King of War Tech novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Board

It was only the housekeeper, with a folded note.

She did not meet my eyes.

"Mr. Merrick requests Mr. Tarrant at the board meeting Monday, 9 a.m.," the note said. Wear a clean shirt.

Marjorie read it over my arm.

"What is he doing?" she asked.

"Something public," I said.

It was.

Monday morning, the thirty-eighth floor of the Merrick Dynamics tower.

The boardroom had a glass wall facing the river and a table that sat twenty.

Twelve directors filled the nearest chairs.

Marjorie sat at one end with her cane, and Imogen sat at the other in a navy suit with her shoulders squared.

Stellan stood at the head of the table with a remote in his hand.

I stood in the doorway in my clean shirt, and nobody offered me a chair.

"Thank you all for coming," Stellan said.

"The first item on the agenda is a personnel matter."

He clicked the remote.

A slide appeared on the wall.

It was my face, from the badge on my facilities uniform.

"Wesley Tarrant, night staff, floor thirty-one," Stellan said.

"Last Monday, he was found in a restricted server room."

"Our chief of security was hospitalized the same night, with a fractured elbow."

A few directors turned to look at me.

"He claims the chief fell," Stellan said. "I have a hospital report and a camera that does not agree."

Stellan clicked again.

The slide ran the stairwell clip, edited so the chief's arm looked broken before I touched him.

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