The next morning Colin left his apartment at half past seven. His appointment in the Research Triangle Park was not scheduled to begin until eleven, and Aaron had warned him that senior executives at Electronic Arts were notorious for running late. But Colin had insisted the conference room be reserved for a full hour before the meeting was officially scheduled. He had no problem with waiting.
As he made his way through the slow and sullen traffic south of Raleigh, he felt as though he had been aiming for this since the day he entered the academy. Whatever happened, however the meeting went, today marked the start of a new life chapter.
He stopped for a late breakfast at the RTP’s Metro Diner, and at a quarter to ten he turned in to the Electronic Arts’ Research Triangle campus.
EA’s headquarters were located in Redland, California. But after the acquisition that fueled Colin’s first investment foray, EA began growing its North Carolina operations to include the new-games division and R&D. The companyresided in a series of glass and steel structures that reflected the autumn sun like copper crowns. When Colin entered the main lobby, Liam rose from his seat by the rear wall. Colin greeted the technician with, “Thanks so much for helping out.”
“Hey, you’re offering me serious bucks to spend a vacation day inside every gamer’s idea of Mecca.” Liam glanced around, tugging on his goatee. “I should probably pay you.”
“You have the equipment?”
“In the van. I brought extras of everything, just in case.”
“Then you’ve already earned your keep.” Colin started toward the reception desk. “Let me see if they’re ready for us to set up.”
Liam had also brought a flatbed cart, which meant they were able to transfer everything in just two trips. Once Colin had finished deciding on the positioning, he slipped over to the exterior windows and flipped through his notes for today’s meeting. He did not read so much as check off a mental list of what needed to be covered. The building overlooked a broad swath of old-growth forest just beginning to show off its autumn finery.
Liam interrupted his musings with, “Ready to test.”
But as Colin turned around, he became trapped by what he saw there in the interior windows.
The conference room’s glass wall overlooked the largest office space he had ever seen. The ceiling was well over twenty feet high and showed exposed beams painted like a springtime forest. There had to be a hundred people working and milling about the central space. More. Some of the employees showed a triumphant glee. They traded high-fives, they shouted their laughter.
And overlaid upon this tableau was his reflection.
He had grown another couple of inches, and the swimming and cycling had resulted in a defined musculature. His new outfit, purchased for this occasion, consisted of amidnight blue silk-and-cotton knit shirt and matching gabardine trousers.
But that was not what captured his attention.
The majority of those employees did their best to ignore the exultant Trump supporters. One man gesticulated in anger, his face creased by very real pain, while a large group stood or sat around him, watching in genuine sorrow.
They were hurting. And they were afraid.
Liam stepped up beside him. “Looks like the winning team are in the minority out there.”
Colin nodded, but that was not what he was thinking. He knew that feeling. He understood what it meant to feel threatened by the outside world. To have their sense of control and perspective stripped away. Shattering their vision of today, and even worse, their hope for a certain kind of tomorrow.
Only these were adults.
Those who shone with the triumph of an unexpected win effectively ignored everyone else. Colin could almost see the divide growing between these two groups. As for those whose candidate had lost, Colin ached for them. They had assumed their childhood vulnerability was behind them. They had assumed their adult world was going to follow the course they desired. But the previous day’s election had proved them wrong.
Liam said, “Shame you’ve got to go on today.”
Colin turned away. “It is what it is.”
He had found his means of bonding. The same as with the frightened Sojourn House children. He did not have answers. His birthright counted him among those on the winning side. But he personally stood with the others. He understood their fear, their helpless anger.
It was not the method he might have preferred, forging a bond through sharing a divided world. But it would have to do.
CHAPTER44
Aaron arrived just as Liam completed the final adjustments. He offered Colin a glum greeting, accepted the introduction to Liam, seated himself, sighed, and began texting. Ten minutes later, the EA team gradually entered and slumped into chairs and worked their phones. There was no chatter. Even the victorious staffer was silent. Only one person bothered to greet Colin at all.
Five minutes passed, then Chad Helms arrived. The former CEO of Legend Inc. was now head of EA’s Research Triangle divisions. Chad was accompanied by the only EA team member wearing a suit, a narrow-faced man in his forties with square-rimmed glasses. “Hello, Aaron.”
“Morning, Jerry.” To Colin, “Jerry Lieberman, EA’s head of legal.”
The in-house attorney nodded to Colin. “Shame about the day.”