Page 30 of The Five Year Lie

“Nah, I’m kinda with him on that,” Zain says. “You can’t work for this company and not understand that your right to privacy is under threat. In this building we’ve gotmillionsof people’s faces on our company servers. If you had free rein, and you wanted to spy on somebody, you could follow them around from camera to camera. Social media is the same, except public.”

“But you’d only care about that if you had something to hide.” I pass him my phone, showing him the picture of Drew’s text avatar.

He looks at the photo and shakes his head. “A profile shot, and his eyes are closed.” He returns my phone and starts to say something else, but then stops himself when Brendan, the programmer who sits on Zain’s other side, picks that moment to show up.

“Morning, crew! Zain, you look like shit. Did you have a wild night?” The guy cackles. “Pick up some girls? Dance the night away?”

“Something like that,” Zain mumbles.

Brendan drops his wallet and phone on the desk and heads for the coffee maker, slapping guys on the shoulder as he goes.

“How about Becky’s for lunch?” Zain asks under his breath. “I still have to show you what else I found last night.”

“Wait. Anything good?” I ask, my pulse quickening.

He hesitates. “Interesting, but not illuminating.”

“Fine. Becky’s. Early, so we can get a table.”And because I’m dying inside.

“You know it.”

10

FIVE YEARS AGO, JUNE

It’s late on a Wednesday afternoon, and the senior programmer is keeping tabs on the Cafferty brothers as they yell at each other across the bullpen. There’s a glass wall and twenty feet or so of distance between him and the co-owners of Chime Co. So he can’t hear what they’re fighting about.

It doesn’t matter, though. This is common. This time they’re in Ray’s messy office, standing on opposite sides of the big oak desk, like bookends, as if to put as much distance as possible between themselves.

They’ve quarreled—loudly and frequently—ever since he started working here. They fight about the hardware design, the manufacturing costs and the software. They fight about the branding and the timeline of new releases.

Different topics every time, but the fight is really always about the same thing—power. Whose dick is bigger. Who’s really in charge.

After they emerge, they’ll probably fire off conflicting emails to him. And then he’ll lose a precious hour of technical work just trying to reconcile their petty arguments.

It’s the same shit every month. It never changes.

Only one thing is different today—their audience. Most programmers know to keep their heads down and avoid the drama. Nobody wants to get caught in the cross fire. Edward, particularly, is a colossal dick when he gets angry.

That new guy, though, isn’t worried. Drew Miller has wandered over to the copier right outside Ray’s door. He’s puttering around with the machine, rearranging his document on the glass, and slowly refilling the paper in the tray.

What he’sreallydoing is eavesdropping. It’s so fucking obvious. Programmers don’t have any use for the copier. Paper is for losers.

And Drew is a nosy fucker. The guy asks too many questions. He seems almost systematic about it, with everyone in the room getting a turn on the other end of his “aw shucks” routine.

There’s something off about him. There really is.

Ray’s office door flies open, and Edward storms out. He walks ten paces, enters his own pristine office and slams the door before lowering himself carefully into his egotistically large leather chair.

None of the longtime programmers looks up.

Coincidentally, Drew Miller is done with his copy machine project. He walks through the room, whistling a little.

When he passes Ariel Cafferty, he doesn’t glance at her. No eye contact. That makes Drew Miller the only man in this room whodoesn’tlook at Ariel. This behavior is new, too. His first week here, he was just like the rest of the guys. Couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Which can only mean one thing—they’re banging, and they don’t want anyone else to guess. Or they want to bang, and they just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Isn’t that rich? The spoiled princess giving it up for the army stud. Drew is one of those guys who gets by on his good looksand strong handshake. He’s some kind of battlefield veteran, too. Edward Cafferty has a hard-on for tough guys and uniforms, so he probably ate that shit up during the interview.