Pete drops him off at Fritz’s table and promises to be back on Sunday. “Let’s try to make a choice by then.”
Julien nods and falls into an empty chair. He can feel eyes on him, but he melts, sinking lower and lower in the seat until the hard backrest props his head up. “Hey Fritz.”
“It went well, I see.”
“I met with nine teams today.” Julien slides again as he talks, but he can’t be bothered to pick himself up. “It’s been eighthours.”
“Who was the tenth team?” the bald guy asks. “The one who didn’t want to meet?”
Julien rolls his head and sends a questioning glance to Fritz. Hopefully it reads like, “Who is this stranger?”
“Oh, sorry.” The bald guy wipes his hand on a napkin and reaches across the table. “I’m Henry, Fritz’s—uh—race engineer.”
“The one who figured out our brake problem?” Julien pushes himself upright, to a reasonable posture. Can’t slack off in front of the enemy.
“Yeah, well, since we’re still hanging onto the lead for the Constructors’ Championship, I can’t really apologize for taking advantage of that.”
Julien nods but keeps his guard up.
“Who does not want you?” Fritz asks with excitement. Maybe he’s into gossip after all. “Ashton? Mercenary?”
“Um, no, actually.” It kinda sucks to admit, but Julien swallows and says, “Ferraro. Lorenzo didn’t want to discuss it.”
Not even just to entertain the idea.
“Oh.” Despite being the one who asked, Fritz seems confused. “Really?”
“That surprises me.” Thanks, Henry. “I’d check with your manager again. I thought they’d be the first to sit you down this weekend.”
“No need to, I guess. Not with Thomas and Rafael both up and running.”
“But you put in more hours of sim work than Peters and Windwood combined.” Why would Henry know something like that? “You’re a staple for the development team—surely Lorenzo knows.”
Julien gapes silently. What the fuck? Is he spying on them?!
“Henry used to work at Ferraro,” Fritz explains. “At least, he has said he did.”
Henry nods. “I was in Strategy. We didn’t cross paths often, but I took over for Davide during his paternity leave? We talked about front wings during a sponsor party once.”
“Oh,right.” Julien definitely doesn’t remember that.
Wait, Davide has a child?!
“He does not know who you are,” Fritz says with a coy smile. “I am thinking you lied about Ferraro after all.”
“I promise I didn’t.” With all of the subtlety of an actual red boar, Henry changes the topic. “So how did the meetings go? Who’s a front runner?”
“I thought I’d be signing for VFIBR this weekend, but I’m not so sure anymore.” The meeting didn’t instill a lot of confidence in him. “Um, what do you guys think about Ashton Marvin?”
Their eyes fly wide open.
“Really?!”
“Of all teams?”
“Yeah, uh, they offered the most money.” That means they want him the most, right? “And the innovations and stuff they’re working on—it’s neat.”
“Huh.”
