Light years away from the place where Jake Sully looked up at Pandora's moons and worried, a recorded message was playing in a very private office.
"Augustine was going off about some conscious global network like she was high on some freaking shit, and Quaritch pulled a goddamn palace coup on me. He took every friggin miner that could walk a straight line, flew em all out to this Tree of Souls place and got them all incinerated. I had over a thousand ten foot tall blue monkeys pointing five foot long freaking arrows at me and not enough personnel left to anywhere near fill a single ISV, and not a damn one who knew how to throw a rock, for Christ's sake. They chased us out of Hell's Gate without breaking a sweat. That marine, Sully, he's the monkeys' king now. I don't know where the hell Augustine is. Friggin tree-huggers. You can bet the rent that they're going to trash the installation, or let it rot back into the jungle."
On the screen, Parker Selfridge looked up at an urgent call from a cryo-tech, "Yeah, yeah, keep your goddamn shirt on, I'm coming." He looked back into the comm-unit. "I'm putting everything I've got into the Venture Star's memory banks, but it's not much, there wasn't time to grab half the stuff before they kicked us out. You should be able to download it remotely. I'll report in as soon as I get there, Selfridge out." The screen went black.
A calloused hand gently reached out and shut off the comm-unit. A ring sporting two welded chain links decorated the third finger. "You disappoint me, Mister Selfridge," a whispery voice stated reflectively. "Your lack of ability to capitalize on an unexpected opportunity is most disturbing." An attendant standing nearby stiffened imperceptibly at the expression of disapproval, but the voice continued in an almost genial tone. "Apparently, his abilities and potential were overstated to us. That is most unfortunate."
The hand rose and made a steeple of fingers as its mate rose to join it. "The Avatar program is much more than it seems, and if Mister Selfridge has caused Doctor Augustine to be lost the board will be most - displeased - with him. If he was so foolish as to let his own hound bite him, then his is no great loss." A tone of amusement momentarily colored the speaker's words. "Of course, our hounds are well trained to bite hard."
The owner of the whispery voice focused his eyes on the attendant standing at parade-rest near the door and the amusement faded. "Quaritch was fortunate to find his death so easily. An incompetent is easily demoted, but a failure is unredeemable. A pity the Colonel has made himself unavailable for that lesson – for the moment."
The door guard was a veteran of many months on this duty and had seen and heard many things, most of which would have normal men on the floor retching their guts out in horror. The silky tones of his superior had raised the hairs on the back of his neck like few things ever did. He hoped that the sweat which had broken out under his collar didn't show.
The whisperer continued, "Apparently this Corporal Sully is much more adept than anyone anticipated. It is possible that he may be more useful to us than we suspected. I want to know everything there is to know about Jake Sully. Have every record that exists on the man on my desk within the week. And call an immediate meeting of the full Board, Robert."
The door guard was certain he'd misheard. The last time a full meeting had been called…. "The full Board, sir?" The words echoed in the spacious office as if spoken in a tomb.
The whispery voice confirmed. "The full Board, Robert. We have - a situation to discuss."