39

He smiles. You have just made Mahadi a very wealthy man.

The remainder of the dinner passes pleasantly enough. You bid Mahadi good night, and climb into the back of your Cadillac. You hope you have made the right choice this evening—for MetaHuman, and for the thousands of people affected by your decision. You are keenly aware of the presence of MetaHuman's nebulous shareholders, watching you, judging you from afar.

Next Chapter

February rolls around, and you have your first formal meeting with MetaHuman's senior staff.

You take your seat at the head of the table. Your CFO, Winston Q, takes the seat immediately to your right, and Robert Leach, your assistant and the secretary of the meeting, sits at your left.

"We've undergone some changes since the last time we sat in this room," begins Winston. "We have a new CEO, and a new vision. For those who haven't yet had the pleasure, this is Neah .. Welcome. I think I speak for all of us when I say we're looking forward to working with you."

"The feeling is very much mutual," you answer.

"You've already met Claudette," Winston goes on. You raise an eyebrow at his lack of formality, but say nothing—perhaps that's the accepted custom at these top-level meetings. "Next around the table is Electra Jones, our head of security. MetaHuman being a somewhat atypical company, our security department is rather more active than those of our equivalents in other sectors. Electra is our resident spymaster, responsible for anticipating or reacting to threats to MetaHuman."

"A pleasure," says Electra, with a slight incline of her head. She is a slim, pale woman in her mid-thirties, or thereabouts. The gaze of her gray eyes never strays far from you. You have the distinct impression that she's studying you.

"And last is Brett Golightly," says Winston. "Brett is head of field operations, beneath Electra. If Electra is the brain of the security department, Brett is the hand."

"I don't actually get invited to these meetings all that often," says Brett, with an easy smile. He's muscular, with close-cropped hair; he seems very slightly ill at ease in the Hugo Boss suit he's wearing. "But Winston figured it would be a good opportunity for me to meet the new boss."

"That's everybody," says Winston. "Let's get on with some business, shall we?"

"The first item on the agenda is mine," says Electra. "We have two rival mid-level managers in HR, Stephanie Hill and Ted Nguyen, who've been at one another's throats for some time. So far, their one-upmanship has involved breaking into each other's offices to steal documents, sabotage computer files, that sort of thing."

"And you've condoned this behavior?" you ask.

"It's rather de rigueur at MetaHuman," Electra answers. "If anything, it's always been seen as an effective way of spotting the real go-getters in the company. I've maintained the facade that I know nothing about it, of course."

"So why bring it to my attention now?"

"Their efforts to sabotage each other are now extending into their private lives as well. Stephanie recently hired someone to break into Ted's apartment. Ted was out at the time, but if he'd been there, he might have been badly hurt. How do you want to respond?"