In addition to the records and CDs, there was an entire rack of spells. Most were MSI spells, in their new packaging, but there were a few copies of the spell Jake had found. I caught Selwyn's eye and nodded.
He instantly dropped the smooth salesman's air and grew cold. His eyes looked like chips of flint, and I was glad I wasn't the one he was mad at. "So, you're selling that trash," he said, looming over Marco. If I wasn't mistaken, he'd actually grown a few inches. Were elves stretchy?
Marco wasn't easily intimidated. In fact, he looked bored. "Yeah, so?"
"So, it violates every ethical standard our people live by."
"Hey, man, I don't make judgments. I just sell what the people want."
"And how badly do the people want it?"
"We've sold a few. Not so much lately. Word's out it doesn't work so well."
"Does that mean you knowingly sell shoddy merchandise?"
Marco shrugged. "Caveat emptor."
"Word gets out you're selling bad stuff, and soon no one is buying any stuff from you."
"I'm just the distributor."
"We could find another distributor in this area. You aren't making a lot of sales for us."
"And that means I'm not selling enough to miss you if you go. You're gonna have to shake things up to make my customers happy. This whole
make-the-world-a-better-place routine is stale."
"I can think of one very quick, very easy way to improve the world," Selwyn said, with a layer of iron under his casual tone.
Marco snorted. "Yeah, like the good guys would do that."
"We have before. You've been around long enough to remember that. When it all comes down, you'll want to be on the right side." I wasn't sure what he meant, but Marco seemed to. He paled, but kept his defiant stance.
Selwyn gestured to me, and we left the store. "Fortunately, he's in the minority," he said as we climbed back on the flying carpet. "We'll need to keep an eye on shops like that. It looks like that's the primary distribution point."
"But it's good to hear sales aren't going so well."
"Just as long as he doesn't fix the bugs. If he gets it to work, we're in trouble."
fourteen
I got to work the next morning—after a rare subway ride without Owen at my side—to find an e-mail notifying me of a meeting in Merlin's office. I hurried upstairs. Owen was already there, looking shattered and uncharacteristically unkempt, his clothes wrinkled, his hair mussed, and a dark shadow on his jaw. I thought I recognized his tie from the day before. In a strange, almost disturbing way, that look was very appealing on him. Gemma needed to find me a prospect soon to jolt me out of this crazy crush.
"So, that's why you weren't on the subway," I remarked, trying not to pant or drool as I took a seat at Merlin's conference table.
He rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, I was here all night, working on a counterspell."
Mr. Hartwell and Gregor then joined us, along with a gnome I didn't recognize. He was introduced to me as Dortmund, head of Corporate Accounting.
Merlin had just taken his seat at the table when a plump woman bustled in. "Sorry I'm late," she said. "Guess I should have seen that delay coming, huh?" She turned to me and said, "Katie, I don't believe we've met. I'm Minerva Felps, head of P and L."
She wasn't what I expected of a seer. I was thinking more of a mysterious Gypsy woman like the fortune-teller at the county fair, or maybe someone ethereal and vague. But she looked more like a busybody aunt who made it a point to know everyone's business. Then again, I suppose that was basically her job.
Merlin called the meeting to order. He seemed to fit in this place and time better than the last time I'd seen him. He was losing a little of his lost quality. "Given that it's been a month since we started more specifically addressing the possible threat from our new competition, I felt it was an opportune time to regroup and see where we stand. Mr. Hartwell?"
"Sales are doing well, better than before we started Miss Chandler's marketing campaign. I don't know how it's affecting our competition's sales, but our bottom line is only being affected in a good way. We've seen a few of the competing products in stores where we have accounts, but none in any of our key accounts.
They're mostly in out-of-the-way places that most proper magic folk wouldn't frequent."
"We're getting positive feedback from the store owners," I added. "Whether or not it directly addresses the threat, it might be good to keep the marketing campaign going.
It certainly seems to have helped keep those spells out of the mainstream."
Owen massaged his temples with his thumbs. He looked so tired he didn't even blush before speaking. "What helps us there is that it isn't a very good spell. It's a big energy drain, and it doesn't work as well as you'd expect from a commercially produced spell. He was in a rush to get something into the market. But I know him well enough to know he won't stop there. He'll get it worked out, and then we'll have problems."
"How are you doing on the counterspell?" Merlin asked.
"I've got a counterspell for this one, as of about five this morning. I'll just have to get it to Practical Magic for distribution. But it's only good until he gets the problems corrected. Then I'll have to start all over again." He didn't sound like he looked forward to that.
"Is there any insight from Prophets and Lost?"
Minerva shook her head. "Sorry, but this one's a big blur. There aren't any signs at all, let alone clear ones. Anything could happen. Now, we're not picking up on any major disasters, and civilization does seem to be more or less intact for the foreseeable future, so I doubt we've got a major apocalypse on our hands that will change life as we know it. But I can't tell if the good guys or the bad guys are going to win this one." She shrugged. "That makes us about as useless as a screen door on a submarine, but there you go."
Merlin laced his fingers together on top of the table. "There we have it. We seem to have stood our ground well enough to avert an immediate crisis, but the danger certainly hasn't passed. Mr. Palmer, could you anticipate what might be done to correct the spell?"
"I could try to correct it myself. I doubt he'd take a vastly different approach than I would. We were trained by the same people, after all. I'm just not sure I'm comfortable doing so. It gets into an area of magic I'd rather not delve into very deeply." If I wasn't mistaken, there was fear in his eyes, but he quickly cast his gaze down to the table, so I couldn't see for sure.
Merlin's eyes grew gentle. "Perhaps you can set this task for your staff, then supervise them closely."
Owen nodded without saying anything or even looking up. I remembered Rod mentioning that they were sometimes concerned about what Owen was capable of. It looked like Owen was concerned as well. Did that mean he was afraid he'd become evil if he played with darker magic? I couldn't imagine him being capable of harming anyone, but there was a lot I didn't know about magic or about Owen. I reminded myself that I'd known him for more than a month now, and all I knew about him as a person was that he liked baseball.
"What can Sales do to anticipate a future crisis?" Merlin asked.
Mr. Hartwell looked grim. "We're continuing to put pressure on store owners, make them aware of the quality differences, but we can't keep singing that tune if he fixes the spell. Meanwhile, there's the risk they'll call our bluff if we threaten to pull out of their stores. As long as we have spells in those stores, we have an excuse to investigate them. Once we pull out, we won't be able to track what he's selling. At least now we know where to go to get our hands on anything the moment it hits the market."
Merlin turned to Dortmund, the accounting gnome. "This may require additional budget. How are we set for funding?"
"We've got plenty of gold reserves. Our stocks hadn't been doing so well, but thanks to a hot tip from Minerva's folks, we're on an upswing. Bottom line is, we've got the money to do what we need to do. If we don't spend it now, it may not matter much in the future. Like Hartwell said, sales are good. We're not hurting."