That's why I hate the son of bitch, Valdez thought. He's cocky, and he makes mistakes. People who make mistakes usually end up dead, but not before they fuck up bad. Why did Easter want this guy anyway? She always picked cocky sons-of-bitches with their heads up their asses for the really tough assignments. Maybe she wanted the guy dead. Valdez didn't know. Wasn't his business to know. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask.
"You realize you could be flushed out into a vacuum if the containment seals fail?"
"I don't have a problem with that either," Ajax replied. Idiot.
"You know," Valdez began, "that if you get flushed out an airlock, this will be a complete waste, and the company does not like shrink."
"I understand that I am an expendable asset."
"If you die, you become a fucking liability!" Let him chew on that for a minute. "Assets...get...jobs...done. I don't like you, but some crazy bitch from up on high seems to think you might be an asset, which is why you're here now. Fact is, if the shit hits the fan, it hits me first."
Valdez picked up a dossier. The company could afford to use paper. It was a sign of wealth. He waved in the air before thumbing through it.
"I'm looking over your file," he began, "and it says here you have an irrational fear of tight spaces. Is that an asset? It says here, that Geotech spent $1.6 billion in a legal battle that you brought on eight years ago. Is that an asset?"
"Geotech won that case," Ajax interupted while rubbing his earlobe.
"You're a maverick. Not a team player. No aspirations. A fuck up. A loser. A fucking loser. Do you like being a loser, Mr. Ajax?"
Ajax twitched his head, but Valdez couldn't tell if it was a yes or a no.
"Because I don't like losers, Mr. Ajax," Valdez continued. "I like winners. I like go-getters. I like yesmen. Company men. And I don't give a fuck what some bitch in Personnel Distribution has to say about your credentials, or your efficiency rating, or your...are you listening to me?"
Ajax was grinning ear to ear. "Can I go get your data now?"
Valdez picked up an ethercard from his desk and tossed it at Ajax. "Get the fuck out of my face."
Ajax smiled and left. Smug asshole. Valdez couldn't believe he was giving him the job. He hated smug assholes. He threw the dossier down on the leather executive chair. Then he sat on it. He looked up at Daily who had watched the whole interview from the far corner of the trapezoidal room.
"Get Parsons," Valdez yelled to Daily.
"The kid?" Daily asked.
"Yes, the kid," Valdez put his elbows on the desk and rubbed his forehead. "God knows he might be the only thing worth his shit in this whole god-damned company."