Chapter 3 - The Panic in the Executive Suite
“Daniel? Where the hell are you?” Victor Lang’s voice exploded through the phone speaker, stripped of all its usual boardroom polish. He sounded breathless, frantic, and violently angry.
I kept my voice calm and even, gently dipping a toothpick into the white icing. “I’m at home, Victor. Remember? You fired me at ten-seventeen this morning. You revoked my badge access by noon.”
“Don't play games with me, Mercer!” Victor roared, background noise echoing behind him—papers rustling, doors slamming, and Brent Cole’s voice shouting instructions in the distance. “The entire plant is sitting on their hands! The afternoon freight trucks are parked at the loading dock empty! Maria Alvarez tells me nobody is touching a single circuit board!”
“That sounds like a management issue,” I replied mildly. “You wanted restructuring. You wanted to eliminate outdated leadership structures. Congratulations, Victor. You got your wish.”
“This is an illegal walkout!” Victor shrieked, panic cracking his voice. “We have three million dollars in emergency hospital monitors scheduled for delivery to regional medical centers by Friday morning! If those trucks don't roll, Halcyon faces crippling breach-of-contract penalties, and the board will have my head on a spike!”
“Well, you always said efficiency was everything,” I noted, biting back a smile.
“Get back here right now!” Victor commanded, reverting to his default dictator mode. “Fix this mess, sign the shipping manifests, and maybe—just maybe—we’ll talk about keeping you on a consulting contract!”
I looked down at Lily, who was busy dusting powdered sugar over her cookie roof to simulate snow.
“I don’t work for you anymore, Victor,” I said quietly.
A heavy, stunned silence hung on the line for three seconds. Then Brent Cole must have grabbed the phone, because a shrill, panicked voice replaced the CEO’s.
“Listen to me, you insubordinate hick!” Brent yelled, his veneer of corporate superiority completely shattered. “If you think you can stage a mutiny and get away with it, you are out of your mind! I am calling our corporate lawyers right now! We are filing an immediate federal injunction, pressing sabotage charges, and suing you for tortious interference, property damage, and corporate espionage! We will strip you of every penny you have, take your house, and make sure you never work in the medical device industry again!”
He paused to catch his breath, expecting me to crumble into dust.
Instead, I took a slow sip of my coffee, picked up a clean napkin, and wiped a speck of icing off the table.
“You’re welcome to try, Brent,” I said smoothly.
“We aren't trying, Mercer, we are executing!” Brent screamed. “Lawyers are drafting the papers as we speak! You’re going to federal prison!”
May you like
I let out a soft, relaxed sigh. Then, I delivered the single sentence that made the executive suite go completely, terrifyingly dead.
“Before you waste retainer fees on your lawyers, Brent, you should probably know one small detail: the board already has your emails.”
