Chapter 27
A Hero’s Return
I promised myself I’d tell Anders on Sunday night. I’d let him have his happiness until then but after that, I’d break it to him bit by bit, gently leading him through the evidence and my thought process. Then we’d brainstorm how to deal with Cerium’s existential crisis.
But Sunday night rolls around and Anders doesn’t call.
At midnight, I give up waiting for him. Eventually I send a message; but that too goes unanswered.
I could hassle him, but I don’t want to.
Who knows what emergencies are going on in his life?
His father could have had a relapse. His cows could be rampaging down Main Street or whatever they have in the US.
I don’t send anything more. He can see my message. He’ll respond when he can.
But it means that when Monday morning rolls around and it’s time for the meeting with the senior management team, I still have no idea what to do.
Cerium still has a game, obviously, but we’ve got a mountain of debt, a busted marketing strategy, and a sea full of hostile competitors. And there’s no telling how much Wobbegong knows now.
I’m deep in my thoughts as I push through the doors of the building. So deep that I don’t even see Ginny until her arms wrap around me. At least I’m guessing it is her as my face is full of red locks. When she lets me go, I back up.
“You fired Piotr!” she shrieks, hands flapping. “But why didn’t you tell me? I’d have cancelled my holiday so I could watch. Did he plead for his job?”
I think back to that scene in Anders’s office. The simmering anger and incipient threat of violence. For all that she was having sex with the guy, she really didn’t know him at all. Probably just as well.
I sidestep her question. “How was your break?” I ask instead. A shaft of guilt rides through me as I remember my suspicion that she was the mole and not on holiday at all. “You look great.”
And she does. She’s tanned and happy and relaxed in a way I haven’t seen for a long time. She bites her lip. “It was excellent,” she says. “I can’t wait to tell you about it all. Meet me in the break room at lunch.”
“I’ll try.” It’s the best commitment I’m prepared to make.
I can almost guarantee I won’t be able to get away.
Today is going to be hell as we deal with the fallout of Piotr’s departure.
But it’s enough to placate her and she bounces off down the corridor as I stop outside the door to Anders’s office.
We’re meeting here instead of the glass-fronted conference room to reduce speculation among the rest of the staff. The others are already in situ. I’m the last to arrive, courtesy of my family responsibilities.
Scarlett is looking extremely smug as I take a seat beside her.
By contrast, Ramesh is haggard. I suspect he’s worked all weekend.
Ahmed, who received the news from me via a text message, has his head tilted to one side and is eyeing me speculatively.
Marnie gives me an encouraging smile. Beside her, Nur, her head shrouded in vivid orange today, gives me a wink from her place on the sofa.
Chloe is sitting beside her, ready to take minutes.
“Well, you all know what happened on Friday,” I open. “As a result, we’ve got three major issues to deal with.” I list them in order of increasing importance. “We need a new partnership manager to replace Scarlett here. We need a new launch date…”
“What?” Ramesh interrupts. “Why?”
“Because we have to assume Wobbegong knows our launch date.”
“So?” he says.
The answer comes from Scarlett. “Only a fool would assume they won’t use that information against us.”
Did she just call Ramesh a fool? I hurry out my conclusion before he notices her insult. “Which is why we need to bring the launch date forward.”
Ramesh throws his arms up, then brings his palms down on the table with a smack. “How?” he says. “We’re already working flat-out trying to bring this in weeks ahead of our original schedule.” He glares at each one of us in turn, his eyebrows bristling over dark, narrowed eyes.
I haven’t even gotten to our busted marketing strategy, and already the meeting is descending out of control.
The door to the office starts to open. I raise my voice. “I’m sorry, I’m…” But I never get to the word busy.
Anders steps in.
My jaw drops, and words evaporate from my brain. I’m not the only one. Around the table, no-one moves. No one speaks.
Anders’s eyes travel over each one of us in turn. The significance of those present is not lost on him. His gaze lands on me.
“Where is Piotr?” he asks.
Everybody looks at me.
“She sacked him on Friday,” Ramesh growls. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“Please, could everyone give us a minute?” I ask as calmly, though my heart is pounding like it’s playing the 1812 Overture.
Chloe grabs her things and scrambles for the door. The others rise with more dignity and file out. Last to leave is Scarlett, who has a delighted look on her face, even though she doesn’t venture a word. Clearly, she’s still no fan of mine, despite her promotion.
They pass Anders with muttered greetings, and he responds to each in turn, but his eyes never leave mine. When the room is finally empty, he closes the door.
As he turns to face me, I say, “How are you here?”
“I caught a plane last night. I was going to surprise you, but I guess the boot is on the other foot.”
I ignore the comment. “Who is looking after your dad?”
“My sister and one of Greg’s buddies is coming in to help Mom with the farm work. Now your turn.”
My heart stops beating and drops into my stomach.
I study my boss. He’s looking better than he has all last week.
There are still signs of fatigue, a strain around his eyes, but the deep exhaustion has eased.
His clothes are slightly rumpled; he must have slept in them on the plane and come straight from the airport.
“What’s going on here?” he prompts.
It’s only been just over a week since he left, but so much has happened. For a moment I don’t know where to start. Then it all comes pouring out of me in excruciating detail. To be honest, it’s a relief. It feels like I’m transferring my burden to broader shoulders.
