You Fired a Tech Genius novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Summit, Day One

The Lakefront Hall held nine hundred grocers, and not one of them was supposed to be glad to see us.

Zoe's name was not on the exhibitor list, and mine was not on the speaker list.

We got in anyway on guest passes from the grocer with the green awning.

He had pinned them to our jackets himself, on the sidewalk, and told the door guard we were his cousins.

"Both of you?" the guard asked.

"We're a big family," the grocer said.

By nine the hall was full of folding chairs and coffee urns.

It had the noise a thousand people make when they're about to be sold something.

A wide stage ran along the front, hung with a banner.

HALLETT SYSTEMS: THE FUTURE OF EVERY REGISTER.

Beneath it, in letters a foot high, it said LEDGERLINE 5.

I sat in the last row, near the doors, with Bridger on my left and a cold paper cup in my hand.

Zoe walked the aisles in her camel coat, one hand on a chair back here, a quiet word there.

She never stayed anywhere long enough to be stopped.

She was working the forty.

I watched her find them one by one by the names on their badges.

"Seventeen," Bridger murmured, counting on his fingers. "Seventeen signed. Twenty-three still sitting on their wallets."

"They're waiting to see him."

"What do we do if he's good?"

"He won't be."

"You said that about the stage," Bridger said. "He looked pretty good on the stage."

At ten sharp the lights went down, and Braxton Hallett walked into a spotlight with a headset mic and a clicker.

The room applauded.

He was good, and I had expected that.

He moved across the stage easily, hands open, talking about the grocers' kids and the grocers' parents and the dignity of the corner store.

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