Free Like a Boss by Adam Rakunas Page B

but for a few occasions like hurricanes and dealing with Ghosts.” She took another sip. “Why the ritual, Padma?”
    I made myself laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    Letty put down her glass. “My mom was a canon. I grew up surrounded by bread and wine and all the stuff that transforms it. I know ritual when I see it, Padma.”
    “Is that why you came here? You got a bet with the rest of the Executive Committee about how I spend my time? Joke’s on you; I’ve actually been running a pit fighting ring.”
    She tapped the glass. “That’s why I like you. Even when you’re neck-deep in bullshit, you make with the funny.”
    I poured her another finger. “Madame President, why did you break into my home?”
    “Because I have something that needs fixing, and you’re the only one who can fix it.”
    Now I laughed for real. “If I had a hundred yuan for every time someone’s used that line on me, I could buy two distilleries.”
    Letty shot the rum and hissed in a breath. When she exhaled, she leveled her eyes and said, “Evanrute Saarien is going to destroy the world.”
    I took her glass and mine and brought them back into the kitchen. Deep in my gut, I could feel the acid roiling. There were only so many times you got to speak truth to power, and I had to make sure my next words were cool and clear. As much as I wanted to yell at her, I had to keep myself together.
    I placed my hands on either side of the sink and leaned down, as if the cool of the glass tile could keep me from boiling over. “Evanrute Saarien got that way because you let him.”
    Letty shook as if I’d slapped her. “ What ?”
    I kept pushing down on the counter, willing the tiles to snap under my weight. “I warned you and everyone else up and down the food chain that Saarien was, at best, full of shit whenever he talked about The Struggle.” Letty quirked her mouth; anyone who’d been around Saarien had gotten their fill of his rhetoric. “You had every opportunity to stop him, to cut his funding, to get him tossed from Sou’s Reach. I told you and I told you and you never listened to me .”
    I pushed back from the counter. “It took him trying to burn me and Wash and Banks alive before you all realized that you’d created a monster. He was ready to destroy billions of people, including our Union brethren right here , and you let him happen . Why in hell should I do anything to help you when you wouldn’t listen to me when we could have done something?” I shook my head. “He’s out of jail forty-eight years early and starting his empire of bullshit all over again. What the hell , Letty?”
    To her credit, Letty didn’t interrupt. She didn’t flinch. She held her hands in her lap, calm and collected. When I’d blown myself out, she gave me a nod, like she was asking if she could have the floor. I held out a hand: by all means . She looked me in the eye and said, “You are absolutely right. About everything.”
    I blinked. “Now I wish you didn’t have that jammer.”
    “I’ll be happy to say that again on the Public when this is all over.” She put the matchbox on the table. “You were at his church this afternoon. What did you see?”
    I told her about the food and clothes, about the busted people sitting around. “He’s right, isn’t he? About the people slipping through the cracks.”
    Letty nodded. “We’ve had a breakdown in social services over the past nine months.”
    “How?”
    “Because there is no longer enough money to convince everyone to keep working,” said Letty. “We need two point eight million yuan to keep everyone paid for a week, bennies and all. Right now we’re getting nothing.”
    “Why?”
    “Because of Vytai Bloombeck’s black stripe.”
    I blanched out of reflex. Bloombeck had been a constant pain in my ass ever since I came to Santee Anchorage. When I was a fresh Breach, the only place I could afford was a shared hutong flat with Bloombeck and five others.