“So I called a meeting this morning,” I say in conclusion. “We need a new partnership manager, a new launch date, and a new marketing strategy. But Ramesh just spontaneously combusted at the mention of a new launch date.”
Finally, I stop talking.
Anders sits down. “Fuck,” he says. And that one word is imbued with total devastation.
Except I don’t know what he’s condemning. Is it me, or Piotr, or the situation? I swallow nervously and await my fate.
He stands up again. Lacing his fingers together, he puts them behind his head as he paces about the office.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he says.
He sits and is silent for several moments.
I let him be. It can’t be often Anders is so catastrophically wrong.
He trusted Piotr, promoting him to head of a sector.
That’s a big misjudgement. It must be an immense shock to his system, learning he can be so fallible.
Finally, he says, “Who’s going through Piotr’s emails and files?”
“Chloe,” I say. “Strictly speaking, it’s not her job, but it needs someone discreet, careful and totally trustworthy.”
Anders nods.
“You realise if you don’t find anything…,” he says.
“Then we have to pay him off,” I finish. “At least this way there’s a chance he doesn’t get anything.”
I let out a breath. There was a risk Anders would disagree with my assessment of the evidence. If he backs Piotr and not me, I’ll be walking out of the building jobless.
He whirls around. “But this way the payout may well be bigger. That’s what Harriet told you, didn’t she?”
I gulp. My tongue won’t move so I nod.
Anders draws closer. “So, what you are saying is, you gambled the future financial health of my company for the satisfaction of firing him?”
Well, when you put it like that… My eyes drop to the floor. Shit.
He bends to bring his head level with mine. “I’m proud of you,” he whispers.
It takes me a minute to process what he’s said. Then my eyes lift and I see his shining. He straightens. “I couldn’t have played it better. The fucker deserved it all. The only thing that makes me feel okay about missing his dismissal is how much more it would have rankled that it came from you.”
“Yes. He was rather miffed you left me in charge.”
“I left you in charge for a reason.”
“Because I wouldn’t rock the boat?”
“No. Because the number one focus for Piotr, and to a certain extent Ahmed, is their own success. Your focus is Cerium’s success.”
His compliment makes me blush. At least I think it’s a compliment. Maybe it just means I’m a mug. But before I get carried away, Anders's eyes cloud and his brows draw into a frown.
“What I don’t get, though, is why you didn’t tell me immediately after? If I hadn’t walked in today, when would I have found out?”
I squirm at the reproach in his words. “I was going to tell you, honestly.” I feel like I did when I was seven and my dad caught me eating the birthday chocolates he’d bought my mum.
I rush to explain. “It’s just that you were so happy your dad was better.
I wanted you to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible.
I was going to tell you when you called on Sunday. But you never did.”
He considers me, his eyes like Jedi swords. Then a slow smile curves around his mouth.
“You care about me. You cared so much you didn’t want to upset me.
” And suddenly I feel exposed, like I’ve given him too much hold.
I could kick myself. As Dana had said, I’d held all the power.
But I’ve just given half of it away. Anders now knows how personal this has become for me.
Cora, the professional, would have told her boss directly.
Cora, the half-in-love-with-her-boss-and-refusing-to-admit-it, did not.
I need a redirect. What would Cora, the professional, do? Straightening my spine, I match his gaze. “After all this, I think I’m due a pay rise,” I say. “Because both Ahmed and Piotr are paid way more than I am and yet, you gave me charge.”
But the damage has already been done. His smile only broadens until his dimple winks into existence. I’m a fly caught in his web. He quirks one eyebrow. “I think we can sort something out.”
“Before you go spending all Cerium’s money, don’t forget we’ve still got a problem with marketing The Obsidian Sigil. What are you going to do about that?”
“Easy.” His smile broadens to a grin as he opens his arms wide. “Nothing.”
“That’s suicide!” Ahmed croaks at the reconvened management meeting when Anders unveils his grand plan to do no pre-launch marketing at all.
“Think about it,” Anders is bouncing on his toes, his hands talking almost as fast as he is. “No-one knows our launch date. We never announced it. They got one hint at the convention earlier this year and then nothing.”
He looks around the group expectantly but none of them are getting it. “We lean into that. Our launch becomes the biggest secret in the world. Well, the gaming world. I don’t pretend to know the nuclear codes.”
He goes on patiently, as if he’s explaining to Effie. “We’ve got how many on early access? Two million?” He looks at Scarlett.
“A little over,” she agrees. The gameplay we released for early access had been wildly popular when we opened it up over a year ago. A million had signed up in the first week. We’d slowly added more over time as word spread.
“What’s going to happen when they wake up one morning to find The Sigil has dropped?”
She draws in her breath and her eyes light up. “They’ll call in sick and message their mates. Word will spread like wildfire.”
“And all those bloggers who didn’t get an early copy will be racing to catch up. We won’t have to buy their time; they’ll be desperate to give it to us. Fear of missing out.” Anders makes a chef’s kiss with his fingers.
“Will it work?” Ahmed questions Scarlett, seeking reassurance.
“Yes!” she says, already hooked. But she’d probably follow Anders into Hell itself.
“And we get the pre-launch budget to spend wherever we need.” Anders looks pointedly at Ramesh. It’s an out-and-out bribe.
“Risky,” Marnie observes. “If the new launch date leaks, we’re dead. But have we got a choice?”
Anders shrugs. Then he claps his hands together. “But just you watch. It’ll be fun.”