Alone again, Andrea put two fingers to the bridge of her nose and rubbed gently as she tried to will away an oncoming headache. She was starting to regret giving away so much of the annual budget to the Admiral. Divvying up the remaining half between the other four heads who all had good reasons to each take a good chunk of it? That was starting to prove itself as her crux. Well, Eager had assured her that his R&D sector needed forty to run as they had been until now, but that was off the table entirely. He'd have to make do with twenty, and use the leftovers he'd received from previous years in addition. Whilst she didn't know what they were researching and developing [i]for[/i], she guessed that Everest did. And if she hadn't shut it down yet, then Andrea didn't need to either. But yes, they'd need to make do with the stockpiles of financial 'fat' they'd been afforded from her predecessor whilst she figured out a way to cut back on their slice of the pie next year too...

The Admiral had made a great case for the fifty, and as far as Andrea was aware, all of it was being put to extremely good - and more importantly [i]tangible[/i] - use. The Corporate War being fought was apparently going very well for Lhotse's part in it. But the titanic cost of the winning efforts meant that they wouldn't be able to capitalise on the full effect of the fallout of such a conflict. Wars made money hand over fist, as they had for hundreds upon hundreds of years prior. And of course, she couldn't forget about the two macros she'd tied to Paradisia's name, for her to do with as she pleased. But at least Andrea had stuck to her friends plan about making some big buys and making a lot of noise on the financial side of Lhotse. One big smokescreen for a smooth entrance on Paradisia's part, she hoped.

That left twenty-eight macro credits left to her dispensary this year in the budget. She hadn't even recieved the summaries from the remaining two department heads, but she didn't have to be a psychic to know what they were going to say...

[i]"Hey there, boss! Here's this excellent argument I've been perfecting for the past who-knows-how-long that makes a foolproof case for why I should get the lion's share of that remaining money in your pocket! Don't worry, I don't blame you for the bloated R&D fund of your predecessor, but I will blame you if my needs aren't met! I'll just leave it on your desk and keep my fingers crossed that more money will just drop into your lap. Okay, bye!"[/i]

It would have been funny to Andrea if it wasn't [i]her[/i] they were petitioning.

She took the Jade Chamber in her hands, and thought long and hard about whether or not she wanted to open yet another can of worms this week that would split her attention into another splinter. After a few seconds of consideration, she put the folder into a drawer of her desk beneath a false bottom, and locked the drawer itself with her DNA register. Never paid to be too careful where shocklight paper was involved. Now, back to the problem at hand. Twenty-eight macros, three department heads.

[i]Shit.[/i]

Andrea didn't want to lean on Everest for an extra helping of funds just yet, but it was important to get the ball rolling across all departments. And besides, the sooner Andrea was free of managing the department heads, the sooner she'd be able to devote proper time to Rooster and the Hecatoncheires task. In the end, she decided there was nothing for it but to dial up her one and only superior and make her case for an extra twenty to thirty macros. She knew Everest would have it somewhere, she walked around with hyper-advanced robo-maids for God's sake, she just didn't know how tight-fisted she was going to be. Then again, she might agree with Andrea's assessment entirely. There must've been a reason she was promoted to Chief of Operations in the first place. Maybe Everest saw a younger version of herself in Andrea. Who could say?

Andrea cleared her throat, smoothed back her hair, then pressed the dial button on a video-call comm unit built into her desk. In an instant, it popped up her list of contacts, and Andrea selected the one she was after without much ceremony. Now, all there was to do was wait to see if Everest was in a good mood or not. She watched the screen intently as the pop-up took to the hologram.

[i]'Dialling: Magnolia Everest, Chief Executive Officer...'[/i]