by Leigh James
Tears threatened, but I nodded. “Thank you.”
The doctor squeezed Gabe’s shoulder. “I’ll text you immediately if anything changes. You can go see him now, before they move him.”
Gabe and I headed to the room, followed closely by Timmy.
My security guard looked grim. “His brother’s on assignment on the other side of the world—he’s special ops. We’ve been communicating with him daily via email. He’d planned to take leave and fly home next week, but I’m wondering if we should tell him he needs to come now.”
“Do it,” Gabe said immediately. “Just in case. I’m sure it would help Wes to have his brother here.”
The three of us went into the room, and I was shocked to see how much worse Wes looked. His skin was blanched, his lips a whitish color. I went immediately to the bed and reached for his hand.
“Hey, big guy. You scared us just now.” I squeezed his hand, listening to the hum of the machines and his heart rate monitor. “Please get better, and please come back to us. Hannah’s coming home soon. She can’t wait to see you. I need you to be okay for her, for me, for your brother…and for you. Okay?”
There was no answer, but I squeezed his hand again.
Gabe and Timmy each took turns speaking to Wes in low tones, each of them taking his hand for a moment. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I considered the past twenty-four hours. They were some of the worst in my life. I hadn’t ached like this since I’d gotten the call from the police about my parents’ accident years ago.
I wiped my eyes roughly as we headed back to the lobby. “Timmy, do you mind staying here? I don’t want to just leave him…”
“I was going to ask if that’s okay, ma’am. And I’ll try to get in touch with his brother again while I’m here.”
I patted Timmy’s arm. He was close to Wesley; this had to be hard on him. “Thank you.”
Gabe turned to me. “Are you heading back home to work?”
I nodded, swallowing over the lump in my throat. “We’re getting a lot done, but we need to finish this.”
Gabe tapped me on the chin, his gaze locked on mine. “It’s going to be okay, babe. I promise.”
I nodded. But my heart felt heavy as I turned to go, and I realized I didn’t believe him.
A few days later, as I crossed through the sleek doors into the sunny lobby of Paragon, I wondered: how much time did I have left?
Not enough. I didn’t know how long, but it would never be enough.
I headed to my office. “Stephanie, can you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” she said.
“Call a staff meeting in the cafeteria in ten minutes. I need everyone.”
“Of course.”
I was nervous as my staff assembled. I smiled at Eva, my chief lab technician, and Dave and Leo, but they only nodded in response. They looked as anxious as I felt.
“Thank you for taking a break and coming down on such short notice.” My voice carried through the large room, which felt oddly quiet. “I wanted to update you all about Wesley and Hannah, and what’s happening with Paragon.”
I swallowed hard. “Wesley has been moved back to the ICU unit at El Camino—but he’s stable, and he’s receiving amazing care at a cutting-edge facility, and his doctor is one of the top neurosurgeons in the country. I’m praying for him, praying he pulls through. It would mean a lot to me if you would too.”
There were worried murmurs throughout the room. One woman started visibly crying.
“As you know, Wesley was injured on duty while he was protecting my sister. Hannah was taken captive. She’s alive—I’ve seen her and spoken to her.”
Everyone started talking at once.
“I’m negotiating to get her back. I’m sorry, I can’t discuss the details because I don’t want to complicate the matter any further. Trust me, it’s complicated enough—and most importantly, I don’t want to do anything to hurt Hannah or put any of you at risk. I will tell you more when I can, but for now, just know that we’re doing everything in our power.”
I sighed. “Which brings me to my last point. And please, for Hannah’s sake, all of this must remain confidential. Anything I tell you can’t leave these walls.”
The room went quiet again, the silence ominous.
“Every one of you has made these last six years a true joy.” I turned and looked at each of their faces, acknowledging them individually. “Your contributions and sacrifices have made my company great. That’s why what I’m about to tell you is so hard.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. “Paragon is being sold to Jiàn Innovations. Our company will cease operations as soon as we close the deal, which could be as early as next week.”
No one looked surprised. They were too busy being appalled.
Tears threatened, so I took another deep breath and tried to get the rest of the words out before I fell apart. “The good news is that our partner, Dynamica, has plans to open a large research and development division, and they’ve asked every single one of you to come work at their San Jose headquarters. They’ve asked me to come too, as the Vice President of R&D. As soon as Paragon winds up, you’ll have a new home in Silicon Valley, if you want one. And I hope you do—each of you has proven your loyalty, professionalism, and intelligence to me over the years. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
Everyone started talking at once. It took a few minutes for them to calm down. Then Alexandra, one of my longtime lab technicians, stood up. “I’d follow you anywhere, Lauren. Of course I’ll go. Thank you for the opportunity.”
There was clapping and cheering.
Then, one by one, each of my employees stood up and accepted the offer.
And I didn’t even bother trying to stop the tears.
GABE
At my office, I reviewed reports and sales data. Then I had a long telephone conference with Kami. I’d asked her to work on several new agreements recently, and we needed to review them, to make sure the details were in place. After we hung up, I knew I could move forward with my plan—the part involving Lauren’s second act. I didn’t see a way to stop the sale of Paragon, but that didn’t mean the game was over.
