“Is everything all right?”
“Yes fine, just busy, you know, with the new teams of bodyguards. Is there something you needed?”
Xander took two steps forward. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he raised an eyebrow. “Gardenia, do you know where Harper is?”
Gardenia sighed, darted a glance at Xander, and looked away. “She’s fine. Just has some things to do this morning.”
“She stayed by your place last night?”
“Yes,” Gardenia said.
“Thanks for letting me know,” Xander said.
Gardenia bobbed her head again, and Xander checked his watch, taking the stairs to the lower level. As the doors swished open, he texted the team he had on Harper, asking them for another update.
Damn, I’m a dumbass.He got off the elevator, walking briskly toward the R&D labs. He should have apologized to Harper. He should have chased after her. The hurt in her eyes had kept him tossing and turning all night.
She didn’t go home last night, and the team that was on her wasn’t returning his calls. He cursed himself for not putting a new tracker on her phone.
Some professional security operative I am.
“Hey, boss.” Ryder Klassen, head of R&D, looked up from his table of parts and tools.
Xander clasped the man’s outstretched hand. “Show me what you got.”
The shaggy-haired man smiled.
Xander scanned the screens, noting progress on a government contract they had due for next month.
Ryder pulled a metal basket near him, dropped it on the counter, and placed a thin glass piece with a solar panel in it.
“As you can see, the casing is smaller. I’ve rigged one up and using this method, it can be twice as powerful as the smallest panel currently on the market with more output.” Ryder wiped his hands over the flat keyboard on the counter, and Xander smiled, as the model appeared on the screen.
“Great job. When can we get this to the manufacturer?”
Ryder rubbed his face, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Another two months.”
“If I get you more people?”
“Six months.” Ryder grinned.
That was the problem with hiring the best in the fields. They didn’t like to share space with others. Xander wanted to spend more time in R&D. He wanted to get back to tinkering with his inventions, but Axis Management had grown more expansive than he and Ares could have ever imagined, and he needed to play the role of the CEO. Unless he wanted to give up his control of Team Stealth. He couldn’t do all the things and it pissed him off.
He spent a few minutes greeting the other members of the team, examining what they were working on and then at an empty worktable, he pulled up a tray of glass fragments, and tweezers and examined them under the microscope.
“May I?”
Margot Phillips smiled at Xander.
“Of course,” he said, passing his tray over to her. He had recruited her after she had graduated from MIT.
“The goal is to mimic the seashell as much as possible,” Margot said. “And if I blow up the image, you can see the hexagon patterns on the glass. Now we are working on making the bend just right, so your phone screen doesn’t bend to the touch.” Margot smiled.
“Brilliant,” Xander said. “You know this technology is a pet project of mine.”
Margot flashed him a smile. “I know.”
Xander’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He frowned, not news of Harper but Ares asking him to come and meet him in the conference room.
