You Fired a Tech Genius novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: The Board

Zoe's board met at nine in the glass conference room, and I was not invited to sit.

I stood against the brick wall with Bridger, who had brought his fern for moral support.

There were three of them around the table.

The chair was a silver-haired man in a grey suit who had backed Zoe when nobody else would.

He was looking at her phone.

Beside him sat a woman from the investment fund, with a legal pad.

The third was a young man on a screen, eating a bagel in a car.

"I read it four times," the chair said. "Poached trade secrets. A named source inside Hallett."

"It's a plant," Zoe said.

"I'm sure it is. But the Summit is in a week, and the Association already pulled your booth."

"I know."

"We hired a firm last night," the woman said. "A dozen reporters have the story."

"One of them wants a quote from you before noon."

"Then she'll get one."

"Zoe." The chair took off his glasses. "We want him off the payroll until the Summit. Paid leave. Quiet. Until the air clears."

Nobody looked at me.

Bridger shifted beside me.

"Let me guess," he whispered. "We're getting fired by a different old man."

I stepped off the wall.

"May I?" I said.

The chair looked at Zoe.

She gave one small nod, and her face told me nothing.

"I took a mug, a hoodie and a dead plant," I said. "That's what I carried out of Hallett."

I took my phone out and put it on the table.

Then my laptop, from my bag, and laid it beside the phone.

"These are the only two machines I own," I said. "Go through them. Hire anyone you want."

"If a single line of Hallett code is on either one, I'll be gone before lunch."

The woman raised her eyebrows.

"That's generous," she said. "And easy to wipe."

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