“Excuse me, Captain, but if-and I stress if-I happen to come out ahead, who gets the profits?”
“Well … I hadn’t given it much thought, but I suppose if you’re gambling out of the company fund, then any winnings should go back into that fund.”
“In that case,” Sushi said, flashing a schoolboy’s grin, “I think I’ll provide my own bankroll, if you don’t mind. I did squirrel away a few dollars before I enlisted, in case of just such a rainy day.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Journal # 197
I will not attempt to chronicle the endless details involved in packing up the company for relocation. For one thing, they are boring and tedious; for another, they contribute little to the account of this particular assignment. Perhaps most important, however, is the simple factor that I was not present for those proceedings. Let it suffice to say that knowing my employer’s habit of wanting to put his personal stamp on everything, and Lieutenant Armstrong’s tendency to be overly formal and by the book when carrying out orders, however minor, I’m rather glad I was elsewhere at the time, at least until I observed the condition of my employer’s wardrobe after having left it to someone else’s care.
I, of course, was occupied elsewhere, specifically on the planet Jewell, assisting Lieutenant Rembrandt in her efforts to find and recruit the actors necessary to replace those Legionnaires who would be working under cover for this assignment.
As I find is often the case with higher executives, my employer had grossly underestimated, or simply chosen to ignore, the difficulties involved with performing a specific task delegated to a subordinate, choosing instead to lump all his assistance and advice into the brief phrase “Just do it. Okay? Make it happen!” While this may be a successful method for said executive to shift the bulk of the responsibility for a task off his own shoulders, it effectively leaves the designated subordinate to, as they say, “twist in the wind,” bearing the brunt of the blame for the methodology, as well as the results, of their efforts.
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