The King

by Rick Soper

  When Francis thought he was ready, he let Billy loose on the world, starting with Fashion Week in New York. Models were by their very nature self-obsessed. The key to breaking them, according to Francis, was to know that most men were intimidated by them, and had a tendency to over-compliment, which bored them. What Billy needed to do was show the kind of confidence that made them, feel lucky to be around him. Once they were interested, he needed to point out something small that he noticed wrong with their looks, or their recent show...something to cause their own confidence to drop in relation to his, and make them want to impress him. Once that happened, Francis told him, he’d won.

  Billy took his advice, and went a little crazy...

  until his world collapsed...

  Chapter 18

  The first day, walking through the fresh, California sunshine on the campus of Stanford University, was for London like having the first taste of complete, total freedom. Up to that point she hadn’t had a bad life – on the contrary, her father had given her everything she could possibly want. He’d always been there for her in every possible way he could. But by the time she was a senior in high school, London knew she had to make a break from her friends, the town she grew up in, and especially her father. London had graduated near the top of her class in high school and she’d aced the SATs, which opened the door for applying to Stanford.

  She’d chosen Stanford because it was about as far from her father as she could get and still go to a top-notch school. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her father dearly, she did. But she knew that if she’d been anywhere on the east coast, she would run to him at the slightest problem, and he’d find every reason he could to come visit. She knew she needed to cut that cord, to find out who she really was. She’d spent her entire life following his plan for who she should be. She was thankful for that plan. She knew that she had a solid base of learning, fitness, and health that would help her achieve in whatever field she wanted to try. But who she actually was and what she wanted out of life beyond her father’s plans for her was still a mystery – a mystery that she desperately wanted to solve.

  As she continued to walk around the campus, she imagined that it was the kind of place where she could finally find the answers she was looking for. But she also saw indifferent faces, and girls who were much prettier than she was. She suddenly felt not nearly as smart as the average student there. Suddenly, in the midst of her newfound freedom, even as she reveled in no longer being the center of attention and her father’s world, she suddenly felt very alone and frightened.

  Chapter 19

  At the same time that London was walking across the Stanford campus, Russell was sitting in his home office with the lights off and a drink in his hand. The only light in the room came from the iMac computer screen in front of him, set up to run a slideshow of all of the pictures he had of the three of them: London, Amber, and himself. The pictures had been running on a loop since London had stepped on the plane to go away to school.

  She’d sat down with him when she’d made the decision to go to Stanford. She’d told him that she loved him dearly, but needed to go to a school where they could have a little vacation from each other. She needed to know who she was without him. She told him that he would always be a huge part of her life, but there was a part of her that had her mother in her, a part that wanted to be set free, and go a little wild, so she could become the person she was going to be. They’d both cried, and hugged. He’d told her that he understood, and he’d told her that he always knew – hoped – that her mother would come out in her. He’d told her that was a good thing, because it reminded him of how much he’d loved her, and how proud she would have been of the woman that London had become.

  It was everything that she wanted and needed to hear, but the reality was that from the second she’d set foot on the plane, he’d been lost. He had no idea who he was without her. Everything he’d been for so many years had been geared towards being her father, her friend, her mentor - towards being everything he could be for her. With her gone, his entire purpose had gone with her. Everything – the house, his job, and his life – felt hollow.

  He took another drink, feeling more empty inside than he’d felt since the day Amber died. What was he going to do?

  Chapter 20

  Stevens met Emory Thomas in the lobby of the FBI building. “Okay,” he said. “What did you find?”

  Emory shook his head. “The next computer Sarah was able to track down was set up in another house, owned by another dead guy. Another computer and another card table.”

  “That’s what I figured.” The two of them walked into the open elevator and pushed the button to go down to their basement offices.

  “What about you?”

  Stevens held up the stack of papers that he’d gotten from Francis. “I got a list of girls who have a reason to be very pissed off with Billy Stone.”

  Emory looked at Stevens’ face as he took the papers, seeing the anger there. “Where did they come from?”

  Stevens gritted his teeth. “Tom Francis, CEO of The Agency.”

  “He just gave them to you?”

  Stevens smiled. “Let’s just say I convinced him it would be a good idea to share.”

  Emory sighed as the elevator reached the bottom floor. “Looking at these,” he said, “Francis doesn’t look so good.”

  “He looks like an asshole.”

  “No argument, there. Any one of these girls could have– ”

  Stevens took the papers from him, rushing ahead. “That’s why we need to get them to Sarah. We need a connection.”

  Emory hurried behind him. “Do you have a guess on this?”

  Stevens looked down at his watch, seven hours and counting. “My guess,” he said, “is that we’re running out of time.”

