LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Two

      Sam Bellemere sank into the plush seat of the limousine and tugged at his bow tie, letting the ends hang loose. He popped the button at the collar of his tuxedo shirt and pushed his hands through his hair. Able to breathe at last, he felt a thousand times better than he had just ten minutes ago surrounded by a ballroom full of wealthy people eager to support the Gray Box youth programs. The June fund-raiser was the one event his business partner, Rush Grayson, refused to let him dodge. The codevelopers’ proprietary encryption technology had led to their founding of the cloud storage service giant, Gray Box. For the former smart-ass teenage hackers, mentoring the next generation of responsible computer geeks was a cause near and dear to both of them.

      Knowing how shy Sam was, Rush had willingly assumed the role as the front man of the company, handling most of the public events and meetings. It had become an ideal partnership over the years. Rush’s extroverted nature thrived on time spent in the limelight and Sam happily kept himself behind the scenes. Without Rush and the company, Sam knew he’d be labeled an eccentric hermit—or worse—by now. The label held a certain appeal for Sam, but his friend insisted that kind of notoriety set a bad example for the kids they were trying to help.

      “Back to the office, sir?” asked Jake, one of the drivers Gray Box kept on staff.

      “Please,” Sam replied. The privacy screen rolled up between them and he withdrew his phone from the inner pocket of his jacket and turned it on. Within a minute, the device buzzed and chimed as if he’d been offline for weeks rather than hours.

      He shook his head, skimming the alerts he’d missed while rubbing elbows with San Francisco’s elite. No phone was another rule for social events that Sam wasn’t allowed to argue with. He and Rush both knew if he’d had his phone on, he would have hidden behind the device rather than mingle face-to-face with the guests. Per their agreement, that behavior would have meant Sam was required to attend another event later in the year to make up for the gaffe.

      Once a year in the monkey suit, smiling until his face ached, was more than enough time in the spotlight for Sam. Didn’t matter that by the sole measure of net worth he was technically one of the elite he struggled to connect with.

      Terminally shy, he felt like a fish out of water in social situations. Anything more than dinner out with his closest friends left him wound tighter than a high wire. After several awkward failures, he’d met with counselors and psychiatrists to help him, without much success. He tried chemistry as well, in the form of medication to erase his anxiety. The unpleasant side effects hadn’t been worth it. He’d since resigned himself to limiting his social exposure and created a recovery plan that involved a double shot of whiskey and an online warfare game as a reward for making the attempt.

      Several missed calls were from the same number, one he didn’t recognize. Half a dozen emails with a similar time stamp caught his full attention. With luck, this would be a security crisis at Gray Box that only he could resolve. Then Rush would have to let him keep his phone on during future events.

      To Sam’s astonishment, all of the messages were from Madison Goode, an old friend from high school. Well, he’d known her for the two years he was allowed to attend public high school after his stint in juvenile detention. The government hadn’t appreciated the skill or restraint when Sam and Rush hacked into sites just to prove it could be done.

      Sam had tutored Madison through a couple of classes, helping her pump up her GPA as well as her comprehension on some required course work. To this day, she sent him an email Christmas card every year. As much as he resisted those conventional traditions, because she respected his preference for digital correspondence, he always sent one back.

      He put the voice mail on speaker and listened, then quickly read and reread the emails, each more desperate than the last, which was only two sentences: “Come on, Sam. You owe me.”

      Sam shifted to the seat closer to the driver and lowered the privacy screen. “Change of plans. I need to get to the Artistry of the Far East Museum.” He buttoned up his collar and started on his tie. “Fast as you can get there.”

      He hit Reply on the last email, letting Madison know he was on the way. Her first email had arrived over two and a half hours ago. Damn. He never would’ve left her hanging intentionally. She was right, he did owe her. Big time. Just before Christmas, she’d helped bring Rush and Lucy, Rush’s new wife, home from France, sparing everyone involved delays and inquiries that were better off as unconfirmed rumors. Next, he tapped the icon and returned one of her three phone calls. She didn’t pick up. He left a voice mail message that he was on the way.

      While the driver made quick work of the bottlenecks of Friday night traffic, Sam checked for any breaking news at the museum. He came up empty and was ready to start a different search when the driver hit a detour about a block from the museum. “Looks like some big event,” Jake said. “There’s a red carpet out and everything.”

      A red carpet event with no news teams nearby? It didn’t make sense. “No problem. I’ll walk from here.” His curiosity piqued, Sam reached for the door handle.

      “Do you want me to wait?”

      “Not necessary. I can call if I need something.”

      Before he’d exited the limo, the familiar tension lanced across his shoulders and turned his mouth dry. At least at this event, without Rush nearby to glare at him, he could use his phone as a shield if necessary. Although he was dressed for it, he didn’t want to brave the red carpet, so he turned away at the last second and looked for a side entrance. The museum was crawling with local uniforms as well as a team that gave Sam the impression the President of the United States might be in attendance. He hoped not. Rush’s last meeting at the Pentagon had become urban legend in certain circles by now.

      Sam took comfort again in the lack of news crews. For a split second, he considered the fallout if he walked away and caught a cab home. He waged an internal argument that there wasn’t any kind of favor worth the agony of walking into a world of strangers.

      But he couldn’t do that. Madison had used her connections for him, coming through in the midst of a crisis to smooth over what might easily have been an unpleasant international incident for Rush, Lucy and the company. Not to mention she was one of two people from high school—aside from teachers—who consistently kept up with him. The other was Rush.

      He was climbing the stairs to the side entrance, still waging that internal debate, when a uniformed museum guard and a man in a dark suit holding a tablet blocked the door. “Sam Bellemere,” he told the man in the suit. As the man brought the guest list onto the tablet, Sam saw names and photos in two columns. “Madison Goode asked me to stop by,” he added, shamelessly dropping her name to speed things up. “Is she here?”

      The suit didn’t reply, focused on scrolling through the long list. From Sam’s view, he could see the last page was a different color and to his surprise, he recognized the head shot used on all of the Gray Box publicity.

      “Mr. Bellemere.” The suit said the name with reverence and a little shock. As he stuck out his hand, a smile erased the stoic gatekeeper’s expression. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” He pumped Sam’s hand and then signaled for the museum guard to open the door. “I’ll walk you back.”

      “Thank you.”

      “It is a pleasure,” the suit repeated. “I’m Brady Cortland. Has Madison mentioned me? I’ve been on her planning team for this exhibition and reception from the start.”

      “Not that I recall,” Sam said. Why did this guy think Madison shared any details about her work? When the man’s face fell, he knew he had to say something. “But I’m terrible with names.”

      “No problem,” Brady said. “Everyone who knows anything has heard how your work consumes you. Give me Mandarin any day

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