OK Number 34 - Saviour

Kallen sighed as she looked silently into her phone, held just below her as she crouched into the seat with her elbows propped up on the fronts of her thighs. The screen was alight with the caller ID of Kaname Ohgi, who was quite possibly her last ally and thoroughly undeserved at that, who was helping her try and find a seat for 2019, or at least those races she would be allowed attend following her ban from the first two of the season. However, the more this procedure went on, the more it appeared as if missing the first two races would be the least of her worries, as no one wanted to touch her with a ten foot pole.

"I'm sorry Kallen." Ohgi continued, after having paused to allow the news of a lack of interest from Lancer sink in. Given their more edgy branding, they were possibly Kallen's primary hope of refuge, however that had been a false hope. She was frustrated, but could not blame Ohgi for his sterling effort. He had supported her since she had decided to take on Tohdoh, and even though he was still in the Rebellion team as a crew chief, he still stuck with her in trying to find her a new drive elsewhere. However, he didn't have much to work with in appealing to other teams.

"Goddamn it, will no one… I mean, what about Vanwall? Ernst and Enneagram? They're good, but that team can do better. They must be willing to at least talk about a seat, surely?"

Kallen only heard a sigh on the other end of the line, before Ohgi explained "Already asked them, and it's… it's not gonna happen."

"Well what exactly did they say?" Kallen asked, pressing for details to see if there was even a hope. However, Ohgi's carefully worded response drowned such optimism.

"They said that while your performance is admirable in the car they… felt that their sponsors would not appreciate being associated with you right now given the bad press, and would likely leave the team in such an event, and so they politely instructed me to look elsewhere."

"Damn." Kallen groaned. She had no right to complain, of course, but there was no escaping the frustration of having her options winnowed away with no apparent success, or even hint of success. Geely felt her reputation was at odds with the company's goals and brand identity, while Lancer was more abrupt in saying that there "was no way we would make that mistake." The family run Darlton team was satisfied with its nepotistic lineup of the owners two adopted sons, and, at least as far as Kallen knew, Rosenberg was on the verge of financial collapse, and would almost certainly not be on the grid next year.

She kicked at the chair opposite her as she tried to think over what she could do. Take a year out, a sabbatical like Tohdoh had? Maybe jump over to WEC or IMSA until the bad press died down? It was a possibility, but time out of a seat would make her old news, and she would be supplanted by the next wonderkid, and her chance would be squandered. She had to cement her place while she was here, or else she would not get the chance again.

"I really messed this up, didn't I…" she chuckled darkly, before Ohgi encouraged her to keep her hopes up, however she wasn't listening. She would not pity herself, as this situation was entirely of her own making; further, the impact on her was not as significant as Lelouch. At least she had the luxury of being able to search for a seat, to be able to walk about in frustration and live somewhat autonomously.

Lelouch's admonishment of her had run very deep, and had been a buffet, let alone just food, for thought, as she considered culpability and guilt. She had come in thinking she was entitled to forgiveness, in the hopes that his forgiveness would either heal his wounds or get her back a seat.

It was not for the fact that she was now unemployed that she was wrong, it was because of what it had done to him. She remembered his siblings, gathered around him, almost protecting his gangly form. Naoto had talked about his interaction with Nunnally during the Japanese Grand Prix, who was reportedly immensely pleasant and loving to her brother, who had shone a new light on the man for him. However her face when she had come, far from pleasant, was forced into a hostility it did not deserve. She had violated Lelouch's dignity and health, and this was why she should not have done it, and not because of how it impacted her pathetic little life.

Now if only she could communicate that idea without sounding to Lelouch like she was practised or parroting. A tall order, however she was distracted from that line of thought by a text on her phone. Put off from both her musings and her call with Ohgi, she opened up the application and read the message.

"Check Camelot, seat open now. Kewell has left. Good luck, rooting for you! ~Gino"

She looked at the text incredulously, reading and rereading its brief contents before absentmindedly asking Ohgi "Can you check what's going on at Camelot?"

