“All right. Miss Davenport, may I call you Lark?” Hercules asks.
I stretch my lips into a small smile. Now, that’s the Hercules I remember. “Yes, you may, Mr. Valentine.”
“Call me Hercules.”
“Yes, Hercules.”
“Good. Listen, I heard how you fixed our problems with Killer Firewall. Thank you for that. I like what you’ve said during our call. I want you to pitch some ideas to me on Friday.”
Friday. Aren’t you out of the country?
“Um, sure.”
“All right. I have to go. And, Lark, call me if you need anything. Mason will give you my direct line.”
When I say thank you, it sounds like someone else is speaking. I cannot believe what just happened. I’m in so deep. My brother has spent his entire career trying to obliterate VTI. His vengeance can’t be quelled. But I’m staying. I’m not willing to leave Hercules Valentine’s world so fast.
* * *
The meeting is over,and I rush to the bathroom. In the stall, I pull down my jeans. The crotch of my panties is soaked.
“Not good. This is not good, Pais,” I whisper.
All it took was a phone call to be turned on by Hercules Valentine all over again. What am I going to do when we finally come eye to eye? I couldn’t figure out if he was out of town or not. I dare not ask Mason. I don’t want to give him any hint that I had prior knowledge of Hercules’s whereabouts. And maybe he’s planning on using TRANSPORT to conference into our meeting. It’s not as though VTI doesn’t use GIT’s technology. They have Killer Firewall.
What are you doing, Paisley?
I shake my head. We have a whopping hour and a half for lunch. Now is the time to collect my purse and coat and leave, never to return. Max told me to use my instincts to abort the mission if I have to. My instincts are screaming,Get out!I can’t get away with this. Max is going to kill me. I’ll turn my cellphone back on when I get home.
After a few more deep breaths, I flush the toilet I didn’t use and walk out of the stall. My image staring at me through the mirror looks a mess. My face is red. I don’t look well.
The brain.I’m not close to getting access to the brain. I can hack into it, though. I’m the only person in the world who knows how to penetrate Killer Firewall undetected. Not even Max knows that. It’s my secret.
I pat my face with a wet paper towel before walking out of the restroom, resolved to end this while working during lunch. With everyone gone, I can break into the brain and search for the code that was stolen from my grandfather’s library. Then, the end. Lark Davenport will make her escape, never to be heard from again.
When I make it back to the pod, the entire office is empty.Damn. Stealing what I need is too easy.I’m sort of surprised there aren’t any stragglers. We’re all programmers. The hardest thing to do is tear a programmer away from her computer. But there’s so much diversion in the VTI building, from the gym to the sleeping pods and cafés, that I can see why no one sticks around during lunch.
Delicate hands take hold of my shoulders. “So,” Lake whispers in my ear.
I jump, startled, as my heart beats a mile a minute. She almost caught me.
“I like him. I like him a lot. Yeah, I think he might like you, but I like him.” She’s still whispering.
I can’t help but grin from ear to ear as I face her. Our noses are close. “Would the ‘him’ you’re referring to be Mason?”
Lark drops her forehead on my tabletop. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…” She sighs. “What am I going to do?” With a sudden jolt she lifts her head. “Come on. Let’s go eat lunch.”
I take my purse out of my desk drawer. “I’m starving.”
And just like that, my plan to search for the code and bring my job at VTI to a screeching halt is abandoned.
* * *
The food court is crowded,but there are a handful of empty small round tables on the outer edges. After Lake and I each grab a Greek salad at the eatery called Salad Life, we seize a table. As soon as we sit, she talks about Mason.
“And I’m sorry about how I acted this morning when he mentioned travel to London and New Delhi.”
“No apology necessary.” I take another bite of one of the most delicious salads I ever tasted. “And this…” I point to the greens in front of me. “Thank you for the recommendation.”
