Semua Bab The Arrogance System: I Become Richer: Bab 61 - Bab 70

Walter Cho's office wasn't what Adam expected.There was no glass tower and no skyline view, just a converted warehouse space near the rail yards, exposed brick, a long table covered in rolled blueprints instead of a polished desk.It smelled like sawdust and coffee.Adam liked it more than he expected to and he also felt it fit the man's character more."Most people who meet me for the first time look disappointed," Walter said, not looking up from the plans he was straightening. "They want marble. I give them plywood and ask if they still want to talk business.""I came for the conversation, not the furniture." Adam replied."Good answer." Walter finally looked up, gesturing at the chair across from him.Melissa was already seated, notebook open, pen uncapped.She'd arrived some minutes early, the way she always did, like punctuality was a personality trait instead of a habit."Your assistant called ahead asking for margin breakdowns on three of my past projects,"Walter said, amuse

Adam stayed with his drink, where Daniel had left him, not quite ready to move.The bar had filled up properly now.The earlier quiet replaced by the low comfortable noise of a Thursday evening finding its rhythm.He was thinking about nothing in particular or trying to, at least, when someone dropped into the chair across from him with the full confidence of a man sitting down at his own kitchen table."Hope that's not saved," the man said, already settled, already comfortable.Adam looked up.Mid-thirties, maybe. Sandy hair, open collar, a jacket that was clearly expensive without announcing itself. He had a drink in one hand something clear, probably just soda and a relaxed expression of someone who'd happened to notice a free seat and took it."It's not," Adam said."Good." The man glanced around the bar with mild appreciation. "Great place. Genuinely underrated.""You come here often?""Now and then." He turned back to Adam with an easy smile. "Adrian Vance.""Adam Wilson.""I k

“A good defense is worth three rushed contracts later?”Adam fell into contemplation.He realized how glad he was that someone was there to actually confirm his ideas. While he and Melissa, to an extent, had decided to focus on the contracts they already had, most executives of Titan Maintenance weren't on the same page with them.It sometimes made Adam wonder if his actions were correct.He then thought about Walter Cho, the rolled-up blueprint, the eighteen-month timeline he'd walked away from."I already passed on something this week," he said. "Big potential deal. Too much exposure for where things are right now."Adrian pointed at him. "That's it. That's exactly it."He looked genuinely pleased that Adam already understood the concept of what he was trying to say. "Do you know how many people your age I've watched blow up a perfectly good company by refusing to stop moving? Speed is great until it isn't. The best thing I ever did for my business was take a six-month period where

Melissa's report came on Wednesday morning, earlier than he'd expected.It was three pages, which for Melissa meant she'd found something worth being thorough about.She set it on his desk without preamble and sat down across from him, hands folded.Adam didn't have to be a genius to know she wanted him to first read it before she said anything about it.So he read it.The access pattern was clean on the surface which was the first tell.Normal access logs had a certain organic messiness to them.People pulled files they didn't end up needing, opened folders out of sequence, doubled back.This one was too tidy.Whoever had gone through the employee records had known exactly where to look and had looked at nothing else: Compensation data. Project histories. Org structure. In and out in under twenty minutes, twice in the last two weeks months, both times on a Friday afternoon when the offices were half-empty.The account belonged to a systems coordinator named Reid.Adam looked up from

Jiang's text arrived on Thursday evening with the energy of a natural disaster.—brother. dinner. now. I'm outside your building and I can hear your brain working from here.Adam looked at his phone, looked at the spreadsheet he'd been staring at for forty minutes, and looked at his phone again. He typed:— I'm working, can't come.—you're always working. I brought the good news from Engineering which is that I passed my thermodynamics exam and you have to celebrate with me because we're brothers and that's the law.Adam thought about the spreadsheet.He thought about the payment windows and the notation he'd been trying to make sense of for the better part of an hour.He also thought about the fact that he'd eaten lunch at his desk again and couldn't remember if he'd had breakfast.— Give me ten minutes.—I'm timing youHe saved the spreadsheet, closed his laptop, and grabbed his jacket.On the way out he passed Melissa's desk — she'd alr