ALICE Ch 181

“OK, listen. No more games. You know how Annette started all of this out of thirst, right? She said she wanted to promote mainstream acceptance of women with penises, but we know the truth, right? She founded FUTA to fuck younger women.”

“To get fucked,” Erica corrects casually.

“What?”

“She does not have one,” Erica replies with a shrug. “I have heard things. She wants to take it. Understandable,” she adds.

Meri glares at her. “OK, shut up. She wants to get with these women. Fine. I’m not really judging that. I was a CCL girl. Anyway, Annette has friends. People like her. People like Irina Orlova. I don’t know all the names and I’m not naming names,” she adds with another sharp look. “But what would happen if you had all these horny women with VIP access to the FUTA camp and those girls at promotional activities and stuff? All these fucking entitled, thirsty bougie cougars. Can you picture it?”

Erica grimaces, sobering. The bar doesn’t seem quite as charming anymore. She sighs deeply.

“Something happened,” she says, looking at her drink.

“Something?” Meri raises an eyebrow.

Erica squints at her. “More than one thing?” she asks, her heart sinking.

“I don’t have the details, but legal has been looking real busy lately,” Meri mutters. “The rumors are that it’s just a lot of harassment and people being creeps, nothing dark, but the internal comms are saying that we’re looking at a possible class action. And FUTA will do anything to keep that from going public.”

“Godverdomme fucking shit,” Erica mutters and takes a deep gulp.

“Yeah.” Meri snorts and drains her glass. “That’s what I said too. You got it from here?”

“I understand that they must appear strong for investors, but to risk Alice Wilde?”

“Alice Wilde might be a big deal in F1, but she’s still kind of like, unproven. And F1 isn’t a big deal to us. This is a global brand, Erica. It’s growing. Expanding. But F1 is expensive, and it’s an investment. It’s going to take time to start bringing in real money. Action, crashes, that’s all cool F1 stuff. Whatever. But a team that can’t make a car go? At the same time that this is breaking? Because that’s the expectation. They want to keep it a secret, but they aren’t betting on it. FUTA Racing can survive losing Alice Wilde and even Irina Orlova. But it can’t survive a corporate restructuring if heads roll after this blows up. That’s the worst-case scenario, but that’s probably what Glynda Darcy is afraid of. Shafting Alice Wilde is the lesser risk. She didn’t know what she was walking into. I don’t think she’s one of the bad guys. She’s just in over her head,” Meri says, signally for another drink.

“Glynda Darcy has twenty years of experience in motorsports.”

“But this isn’t motorsports. That's what you people don’t understand,” Meri snaps. “It’s FUTA. It’s FUTA first and racing second. It’s right there in the name. OK? Deal with it.”