Page 1 of Clear Shot

Chapter 1

Hana

I speedwalk through the office, drop my backpack at my cubicle, and practically slide into the only open seat at the table in the conference room. I’m leaving on a business trip in the morning, so I was planning to work from home today, but Randy—my boss and the owner of the startup software company I work for—called an all-hands meeting. Mandatory.

The email came in at ten minutes to eight, my workday normally starts at eight, and I was still in my pajamas. I’ve never gotten dressed, made coffee, and sped through town faster than I did today.

It’s not like Randy to call meetings like this.

One of many things I love about my job is how laid back and easygoing both Randy and his partner, Glen, are.

This morning’s email did not sound easygoingorlaid back.

I glance at Dana, one of the programmers, and she gives a tiny, one-shoulder shrug, like she’s confused too.

Randy’s in his office, which has glass walls so we can see him, and he’s on the phone, talking animatedly to someone. And it doesn’t look good. He’s pacing, waving one arm around and now his face is turning red.

“Randy’s not having a good day.” One of our sales guys, Seth Crandall, says with a frown.

I don’t like Seth, and normally I ignore him, but today I agree with him.

“Something’s up,” Dana says quietly. “The server has been down all morning. And when I tried to troubleshoot, Randy stopped me, said not to bother.”

Nowthat’sweird.

I pick up my phone and send a text to my best friend, Claudia. She’s the lead programmer here at VineTech. She lives in Fort Lauderdale with her professional hockey player husband and their infant son, Anderson. She’s the one who got me the job here, and when I’m not traveling, I split my time between the home office here in Philadelphia and down in Fort Lauderdale with her and my brother.

HANA: Do you have any idea what’s going on? Dana said the server is down.

CLAUDIA: I think we’ve either been hacked or there’s some kind of system failure. I texted Randy but he said he’d explain everything at the meeting.

HANA: He’s on the phone in his office and he doesn’t look good. He’s yelling and his face is red.

CLAUDIA: Yikes. This can’t be good. I’ll be joining via video call, but so far he hasn’t started the meeting. Is Glen there?”

I look around. As far as I can tell, Glen isn’t here and his office is dark.

HANA: No sign of him. No lights in his office either.

CLAUDIA: I talked to him yesterday and he sounded weird, distracted, and told me to do ‘whatever’ when I asked aboutimplementing the new data stream. He said it wouldn’t matter in a few days anyway. When I asked him what he was talking about, he said something like ‘don’t mind me, I’m in a bad mood. Randy will call you later.’ And Randy never did.

HANA: My spidey senses are tingling.

CLAUDIA: Mine too. And I don’t even have spidey senses.

HANA: LOL I was in my pajamas when he called the meeting. I look like a homeless person today. No makeup, hair in a ponytail, and the only clean jeans I have.

CLAUDIA: What—my mom isn’t doing your laundry anymore?

HANA: Very funny. I stopped her. I’m a grown-ass woman. It’s already incredible that they let me live in their house when I’m in Philly. I don’t need her to do my laundry.

CLAUDIA: I know how many clothes you have. If you’re down to your last pair of clean jeans, maybe she does…just sayin’.

I chuckle because she’s right.

I’m terrible about laundry.

I’m perfectly capable of doing it, I just get lazy on my days off.