"Camelot? That place is locked up tighter than Taizo's purse, but I'll see…"

The line went silent for a moment as Ohgi reached thorugh his various contacts within the teams to get a read on what was happening within them, seeing if there was a hint of an opening. Gino was not one to be duplicitous, and while he was prone to being something of a joker, this was too cruel for him. What was going on?"

Ohgi's voice returned with some surprise, as if he could barely believe what he was saying, stuttering "Something's happening at Camelot, hang on…"

Kallen's back sprang up, now bolt upright as if she was struck by lightning. She now hung on every word, as she realised Gino may well have saved her ass. Why? Hell if she knew, but she was immensely grateful, the gratitude only matched by her attentiveness.

"Kewell's gone, he's left to do Australian V8 Supercars with his sister and not renewed his contract with them. There's an open seat! They're willing to interview applicants with a Superlicense."

Kallen leapt to her feet, and almost screamed as she spoke into the phone, instructing "Oh god, get me in that room. Whatever you have to do, whatever you have to say, get me into just one meeting. I'll talk to them from there, but just get me face to face, please!"

"Oh hello there Lelouch! I heard you had a bit of a run in with a feisty young lady. You're a lucky boy, I must say. If only I'd been there. We could have made it a full S&M session!"

"You're lucky you're related to Suzaku and I need to squeeze you for money, or I would kill you myself."

Kaguya Sumeragi, heir to the Six Houses of Kyoto and notoriously mercurial menace, chuckled and replied "Well that, and with only one arm and a knock on the head you'd still get your ass beaten by me, even if I'm six inches shorter than you."

"Funny, brat." Lelouch grumbled. "Try nine inches. Lets move this along before I hop over to Japan and drop kick you. I'm calling for business, not displeasure, let alone pleasure."

Knowingly, Kaguya responded "Of course, you've plopped yourself right in the middle of this whole Rosenberg nonsense. On my dime I might add. I could get you for fraud you know."

"You can't tell me lewd jokes if I'm in prison." came the deadpan reply.

Kaguya audibly let out a depressive breath for emphasis, before dropping the point and pointing out "But yes, I noticed you using my signature to pay down the bailiff. I must say, I do love it when people use my money without my knowing. You're awfully brave to be calling me straight afterwards."

"Actually, I was going to ask you for more stuff."

Lelouch could not initially make out what Kaguya's initial response was, however it was certainly amused, and she was still laughing as she cried out "That's the Lelouch I know! Goddamn you're cheeky! Ahaha, I love it! You take a few million without asking and then when I confront you you ask for more! Wouldn't expect anything less from you."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Lelouch bluntly asked over her.

She paused, before, with some hmming and hawing, replying "It's complicated, but I can definitely rescue the team in terms of my finances if that's what you're asking. Might even make a sound investment."

"No no no no, I don't need you to do that." Lelouch responded, shaking his head furiously over the phone. "I just need to know if you know anyone who would be willing to join a working group to take over the team while it's in administration."

"Well why can't I do that?" she asked "It'd be nice to own a Formula One team. Might be able to spend more time with my cousin too."

Pausing over his words, Lelouch frustratedly tried to direct the conversation by pointing out "Look, I'm not sure if you need to do that. You can be part of the recovery package, but to take all the debts of the company on yourself…"

"Ah, I see what's happening."

Lelouch paused, as Kaguya explained what she felt was going on.

"You want me to invest in your scheme to save Rosenberg, but can't ask me to foot the entire bill as that would give me a controlling stake in the team and compromise your influence, and so you want me to help you find other investors to diffuse the investment and prevent any one investor marginalising you."

Lelouch was silent, before sighing and admitting "I hate it when you do that."

"Some things never change. Listen, where are you right now?"

"I'm in Nottinghamshire, I flew in yesterday."

