Side Story: Rebellion
Patrick’s POV
Rodney and I leave Mark’s office and walk to mine.
“It’s past time, man. Round up the troops,” Rodney says. I nod and send a quick text message to the leadership of RangeMan Boston, minus Mark. We’ll meet at Legal Sea Foods and talk.
Twenty minutes later, the leadership of RMBoston is seated at LSF. We’ve ordered and the men are waiting. No knows why they’re here except me and Rodney.
“Let’s get down to business. You’re here today because we, Rodney and I, are taking executive action against Mark.”
The men are shocked and they look at the two of us suspiciously. I don’t blame them. This has never before been done at RangeMan and we could all hang if this goes wrong.
“Before I tell you the full story, here’s the deal. Your presence here today makes you complicit. If you open your mouth, I will cut you off and deny this meeting ever happened. We’ve brought you here today because we’re determined not to go down with Mark, and we hope you choose to join us and save your own asses, but if you want to swing in the breeze, feel free. Understood?”
There are silent nods around the table.
“You don’t have to join us in this rebellion. You don’t have to do anything more than what we ask you to do. This will be a quiet rebellion, an insurrection if you will, but it will definitely be a team effort. We will hang together or Ranger and Lester will hang our asses separately on the mats.”
The men nod.
Rodney takes a shuddering breath. “And Hector. Don’t forget Hector.”
The momentary look of panic on each man’s face assures me that he understands the importance of this meeting.
“Here’s the full story. Everyone is aware that the CO is Stephanie Plum, correct?”
Every man nods.
“Everyone is aware of the ‘Bombshell Bounty Hunter’ stories, correct?”
Again, nods and a few chuckles.
“And everyone is aware of the widespread assumption that she is Ranger’s woman, right?”
Nods.
“Alright, here’s what you’re not aware of. She has a 100% capture rate. She’s worked on and off at RMTrenton for the past three years. The Leadership Core has been putting her on the paperwork at a partner level for the past two years. You’ve seen the new lines of authority. You know she’s the only step between us and the Leadership Core. I’m certain this move is permanent.”
The men nod, quietly.
“With less than two months in her tenure at the head, the company has grown at least 3%. Mark’s record was 5%. If she keeps going like this, they probably will make her a partner.”
Our appetizers arrive and we take a moment to divvy up and chow down.
“We’re not sure what’s she’s doing in these management reviews, but Danny is walking around like the proud cock. He’s pretty certain he’s going to pass, and he’s managed to plug all leaks in Atlanta. Atlanta Bonds Enforcement went from last to second with her help, and I think she’s won over the Atlanta men. Every time Rodney and I talk to anyone from Atlanta, it’s full of praise about her.”
“So why are we in rebellion?” Jason asks.
“Because Mark has gone off the deep end,” Rodney replies. Our meals arrive and I’m glad he’s taking over. I want to eat before it gets cold.
“Ranger’s visit today was a warning to Mark that he’s on thin ice, and he told me and Patrick we’re on the ice with him. Mark’s vendetta against the CO is personal, not professional. He’s unhappy that Ranger put his woman in charge. He’s upset he didn’t know in advance. He’s jealous and worried that they’ll name her a partner before him. He’s upset because he sees her as incompetent, unprepared, and out of her depth and yet she’s still in charge. He’s upset that no one close to her will talk about what she’s doing. He’s jealous that she’s already managing to grow the company. And he’s nervous about what she’ll find when she comes here.”
“There’s nothing to find,” Victor replies.
“And you know this because . . . ?” I ask. Every man is silent. “Like Rod just said, no one knows what she looks for in these reviews, but according to Danny, it’s comprehensive. Now, if I take what I know about the CO, based on those stories, what I know is this: she’s a damn good detective. She has good instincts. She finds things out, sometimes with little to no information to begin with. That won’t be the case here. We submit weekly reports. She gets the financials. She’ll come in armed with information. If there’s something for her to find in our operation, she won’t have to dig deep or work too hard to find it.”
Rodney nods and continues. “The things Mark could do to show he supports Ranger’s decision he’s not doing, and the CO had enough today. She recorded a phone call between herself and Mark and sent it to the entire Leadership Core. The content of that phone call pissed Ranger off enough for him to appear here one hour later. One hour, men. He was pissed. My feeling: Our boss is dead man walking if he doesn’t make a 180 turn around.”
“OK, I get what you guys are saying, but that doesn’t sound like Mark,” Victor says. Sigh. Vic’s always the hardest to convince. “Our boss is known for his level-headed decision making. He’s not some kind of hothead, and that’s the way you’re painting him right now.”
