Margaret Donovan Stark sipped her glass of wine as she listened to the man, Senator Sloane, sitting across from her. “I trust the package was delivered and everything is in order?” she asked when she had enough of him babbling on.

“Yes it did. It arrived all intact and we had it set up in no time. You should come and see it. We’re just in….”

“I don’t want to know,” Maggie said. “Plausible deniability and all of that.”

Sloane nodded. “I understand. We do have two subjects ready for the field tests, but we will soon be acquiring more.”
Margaret nodded. “Please keep me informed how the tests go.”

Sloane smiled. “Of course. I understand wanting to see the fruits of….”

Margaret held up a hand to stop him. “It was the company not me.” She didn’t want her name associated with the project. The company being associated was fine. If information about the project ever got out, she could always say it had been developed before she took over Stark Inc. The blame and the fallout would be placed on her predecessor, not her.

Sloane smiled. “I understand.”

“Do you have reliable people running this project of yours?”

“Of course,” he assured her. “I have complete faith in the director. He’s most efficient and productive.” Despite a small setback, Ezra Kane has been a competent project director. Sloane hoped he continued to be so.

Margaret finished off the last of her glass of wine. “Good. It can be so hard to find reliable people.” Not to mention hard to get rid of others. She had been trying to get rid of Potts since day one and had been unsuccessful so far. The board loved the woman and would not let Margaret make a move against her. Maggie suspected the woman was leaking company information to Tony, which would come as no surprise. Loyalty such as Potts had for Maggie’s brother was hard to come by and buy.

“Thank you for lunch, Senator. I must get back. I have a company to run.”

“Maggie, it was my pleasure as always,” he said as he stood up.

“As mine,” Maggie said as she stood up. She shook Sloane’s hand. “Until next time.”

“Of course,” he said and watched her leave. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “Start the field test.”