"Gotcha." Kaguya continued, now sounding more confident having a better understanding of the situation. "I'll tell you what, I'm in Japan right now, but I'll fly over and crack some heads together, I should be able to put something-"

"No, look, stop." Lelouch said, now waving his phone slightly in consternation. "I know what you look like, and you know what I look like, much to my eternal frustration. There's no use or need in us meeting face to face, that's not what we need right now. Do you know any fools between York and Yokohama who wants to drop a few million on a racing team?"

"Sure, sure, I'll fax you over a few names. I can drop in a bit as well as a title sponsor, but unless you want to take a bit more debt out of the bank of Kaguya you're going to have to find one more partner."

Not ever wanting to get in debt to that particular bank more heavily than he had to, Lelouch replied "Yeah, I know, but I'm looking into it. Your sponsorship, your contacts, my personal sponsors, plus one more party should get us most of the assets in one fell swoop. I'll get back to you once I find someone. Cheers."

With that, Lelouch hung up, and with his arm now free, he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger to wash away the built up sleep in his eyes. He had not slept since calling Suzaku back in France, and it was almost twenty four hours since then. He needed sleep, but the insolvency filings required a careful eye, which required his constant attention. He sighed as he briefly looked around the quiet hotel lounge, largely empty but for his motley crew of his siblings, off a ways playing chess, and C.C. He moved to go, wanting to head to bed, however just as he moved to rise, C.C suddenly perked, and said "Did you say you were looking for a third investor?" across the room.

Somewhat out of it, Lelouch frowned slightly before asking "What do you want?", not having heard the fullness of what she said.

"I know a guy, someone who can be the third man."

Now snapped to attention at her words, Lelouch asked her to repeat them again, before asking "Who are you on about? Who the hell do you know that's a millionaire?"

"My brother, V.V." she explained. "He was Charles' business partner back in the eighties, but they had a split and he's been doing a lot of investing in China on his own. He's got a love for the sport, but Charles had banned him from the paddock."

Astonished, Lelouch replied simply "You're joking.", believing this to be too good to be true.

"Nope. Vertically challenged, and a bit of a jerk, but he's sitting on more money than god, and has been waiting to get back in the sport for three decades."

Lelouch jumped in a quite out of character motion, before cheering giddily "That's absolutely fantastic! You magnificent witch, you've solved it!"

His agent was less optimistic, cautioning "There's a hitch though."

Settling down, Lelouch looked the green haired woman in the eye and shrugged "He was banned, yeah? I don't care if he murdered someone, I don't mind, can he get us the money is the only question I have. He doesn't have to come down to the paddock to do that."

"It's more complicated than that." C.C explained, sounding exasperated. "Charles ruled that he was not allowed to affiliate with any team or have any involvement with the sport. If he heard V.V was bankrolling us, we would be blocked from participating indefinitely."

Lelouch's smile fell, as he realised what that would mean. Disappointed he asked "So what do we do? Hardly any good to us if his money is toxic. Why bring him up?"

"If you talked with Charles, you might be able to convince him to lift the ban to save the team from going under. He has an interest commercially in making sure we survive, otherwise he can't sell entertaining television, so he might listen."

Nodding, Lelouch found this idea very palatable. Clarifying, he asked "And V.V?"

"V.V has been waiting for relief since the dawn of time. If you told him you had lifted his ban, he would love you forever."

"And sponsor the team?"

"Yes, he would also sponsor the team you dork. Now get some sleep, you have a big day tomorrow."

"If you would just speak to her, I imagine she would put it very clearly, but suffice to say she would make an immense pilot for your team. I understand Kewell is hard to replace, but in terms of drivers who can bring you back into title contention, it's Kallen and the seven dwarves."

Ohgi held his breath and tappetted his foot about his dining room as the man from Camelot on the other end of the line kept him waiting with a long, drawn out pause, hmming for a time before replying with an ambiguous "I see. Remind me, what was your role in Rebellion?"

Feeling somewhat talked down to, Ohgi was firm as he spoke into the phone, explaining "I was her crew chief, I was responsible for managing her in the car. I still work in that capacity. There wasn't any member of the team who communicated with her more than me, and I can vouch for both her talent and intuition."

