She's just finished yelling at Ashley Brandt, the far-too-zealous dock worker who just sank a d__ned shipment of clay men. Where she got the means escapes Sarah, but now she's sitting in the small warehouse the striking dockworkers have turned into a headquarters, head in her hands.
She's interrupted from her totally deserved guilt and self-loathing by the sounds of someone arguing with some of the dock workers.
"-need to see the person in charge. Someone needs to answer for this."
She stands up and walks outside. "What seems to be the problem?" she asks, looking around.
"I think we disagree on the best way to conduct a riot. You and your people recently sunk a shipment of Clay Men, and I'm wondering what the goal was."
"I wasn't able to get what the culprit thought they'd be accomplishing out of them, either. It wasn't on my orders, and I've made d__n sure they know it. Want to come inside?"
And back into the warehouse, into what used to be the foreman's office. She's not particularly left any mark on it.
"Why did you come here? Not many people care about the clay men, except as lost profits."
“That was the plan. It wasn’t my best plan. You’re not what I expected.”
Which was probably for the best. This may have been his worst plan in months.
"The culprit was a young idiot who thinks all their problems are the fault of the people they can see, not those actually making the decisions. What were you expecting?"
“It might be misguided for other reasons, but as solutions to their problem go, it wouldn’t fail completely. I’m glad you don’t support those methods.”
"I've found revolutionary-style violence to be... Not to my taste. And infighting doesn't accomplish much. Still, it's a problem that I clearly don't have the authority I thought I did - I'd assumed someone would've at least approached me first with a scheme like that."
“It’s not a distinction the Unfinished Men tend to care about. After this, they’ll see the dock workers as the enemy.”
"That's one concern. The other is that it'll be harder now to get the Clay Men and dock workers in the same union."
"Why are you in charge of this strike? Do you think you can sway them?"
"I used to be a dock worker, and I've been one of the strike organizers since I was old enough. Now I'm a respected zee-captain," she says that faintly sarcastically, "So not all of the workers trust me as much, but I have more leverage to argue with the other captains and the Masters."
"I can convince the Clay Men of a lot, but I'm not going to work against their interests. We need to make sure your side holds up their end."
"Are any of them philanthropists? The Clay Men could always use more help."
"They're overworked and underpaid. That tends to put a damper on philanthropy. But I'll see, there's always some young idealist. And I know someone who is fairly big on philanthropy, though not particularly involved with the docks, I can introduce you to her."
"See if you can get the Clay Men to agree to at least cooperate on strikes, if not outright work together. I've made overtures, but they don't trust me."
"I'm not exactly going anywhere. Hopefully. It'll probably take a few days to talk to everyone, though. When's good for you?"
"There's a match at university this weekend that I'm supposed to crash. Next week would be best."