“I agree. OK, so Atlanta loves her. Trenton loves her. So what? Mark’s always been in charge of the company,” Mase adds, sitting back. “I agree with his assessment. Those Bombshell Bounty Hunter stories illustrate that she’s shit at her real job. No training, no skills, no interest in improving, no experience in what she’s doing now. Sorry, but I don’t buy this. Mark’s not some hot-head. The man is level headed, calm, cool, experienced. I’d follow him into a war zone. This does not make sense.”
“Tell me this,” Rod replies, “who would you follow into a war zone first: Mark or Ranger?”
Mase slumps in the chair. There’s not a single man at the table who wouldn’t follow Ranger into a death march through the Sahara over following Mark into a vacation paradise. The chances of making it out alive with Ranger in charge are exponentially greater. Hell, I’d follow any of the Leadership Core before Mark. My XO is a smart man, but the Leadership Core has four brilliant men.
“Next question,” I add. “When have you ever known the Leadership Core to make a stupid decision?”
No one at the table has an answer. Leadership Core has occasionally made decisions no one could fathom (RMTrenton? Why Trenton?), but they’ve always been right. They don’t share their process with us and that’s their prerogative. We may not understand the decisions they make, but we’ve never seen them make a wrong one. If they have, they’ve covered that shit up quick.
“Right now we’re giving you the facts,” Rod says. “Pat may occasionally throw in his opinion, but it’s one we share. At the moment, Mark refuses to see his new boss as anything other than a disaster. He refuses to give her the benefit of the doubt. He refuses to work with her, get close to her, and see if she really is a disaster or if she’s just had strange shit happen to her.”
I nod. “The essence of Ranger’s visit today? If Mark gives the CO another problem that she calls the Leadership Core with, his family will be lucky to find his body. Assuming Ranger gets to him first. Hector is ready to kill him and Lester is probably sharpening the blades.”
Every man gulps and takes a drink. There are a lot of frightened looks at the table. None of us wants Lester or Hector to show up here, especially not if they’re angry.
“I want each of you to take a few moments and think about what Mark has said about the CO around you and ask yourselves this: What would Mark’s reaction be if someone said that about Ranger? What would his reaction be if someone said that about him? Would he tolerate that disrespect? Then ask yourself, would you tolerate it on his behalf? On Ranger’s?”
We all chow down. I can see each of the six men we’ve pulled thinking about this. This is the basis of the rebellion and every man has to make a choice.
Finally, Vic looks up. “I’m in.”
Thank god. That was going to be the hardest nut to crack.
I look at Jason. “I’m in,” he says.
Chaz nods, as does Bones.
Mase and Mario are looking at each other. I didn’t expect them to be the last ones to speak, so I wonder what’s holding them back.
“Before I sign on to this ‘rebellion’,” Mario says, “I want to know if you have any ideas why the Leadership Core didn’t elevate Mark this time. Why put his woman in charge of the company when she isn’t an employee and has no experience doing what’s she’s doing?”
It’s a good question and I’m ready for it, but I look at Rodney. He nods.
“No one knows. The Leadership Core hasn’t said anything and I doubt they ever will. You want my guess?”
Everyone nods.
“Alright. I think they passed on Mark because of the way he’s been acting since Trenton came up. He’s been acting as if his elevation to Leadership Core was in the bag. He’s been treating the other XOs as if they’re his subordinates instead of his colleagues and partners. My guess? This is meant to be a humbling for Mark, to remind him that the final decision is theirs to make. I heard part of the COs call. She accused him of being the leading cause of paranoia in the company. That’s not a good description to be tagged with.”
Rodney continues. “Plus, the information I would receive from Chase was at odds with what Mark would receive from Sam, so I’m certain Atlanta has been lying to us the entire time. Given that Sam will no longer talk to Mark, that means either they’ve discovered he was leaking to us or the CO has turned him too. Either way, no more information from Atlanta, which sucks because it means our only other chance to get info about her is going to be Miami. I don’t trust shit from Miami that I can’t verify three more times. To make matters worse, Mark came back from Trenton with his panties in a wad because no one would talk to him,” Rodney adds.
“Not even King?” Vic asks, surprised.
“Especially not King,” I reply. “He’s loyal to his XO and told Mark to fuck off, that he was never going to be taken to the mats again. Hal’s men live in fear of being called to the mats, and that’s her home turf. Nothing out of Trenton was ever going to be negative anyway. Plus, whoever was feeding him information from Accounting has shut up. Don’t know if they’ve been threatened or what, but it’s as if his information sources have dried up overnight. Last thing we got out of them was the 3% number before everything went dark. Oh, and we got the results of what’s going on in NYC.”
