Page 12 of Gifted & Talented

Then, finally, something useful appeared. An idea, half-formed. The holy glow of revelation. Epiphany! Something no less criminal than killing her business partner, but certainly more useful. Something that wouldn’t cost her a billion—tenbillion—dollars. Something that would make all of this worthwhile.

Empowered, desperate, and doomed from the moment the light turned on, Meredith turned to the observation room’s door.

“Mer,” said Ward, leaping to block her first step the moment he caught the glint of mania on her face. “No. Mer.”

“Move,” said Meredith.

“Meredith, listen to me,look me in the eyes. Whatever you’re thinking of doing—”

“Edward,” Meredith coolly replied, “if you don’t get out of the way, I’m going through you.”

“Meredith. Please.” Ward’s voice reached a rare edge of panic. “What areyou going to do? You can’t interfere with the clinical process. It’s unethical. It’s… it’s fuckingillegal,” he spluttered, “and it’s the first step to felony fraud.”

“I can fix it,” she said simply. He wouldn’t understand, but why should he? For better or worse, she was the one branded for life by the letters CEO.

“How?” demanded Ward. “What are you going to do, falsify the results? Threaten the patient? Either way, you’d go to prison, we’d lose everything—”

“Why? Are you planning to turn me in?” she asked him.

“I—” He balked at her, then seemed to switch tack, appealing desperately to her logic. “Meredith. You know you can’t interfere.”

“The whole point was always to interfere, Ward. It was always the plan to intervene, specifically to make thingsbetter. Which I can’t do,” she gritted out, “if these tests aren’tmeaningfullyconclusive.”

“Meredith—”

“Do you want to move out of your parents’ basement, Ward?”

“Justthinkabout what you’re doing—”

“My father founded Wrenfare on a hunch, with no concrete proof that he could bring any of it to market, with everyone in the industry claiming that kind of deep learning was impossible. You really think he was worried about ethics?”

“A human being is not anoperational system—”

“They sure aren’t, Ward, and that’s the goddamn point. The whole world changed because some guy said ‘Fuck the rules, I have faith in this,’ and now I’m saying it. I’m saying it because I know I can make this woman’s life better. Iknowit.” She felt her expression sour. “Do you not have faith in me? In what we built?”

“Of course I do,obviouslyI do—”

“Then get out of the way, Ward.”

He gave her a pained look. But there was a reason she’d plucked him from obscurity. There was a reason he’d failed and failed and failed before, and only Meredith had gotten him here. He knew his role, and he knew hers.

“Don’t be stupid, that’s all I’m saying,” Ward managed eventually, proving her right.

“Move,” replied Meredith.

Ward stared at her a moment.

Then he let out a breath and took one step to his left.

By then, Meredith’s heart was pounding in her chest. She took a step, then another, heading straight for the door.

“Cut the camera,” she said as she passed, leaving Ward to suppress a grimace.

“Meredith, I am not your fuckinghenchman—”

“No, but you’re an accomplice now, Edward, so wise up,” she called over her shoulder, just before the door slammed shut. Her heels clipped into the linoleum hallway, echoing down the corridor until she reached the conference room.

She took a deep breath, then shoved open the door.

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