“Oh, it worked great!” For a moment, some of his tension eased. It was the first time she’d ever seen him look happy, she realized. “It was really helpful to employees, companies loved it. We were even net-positive on revenue that last year Hwon was around.”
“Just not enough revenue,” Morgan filled in.
“Not enough revenue,” Carter sighed. The tension flooded back. “The investors brought in Brad, and we pivoted to the quantum angle.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
“Brad has vision,” Carter declared. She couldn’t help but notice that his face did not lighten again. Her stomach twisted with guilt but she forged ahead.
“And you’re in it for the long haul?”
“Well,” Carter gave a laugh with a forced edge. “When you’ve got kids heading for college, it’s a better idea to stick with a company you know inside out, right?”
She didn’t want to know that. “I suppose the new focuson health and wellness is kind of like coming back to Zabloom’s roots, then.”
“I suppose you could say that.” She didn’t think he would say that. But this was supposed to be broadcast publicly, so he couldn’t really say whatever he was really thinking. She’d thought he’d been on board with Brad’s bullshit. Maybe he had been, several iterations of the company ago; now he didn’t see a way out of faking “true believer.”
She needed to stop feeling sorry for him and land the Deal. Between Carter and Luke, she chose Luke. Her stomach burned.
“So I’m sure you’re excited about the new challenges,” She tried to keep her tone light. “If you could wish for something, what would it be?”
Luke shifted and knocked the laptop off the table. It bounced off Rix’s back. Rix whirled and bit down, hard. There was a hiss and a sizzle. The hellhound’s teeth sunk right through the corner of the keyboard the way no normal dog’s possibly could. With a pleased harrumphing noise, Rix gulped down the chunk of laptop, taking two or three shudders to get it all the way down his throat. Green ichor dripped from his jaws as his salivary glands went into overdrive. An acrid smell rose from the carpet and even more sizzling came from the floor.
“What the hell?” a startled voice rose from the floor below them through the now quarter-sized hole in the floor.
“I think maybe that’s it, thanks, don’t you have a meeting now?” Luke said in a rush, his eyes flaring orange.
Carter looked slightly dazed. “I have a meeting now, sorry.”
“No problem!” Luke opened the door for him.
As soon as the door had swung shut and Carter was safely down the hall, Morgan turned on Luke. “What the hell was that?” she hissed.
He scuffed at the hole in the floor with his toe, erasing the evidence. “You heard him. He’s been working here since it was a real company and now he’s trapped as Brad takes it farther and farther away from what he originally signed on for.”
“Yeah, I heard. And we could help him get out of that trap.”
“And into a new one, Morgan!”
“Seriously?” Did he really need to develop a conscience now? She was doing this for him!
“I don’t feel right about this, OK? You keep telling me about how humans don’t eat each other. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“And what about us?” She slammed her hand on the desk. Luke jumped. Rix dropped his head to his paws and whined. “We do deserve this?”
“Of course not.” He tried to take her hands.
She jerked them back. She knew that at least half of why she was so angry was shame. The other half was fear. She didn’t want to admit that made her be a worse person than a demon. “Then what? We’re running out of time and people to ask.”
“Morgan, this is bigger than us,” he said.
“I don’t care about bigger, I care about us,” she snapped. “And thanks, by the way, for the heads-up on this. You knew Brad was going to do this, didn’t you?”
He looked pained. He tried to say something. Nothing came out.
The laptop, which had started to faintly smolder, burst into flames. She leapt back, trying to remember where the fire extinguisher was. Her mom could have quelled it with a gesture, but how was she supposed to handle a battery fire?
Rix jumped up, happily bit down, and swallowed theentire burning end of the laptop. He coughed once or twice, his breath smelling like burning plastic. Then he wagged his tail and gave her a big doggy grin.
