Back in his suite, Shackleton was in a fury, and taking it out on his small harem of morph girls. They cowered and ran from his power bolts as the mysterious "rape victim" from Dabbler's trial looked on with a bored expression.
"Give it a rest, Shackleton," she said. "So your attempt to try to get Dabbler via the legal system didn't work, so what? You told me yourself Authors can weasel out of anything."
He looked up with a snarl. "But this time it was foolproof! With you manipulating the records in the Crays we should have had him! After all, the records of that night on the themed suite levels are so confused anyway, that--aarrgghhh! And then he pulls this legal shit! Damn it, Vivian, it isn't fair!"
And the sound of her name, the supposed victim, herself a shape-changer, morphed back into her true form, that of Vivian Darkbloom, a redheaded woman in her forties who was with Cray Maintenance. "Fair schmair," she said. "We both know that this world will never be fair to us unless we load the dice. And you know, you can still sell the story to the Backstage Enquirer and destroy Dabbler's reputation, at least. After all, it worked with Fitzgerald. Everyone now thinks he's a whining, unstable, emotional cripple who can hold neither his women nor his liquor."
"He is a whining, unstable, emotional cripple who can hold neither his women nor his liquor," Shackleton grumbled.
Darkbloom raised her eyebrows. That, certainly, was Shackleton's hardly unbiased opinion, but it had been far from generally held until they had trashed the Author's background in court. Sometimes, though, it didn't pay to state the obvious, and with Shackleton, she had noted, those times came fairly often.
"Whatever," she said. "I say it's worth a shot. Let's call in Ms. Mastioplasty, whose memory we manipulated for her court appearance, and re-rehearse her in her story. It would be a shame to waste all that effort. Then I can phone up that reporter I know with the Enquirer, Rita Skeeter--"
"I thought she worked for the Daily Prophet," Shackleton said.
"Different life, different world. What's important is, she has a poison pen, which she is more than willing to wield to our advantage."
"I don't know," said Shackleton doubtfully. "Jessica Mastioplasty is hardly the most stable bimbo herself. Remember that outburst in court, where she flashed everyone and nearly got herself ejected by Sid? If he hadn't accepted my objection, the case would have been over right there. That's what people will remember when they see her name in print--who'll believe her?"
"Who said we had to use her name?" Vivian laughed. "We can make her a 'usually reliable inside source,' if that's what you want. The only thing that matters is that Rita will believe her. And her story...."
Shackleton sighed. "Very well, Vivian," he said. "If you think something can be retrieved from this disaster, I leave it in your capable hands."
With a curt nod, his companion went to the phone, where she rang up Ms. Mastioplasty and Ms. Skeeter in turn.
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Sun Aug 10 22:37:39 2003
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