  Chapter 21

  The cracks in the Internet King’s domain started to show in the first quarter after the IPO, as PushThrough made its first earnings report amid the scandalous photos of Billy Stone, running off with model after model in paper after paper in the three months following the IPO. The earnings weren’t bad, in fact they were in line with expectations, but just meeting expectations wasn’t nearly good enough for the stock market. Combined with the articles detailing Billy’s antics, and a Wall Street Journal story that said that the competition had caught up to – and was surpassing – PushThrough, Billy saw his net worth, which he was now obsessively following since Francis pointed it out to him, fall by thirty five percent in just two days.

  Tom Francis and The Agency stepped up and said that they needed to help Billy do some damage control. First and foremost, PushThrough needed to come out with something new, something innovative and eye catching that would distract Wall Street from the less than impressive earnings. Second, they needed to make a high profile donation that showed Billy giving back to the people, to soften his image.

  But in trying to find the innovation for PushThrough, Billy hit a brick wall. Since he’d discovered the benefits of his newfound wealth and The King’s image, his focus had shifted to carnal pleasures. Shifting from pleasure back to work was proving to be difficult. Billy had spent the better part of his youth working on writing code, making computers do what he wanted. Now, that arrested adolescent had come back with a vengeance, and Billy was acting like a big kid with a new set of toys that he didn’t want to give up anytime soon.

  Still, Francis pushed him to make a donation to Stanford, since it was the institution that launched his career. Billy agreed – after all, he had yet to try his hand at wooing coeds. Francis went with him, to make sure that everything he did on campus was scripted, and prevent him from doing anything that might be considered unsavory...until he gave a closed-door speech to the student body.

  The script he was supposed to be reading from had all of the platitudes – everything that Francis thought would make him sound good. It was scrolled up and ready to go on the teleprompters, that surround the podium. At the last minute, though, Billy
decided to kill two birds with one stone.

  “Not very long ago,” he said, “I was sitting right where you are, looking up at the men that came to this stage and told me everything that they’d accomplished, thinking the same thing you guys are, that they were full of shit–” the audience screamed and applauded. “The truth of the matter is that I had a good idea, at the right time, and it took off. But as I sit up here making a big donation so you guys will have a new building, I find myself searching for that next idea that will help PushThrough move to the next level. I’ve always relied on my own ideas, but you get to a point where you’ve been stuck in your own corporation for too long and that can leave you out of touch. For me, coming to Stanford is like coming home.” He paused, listening to another round of applause, and then continued. “This is where my ideas came from, so I’m thinking to myself, why don’t I ask you young men and women what the next big thing for PushThrough should be?” The students cheered. Billy looked off stage at Francis, who shrugged back at him. “Now, I don’t want to ask you questions like this and have you hold back out of fear that I’ll steal them. Instead, I’ll make you a promise: if you have an idea that I think is good enough, I’ll hire you on the spot, and make sure that part of your contract includes ownership of your idea as it is implemented!” The students cheered, and a host of hands went up.

  For the next thirty minutes, Billy listened as students shot out ideas that ranged from the stupid – different colors on the interface – to the brilliant – specific code changes that would speed up the interfaces ability to align Pushed Groups around specified topics and interests – to the just plain weird – was there a way to make pets part of the Pushed Groups? Billy listened to them all with mild enthusiasm, until an absolutely stunning girl stood up. When their eyes met, he felt the bottom of his stomach rise up into his throat.

  “Why don’t you use smart phones,” she said, “to use the interests within Pushed Groups to send them towards each other...or specific advertising interests that might be close?”

  There it was, the next step: ‘mobilization’ – and coming from the mouth of an angel. Billy didn’t know how to stop the questions, but he was dead sure that he wanted to talk to that girl, so he ensured that he would the only way he knew how.

  “You’re hired,” he said, to thunderous applause.

  Chapter 22

  London heard a collective groan, like an undertow beneath the cheer at Stone’s words. She heard someone say, “shit” behind her, and a girl in front of her hissed, “bitch.” None of it distracted her from the fact that one of the richest, most famous men in the world thought that her idea was good enough to hire her on the spot – in front of half the campus. After spending a month fading into the background, feeling barely acknowledged, isolated, lost, and reeling in loneliness, Billy Stone’s statement of support was just the boost she needed.

  She was swept up by some of the security guards and led behind the stage, to where Billy was waiting in the green room. He was a little shorter than she was but his eyes were bright, and he radiated confidence.

  “I want to thank you for your idea,” he said.

  She blushed. He was rich, and famous, and he was thanking her! It was overwhelming. “Am I really hired?”

  He smiled at her and looked a little embarrassed. “I’ll be honest with you. I really didn’t know how to end that thing in there, but I am in charge of the company and I did like your idea...how about this: I’ll take you to dinner and we’ll talk about it.”

  She blushed again, thinking about who he was, and how he was just talking to her like a regular person. Something about him made her feel...comfortable. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”

  And with that, their romance began. Her being hired never came up again... Until it did, in the worst possible way.

  Chapter 23

  Frank Larson, one of Russell’s clients, stood up slowly and shook his hand after their client review. “Did you see the video of London on YouTube?” he said, grinning.