“Oh yeah,” Chaz says, smiling. “What happened there?”
“Javier got everything he wanted. Diego and Shane are switching, she’s putting in a NYC differential, and she’s sending Manny to help.”
“Holy shit,” Mase replies, stunned. Every man nods in shock.
“Exactly,” Rod replies. “If Diego and Manny can fix NYC, she will have won them over before she even steps foot there. She already has Javier. That’s three offices and three XOs under her thumb.”
“This kind of behavior leads me to believe that the tide is turning,” I declare. I look every man in the face before continuing. “Atlanta and NYC have decided to give the CO a chance. Miami and Boston will be the odd men out, Miami because of the sexism and Boston because of our XO if we choose to follow him down the road of his personal vendetta.”
Mase and Mario look at each other and nod. “We’re in,” Mase says.
I can’t help but smile. Good. The leadership is all in.
“Good. Here’s the plan. Start talking to your men quietly. Make sure they understand that they should ignore Mark’s opinion of our CO and make their own. Rod and I have told him to start participating in her calls and working with her. We’ll get him to shut up publicly about her. We’re working with him to pull his ass out the fire, but I don’t know how far gone he is. We’re going to pretend to dig for information on her but what we’re really going to do is try to see if she really has Atlanta and NYC. If so, we stand with the CO when she comes to do the branch review. If not, we assess her when she comes to assess us. Either way, we’ll let you know.”
“What you need to know,” Rod says, “is that we aren’t doing this against Mark. We’re doing this to save him. If it turns out that he’s gotten the CO all wrong, that she’s good at this job, and she can grow the company and help each branch, we don’t want to be left in the cold because Mark’s acting like an ass. If he’s called this right, if she really is a disaster and makes a major mistake, then at least we will have come to that conclusion from a professional basis, not a personal one. We will focus on what she does for the company, not her background, not the stories we’ve heard.”
I nod. “Remember, two months, 3%. Atlanta went from last in Bonds Enforcement to second. She worked with Javier to get everything he’s been begging for over the last six months, which means she took on the Leadership and got them to agree with what she wanted. The woman has power. She used it on Javi’s behalf. We should not be shut out because Mark won’t work with her. “
“And the two biggest things you should never forget,” Rodney says. He waits for every man to look at him. “One: she’s Hector’s partner, and he doesn’t tolerate disrespect of her.”
Everyone shivers. I never want to meet Hector again. I hope he chooses not to come to Boston with her.
“Two: the rumors are she’s Ranger’s woman. Who wants to be the unlucky fuck that pisses her off if that’s true?” Every man is looking at his fingers or the table. “Ranger handed Mark his ass today simply because she called him and was angry or irritated about something Mark did. That’s was only one hour after they spoke. One hour.”
I can see that everyone is taking Rod’s words seriously.
“Mark’s a good leader. He’s the right man for this branch. But if we want to keep him, now is the time for us to step up and support him. Now is the time to tell our leader to step back and stop making an ass of himself. If he intends to survive this year with her in charge, he has to quit seeing the CO as a personal enemy.”
Rod takes a sip of water and looks around the table.
“Hell, Pat and I could be wrong. They may not make her a partner. She may be gone at the end of this year or whenever the Leadership Core is back together and ready to take the reins. But we shouldn’t bank on that assumption. We should move forward under the assumption that this move is permanent. If they’ve been putting the woman on the paperwork for two years, they had a long-term strategy in place. I don’t know if this is it but it very well may be. It’s Leadership Core; they don’t explain their rationale to us. They may even choose to make Mark a partner in a few years. But if Mark continues going like this, he’ll never make it.”
“This is the insurrection, guys,” I tell them. “Support the CO. Make our XO shut up about her. Tell the men to make their own opinions. Rod and I will continue to keep an ear to the ground to determine if the company is still growing like it has been. When she comes to Boston, we support and/or assess her. We follow the Trenton SOPs in regards to her. We give her every assistance of the branch. If you have questions in regards to the CO, ask me or Rod. Don’t approach Mark with it until we’re certain he’s got his shit straight. Understood?”
“HUA!” they reply quietly.
We finish our late lunch, each man consumed in his own thoughts. Rod and I have been planning this insurrection for a while, ever since he came back from Trenton. Personally, I think Mark’s chance at being a partner is shot. If they were willing to promote a woman with no experience in the position over the man they’ve chosen each time, he’s screwed himself. At this point, I think he’s fighting for his job and possibly his life.
RangeMan brotherhood applies here. We won’t let Mark hang himself, but we also won’t let him take the branch down with him.
If Mark hangs, he most assuredly hangs alone.
