Petunia

Petunia sat neatly on her uncomfortable plastic chair, hands folded in her lap. The table at whose head she sat was similarly cheap, a laminated-chipboard trestle with folding legs she'd acquired from a charity shop on her last trip to Rindburg, but it fit in the team's cargo allowance along with the chairs, and now they could have real team meetings. In front of her on the tabletop was her copy of the agenda she'd printed out, smartly headed with Tenebrae's logo. Her pen, with a pink rose motif along its barrel, lay on the paper, marking their place.

She looked around the table. Phoebe sat on her left, with Stefan and Ches beyond her. Elice sat at the far end of the table. On the right-hand side were Tamra and Petra. Cy was off somewhere doing media things specifically for Phoebe, and Petunia was pleased about having kept the tall man at arm's length. He wasn't part of the team, and for all the money he was bringing in, she didn't trust him with actual team decisions.

Adelie finished speaking and looked to Petunia. When it had been agreed that Petunia would chair team meetings, Phoebe had taken her aside and asked her to make especially sure that Adelie actually spoke on vet business. She'd had to pick her moments, but once she'd got Adelie talking she'd found her rhythm well enough.

Petunia moved her pen to the last item on the agenda. "Any other business?"

Stefan immediately lifted his hand from where it had been resting on the table. Petunia tensed. She knew Phoebe was a bit frustrated with the data tech's proddiness, but she couldn't just cut him off. She waved for him to speak.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As always when face-to-face, he chose his words slowly. "We haven't discussed yet about the development programme for the mid-season break."

Something in the middle of Petunia's lower back tingled, just slightly. After Achaea, there were two more races, then the 'break' – actually just an extra third week between races ten and eleven. She'd been looking forward to having a rest. Trying not to frown too hard, she sought Phoebe's eyes. The rider nodded.

How to handle this? As brightly as she could, Petunia faced Stefan and said, "What do you need?"

Stefan blinked at her, chewing on the question for a moment. "Without seeing the HQ, I think it will be difficult to make a list. We can use the extra week's training to fine-tune the model and get colder-weather data. So far we have only collected data from hot races. Well, and Calabria, but I think that will not be too useful to rely on."

Petunia nodded, resisting the urge to correct him on 'HQ'. The farm certainly didn't merit that label, but it did make sense to use the time to take some more readings from Soot. Presumably the other teams, with eight- and nine-figure budgets and dozens of staff, didn't just all go on holiday for a week. "Well, I've got to go back to Rindburg on Tuesday for some finance meetings. Can you- can we get you on a plane next week?" It was hard to remember that the team would be paying for the expense. Hopefully it would fit within their expanding budget – that was what the Wednesday meetings were to figure out.

"I'll check with my boss and have an answer for you as soon as I can," Stefan said.

Phoebe was pulling a worried face, trying to get Petunia's attention, but she shook her head at the rider. It was going to be embarrassing showing Stefan the farm, and Petunia didn't relish the prospect, but she'd find a way to make do. It would be worse if Phoebe started apologising in advance. Stefan's eagerness might irk Phoebe, but Petunia could see it was born of a sincere desire to help the team win.