Week 92: Asking for help from someone you really, really don't like

Silvia had been trying to make sense of Coraline's information and while she had a vague sense of what she was dealing with, she was very, very aware that she couldn't set up that kind of operation herself. I fact, she could only think of one person who might be able to, which didn't leave her much choice, despite her natural reservations.

Dani? she smeakered. Could we meet up for a quick chat? I have some things I need to ask you about.

Dani was about to respond in the affirmative, then she remembered the sight of Silvia assassinating that guy. And the sight of Silvia assassinating that other guy. And the other guy. And the spines... dear god, the spines. What kind of things? she asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

I...I think I'm going to need to start up a...business venture, Silvia replied, hesitation evident even over smeaker. And I could really use some help with that kind of thing.

So Silvia was gonna actually use some of that money she had? Interesting, but maybe she was going to just throw it away on some highly unprofitable venture. Not that Dani couldn't fix that... Well, you're asking the right girl. We need to talk about this properly, swing by my office in... an hour work for you?

An hour's fine, Silvia replied. I'll be there.



An hour later, Silvia was outside Dani's door, shifting foot to foot. This was going to be...tricky. But she could handle it.

Dani? I'm here.

Come in. The office was decorated simply and fairly professionally; if not for heavy weapons on wall racks, people who knew Dani might have assumed it was someone else's. She was sitting at her desk with a workstation computer, dressed business-casual, and smiled at Silvia in a professionally insincere way. "Please, take a seat and explain to me what you're looking to do."

"Uh..." Silvia looked around, as though she might see something that would help her out, before giving up and nervously taking a seat. "Well...I need some help in producing large amounts of...um...probably illegal cybernetics. And then smuggling them to the Resistance." She lapsed back into silence, waiting for Dani's response.

If Silvia wasn't going to bother talking in a common language, then Dani saw no reason that she should either. Well, except where precision was legally or strategically significant. "Ah, right. That kind of business venture. Is there a particular timeframe this needs to be achieved in?" Her gut instinct was that legitimate production would be the best cover, but if a lot of cybernetics had to be made in a short time then it might be tricky, and it was ideal to get as clear a picture of what Silvia and her obvious lack of business acumen wanted to achieve as she could before getting into the practicals.

Mentally, Silvia cursed herself. She had slipped into the language she used to conduct business without thinking - that was the problem with everyone having a translator. And now she was stuck with Dani talking in English. But there was no way she was going to back down now.

"Not...particularly," she replied, carefully. "But, obviously, the more time it takes, the worse their position gets. If we can get it done quicker, then things are much better for them. And if I wait too long, the whole project becomes pointless."

"I see, I see." Dani typed rapidly on the holo-keyboard of her computer, making quick notes and rough initial ideas for directions. "In that case, we'll want to buy out at least a couple of small factories and produce some legitimate cybernetics as cover, turn some profit while we're at it. We just have to produce enough product between whatever contracts we can negotiate and depatented designs to fill the trucks out and nobody will suspect anything, perhaps hire on a designer or two. The smuggling part might be a little trickier, given the state of shipping to Taiwan, but I'll open up channels with our mutual contacts who know that field better to ensure ease of transfer." She looked up from her screen to Silvia. "What, exactly, are these cybernetics?"

Silvia blinked. Well, at least she knew she'd made the right choice in coming to Dani - she'd just come up with a strategy that she hadn't even considered. "Er...that sounds...like a good plan," she replied, rather lamely. "Here." She passed across a PDA, which brought up the schematics when Dani activated it.