Islands of Hope

Chapter 51

Derek stood at the head of the table, in front of the large window Ukrit had forced Kendra through. A smile played across his face as he looked at those sitting in front of him. "It gives me great pleasure to announce that, by unanimous decision, the new Chief Executive of Princips Limited is Martha McGovern."

With rapturous applause, Martha stood and took her place at the top of the table. Marcus even added a whoop as she got there; confused glances embarrassed him, but he had got his point across. "Thank you, thank you," Martha said, a steely resolve coming across her. This should have been a point when she was most proud, a moment to hold back the tears of joy, but with the situation in Slum S15-R5 in Sector 45 it felt hollow. The fighting was so far away, but to Martha, it seemed like it was only next door. "I am so proud to be leading this company, leading the world," she paused. Was she really the leader of the world? She had been handed a job, won a place of power through a presentation and ability to answer a few tough questions. Was this enough to be crowned ruler of the world? It had to be. She had a job to do, the opportunity to make the world a better place, more just, more fair. As Martha stared at faces in front of her, willing her to go on, she knew this was the time for one of those rousing speeches, the sort she hated in films, the sort that suddenly turned a ragtag bunch with little spirit and even less skill into a formidable fighting force. If it worked in the movies, maybe it could work here.

She breathed in deeply, then said, "for too long we have been complicit, in selling those from the slums into slavery, in letting abuse happen in our cities, in a system where the rich have the power and the poor are left to rot. With me in charge, all that will change, we will come together, as one world, we shall end the tyranny, we shall bring the Earth into a new dawn. Now, my first act as Chief Executive will be to stop this silly battle in Sector 45."

Despite there only being five other people in the room, the applause bounced off the ceiling, reverberated off walls. Casper was the first to stand, followed quickly by Marcus, then the rest of the Board followed suit. After about a minute, where Martha could not hide the smile on her face, they sat down.

One lonely voice, that of Jenny Du Sousa, said, "don't we need to vote on stopping the battle?"

Derek replied, "seeing as Kendra went behind our back and gave the Chief Executive full power, in this instance, I don't think we do."