Ouroboros

Facing Truth

      A knock at her office door interrupted Amy's thoughts. "Come in," she sighed.

      Harrison Mather stepped in. "Everything okay, Dr. Sullman?"

      "You can call me Amy. Or Amelia, if you prefer. Anyway, I can't say I'm entirely fine." She fidgeted with her whale-fluke necklace. "Considering everything that's been going on lately, I think I'm right not to feel fine."

      "Why's that?" he asked.

      "Even if that boy was with WOHLF, he was still a child. A disabled child, no less. Even before word got out, I had a sense we shouldn't have done what we did."

      "It's over now, though. We got him out and got rid of Ice Five in a single sweep. Two birds with one stone. You should be proud," he assured her.

      "Yes, but people are angry now..." she started.

       "Angry? Why on Earth should people be angry about the supposed mistreatment of the mentally retarded offspring of a drunk whore and the biggest asshole in all of Hull?" Harry laughed. "If anything, that says more about their priorities than your character."

      "Do you have any idea how much I want to smack you for what you just said?" Amy smiled sweetly. "Imagine what the general population, who don't know you like I do, would do if they heard those words come out of your mouth on public broadcast. See my point? Have some decency. It goes a long way. The more we disregard public opinion, the more we make the WOHLF thugs look like the good guys. Get the picture?"

      Harry nodded. "Speaking of those thugs, my niece is at it again. I saw her over at the ValuMart a few days back, limping around on one crutch and a fake foot."

     "I think everyone goes grocery shopping, regardless of their criminal involvement," she pointed out. "What's your point here?"

      "My point," said Harry, "is that you never know who might be with them. It doesn't matter how much you trust a person. They could be conspiring against you behind your back, or even right under your nose, and you wouldn't know it."

      She smiled in a way that made him squirm. "I'm still not entirely sure what you're suggesting, Harry. Spit it out."

      He said his next words very quietly. "I think you should fire James Morris before you get yourself in deeper hot water."

      "Fire James Morris?" Amy laughed at the suggestion. "You think I can get away with firing my colleague of twenty-plus years, leading ICA bioengineer, and Coda-9994's lifeline with no reason other than baseless suspicion?"

     "It's not baseless," Harry insisted. "Even you've acknowledged that Jim has some connection with WOHLF."

     "Yes, but it's not what you think. Trust me. I've known him for longer than you have," she told him. "Jim hasn't sold his soul to the WOHLF devils. He's sold it to Coda-9994. It's all an act, you see, whether he acknowledges it or not. It takes a great deal sometimes to keep that whale amused."

     Her computer chimed with a notification just as Harry opened his mouth to object. "Wait, who's messaging you?"

     "Zi'Zi wants to know if I can proofread his statement regarding the ICA's transparency policy," she said. Not now, she typed. I'm busy.

     "Who's that?" Harry asked.

     "I would think that you would be courteous enough to learn the names of the Hull Facility residents before getting all up in their business," she scoffed. "He's a baiji. A Chinese river dolphin brought back from extinction via cloning. He's a public ambassador for the ICA, but his eyes are so small that he has significant trouble spelling."