It wasn't enough for people to just look the other way for her in honor of Rotti, they had to want her. They had to be gathering around water coolers when no Largo was around talking about how Rotti must be rolling in his grave over the daughter who refused to even keep his name taking over the company while the kid he'd wanted in the position was nowhere to be found. He wanted the peasants muttering on the street corners about how much better they thought things would be with her in charge; how she was one of them, not someone who'd grown up with a silver spoon in her mouth. He wanted everyone in upper management positions in GeneCo daydreaming about what a tractable pawn a sheltered teenager would make, while they were stuck instead with the most stubborn bitch the world had ever known.
He wanted the whole fucking world whispering Shilo Wallace's name in dark corners when they thought nobody who wasn't on their side was around to hear their treason, until not a single person would speak up on Amber's behalf on the day he lead Shilo through Geneco's front door and straight up to his Pop's old office.
But that took work, made only slightly easier by the fact that Amber's zydrate addiction was getting worse than ever as the stresses of being in charge of the biggest company in the world piled up.
He'd spent an entire night getting the staff of a subversive newspaper that they thought was so far underground that GeneCo had no idea it existed drunk out of their minds. He kept his face carefully hidden the entire time and let them think that they were important enough to be approached by their very own shadowy informer as he kept the conversation constantly circling back to GeneCo's 'true' heir, and wouldn't things be better with her around?
It was the fifth time he'd spent a night like that in the past month, though the company he kept was different every time. He had pirate radio programs preaching her name, websites full of visitors that flocked to other forums to spread the word, he was even thinking of rounding up some street corner prophets and training them to scream her name in the middle of their garbled nonsense.
Nobody had commented on any of the other nights he'd taken off, but this morning was different. As soon as he entered the dining room, still wearing his clothes from the night before, Amber was screeching at him in her most ear-splitting tone, "Where the fuck were you last night?"
"Wherever the fuck I wanted to be, sister" he said, having a servant dish him up a plateful of waffles.
"You can't just leave without saying anything! Do you have any idea what a fucking mess last night was? It's not like Pavi's any help!"
"Ohh," Pavi groaned sadly, then perked up. "Ah, the Pavi thinks he knows where Luigi was last night, little sister!"
"He was at a bar, I can smell it from here," Amber snarled. "And don't think I'm going to forget about it the next time you bitch at me about addictions."
"Si, that too. But Pavi knows why he's been disappearing so often lately." Pavi leaned towards her like he was offering up some grand secret and stage-whispered, "Luigi has found a singora to pass his time with."
"Shut the fuck up, Pavi!"
"Ha!" Amber burst out, more of an exclamation than an actual laugh. "One who isn't already in a body bag?"
"Startling, yes? But the Pavi found many people who saw her leaving safely with Luigi the night Pavi saw her, with no wounds at all!" He dropped his voice further, looking slyly at Luigi even though he was still acting like he was directing his words at Amber. "They were all so surprised to be able to say that she and our brother seemed to be talking happily on the way out."
"'Happily'?" Amber and Luigi repeated at the same time, then shared a disgusted look with the other.
"Luigi's never happy," Amber continued with a sneer before Luigi could go on.
Not that he'd been planning on saying anything more. He'd just been surprised enough to wonder whether it was him or the people Pavi had asked who had read her wrong that night, when he'd thought she was just anxious to finally get back to her dumpster before her filthy guardian started to worry.
"Happy for Luigi, perhaps they meant," Pavi deferred. "But, for certain, Luigi has not been here so often since that night, and the Pavi does not think it's because he was taking care of company business."
'The' Pavi obviously didn't know shit, but it wasn't like Luigi could say that without being questioned about what he meant.
Strangely enough, Amber seemed drained of her previous anger, turning most of her attention towards waving for more juice. "God, I guess I should just be happy that someone else in this family is learning how to get along with someone without killing them by the third time they see them. Now why don't you try using those lessons to go a day without killing an employee sometime?"
