Chapter 24: The Throne

The boardroom on Meridian's top floor had a long table of pale wood and nine leather chairs.

A tenth chair, at the head, was empty.

I stood just inside the door in my one good blazer, with my hands in my pockets.

I tried to look like I belonged to nothing.

Nine people in dark suits sat along the table.

Not one of them looked at me.

They were looking at the man beside me, and they were afraid.

"Mr. Wray," said the oldest of them, a woman with a silver bun. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"You voted last night?" Jonas asked.

"By phone, at midnight. Nine to nothing. Mr. Stanfield's seat is vacant, and the chair of this company is yours, if you want it."

Beyond the glass wall behind her I could see the eleventh floor, and the engineers.

Seventy of them were standing at their desks again.

They were not looking at us.

They were looking at their own screens, where, in a window the size of a stamp, the news was playing Palmer Stanfield on a stretcher.

"Before I answer," Jonas said, "I have three conditions."

He took a sheet of paper from his jacket.

"First, Aegis is shut down tonight, for good, and every key sold is revoked."

"The board will hand the archive to the federal office this afternoon."

"Second, my shares go into a fund for the eleven families, controlled by them. Not by me, and not by this board."

"And third?"

"Third, I'm giving a statement to the district attorney on Monday with my lawyer present. If they charge me, I plead."

"I'll step down the day the court says so. Until then I run this company in daylight, with the doors open."

The silver-haired woman folded her hands.

"That is not what we expected."

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