Ohgi was hoping to get her into the interview stage, however this operator was understandably stubborn, and probed further into Ohgi's rationale, asking "And of what interest is she, might I ask, to you? She was fired from your team, a team you are still a part of? Why are you making this call to us to lobby on your behalf given your public parting?"

Shaking his head, Ohgi sighed. It was difficult to put into words why he was putting himself through this, in the same way it was hard to explain why they had all backed Kallen over Tohdoh. It was hard to explain in the same way it was hard to explain why, at Brazil the year before last, they had all spent their entire nights up fixing Kallen's engine when they were under no obligation to do so beyond their paid hours, staying up for 36 hours between Qualifying and the Race to make sure she could beat Tohdoh and become the dominant force in the teams body politic. All the younger employees had been so desperate to get the new lease on life she offered the team, that verve that she brought by rallying them together to mount a campaign. She had ups and downs, but she had made herself the focal point of the team in a big way, and Ohgi felt obligated to communicate that.

"She's the reason we stuck around. Rebellion was growing austere, and everyone was going through the motions. She's the reason we had the fight this year. She has such a verve, such an energy. She's the reason we all pulled together. Brazil 2017, or whatever, she was what we all came for. She will take what you give her and put it in positions it has no right to be. It wasn't a coincidence that we all rallied behind her over Tohdoh. She's what we all came together for."

The man on the other end of the phone was somewhat taken aback by this emotional tract, and took some time to respond, tripping over the initial portions of his reply, but still managing to say "Of course, you do understand, that taking her on as a driver is not something she has made particularly easy for us, should we choose to proceed in that direction; she would have to prove herself to be of extreme merit to counter her detracting elements, not least her reputation."

Wanting to not sound like a sycophant, Ohgi tried to gently concede the point without letting it derail the conversation, balancing it with "Sure, no question she's not made this easy on herself but when it comes to in the car, she's the real deal, she has just insane qualities when it comes to driving the car, she just needs a little direction outside of it. With that sort of direction, you would have a multiple world champion on your hands."

"What qualities are those, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Speed, like qualifying speed." Ohgi stated plainly. "She got how many pole positions? Took pole in Brazil by how much? But its more than that. She took that car and drove it faster than our best computer estimate predicted would be possible. She just hurls the thing in and deals with the instability. She's like a cat when it comes to keeping the car balanced under load."

There was a brief silence on the line, as the man on the other end mulled over what he was hearing. After some time, and sensing he was close, Ohgi moved in to seal the deal.

"There will be days where she just wants to make you tear your hair out, no question. Brazil was one, and for sure it's frustrating. But just as readily and just as often there are days where the heavens open and she is untouchable. Absolutely off this planet, in another gear compared to everyone else, and will waltz away. On that day, she would not be matched by anyone, and on that day you will wish she was driving your car. She's got… it, for lack of a better word. You worked with Cornelia, you know it when you see it. The right stuff, that extra ten percent, the little bit beyond that makes the difference between a Champion and a race winner, whatever you want to call it. Style, if you want. Cornelia had it in abundance, Tohdoh had it, and you bet Suzaku has it. Gino will not beat Suzaku over a season, and Kewell wasn't going to. Kallen just might, and there's no other driver that you can say that for right now."

That was all he had. Ohgi could only now sit and wait for a response, hoping he had done enough to save his friends career. The silence was longer now, forcing him to sit and wait for almost a minute in anticipation, before he finally got the golden response.

"Alright, she can come in tomorrow for an interview."

Ohgi's such a great lad. So is Gino for that matter. But there still remains challenges; will Lelouch convince Charles to allow V.V to pay him ungodly sums of money? Will Kallen ace the interview? Will Suzaku be driving next year? All this and more, in the next chapter! Please be sure to leave a review, I wouldn't be on the streak I am without your fantastic encouragement. Cheers.

~Eth0