to be spared from pretending to worship him.
Viv made a tiny check mark after her first listed item. David wondered what
she might have written there as the discussion point. Regurgitation?
Now then, she said, a few more items. First, your new immediate superior
will be James Hickman.
My area will report to Intelligence?
No, Jim has been promoted to Supreme Commander to replace Reverend
Fortunato.
David mused that having had Intelligence in Hickman's previous title was
similar to
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