I wanted to take Li Na down. I couldn’t do it alone, but I could help Lauren do it.
Now I just had to convince her that she should.
The week had dragged—I felt sick, almost hungover. My brothers had been gone on surveillance, tracking down leads, and there’d been no further contact from Li Na. She was letting Lauren sweat it out. Seeing Wesley had been a punch in the gut; I winced every time I thought about him, how pale and shrunken he’d looked. Dr. Kim said he’d stabilized, but I wondered how much more Wes’s body could take.
Allen Trade was right: that Zhao woman did have a lot to answer for.
But how could I make her answer? Even though she’d hurt people I loved, she was no more real to me than a smooth voice on the other end of a line, a sender of curt texts. I thought about what Levi had asked me: what made Li Na Zhao tick?
I did a Google search and pulled up the most recent pictures of her. I considered the woman who’d ripped my world apart: long dark hair, bright lipstick, an immaculate, slim-fitting suit. Li Na projected style and confidence in her press photos. But who was she, really?
And why was she so certain that she could get away with murder, kidnapping, and intellectual property theft on such a grand scale?
I did a little more digging. She’d gotten married when she was twenty-five and divorced ten years later. Her ex-husband was a doctor. He’d gone on to remarry, have a child, and was still practicing medicine, as far as I could tell. Chinese social media was different from the American version, so I got a little lost as I looked online. Dave had had the foresight to install beta translation software on my laptop; he’d written the code himself, and I hoped to Christ it worked right.
I texted Dave and Leo. Please do a social media analysis on LNZ and her ex-husband. Send it to me soon. If a
nyone could piece together something useful, it’d be our IT experts.
I read up on Jiàn Innovations. The company had enjoyed robust growth since its formation. However, its sales were primarily Chinese. I’d known from the beginning that Li Na wanted to increase her global market share. There was no better person to steal from than Lauren, who’d had overnight international success.
Overnight international success seven years in the making.
I read some more, looking at the practice of IP theft in China—it was big business. Everyone who worked in Silicon Valley was aware of the ongoing security threat, but now that I was dealing with it personally, I saw how real the damage was. We were about to lose a billion-dollar technology because of Chinese government-sanctioned hacking. From all accounts, the government was aware of, and even participated in, the hacking of North American technology. From what Levi had told me, they’d been completely uncooperative with the NSA and the FBI—Li Na was free to proceed as she wished.
But although Li Na had successfully hacked Lauren, she still couldn’t make the patch work. Even with a legitimate sale on the horizon, Li Na was worried she couldn’t re-create the patch’s success, and keep it up and running, without the help of Paragon’s most valuable asset—Lauren herself.
That was why Li Na had resorted to kidnapping. She needed to have personal leverage in addition to all the material she could steal. She knew even when she owned the company outright, and had all the correct specs, the patch’s technology was so sophisticated, so advanced, she would still need Lauren to hold her hand through the process of getting production and distribution started. Taking Hannah had been the best way to ensure Lauren’s performance.
Li Na was biting—hard—the hand about to feed her a feast.
She must have run out of options to be this desperate. But what, exactly, was she desperate for?
My phone buzzed with a text from Dave. LNZ has no social media—she’s completely off the grid. Her ex looks dull. He’s a GP, remarried, and all he does is post pictures of his daughter, who is admittedly pretty cute. He works at a foreign-run hospital in Shenzhen. Do you want me to dig into him further?
No, I wrote back. My instincts, which always served me well, told me that the ex-husband remained of little interest to Li Na. She seemed completely focused on her company and her ambition.
This troubled me. If she didn’t love anyone, there was no one we could kidnap to hurt her—not that we would do that, but still. She seemed impenetrable. Levi said that we needed to play offense, but what sort of run did you take at a person without any personal connections?
An economic one, stupid.
I turned the idea over in my mind. To me, greed was a weak motivating factor. I didn’t believe that Li Na was taking these extraordinary measures because she loved money. She was smart enough to know that you couldn’t take it with you.
I scrolled through Jiàn’s website, looking at their press releases. They were frequent, mostly boring financial posts. But in the past year, there were several, more colorful entries about the new technology Jiàn was working on acquiring. These reports included projections that Jiàn Innovations would become an “international leader in cutting-edge technology” and would “help establish Shenzhen as the world’s biotech economic and innovation epicenter.”
Li Na was bragging about what stealing the patch would do for her company and her city.
International leader…establish Shenzhen… Something clicked with me.
One of the things I’d learned from dealing with distribution partners all over the world was that every country had a different culture, a different set of values, and a different way of doing business. When I’d started Dynamica, I had to study the business practices of each country we dealt with. China was enormous, so there were cultural fluctuations within the country itself. Getting familiar with the ins and outs of each region made doing business there easier.
