Prologue #3
"Sir," Gideon said, falling back on his military training, which wasn’t something he did often. "I mean no disrespect, but what I saw wasn’t my coding. What I pulled was someone else’s—a cheap imitation."
"Please don’t make this harder on yourself," Finch said, waving his hand toward Lidia. "We’ve had someone monitoring the test run. You could've cost us more than this contract. You put so many programs at risk, including Darwin's."
"My shadow couldn't have seen the data come over—"
"I can’t have someone working for my company who believes it’s okay to access a secure server. You, of all people, should know better. Not only are we dealing with government contracts, but also inventions, patents, and proprietary information—we have security protocols in place for a reason."
"You’re firing me?" Gideon choked on the words. "For doing my job?"
"What you did violates your employment contract." Lidia handed him a stack of papers. The top sheet had text highlighted. He glanced down and read the first few words.
"That’s not what happened." Gideon glared at Finch.
"Not only is it what happened," Finch said. "You attempted to reroute your access credentials to cover your tracks."
"That is absolutely false."
"We have the access logs." Lidia handed him a single sheet of paper this time.
"This is bullshit. Someone is setting me up." Gideon slapped the log sheet onto Finch’s desk. "You can’t do that. I’ll fight this."
"You choose to go that route, and I’ll be forced to take legal action." Finch leaned back and shook his head. "And that will bring in the government. I don’t want to do that."
"You’ve got to be kidding me." This was absurd. Gideon had been the one to put all the encrypted safety protocols in place. He’d been the one to make sure everyone’s department servers were secure.
He understood that if he’d tried to access an internal server, it would’ve been flagged, and he’d understand why his job would be on the line.
But that server had been outside Hyperion’s ORACLE.
"I wish I were," Finch said.
Lidia handed him another stack of papers. "That’s our standard NDA. You can take a little time to read them. If you have a lawyer, you can call him from our office, and we can send him a copy, but if you walk out of here without signing it, charges will be filed."
"You can’t pressure me like that." Gideon jumped to his feet, the documents scattering onto the floor.
"I wanted to call the authorities," Lidia said. "But Finch asked me not to out of respect for your long-standing loyalty. Consider yourself lucky."
"The NDA isn’t complicated. All it states is that you can’t speak of your work here. None of it. To anyone, ever. You break that agreement, we press charges. I recommend you sign it so you can move forward with your life."
The blood in Gideon’s body turned to fire. It roared through his system like a forest fire vaporizing everything in its path. He bent over and picked up the NDA. His life’s work had been reduced to two fucking pages of one world-shattering threat.
He stood there for a long moment and read the words— every single one of them.
Not because he wanted to make sure it was legal or even because he hoped to negotiate, but because he still couldn’t believe this was happening.
He replayed the last two hours in his head.
The moments leading up to the test, the test itself, and the damn Bralorne Backcountry server.
It wasn’t an inside job. It was Finch. Or maybe someone just wanted Gideon gone.
With that thought, he picked up the pen and signed.
"One more thing," Finch said. "Don’t expect a good recommendation from anyone here."
"Right." Gideon took his copy of his termination papers, his NDA, and marched his ass out Finch’s office faster than he’d left the military.
As he walked toward the elevator, fisting the paperwork, guards following closely, he wondered if he should’ve signed so quickly.
He’d never been a reactive person, but a quiet, contemplative man.
Growing up, he’d always been one to think before he spoke.
He rarely jumped to conclusions. And he wasn’t the type of person to use his fists.
But right now, he wanted to hit the first person he saw.
However, when he rounded the corner, that person happened to be Darwin, and Gideon could never punch him.
Darwin stood there with his hands in his pockets and immediately lowered his gaze to the floor.
That told Gideon that Darwin already knew.
"Bad news travels fast in this place," Gideon mumbled.
"I was with Finch when he got the call." Darwin tilted his head and met Gideon’s gaze with questioning eyes. "I’ve been pacing these halls trying to understand what the hell happened, because it doesn’t make sense."
Gideon let out a sarcastic laugh. Darwin was right. It didn’t. "I was set up."
"That's a serious accusation."
"Right." The word accusation sat in his gut like a cement brick.
"Shit. I didn’t mean it that way."
"Yeah, you did." Gideon raised his hand. "I’m in no mood to rehash any of this. You’ll hear the spin, and it won’t be reality. The truth is buried in server called Bralorne Backcountry Protocol. If you ever come across that, you’ll learn why I was fired for no valid reason."
The elevator opened, and Gideon stepped in. "No hard feelings, man." The doors closed, and so did everything he’d spent the last seven years working on.