Page 43 of Gifted & Talented

38

Meredith was still asleep when Cass’s phone rang with a call from Ward, Meredith’s CTO and business partner. Ward and Cass rarely spoke, as Cass made it his business to stay out of Chirp’s inner workings, firstly because he was dating Meredith and secondly because he was too high up in Tyche’s leadership to be on call for anyone at Chirp, no offense to them. The fact that Ward was calling Cass’s personal cell now meant he’d leapfrogged over Cass’s staff and junior associates, the ones who ought to have been dealing with whatever a subsidiary CTO might need from Tyche’s operations department.

Cass looked over at Meredith’s sleeping form, and the way she seemed so small and delicate whenever she was at rest. Sometimes Cass looked at the woman in his bed and could imagine, astral projecting through time and space, the girl that she had once been.

On the phone, Ward was saying, “My friend at Magitek told me the piece is set to run in their online edition first thing Monday. Look, Cass, you’re a good guy. I just want you to know before all this shit comes down on your head that Meredith lied to all of us about Chirp’s development process. And before you go down for any of it, I really think you should talk to her.”

How noble of you, thought Cass wryly. Before Meredith Wren, nobody in tech had thought much of Edward Varela. Whatever she alone had seen, she had used to spectacular effect.

“So what do you propose I do, Ward?” asked Cass, wondering if he really needed to hear the answer.

“Cut and run,” Ward breathlessly advised. “It’s what Meredith would do.”