Marcus checked his watch. It was 8:44. That gives you just over an hour. I know. She picked up the legal pad from her desk. looked at the numbers one more time.
"Marcus, if this doesn't work, it's going to work," he said. She looked at him. "You don't know that." "No," he agreed. "But you've been building toward this for 12 years.
You found the right partner. You have the numbers and you have three board votes and you have Adrienne and you have the truth, which Hawthorne doesn't." He paused. walk into that room like you already know how this ends because you do." She looked at him for a long moment. "You sound like someone who's done being afraid," she said quietly.
"I'm working on it," he said honestly. The corner of her mouth moved. Not quite a smile. "Something better, something private meant only for him." "Go fix something," she said.
"I'll see you downstairs." He went and found things to fix that didn't need fixing, which was the professional equivalent of pacing. And he knew it, and he did it anyway. At 10:07, Thomas Burl walked into the pre-event reception on the 28th floor. Marcus knew because he was running a cable check in the adjacent hallway.
Legitimate task well within his scope, and he had a clear sight line to the reception room door. He watched Victoria cross the room to Burell. Watched her extend her hand. Watched Burell shake it with the careful warmth of a man who has not yet decided what he believes. Watched her guide him to a quieter corner.
Legal pad in hand. CFO appearing at her side with the presentation open on a tablet. Marcus went back to the cable check. At 10:51, he passed the reception room on his way to the service corridor. He glanced in.
Victoria and Burl were still talking, but something in Burell's posture had changed. He was leaning forward slightly, looking at the tablet screen, and he had the expression of a man who has just seen a number that surprised him. Marcus kept walking. At 11:15, Victoria texted him a single word, four. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked at the screen.
Four board votes. He typed back, "Good. Now go get ready. She sent back. Already am.