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CHAPTER 10

Co-ordinating Subordinates

Frank was not in a good mood. Hu has been nearly impossible for the last day or two, it seemed to him, more insidiously haughty, more uncompliant with reason and more demanding than ever. He sought the company of Michael, his associate personal assistant to Hu.

What are we going to do with this tiro tyrant, Mike ? he asked.

To what, or to whom are you referring ? responded Michael, who had a good idea of the sort of bugging and precautionary measures that Hu might have installed as a mere precautionary watch-dog for his easily injured vanity.

The wink which accompanied the retort was so ample that even Frank could see what it meant.

Oh, that Putin!

Putin ? is that worrying you ? Why, you're no Russian ?

Frank did not take this in good part as it made it necessary, he felt, to further his subterfuge.

Oh, it's just that his example is going to lead other nations in that direction, because he is so subtle. What he needs is a good dose of the EUF!

While deception was not part of Mike's manner, or one of his moral mannerisms, he could not help admiring Frank's escape!

Time for tea break, he said and they both wandered off to an off-shore site, as they liked to imagine it, a coffee shop outside the Earth Unity Force complex.

Taking an outside table, near a lake, they looked glumly at each other.

What did you actually have in mind ? asked Mike.

Hu! He is so moody, so masterful, so domineering that all that charm which used to ooze from every pore, as he oiled his way ...

Yes, Mike replied. He is becoming an angry armful of anxiety complex. However to discuss him in his own building is asking for mishaps of one kind or another, don't you think ?

Ralph regarded Mike, an athletic, still youthful, former football major in Colorado, who had learned to play his games more subtly than had Ralph.

You're right: I was just feeling frustrated at his last outburst.

You would feel a great deal more so if sacked.

What could he do ?

Allege inefficiency, disloyalty, inability to take rapid-fire orders, pre-occupation with professional advancement, failure to have the sheer intelligence needed to get all his work done with that necessary ingredient of subtlety...

He couldn't allege that.

You don't know him. I have watched him many years.

How would anyone not see through such a pretext ?

You would be surprised what ambition, plus desire to prevent rupture, can do to the minds of some of his friends in high places.

Anyway, I don't trust him.

I trust him as much as a boa constrictor waving in semblance of a branch, hanging from a tree in my path in some lonely African track, looking almost inviting in its sinuous movements.

Well what are we going to do ?

You have two choices. You can show such forbearance, understanding and compliance that you remain safe, or else you can become disgruntled until he sees the underlying criticism and invents grounds for your removal. That includes, of course,  reposting you to something which he may allege suits your talents better.

Could that hurt me ?

There is always the risk that he will take the former option, and just scrap you.

I hate this role playing, this serving the unseen mightiness of Hu's warped mind.

You do well, but that is your option.

Why don't we expose him, next time he slyly sets about creating trouble for that son of his ?

He would simply deny it, and allege that we were disloyal fabricators; and believe me, his reputation which he has grown like a floral border with great skill and zeal, would carry him.

What if I simply play obtuse, and when he asks for some new attack on his son, always of course with the ultimate good of mankind in view, I merely point out that the place to secure social  restraint is law, or medicine, and not rough-house attacks on the part of an individual.

Then he would allege that you are taking him out of context, that the aim is not to harm his son in any way - though in fact any of his plans miscarrying a centimetre or two could end Harry's personal existence on this planet - but to awaken his awareness of anti-social feelings, and help him avoid tougher action.

Yes, where anti-social is defined to mean, anti-Hu, which by a euphemism becomes,' contrary to man's plans for man on this planet'. Who however is 'man' ?

Why Hu! He deems himself a sort of incarnation of what is not there to incarnate, a sort of metaphysical wonder, the essence of man with mystic power.

Well the question remains, what can we do to stop him ?

Stop worrying about him. If he asks you to do something slyly murderous, in your estimation, simply allege that you do not feel qualified to carry out anti-anti-social actions, that this is a special feature better adapted to the Social Affairs Department than Hu's personal staff; point out that it would render him personally vulnerable if anything went wrong, misfired if you like, since you are a personal assistant. Then intone that in the interests of the stability of the organisation, it would be safer to leave such matters to the Department which has more official clout in such areas, than leave a trail to his own desk.

