“And that is why we fail,” Ian announced.
The doors came open and Yasmin rushed in with a box. She set it on the table and opened it, passing the contents to Charlotte.
“You took him to court,” Kyle said with a seemingly sympathetic shake of his head. “You did all you could do.”
Charlotte’s eyes narrowed as she opened…was that Scotch? “I will not protect you from him.”
Kyle shrugged. “It was a very mature decision. I mean, the old man’s been out of the game for a long time.”
“Old man?” Ian started to turn on the dude who did not seem to be able to read the room. “I will show you how much of an old man I am. I don’t think your momma spanked you enough.”
“Ian, drink.” Charlotte managed to get the glass in her husband’s hand before he could stand up. “See. Good Scotch. Old Scotch. Expensive Scotch.”
“Is he okay?” She looked to Deke, who was grinning ear to ear.
“He will be. Charlotte knows how to bring him down,” Deke said.
That was the moment she realized she’d reached for his hand. At some point she’d put a hand on his. She’d done it unconsciously, as if her body remembered that he was safe, that he would protect her.
She eased her hand off his.
Charlotte’s blouse seemed way less buttoned up all of the sudden, and she had a cookie in her hand as she moved into her husband’s space, lowering herself onto his lap. “There you go, baby. Scotch and a lemon cookie. That feels better now, doesn’t it?”
The big guy’s free arm wound around his wife’s waist, and he seemed to relax. “And boobs. The boobs are a big part of this protocol of yours.”
“So we don’t need the stun gun?” Yasmin actually had one in her hand.
This was the weirdest place.
“I think we’re good.” Charlotte seemed perfectly happy to conduct the rest of the meeting while her husband treated her like a teddy bear. “So you are Deke’s high school girlfriend and you now work for that man. We’re going to call him that man from now on, and we will not mention legal fees anymore.”
“If it helps, I think he’s likely doing something illegal. I think he might even be working with a foreign government, but I’m not totally sure,” Maddie explained. “I need to get onto his private system to figure out what he’s doing.”
“Wait.” Ian seemed more interested now. He hadn’t let go of his wife, but he was sitting up again. “This is about Nolan Byrne going to jail? What do you suspect he’s up to?”
“I work on the satellite team,” she began.
“That’s his new thing, isn’t it?” MaeBe asked. “I know that I’m supposed to hate the guy, and I think what he did is terrible and an awful thing, but he’s kind of a big deal in the tech world, so I know more about him than just how terrible he is.”
“He’s a fuckcake,” Ian grumbled. “But maybe he’s a fuckcake who I might be able to send to prison. Please illuminate me on how a new satellite is going to screw over the world. Is he using it to spy on his enemies?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s supposed to be going up basically as a test. It’s the first of its kind and if it works, the technology could potentially be used to streamline space travel.”
“So this isn’t your run of the mill communications satellite?” Kyle asked.
“No.” She hesitated, looking to Deke. “I’m breaking my contract even talking about this.”
“You can trust them. I promise you that even if your boss turns out to be entirely innocent, Ian will keep his mouth shut. What you say doesn’t go past these conference room walls. He won’t use you to get revenge.”
“No because I’m not a shitgibbon asshole,” Ian replied, picking up another cookie. “Yasmin, thank you for the save. I’m good now. Please tell me there’s extra in there.”
Yasmin put the stun gun away. “Of course. I keep these close by in case of Boomer. Here you go. I made them myself. They’re called sfouf. It’s a kind of cake with turmeric. It tastes better than it sounds.”
She handed a container to Boomer, who opened it with relish. “Thanks, Yasmin. Smells great and I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry,” Ian said with a shake of his head. He kissed his wife. “Go on, baby. I’m ready to get serious. Yasmin, go ahead and close the blinds and let everyone know we’re not to be disturbed. And maybe pull a nondisclosure for all of us to sign. Will that make it more comfortable for you, Ms. Hill?”
It looked like the antics were over. “I suppose. I’m nervous because I take my contract seriously. But then so did Justin Garcia and Pam Dodson.”
Yasmin exited and then the blinds started to run down, shutting the conference room off from the rest of the office. Charlotte sat back in her own chair, and all of the focus was back on Maddie.
“He means what he says,” Deke offered. “He’ll have us all sign nondisclosures, but if you would prefer we can wait until Yasmin has them printed out.”
“Also, Deke would punch us if we talked,” Boomer added. “And let’s face facts, I’m probably going to forget most of what you say because it’s going to be a lot of technical stuff, right? Yeah. I won’t get it, so I won’t be able to tell anyone about it. I’m going to do what I do best. Sit here, eat some cake, and look pretty.” He shrugged. “I’m comfortable with my role on the team.”
She trusted Deke. “All right. The satellite is run by an AI that is beyond anything we have today. Byrne is basically taking the self-drive function of his cars and using them to power and maintain the sat. So instead of a human operator on the ground deciding on the upkeep, Clarke makes the decisions and uses his resources to do the work.”
“Clarke?” Charlotte asked.
MaeBe raised her hand and bounced like a kid in school. “Is it for Arthur C?”
It would be so good to have someone on this team of Deke’s who understood her world. “Yes. Arthur C. Clarke. He was a science fiction writer. He’s also responsible for conceptualizing the geostationary satellite communication system we use today.”
“Smartie pants,” Kyle said under his breath. “All right, I’ll be the dummy of the group and ask the question. How is this different from what we do now? I mean I can’t believe we send a repairman up to space every time something goes wrong with a satellite.”
“Up until a few years ago if something went wrong with a satellite or it ran out of fuel, it was simply decommissioned. There were no repairs. If something went wrong the satellite was either flown toward the atmosphere where it would burn up or it was sent to what’s known as a graveyard orbit,” Maddie explained. “That’s an orbital path roughly 23,000 miles up. It’s far enough that the debris doesn’t impact spacecraft.”
“And they eat the cost?” Ian asked, a brow rising over his blue eyes.
“Yes. And the cost is sometimes billions of dollars. So a few years back DARPA began working with a private firm on a project known as RSGS. Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites,” she explained. “We believe in the next decade there will be a booming business concerning space, including satellite maintenance and repair. It would absolutely include human technicians along with robotics. Byrne wants to streamline the process by building satellites that do their own work.”