Read A Cold-Blooded Business for Free Online

like a parasol from one corner of the ceiling, the fig tree flourishing from another and the philodendron growing down the side of the bookcase on it way out the door. The bookcase was jammed with back issues of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly and Business Week and Forbes and plastic cups filled with water and green cuttings. Very little wall showed through the eight-by-ten black-and-white glossies of geese and polar bears and great snowy owls tacked floor to ceiling.
    On one corner of the desktop sat two wire baskets. One was labeled way OUT. The other was labeled deeper IN.
    Kate was staring at those signs with a growing sense of apprehension when the slender brunette from the bus, now seated behind the desk, became aware of Kate's presence. She bounced immediately to her feet and grabbed Kate's hand to sling her into a chair. The brunette beamed at her and said, "You must be new hire Katherine Shugak guess what!"
    Kate paused halfway out of her new parka. "What? And it's Kate."
    "I just bought a partnership in a pistachio farm!"
    There followed a short silence. "You bought a what in a what?"
    "Do you know what pistachios cost per pound think of the money I'm going to make and if we lose I can write it off you need an accountant you will don't worry I've got a great one you just say the word." The phone rang and the brunette grabbed it and spoke without pause. "What no I can't no not now I've got someone in my office call me tonight goodbye."
    She hung up the phone and drew breath, only to be interrupted when a man built like a pit bull barged into the office, banging the door off the bookcase with a resounding crash that reverberated up through the soles of Kate's boots. The philodendron cowered. Short and squat with shoulders so muscular that his arms bowed out from his torso, he had iron-gray hair and a personality to match. "What the fuck are you doing about the seventeenth of April?"
    Evidently everyone on the Slope spoke without punctuation. "Cale Yarborough Katherine Prudhoe Bay field manager just call him God," the brunette said. "This is Katherine Shugak roustabout new hire what about April I don't go on vacation until May."
    "What's your vacation got to do with anything the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee and the Exxon president and CEO are coming up on the seventeenth both groups on the same day who did this Francine?"
    The brunette stifled herself and gave a one-word answer. "Probably."
    "Call that bitch and tell her to fix it I don't care how she does it just tell her to do it or I'll have her ass nice to meet you too Shugak." The door slammed behind him.
    Kate waited until the footsteps in the hall died away before inquiring timidly, "Urn, exactly who are you?"
    The brunette looked absolutely astounded. "Didn't I introduce myself oh for dumb oh my gawd Katherine I'm so sorry I'm Toni Hartzler public relations representative for RPetco North Slope assigned B Shift like you."
    She had to pause for breath again and Kate seized the opportunity. "Why am I here? And it's Kate."
    Toni had delicate features, pale, perfect skin, dreamy brown eyes and a raucous, braying laugh that would have sounded more likely coming from a donkey. Before she could speak the phone rang. "Hello yes no not now call me tonight we'll set something up then."
    She hung up and the door banged open again and again bounced off the bookcase. This time it was a short blond man with sleeked-back hair, dressed in the same uniform as the security guard at the Base Camp's main entrance. "Where is he I know he's in here Hartzler your fucking alternate kidnapped him where is he?"
    "Katherine Shugak meet Glen Lefevre our local Hitler and with littler charm I don't have the faintest idea of what in the world you're talking about Glen," Toni said mildly. "Bob's at lunch or on his way out to the airport I don't know which he had a tour this morning."
    "Don't give me that shit!" the guard yelled, his red face going redder.
    "I saw Kinderknecht spying last