She'd contemplated sending Yellow. Compassionate, nurturing, understanding - someone gentle in the face of danger. She's glad she came herself; ruthless negotiation seems ideal. She holds all the cards and pretending otherwise would do neither of them a service.

"The firearm, please, Mr. Merkin," she said, holding out a small plastic bag. Her voice is an absolute. This is the precondition to all further discussion. Once she has it she tucks it away.

"As you may know, I spent ten years in the employment of Mrs. Everest," she went on, "My discretion is without question. This [i]unfortunate outburst[/i] has complicated what should be a simple transaction."

She sounded a bit like a younger Mrs. Everest in that moment. Looked like her too. The Mistress had done this by design. After three failed daughters, she'd become willing to take her chances with a clone - a doll of herself, the little leader of a playset house. Deep down, the parallel made her uncomfortable and self aware. Mrs. Everest, despite her opinions to the contrary, had never been as objective or rational as the White personality was. She was, however, delighted to see an actor portray her that way.

So when she felt her lips unconsciously twist in that coil of disappointment Mrs. Everest pretended she reserved for failed daughters, she paused. The complicating factor, of course, was that Everest was [i]good[/i] at what she did. Was it better or worse to hold post-murder negotiations in the style of The Mistress?

"I can ensure the details are taken care of," said White. "I shall dispose of the firearm, remove the murdered girl, ensure that she is rebuilt without any inconvenient memories, and clear today's incident from the records of my other employees." She said all of this at the beginning as though it was matter of fact, but in truth herein was the bluff. She wasn't transmitting [i]anything[/i], despite company policy, so she needed that wreck to get to the bottom of this. "Dealing with Headpattr and their records is more difficult," she went on. "I can do it myself, but it is an arduous and costly process. I suspect a gentleman like yourself is more interested at this point in a systemic fix. The New Employment Era bill is currently languishing in the House of Representatives. I understand that you are financially supporting the elected members who are responsible for keeping it from passage. While the suite of labour reforms may be theoretically objectionable to a man in your position, I think you'll find the passages preventing the mandatory harvesting of livestream data will benefit people whose livelihoods depend on keeping secrets."

It was strange how casually discussing station-wide politics came to her lips. She'd just made a suggestion that might overturn three years of obstruction of the democratic process. She'd seen Mrs. Everest do such things hundreds of times but never imagined how the words might feel in her own mouth.

"But aside from the reform bill, and a reasonable sum to cover expenses and risk mitigation, I shall not seek to gouge you, Mr. Merkin, for I have always advertised myself on my discretion. However, you understand I will have to maintain a copy of the information as insurance. This is a situation involving third parties, and from the sounds of it, they are not as reasonable as you are. As you may be aware, that is an issue with its own challenges, for if I host sensitive information on a compromised network - and I assure you, they are [i]all[/i] compromised in one way or another - then it is not private at all. So I would appreciate a rundown of who, exactly, it is I need to be wary of so I do not inadvertently store the relevant files on the servers of the people who would take objection to it."

[Bullshit action: 2d6+Cool = [b]10[/b]]