Chapter Forty-One: By NamePOV: AlexI couldn't read the expression on my assistant's face when she appeared in the doorway; it was halfway between amused and unsure, as if she had received information that she wasn't sure how to convey."There's a call for you.""Who is it?"She looked at the note she was holding. "Westbridge Logistics."I reached for the phone as soon as I nodded. One of Elena's longest-standing client relationships was with Westbridge, which lasted nine years and was renewable every year. This type of account ran smoothly because no one had ever given it a reason not to."They specifically asked for you," she stated. "Not customer relations. Not the office of Ms. Voss. They specifically requested Alex Mercer.I gave her a look.With the slight smile of someone who realized they had just delivered something important, she turned to face them.Before I could answer, the phone rang. She vanished. I got up."Alex Mercer.”"Good morning, Mr. Mercer." I had worked closel

Chapter Forty-Three: The Associate POV: AlexAfter knocking twice, the junior analyst entered my office and looked over her shoulder before shutting the door."I don't have long," she muttered.I pointed to the chair on the other side of my desk. Instead of sitting, she simply stood with a notebook in one hand, her fingers clenched around the spine."You attended the mentoring session."She gave a nod. "You requested that I continue to attend. He began by discussing career advancement. Relationships, visibility, and the usual. She took a swallow. "Then someone asked why you got promoted so quickly."I held out."He chuckled. I noticed a tiny, taut movement on her face that no one else in the room would have noticed. "Your job is temporary," he said. that, contrary to popular belief, competence is not rewarded here. that Ms. Voss's interest in you is the only reason you are where you are. Everything else will change once that does.The silence in the room was not due to rage. Those wo

Chapter Forty-Five: Rule Seventeen POV: AlexThe floor had started to empty by the time I got to Elena's office, as it always did in the final hour before evening officially arrived. Over the past few months, the debrief had developed into its own silent ritual, lasting anywhere from ten minutes on some days to an hour on others, or nearly nothing at all on others. From the moment I opened the door, I had learned to tell what kind of evening it would be.Before I let myself in, I knocked once. She took a while to respond. With her back to me, she stood at the French windows and watched the city come together into its evening self, the lights below extending into the distance as if they had fallen to the ground instead of rising into it.Without turning, she said, "Close the door."Yes, I did. In the silence, the click went farther than it ought to have.Tonight was different in some way. Not the silence per se; I had spent enough time studying her silences over the course of several

Chapter Forty-Seven: The Counter POV: AlexConrad Hale had created a more attractive proposal.When I read it for the third time, by myself at my desk with the office closing around me and the Eastbridge deadline in the low twenties of hours, that was the first thing I confessed to myself. The presentation was polished. Each page was intended to generate momentum, and each projection was both conservative enough to withstand the first round of scrutiny and optimistic enough to excite a board. The cost of the visual design alone likely exceeded the monthly income of the majority of junior analysts. By all standards, it was excellent work.Excellent work was no longer intimidating to me. That's what I noticed as I closed his file and opened ours next to it on the second monitor: the absence of the old reflex, which used to make me compare myself to whoever was standing across the table before I'd even opened my mouth. I looked at Conrad's proposal the same way I looked at any competito