Chapter 14 #4
“Interesting. That's what we said about the marriage.”
I smile.
Senior doesn't.
“You run Blackwell's most advanced technical operations.”
“For you.”
“Yes.”
“I've been doing that since I was twenty.”
“Because you're very good at it.”
“Also because you never asked whether I wanted something else.”
Silence.
I look at Xavier.
That sentence means more than this meeting.
Maybe more than he intended.
Senior hears it too.
His posture shifts.
“Xavier.”
My husband looks out toward Monaco.
“Sabine's right.”
Naturally.
I smile.
He glances at me.
“Do not look pleased.”
“Impossible.”
Senior steps into the room.
“What exactly are you proposing?”
“Our own company,” I say.
“I heard that disastrous part.”
“Independent.”
“No.”
“Our clients.”
“No.”
“Our rules.”
“No.”
“Our equity.”
“Absolutely not.”
Xavier looks amused now.
“You don't get a vote.”
Senior stares at him.
“I built Blackwell for you.”
“You built Blackwell because you are incapable of retiring.”
“That is irrelevant.”
“You're nervous.”
“I am not nervous.”
I look at Xavier.
“Your family has a problem admitting emotional states.”
“Generational.”
Senior ignores us.
“The two of you together would be extraordinarily valuable.”
I smile.
“I know.”
“Which is why you should remain here.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
Xavier and I both stop.
Senior looks irritated that the word escaped.
“Fine what?” Xavier asks.
“Your own division.”
“No,” I say.
Senior turns.
“You haven't heard the terms.”
“Still no.”
“Your own floor.”
“No.”
“Independent operations budget.”
I pause.
Xavier notices.
Traitor.
Senior notices too.
“How independent?”
Xavier laughs.
I glare.
“I'm gathering information.”
Senior steps closer.
“Separate client acquisition.”
“Continue.”
“Operational autonomy.”
“Interesting.”
“Your own staff.”
“Obviously.”
“Blackwell legal, infrastructure and global security support.”
I glance toward Xavier.
He is enjoying this far too much.
“And ownership?” I ask.
Senior frowns.
“This is Blackwell.”
“Then no.”
“Sabine.”
“No equity, no deal.”
Xavier's eyes brighten.
Senior stares at us.
“You haven't even formed a company.”
“Twenty minutes ago, I hadn't conceived one.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Xavier slides his hands into his pockets.
“She wants equity.”
“Whose side are you on?”
Xavier doesn't hesitate.
“My wife's.”
My stomach still flips when he says that.
Annoying.
Senior sees my expression.
I straighten.
He sighs.
“Minority spinout.”
I blink.
“Meaning?”
“A separate entity. Blackwell retains an investment position. You and Xavier hold operating control.”
Xavier looks toward me.
Now we're both interested.
“Blackwell becomes a client,” I say.
Senior's face tightens.
“Blackwell becomes strategic partner.”
“Client.”
“Partner.”
“Paying partner.”
A pause.
“Fine.”
I smile.
Xavier looks at his father.
“That was easier than expected.”
“It was not easy.”
“You folded in three minutes.”
“I am preserving the company's most valuable personnel.”
I look toward Xavier.
“Did he just call me valuable?”
“I think so.”
Senior points toward the door.
“I can revoke this offer.”
“No, you can't,” Xavier says.
His father glares.
Then:
“What are you calling it?”
I already know.
The name has been waiting years.
I look at Xavier.
He knows too.
Something passes between us.
Private.
Old.
Ours.
“NULL,” I say.
Senior's expression goes blank.
“NULL.”
Xavier smiles.
“I like it.”
“Naturally.”
I walk back toward the windows.
NULL.
The place where Ghost and Vesper began.
Two anonymous minds hiding in a room nobody else could find.
Now it becomes something else.
Not hiding.
Building.
Senior joins us near the glass.
“The two of you together are dangerous.”
I glance at Xavier.
He looks at me.
Ghost.
My husband.
Partner, apparently.
I smile.
“We know.”
Senior's mouth almost moves.
“You could become the most sought-after cyber-intelligence team in the world.”
Xavier reaches for my hand.
His wedding ring touches mine.
“Unfair advantage.”
I squeeze his fingers.
“Ghost and Vesper.”
“No one outside this room uses those names.”
I look at him.
“Protective?”
“Possessive.”
“Better.”
Senior exhales behind us.
“I am still standing here.”
I look over my shoulder.
“Then perhaps give the newlyweds privacy.”
“This is my building.”
“For now.”
His eyebrows rise.
Xavier laughs.
And standing above Monaco with the Blackwell empire beneath us, I realize Papa would have loved this.
Not the money.
Not the building.
The irony.
His daughter spent years trying to break Blackwell.
Instead, she married one.
Then stole its best hacker.
I lean into Xavier's side.
His arm moves around my waist automatically.
“What?” he asks.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“Strategist.”
His thumb moves against my hip.
I look out at the sea.
For years, disappearing was my greatest skill.
Then Ghost found me.
Or I found him.
We still argue about that.
It doesn't matter anymore.
The chase is over.
The other ghost is gone.
Papa has his truth.
And for the first time, I don't need an alias, a wig, a false passport, or an encrypted room to know where I belong.
Beside Xavier.
In the light.
Terrifying.
Perfect.
Unstoppable.
NULL begins tomorrow.