“What?”
He showed her the second email.
45
Un-Ionized
NICOLE LAMB
“No way,” Nicole said, sitting in her office chair as her entire lab, accounting, and legal department filed into her office.
Arvind and the other traitors must have narked to the rest of the office about the secret back hallway to get into the lab office corridor, which meant the rest of the staff were going to sneak in and raid the vending machines up here, too.
“This was your idea,” Afifa said to Nicole. “I wouldn’t have even thought of it.”
“I am in research and development,” Nicole insisted. “I researched and developed this, and then I handed it off. Someone else needs to market and sell it to Last Chance, Inc. There is no flippin’ way I’m going in there with their representative, whoever that is.”
The lies stuck in her throat. She knewexactlywho would be in that room, and she didn’t want to see him.
Selma braced her hands on Nicole’s desk and leaned over it at her. “Look, I don’t care if you need to strap on one of these swords or whatever, but screw your courage to the sticking place and go in there and fight for us.”
“Don’t quote Shakespeare at me. Shakespeare isn’t going to work.”
Selma turned to the other twenty people in the office. “Anybody else going to go in there and negotiate for us?”
Nobody uttered a dang word.Cowards.
Finally, Arvind said, “I can’t. English isn’t even my first language.”
“You were born in Irvine. You can negotiate as well or better than I can.”
“No, I can’t. I really can’t. I have anxiety.”
“You call anxiety a ‘white-people problem.’ Besides, I’m an engineer. Engineers are notoriously bad at talking to people.”
“You’re not,” Afifa said.
Arvind reached over, grabbed her hand, and tugged, making her bend over to not be pulled out of her chair. “Come on, boss. We need you.”
“Any of you can do this.Selma,I nominate Selma. You were pre-law for a while before you went into materials science.”
“I changed my major because I can’t talk in front of people,” Selma told her.
“Plus, she’s on the reduction in force list. It’ll look like she’s just trying to save her skin instead of speaking for the group,” Arvind said.
Nicole glared up at Arvind. “Conveniently, that lets you out, too.”
He grinned at her. “Yup. Up and at ‘em, tiger. Let’s go.”
That’s how Nicole found herself propelled at the head of an overeducated and very ruly mob walking down the staircase, their shoes echoing on the cement like herds of horses thundering through the desert.
Afifa told her, “We put their delegation in conference room two because it’s the larger one.”
“Delegation? I thought it was one representative!” Nicole hissed at her.
“Too late to back out now,” Arvind muttered, shoving her through the conference room door and closing it behind her.
Three men sat on the other side of the conference table.
