Page 34 of Interning For A Billionaire

Con was practical, direct and to the point where Bern was pure Silicon Valley eccentricity. He meditated, was fully vegan and lived off the grid on a farm in some remote Californian location nobody had the co-ordinates for. At least, this was what the rumor was.

It was still dark when my phone rang on Monday morning.

“I wake you?” Bernard asked without so much as a hello. I recognized his voice straight away.

“Nope,” I said. “Getting ready to go for a quick scramble.”

“Come over to my place on Lake Tahoe,” he said. “We’ve got some great spots, you can climb here. I’ll take you there.”

“Today?”

“Right now. Spend the night. I’ve got some things I want to talk to you about.”

I couldn’t get away for two days, but I’d known the climbing on Lake Tahoe was spectacular and I’d heard his mountain getaway was incredible. I called Maya and told her about my change of plans. I packed quickly and jumped in the car, eager to get a head start on the trip.

As I was heading out of the city, my phone rang.

It was Josie.

“I heard you’re off to see Bernard Sanger?” she asked.

“That’s right. Why?”

“I thought you should know… there has been a query on the last invoice.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I checked now to be sure. Belle called them last week to follow up and she was told there was an ‘issue’ that needed addressing and that Con would be in touch.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” I said with a frown. At the mention of Belle’s name, I almost became distracted for a moment, our little escapade in the office threatening to interrupt my thinking, but I managed to stay on course.

“What do think is going on?” Josie asked.

“I’ll call Adam and find out.”

Adam was our lead developer on the Glint project. He’d been running a range of tests on an ecommerce section of their site and the project was scheduled to run for several months.

“Adam!” I said as soon as he picked up.

“Is there anything I should know about on Glint?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Apparently there has been a query lodged? What’s that about?”

He gave a sigh. “Those guys are real hard arses, you know? They’ve been giving me a hard time about some of the data. Questioning it, saying it isn’t true. But I’ve had Queen take a look at it as well, she says we’re spot on.”

Queen was our nickname for Barbara Hill, an Oxford graduate from their top mathematics program. She was a data scientist and worked from home, avoiding the office as much as possible. But if she said the numbers were right, then they were.

“Okay,” I said, ending the call and focusing on the road.

It was only a few hours’ drive and I started to see the mountains in the distance. Bernard had sent me a pin and I headed into the forest, following his directions until I reached a turn off to his home, an imposing mansion of rock and wood among the trees. I parked outside, got out and stretched my legs, taking a deep breath of mountain air.

The front door opened, and Bernard came out, dressed in shorts and flip-flops, not looking at all like the hi-tech genius I knew he was.

“Mike!” he said, holding out his hand and giving mine a firm shake. “Good to see you!” as if we were old friends. “Come inside, let me show you around. You hungry? I thought we’d grab something to eat before I take you out for some climbing?”

“Sounds great!”

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