Page 53 of Skins Game

“I suspected they did when I bought the company, hypothetically.”

Jericho’s voice sounded strangled. “You bought a companyfor the betthat may destroy us all, and you didn’tknowif they had a blockbuster in dev or not?”

“But I think they have one. I was swinging it last night, and it’s like fucking magic.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Kingston. If you don’t, you’ll take all of us down with you.”

After Kingston hung up with Jericho, he called the jet management company and changed his return flight from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon.

Surely, none of the other guys would need the plane that weekend.

18

Icebergs and Death Valley in August

NICOLE LAMB

Nicole was showered and back in the lab by ten o’clock because engineering school habits die hard. Face time in the lab was important.

When she walked through the front doors, a guy was kneeling, rewiring the security system.

She asked MEREDITH, “What’s that about?”

“They’re changing the security system, so we’ll have a code to get out of the building if we work late.Finally.”

“Oh, cool.”

That was quick.

At lunchtime, Nicole made the rounds of her lab, negotiating the pizza menu.

She used one of the lab computers to place the delivery order, and Arvind walked by while she was typing the digits of the strange-looking Amex into the website.

Arvind screeched to a halt behind her. “Is that a Centurion card?”

“Whatever that is,” she grumped.

“No, really.” Arvind plucked the credit card from her fingers.

“Hey!”

“This is a Centurion card.I’ve never seen one of these before. Whose is it?”

“Kingston Moore, the new sales guy.”

“How the hell did the new sales guy get a Centurion Amex?”

“Is that a good thing?” she asked.

Arvind’s mouth dropped open at her naiveté, which he did at least once a week. Nicole didn’t care about brands and status symbols enough. “Itmeanshis net worth is more than a million dollars, and he probably charges at least half a million every year on his Amex account.”

“It’s probably a corporate card. The sales guys have to do a lot of entertaining. Maybe they’re expecting him to put the entry fees for the golf shows on it. Those can be like ten or twenty grand per show.”

Arvind was still marveling at the card like it was a Faberge egg. “I kind of want to take a picture of it. You don’t see these things too often.”

Nicole popped out of her chair and snagged the card from his fingers. “We willnotbe taking pictures of Kingston’s credit card number.”

“Yeah, fine,” he sighed. “So what did you two do in here all night?”