Chapter 16 #2
German sat at the end of the second row in front of the stage. I could just make him out from where Jack and I stood. Schubert sat with him, the glow of his phone lighting up his face. From the look of things, it didn’t seem like German was going to budge, let alone start asking pointed questions.
I forced myself to concentrate on Chester’s presentation.
“As you can see, the app works silently in the background of your phone,” he said, clicking through a few slides that were pretty, but didn’t really explain much.
“It tracks your previous activities and saves items that you’ve browsed across multiple platforms. The fact that it can curate a shopping list of items across a wide range of sites makes it unique among apps of this sort. ”
I didn’t really see the point of an app like that, but a lot of people in the audience gazed up at the screen as if they were seeing a revelation. From the look of things, they understood the technical wizardry of the whole thing way more than I did.
“We expect to roll out implementation of this app before the end of the month,” Chester went on.
“Just in time for the start of the election cycle,” Jack muttered beside me.
I danced nervously from one foot to the other, staring at German and willing him to raise his hand and ask the pertinent questions.
The farther Chester got into his presentation, the more my anxiety rose as the reporter just sat there, doing and saying nothing.
This was supposed to be our foolproof plan.
This was supposed to be the way Jack and I gained the leverage to be together, whether Salisbury wanted us to or not.
I couldn’t just stand there watching my future slip away. German wasn’t going to do anything. He was clearly friends with Salisbury and not on our side at all. I had to do something.
Chester reached his final slide and started into a summary of everything he’d just said with, “And because of this, I believe, and Senator Salisbury believes, too, that the Fast Track app will revolutionize the way we consume and the quality of our lives.”
I didn’t think, I just acted. I grabbed the mic Steven had sitting out on his table, turned it on, and stepped toward the stage.
“Mr. Monk,” I said, my voice amplifying so loud it caused feedback in the speakers for a second.
People flinched. Chester whipped around to face me. German casually glanced my way. And Salisbury looked ready to order someone to shoot me.
“Mr. Monk,” I repeated, regulating my tone a little more and walking closer to the stage. “Is it true that this app has a hidden feature that tracks users’ locations at all times and that it can’t be turned off?”
“Um…I….” Chester glanced to Salisbury for help as people in the room murmured.
“Is it true that the tracking aspect of the app gives you, or rather, Senator Salisbury access to private data that would allow him to influence the upcoming election?” I went on.
More people murmured.
Salisbury stepped forward to say, “Get this insane omega out of here at once!”
I was scared shitless, but I kept going. Someone had to. German continued to just sit there, watching with casual disinterest.
“Is it true that Mr. Monk has donated well over the legal limit in contributions to your campaign, Senator Salisbury, and that you’ve promised him lucrative government contracts in return?”
The crowd definitely reacted to that.
I felt Jack walk up behind me just as Salisbury shouted, “Security! Take this omega away! I’ll have you charged with slander and conspiracy!”
Shit. I hadn’t thought this through at all.
I turned around and glanced up at Jack for help. I was in so far over my head that I couldn’t breathe.
Jack rested a hand on my arm. “I think we should get out of here,” he said, my terror reflected in his eyes, even though his stance remained strong.
The room was in full chaos mode by that point. Someone closer to the stage took up my line of questioning and had Chester looking pale and sick, but since the man didn’t have a mic, I couldn’t hear him.
Three seconds later, I didn’t have a mic either. Amelia was there, which I hadn’t been aware of, and she plucked the mic out of my hand, turning it off.
“This is serious, Quincy,” she said.
I was in deep shit.
“I’m sorry,” I said over the noise in the room as Amelia pointed for me to walk with her toward the door to the service corridor. “Something has to be done, though. They can’t get away with this. They can’t keep me and Jack apart.”
I couldn’t catch my breath. Panic threatened to swallow me as we walked to the hallway, Jack coming with us.
I was spiraling, and I knew it. Even though the situation had nothing to do with bonds or bonding, that broken part of me had adrenaline firing through my system, pushing me to the brink of a total breakdown.
As soon as we reached the hallway, Amelia turned to me and snapped, “I supported you, Quincy. I stood up for you and kept you on my team when Senator Salisbury wanted you gone. I stuck my neck out for you, and you go and pull something like this?”
“He’s a bad man,” I insisted, pleading with her as tears filled my eyes. “He has to be stopped. Why won’t anyone stop him?”
“You were supposed to ask those questions, not Quincy,” Jack said, voice raised.
I didn’t understand why he was shouting at Amelia, but then I noticed German and Schubert approaching us from farther down the hall.
“The questions were supposed to come from you,” Jack repeated as German came to a stop, joining our group. “You hung Quincy out to dry.”
German shrugged as if the whole thing wasn’t a big deal and my life hadn’t just been ruined. “Senator Salisbury made a better offer,” he said. “An offer that means I’ll be sipping pina coladas on a beach in the islands this winter instead of slogging through snow and shit up here.”
Jack’s eyes went wide. “You sold us out,” he said hoarsely.
“I took the better offer,” German said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the office so I can do a write-up about your father’s insightful support of the tech industry.”
“You bastard!” Jack called after him as German and Schubert walked on.
Schubert turned back to give us an apologetic look.
That was the only sympathy either of us got.
“God only knows what the fallout from this will be,” Amelia went on, rubbing her forehead. She glanced up at Jack and said, “Obviously, I can’t do anything about you, Mr. Salisbury, but Quincy, I’m afraid you’re fired.”
“What? Amelia, no! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I said, tipping over into full tears. “Please.”
Amelia held up her hand, looking like I’d just ripped her heart out. “I’m sorry, Quincy, but there’s no way I can justify your continued employment at The Grand Hotel after that display. Please go upstairs and clean out your desk.”
“But this is Salisbury’s doing,” I cried, even as Jack tugged me into his arms. “He’s the bad guy. He’s the evil one. What he’s doing will hurt so many people. I just tried to bring it to light.”
“On company time, at a hotel event,” Amelia pointed out, her eyes red-rimmed and glassy, too. “I’m sorry, Quincy, but that’s my final decision. Even if I wanted to defend your actions, which I do, the board would never let me keep you on.”
“But—”
“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, then turned to walk away, holding a hand to her mouth, like she was trying to stop herself from crying, too.
I glanced desperately up at Jack, feeling like my entire world was falling apart.
Jack hugged me tightly, then let me go.
“I’m not going to let him get away with this,” he said. “I’m not going to let either of them hurt you like this ever again.”
With a quick kiss to my forehead, he turned and stormed back into the conference room.