Chapter 488

Once the interviewees had cleared out, Arthur felt no need to be so formal, kicking back from the big table and finding the coffee and snacks. They had a large plate of kuih and other simple snacks including keropok and various dried fruits. Not that he was concerned about weight, so heaping the plate high, he wandered back.

"So, what do we think?" Arthur asked.

"Seems quite clear, we should go with Hamid," Casey said. "His political connections will do you the most good."

"Just because he's good doesn't mean he should run the Clan," Mel said. "We can hire him at a lower level, let him work up. We need someone who knows how to run things. Gina is the obvious choice - she's done it before."

"If we want experience, then Ravi is the best. My father said, you can't buy experience and connections. And she doesn't have many," Rick said.

"Not in the business world," Mel countered. "But in the Climbing community, she does. While he has none."

"He has some of his grandchildren who are becoming Climbers," Rick said.

"None of them are very high. Two are still in the Tower and the third only passed half a year ago," Casey said, after pulling the relevant page out from the document. "Nothing useful there."

"See!" Mel exclaimed, triumphantly.

"He can still build those connections. And he's rich, so he won't need to be paid as much."

"Pretty sure it often works the other way," Arthur muttered. "The richest are always the greediest."

"Hey!" 

"Wei!"

Both Rick and Casey objected to the characterisation simultaneously, 

"Uswah?" Arthur turned to ask the silent woman, while hiding a small smile at his teasing.

"You have my reports," she said. "I want more time to look into them."

"I've read them. But you hadn't spoken with them yet, or seen them, in-person. So...?" he asked.

"I like Gina," Uswah said. "She asked us questions, more than anyone else. She cares about the Clan, while the Sikh sees us as a challenge and Hamid wants a stepping stone."

"Nothing wrong with ambition,” Casey replied. “We just have to grow fast enough, to make sure he doesn’t leave.”

“And so long as we’re interesting, Ravi will stick around. And once he does leave, he’ll likely leave us better off. With the processes and methods to keep the Clan running better.”

“Whereas Gina’s already failed her Clan once,” Casey added.

“Not her fault!” Mel objected. “She wasn’t the one running the Tower. She can’t control what the Clan Head does. We can’t even control him.” She pointed at Arthur who was busy picking at the kuih lapis, trying to peel each layer off delicately. “Maybe her stories can keep him from risking himself too much.”

“Arthur was good lah, last Tower,” Jan said, loyally. “Didn’t take too much risks.”

“Any risk is dangerous…” Mel muttered.

“That’s the nature of climbing though,” Rick said. “So long as we keep training and he keeps focused on growing, I don’t think it’ll be that bad. I wish we could get him over-levelled, for the Intermediate Tower but at least for the Beginner ones, he’s pretty safe.”

“We’re drifting.” Casey fixed Arthur with a look. “You haven’t said what you thought.”

Arthur sighed, putting the kuih back on his plate. He tented his fingers, thinking furiously. “Hamid’s too young. We’re all too young,” he gestured around the room, “and could use some more experienced hands at this.” He nodded to Rick and Casey. “Not to say you don’t have your own advisors and the like, but… if we’re all away, someone older and more experienced running things can’t hurt.”

“His connections…”

“Could be useful, yes, Casey. Let’s see if he’ll take a lower role, working with us but not as the COO. We need someone to be snooty anyway, and if that’s him, all the better.” Arthur grinned. “But he’s out. Could maybe be our second, in time.”

Casey seemed content with that, nodding along to his words. Next, he turned to Rick who had pushed for Ravi and just shook his head.

“Why?”

“Call it intuition,” Arthur said. “But I don’t trust him.”

“What? You can’t just leave it at that.” Rick said.

“Fine…” Cudgelling his mind a little, Arthur finally said. “He’s too slick. Too much of a salesman. I’d be more worried about him taking over the Clan for his own needs, for what he wants, than building it. I’d always be worried about what he might be doing.” He shrugged. “Maybe if we were all more experienced, if we had ways to keep an eye on him, or keep him in check. But we don’t. I got to trust them, fully, and I don’t. Not him.”

Uswah raised a finger, causing Arthur to look over. “Not to say you’re wrong… but if his grandchildren join us, we have a hold on him.”

“If he likes his grandchildren,” Mel said, cynically.

“Dark,” Casey said, causing Mel to shrug.

“I don’t think we’d want to go down that route anyway,” Arthur said. “Holding hostages is not something that the good guys do. And we are trying to be the good guys.”

“Are we?” Mel said.

“I think so?” Casey answered.

“I didn’t sign up for that,” Rick said. “I was here for the glory and levels.”

Uswah sighed, loudly. “Can we focus.”

“Of course.” Arthur tapped the table. “My call, and I say we go with Gina. Talk to her, get her involved along with Hamid.”

“And Ravi?”

“Tell him maybe later, when he’s learnt a little more and we’ve grown a little more.” Arthur tapped the table. “If we can survive to the next level, if I can clear the Intermediate Tower, we might actually be ready.”

“If,” Casey said, softly.

“Yeah.”