Page 71 of The Heiress

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Georgia sentme to a research and development facility in Cupertino, California. It was a very special research division of Stroman Software that had much more to do with software applications than anything else. After a brief tour of the campus I was shown to the office of Clancy Stroman, my second cousin.

I’d never had a cousin before.

He glanced up, clearly irritated to be interrupted, until he saw his assistant’s firm glare.

“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, sorry.” He stood up from a worktable, brushing off his hands and setting aside a pair of safety glasses. It appeared he was in the middle of soldering cables. He adjusted his shirt and attempted to tighten his haphazardly askew purple tie.

“Please don’t go out of your way,” I assured him. “I don’t care if your tie is straight.”

He sighed, giving up on what was clearly a hopeless task. “Clancy Stroman, nice to meet you.”

“Samantha Rossi, and this is my friend Jace Malone.” Jace had been distant since the meeting with the FBI. Distracted. I assumed it was because of the Pythons, but now that we were on the other side of the country and he hadn’t relaxed at all, I was beginning to wonder if it was something else.

The men shook hands. Clancy looked Jace up and down. “It’s good you hired your own protection, unless all your male friends are terrifying.”

Jace‘s face remained completely blank, while I laughed lightly. “Well if I told you then where would the mystery be?”

Clancy fumbled around, patting his pockets and checking his shirt, then his assistant stepped forward and lowered his regular glasses down from this head. Clancy smiled. “Thank you, Meredith. Now, Georgia says she wants you to have a full tour today. She says you’re in research yourself?”

“I am. An entirely different kind, but yes.”

Clancy found that fascinating and ended up quizzing me for several minutes as we slowly walked toward the first set of labs. Jace trailed a few steps behind us and even though with every glance he appeared to be ignoring us, I knew he was listening to every word, all while noting every door, window, and human he could see.

“This facility has three separate divisions. I don’t know if Georgia mentioned, but we focus on the long-term strategic plans. Our Wake Forest campus is the more traditional R&D facility for our current and soon-to-market products. Here is where next generation robots are developed and tested, where we push the limits of computing, and where our most top-secret projects are developed. It’s the science fiction arm of our company; only none of this is fiction any longer.”

* * *

I foundthat I rather liked my cousin. He was eccentric but incredibly smart.

“You know, I think you’d be really useful here,” Clancy said as we poured over the results of the latest diagnostic run. “You’re very good at finding nuances in the data and then following the trail to where it leads.”

All I’d done was ask why there was always a three second delay between the environmental sensor and the display. Clancy didn’t know. So I asked if it had anything to do with the way it processed the data, since in my experience that was a pretty typical problem. That was indeed the answer and now Clancy was convinced I needed to work here in California.

“I’m honestly not sure where I’m going to end up. Georgia seems to want me to work with her.”

Clancy wrinkled his nose. “Running companies is boring.”

“I agree. We’ll see how things shake out.”

He promised to email me updates and I promised to be available for troubleshooting in the future.

“I feel it’s important to say, before you leave, that I’ve very much enjoyed your company, Samantha, and I look forward to getting to know you even better over the years.” Then he stopped shaking my hand and pulled me in for a bear hug. That’s when he whispered in my ear, “Don’t trust the Feyereisens. Your mother can’t get rid of them. You must keep them happy, but watch your back.”

Then he released me, nodded once, and sent me on my way.

Could no one in this family say what they really meant? Or must all information and warnings be sent via whispers and codes? It was frustrating as hell.

“Ready?” Jace asked at the door.

“I’m starving.”

“Then let’s get you some food.”

We ate at a small restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel. It was so nice to walk around and move after spending the afternoon in heels. “Can we wander for a bit?”

He looked pained but nodded. “Let’s cross the street. There’s a park.”

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