"And I'll get the job!" Belle snapped. "And maybe you think I won't take it!"
"Yeah?" came Garlock's searing thought. "You'd do anything to get it and to keep it. Yeah. I do think."
"Oh?" Belle's body stiffened, her face hardened. "I've heard stories, of course, but I couldn't quite ... but surely, he can't be that stupid—to think he can buy me like so many pounds of calf-liver?"
"He surely is. He does. And it works. That is, if he's ever missed, nobody ever heard of it."
"But how could a man in such a big job possibly get away with such foul stuff as that?"
"Because all the SSE is interested in is money, and Alonzo P. Ferber is a tremendously able top executive. In the big black-and-red money books he's always 'way, 'way up in the black, and nobody cares about his conduct."
Belle, even though she was already convinced, glanced questioningly at Evans.
"That's it, Miss Bellamy. That's it, in a precise, if somewhat crude, nutshell."
"That's that, then. But just how, Clee—if he's as smart as you say he is—do you think you can make him fire you?"