The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4884

"NO MEANS NO, VES! I VETO THE RECRUITMENT OF JOCASTA CLIVE!"

"What?! Do you know what you're doing! You're throwing away an opportunity to recruit a talented and motivated Journeyman! Jocasta is not an average mech designer, you know! She has enjoyed the best mech design education that the Clive Consortium can offer. She has managed to advance to Journeyman many years ago and has made enough accumulations to start thinking about advancing to Senior. If we bring her over to our clan and allow her to flourish, I think we can provide her with the conditions to realize her design philosophy and advance to Master Mech Designer within a century. It's brilliant!"

"NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BRING THAT WOMAN INTO OUR CLAN, ESPECIALLY NOT A MEMBER OF THE CLIVE CONSORTIUM!"

Ves tried his best to convince his wife of the merits of recruiting Jocasta Clive. He truly believed that she was sincere enough towards starting anew in his clan, but Gloriana continued to remain stubborn about this issue.

"I am not the only mech designer who is skeptical about recruiting Jocasta Clive, Ves!" Gloriana hissed as she vented her anger to an extent. "Juliet has informed all our fellow Journeymen about your ideas. Do you know how they responded to your notion?"

"Uhhh…"

"Ketis said 'no way'. The Voiken siblings shook their heads. The Power Pair said that our clan shouldn't host anyone named Clive. Miles Tovar thinks that it is a better idea to recruit a mediocre Journeyman. Merrill O'Brian suggests that we should take our time and wait for less problematic candidates. The only lead designer among us who hasn't expressed disapproval towards Jocasta Clive is Cormaunt Hempkamp, but that is because he thinks he is too new to our clan to add his voice to this discussion."

"So?"

"NO ONE WANTS TO WORK WITH JOCASTA CLIVE!"

"How can you all say that when you aren't even prepared to give her a chance?!"

"SHE'S A CLIVE!"

Ves tried his best to maintain his composure and stand his ground. "I know what she is, thank you very much. I may have met her only once, but I can read her pretty well. Regardless of what she has said, I can truly feel that she shared our passion for mechs. She is much more of a mech designer than a servant of the Clive Consortium. So long as she manages to pass Goldie's test, I don't think we should have any concerns about her lingering attachment to where she came from. The Larkinsons will become her new family from that point onwards and that can never be changed."

"NO! I HAVE TOLERATED YOUR HAREBRAINED DECISIONS FAR TOO MUCH, BUT I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BRING A POISONOUS WOMAN IN OUR CLAN! NO OTHER JOURNEYMAN WANTS TO WORK WITH HER, SO CEASE YOUR STUPID THOUGHTS AND FIND MORE HONEST MECH DESIGNERS!"

That pretty much ended the discussion. Faced with the near-unanimous disapproval of every Journeyman in his clan, Ves had to reject any further action towards Jocasta Clive.

For one reason or another, Gloriana refused to allow him to meet with Jocasta in person, so he could only arrange his subordinates to figure out a way to gently suspend any actions towards recruiting her into the clan.

Though Ves was unable to recruit Jocasta Clive, he still had hopes of reeling in Beatrice Hendrix.

He was afraid that Gloriana would find fault with her for whatever reason, so he tried his best to evade any mention of Madame Hendrix.

Ves first waited a few days to see whether Beatrice Hendrix would take the initiative to contact the Larkinson Clan.

When that did not happen, he tried to send her a message and invite her to another talk.

The response he received was less than solid.

"Let me be plain with you, Patriarch Larkinson." Beatrice Hendrix's projection spoke to him. "I am still ambivalent towards your offer. I will not lie to you and say that I have no interest in the rich conditions that you have offered, but your demands are too excessive in my opinion. I cannot embrace the idea of joining your clan on a permanent basis and surrendering many of the rights that ordinary partners are entitled to when they work together with their peers. You and your clan retain too much control than I am comfortable with. If a dispute ever happens between you and I, how will that be resolved? Will you impose your authority on me and force me to work on projects against my will?"

"That will never happen!" Ves protested. "We expect all Larkinsons to do their duty, but how exactly they go about it is not as important. The lead designers of our Design Department enjoy a wide degree of autonomy. While I do admit to imposing additional controls when it is prudent such as in the case of our neural interface specialist, I have no desire to boss you all around too much."

Beatrice did not look convinced. "Those are empty words, Patriarch Larkinson. It is unquestionable that you are both the founder of the Larkinson Clan, the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan and the head designer of the Design Department of the Living Mech Corporation. These identities bestow you with an unparalleled amount of authority, allowing you to do virtually anything you want. The soft power you hold among the people you have recruited and brought up is also great. This makes it so that it is too difficult to oppose or object to your decisions."

Ves looked exasperated. Why did Beatrice Hendrix obsess over this issue so much? Couldn't she trust him to do what was right for his clan and his people? He never treated his clansmen particularly badly! He had always been generous towards them as far as he knew.

"Our clan may be young, but it can still grow and evolve. If you join our clan and work towards increasing your authority, you will have the power to change how we work over time. I may be in charge of everything, but that doesn't mean I have time to micromanage all of my subordinates. I respect mech designers such as you and fully expect that you will be able to take care of yourselves. If you do not believe my words, then I can offer you the contact information of my fellow Journeyman Mech Designers. They should be able to provide you with a much better idea on their actual work conditions."

A short pause ensued as Beatrice Hendrix thought deeply on his offer.

This was an important moment in their talks. _{freёweɓnovel.com}

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