  “What?” Russell felt his stomach drop. He tried to fight back every possible sick, twisted image he could imagine being maliciously posted about London.

  “Hey, it’s nothing bad!” Larson said, seeing the look on Russell’s face. “In fact, I think she may have gotten a job!”

  “A job?” Russell turned the word over in his mind. If she’d gotten a job she would have called him – and besides, she was only a freshman!

  “Yeah, it was that guy from PushThrough – Billy something.”

  Russell tried to put on a jovial, professional face to hide his panic. “Ha! No, I haven’t seen it yet,” he said, slapping Frank on the back. “I’ll have to check it out.”

  “Just Google ‘You’re hired!’”

  Russell was at his computer, looking at the video before he heard Larson’s car start up out front. The video was obviously shot on someone’s phone, in the auditorium at Stanford during a speech. He watched, feeling a mixture of happiness just at seeing her, and sick anxiety at how she was being exposed. He watched, as London stood up and offered her idea, and the man on stage – Billy Stone – hired her on the spot.

  For a brief second, his chest swelled with pride. How smart she was, to be hired on the spot by one of the biggest Tech companies in the country! But a moment later, he was filled with anxiety, imagining her moving too quickly, never finishing school, and worst of all, being far away on the west coast.

  He would have to sell his house and his business, and move west. Still at the computer, he started to skim through articles about Billy Stone – the ‘Internet King’ who ran through models like popcorn. He pictured Stone with his daughter, at first just talking and then his mind filled with other, darker images that ran together until he leapt up from his desk, spun, and smashed his hand through the wall behind the desk.

  Then he picked up the phone. He needed to talk to London.

  Chapter 24

  Stevens and Emory walked quickly into the conference room. Inside, agents had set up all the information they knew so far about Billy Stone’s kidnapping. On one wall, information on the prostitute who had been hired to lure Billy to the hotel room had been listed, along with additional details. On another was the information on the handyman who had rented the room. On the third was all they had about the congressional testimony – when it had been scheduled, who had called for it, what questions would have been asked, and who would have been affected. Information on the hotel itself, the security tapes, the access routes in and out, and all forensic evidence – the little they had – was included. Pictures of possible cars taken from traffic cameras from the surrounding area were taped against the white board by the hotel information, and next to that, everything they knew about Black Hawk Security, including their threat assessment. Finally, they had collected information on the two houses that they’d raided earlier in the day, as well as personal information about Billy’s phone, his credit cards, his internet accounts, and his bank information, updated continuously in case any of it changed.

  Stevens slammed a hand down on the conference room table and a small crowd of agents turned to look at him. “Stop everything!” he said. “And listen.”

  Emory nodded his agreement, as Stevens held up the stack of printouts in his hands.

  “I’ve got thirteen profiles of women who’ve had problems with Billy Stone that were handled by Tom Francis at The Agency. I think that once you read through how they were ‘handled’ you’ll agree that any one of them could be behind this.”

  Stevens handed the copied sheets to Emily Sarah, who started passing them around the room. Finally, she took a copy for herself and started reading. He watched her try unsuccessfully to hide her disgust as she realized what Stone and Francis had been doing.

  Chapter 25

  Mercedes and the models that followed had been all about having sex. Yes, there was a certain amount of pleasure in using his newfound power and confidence to achieve something that he’d never thought p
ossible. But ultimately, it had been about the physical act of sex, without thought or connection, all of which had left Billy physically satisfied, but still alone.

  And then London had come into his life, and everything changed.

  London was so different from all of the other women, he sometimes felt as if she was the first woman he’d ever really known. She was gorgeous, but seemed completely uninterested in her looks, let alone being complimented about them. She was smart – she actually understood when Billy started geeking out on the details of what he was working on. She cracked jokes that made Billy laugh until his sides hurt. She’d led him to the idea of mobilizing PushThrough’s architecture, and that idea had pushed the stock price up fifteen percent, which was making Josh and everyone else at the corporation much happier.

  Everything London did made him smile, and the more time he spent with her, the more he was starting to think about his life – what had happened over the last few years, and what he really wanted.

  Chapter 26

  From the first time London Scott went out with Billy Stone she felt at home. There was just something so familiar about the way Billy took care of her. His world was one that she’d only imagined, fueled by amazing amounts of money: the best restaurants, the best cars, the nicest clothes, everything you could possibly buy, Billy could get. Yet Billy seemed indifferent – almost oblivious to the money. To him, it was just a byproduct of his business. If she didn’t have the right dress to go out, he would buy it for her without even thinking about it. Shoes? Jewelry? There wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t get for her. She wasn’t even sure if he noticed the way she tried to be modest, the way that she never asked for anything. He paid attention to her, he watched her, he listened to what she had to say. He laughed at her bad jokes, and made her feel like she was the center of the world. She felt as if she were home. The fact that he was rich and famous but was still interested in her was a source of constant wonder.