Still, there were unifying themes throughout the vast country, like the importance of showing respect to your business partners and associates. Respect was a recurring theme in China’s business landscape. A concept tied to the importance of respect was “face”—somewhat similar to the Americanized “saving face.” In Chinese business culture, face meant that you were respected. The way I understood it, it was like your social currency, your standing in the opinion of your peers.
In China, face was extremely important, especially to someone who cared only about their business.
I stood and paced, working through my thoughts.
Li Na had made pubic proclamations about her company’s impending market advancement and its ultimate dominance. She had also promised to advance Shenzhen’s overall standing in the global marketplace. If she failed to deliver at a grand level, she would lose face.
We were on the verge of selling Paragon to Li Na, and Lauren had agreed to help her with the transition. I went back to my desk and scrolled to Li Na’s picture again. If I’d known nothing about her, I would find her attractive. But Li Na didn’t care about that kind of face—she wanted more than recognition for just that, much more.
I needed to make sure people—her people—saw behind her mask. If she was exposed as someone who bragged, but couldn’t deliver on her promises, she would lose face. The stigma could be potentially devastating.
Potentially devastating sounded…promising. After all, Li Na did have a lot to answer for.
I shot off a quick email to Kami, asking her to have all my international agreements with my patch distributors updated immediately. Then I spent the rest of the day getting ready, finally feeling like I had the foundation of a plan.
Chapter 19
Lauren
After another emotional day, I was happy to be home in sweats, nursing a glass of wine with Gabe.
He put his arm around me. “Dr. Kim called this afternoon from the hospital—Wes is the same. Still stable, but still in ICU.”
“Thank God. At least he hasn’t had another arrhythmia. Did Timmy get in touch with the brother’s unit?”
Gabe nodded. “His brother—Ellis—is taking leave and coming home.”
I sighed. “That’s good. I hope it helps Wes.”
“It will.” Gabe sounded confident, as though he were trying to stay upbeat. “Getting Hannah back will help too. I’m sure Wes will be able to sense their presence. Dr. Kim said continued visits and support are extremely important.”
I nodded. “I’ll go see him again tomorrow. So…what have you been up to since I last saw you this morning?”
Gabe shrugged, looking nonchalant. “Just some research. You?”
“I held a staff meeting, to talk about the future.”
“And?”
“And everyone single one of my employees agreed to transition to Dynamica. They’re thrilled. I can’t thank you enough.” I kissed his cheek. “Really…you made an impossible situation bearable.”
He smiled, playing with my hair. “And what about you, huh? Have you decided about what you’re going to do? I’m not trying to push, I swear. I’m just…curious.”
“I know.” I leaned against him, trying to gather the energy to tell him how I felt.
“So?”
“In theory, I would love to come work at Dynamica. We already have an existing business relationship, we work well together, and I’d be free to develop new technology—I know you’d give me all the space and support I need to build something great.”
“But? Because I can tell that there’s a ‘but.’”
“But… I don’t—I don’t want to work for anyone else!” I put down my wine, got up, and started pacing. “I don’t want to say no to you. I want to keep things on as even a keel as possible—to follow my staff, to start working again as soon as we get through this. I can’t stand being idle, just reacting all the time to different stressful situations. It’s making me crazy.”
“I can see that.”
I looked at him, feeling helpless. “I want to say yes, but I c
an’t.”
Gabe watched me patiently. “And that’s because… Can you explain the ‘because’ part again, babe?”
“Because I’m a CEO. I like running my own company and being my own boss. I could never work for someone else, not even you.”
I started pacing with renewed fervor. “I built Paragon from nothing except my dreams, but I made it work. It was a big deal for me to take on Dynamica even as a partner. I’ve never trusted anyone enough to do that—but even though I trust you, I still want to call the shots. I can’t give up control and just be a vice president. Even if it’s for your company—because it’s yours and you built it. I want something that’s mine, that I built. Do you understand?”
His dimple flashed. “Yes, I know Your Grace doesn’t play well with others.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not—and quite frankly, I’m happy to hear you say it. I was wondering if Li Na had taken all the fight out of you.”
“I do feel a bit like a deflated balloon,” I admitted.
“Don’t. And don’t be worried about my feelings—wait a minute, you aren’t worried about my feelings, are you?”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed. It sounded foreign coming from my mouth. “Your self-esteem seems pretty intact to me.”
“You got me there.” He chuckled. “So, what do you want to do? Screw Li Na? Rescue your sister, keep Paragon and the patch? Stay on as CEO?”
“In a perfect world, yes. But that’s not reality. I need this to be over with Li Na. I don’t want to live looking over my shoulder—or worse—for the rest of my life. Clive Warren warned me. He said she wouldn’t stop, and I should’ve listened to him. When I screwed her over and launched the patch, I made an enemy for life. And now look what’s happened. Hannah, Wesley…”
Gabe held me close. “It’s not your fault.”
“I appreciate you saying that, but this is my cross to bear. I need to make this right—I need to get Hannah back, to have Wesley be okay, and to never go through this again. If Li Na gets Paragon in exchange, it’s worth it. Without my company, my life might not look how I always envisioned it, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay. All I want is to be able to walk away with my family intact.”