That would make me feel a conspirator, an accessory.

Then resign.

Resign and let him murder his way to more power, and very possibly, murder Harry ?

Firstly, if you present this, he has a dilemma. If he seeks to force you, his hand is being shown, his intemperance and driven lusts. If he does not, then he may well be afraid to try the Department, since it has its own protocols and principals, so making the thing ... spread. In this way, Harry just possibly may be spared. Hu would have to earn his assassin's dagger, IF he does go so far.

Secondly ?

If this does not seem to work, then think again. Do you really want to supervise Hu as a subordinate ?

No, not really, even if it were possible. I guess he would not appreciate it, since he is so unprincipled as to be quite likely to think of it in this distorted fashion, if he becomes cornered.

Then resign.

Then there is a moral vacuum.

I don't feel like a vacuum. In fact, your strategies are very hard to distinguish from moral vacuity in this case, frankly Mike.

One can keep an eye on Hu without personal confrontation, and that is the way I have chosen to take.

And if you find him ask you more of this anti-Harry action ?

If I cannot suavely lead him away from the concept, in terms of letting the kid grow-up, or immersing him in family sentiment in some way, or simply distracting him to the question of youth, what it means and how best it is to be handled, subverting his subversions into the domain of his lusts and desire to oversee everything, then I could do as you would rather not, and manipulate him into sending it on to the other Department. I might not even have to suggest it!

If he objected ?

I can be very persuasive, when it comes to protecting his own hide.

Your conscience as you lie your way into life ?

I don't have that appendage.

In other words, you simply don't care if you lie, if you manipulate, cover up evil, allow Harry to be at real risk of smooth-tongued murder ?

Not really. You see, I have been here longer than you, and that is one way I have stayed.

Moral servitude ?

I am  a serf to the Earth Unity Force, with this distinction, that my salary is great among serfs.

When your conscience surfaces, what then ?

I think it is dead, but if not, I can always pay a psychiatrist.

And become a manipulee of drugs and tonic talks about nonsenses of the soul by sightless savants who in many cases do not know what it is, insensible of its beginning, end and meaning ?

If you put it like that ...

I think we should act in unison instead of dumping ANY feeling of responsibility.

I AM responsible, to the organisation...

And to a large measure, it begins to seem to me, FOR it!

Ah well! Perhaps we could devise something together.

Like what, then ?

Well, if EITHER of us is asked to do an anti-Harry, or anything else like that, we simply listen and seem to accept, without actually saying so, and each consults the other. Then we jointly ask for an interview, in which we bring one of our subordinates for note-taking. We confront him with the fact that this COULD lead to physical harm to Harry, just as if it were a mistake in the strategic output, not in the design, and request that he reconsider as we would not wish, should error occur, to be answerable to the investigatory authorities. That should quieten him.

Anyway, I hear Harry is going to the moon.

We had better make sure  the place continues to shine ... morally, I mean.

My dear man...

Don't dear man me, thanks.

I'm  sorry, shades of Hu.

That's the trouble with playing the sycophant to his psychopathology.

Anyway, the moon is not so great an escape for Harry. It is becoming more and more nearly an earth extension in terms of cunning and corruption, including the tensions between Russia, China and the USA, each wondering which will provide the balance of power operation, which will help to undercut the other.

AND with two of them desiring world hegemony.

Yes two: Russia because it was a 'great nation' as Putin seems keen to demonstrate, and is so surely wanting it to become again; and China because it is nice to have a world for billions of inhabitants to play in.

For its very own ?

Maybe.

All right then, we have a plan. But there is another aspect. We could seem relieved that Harry is gone, and make an atmosphere of 'that's solved that, then!', so strengthening Hu's feeling of safety.

Good idea. We had better be back, or our absence might become an element in our absenteeism folders.

In this case, absence certainly does not make the heart grow fonder!