Paranoia (2003) by Joseph Finder

Author:Joseph Finder [Finder, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Thrillers, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781250035288
Google: rXCjngEACAAJ
Amazon: 1250035287
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2004-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

45

I left Goddard’s office feeling both relieved and weighted down.

I’d survived my first meeting with the guy, didn’t make too big a fool of myself. But I was also in possession of a serious company secret, real inside information that was going to change a lot of people’s lives.

Here’s the thing: I’d made up my mind that I wasn’t going to pass this on to Wyatt and company. It wasn’t part of my assignment, wasn’t in my job description. It had nothing to do with the skunkworks. I wasn’t required to tell my handlers. They didn’t know I knew, anyway. Let them find out about the Trion layoffs when everyone else did.

Preoccupied, I stepped off the elevator on the third floor of A Wing to grab a late lunch in the dining room when I saw a familiar face coming at me. A tall, skinny young guy, late twenties, bad haircut, called out, “Hey, Adam!” as he got into the elevator.

Even in that fraction of a second before I could put a name to the face, my stomach clenched. My animal hindbrain had sensed the danger before my cerebrum figured it out.

I nodded, kept on walking. My face was burning.

His name was Kevin Griffin, an affable if goofy-looking guy, and a decent basketball player. I used to shoot hoops with him at Wyatt Telecommunications. He was in sales in the Enterprise Division, in routers. I remembered him as very sharp, very ambitious behind that laid-back demeanor. He always beat his numbers, and he used to joke with me, in a good-natured sort of way, about my casual attitude toward work.

In other words, he knew who I really was.

“Adam!” he persisted. “Adam Cassidy! Hey, what are you doing here?”

I couldn’t exactly ignore him anymore, so I turned back. He had one hand on the elevator doors to keep them from closing.

“Oh, hey, Kevin,” I said. “You work here now?”

“Yeah, in sales.” He seemed thrilled, like this was a high-school reunion or something. He lowered his voice. “Didn’t they kick you out of Wyatt because of that party?” He made a sort of sniggering sound, not nasty or anything, just kind of conspiratorial.

“Nah,” I said, faltering for a second, trying to sound lighthearted and amused. “It was all a big misunderstanding.”

“Yeah,” he said dubiously. “Where’re you working here?”

“Same old same old,” I said. “Hey, nice to see you, guy. Sorry, I’ve got to run.”

He looked back at me curiously as the elevator doors closed.

This was not good.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.