Page 1 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Chapter One
Fazil Kurt craned his neck to look out the window as the hired car drove along a highway from the hotel to the company Sam Anderson’s team was trying to save. There was an actual mountain out there. Snowcapped and everything.
“That’s Mount Rainier,” his coworker Eli Ovadia said.
The peak sat out in the middle of nothing, imposing. Fazil rubbed his neck and turned to Eli. “It’s huge—is it a volcano?”
“Yup.” Eli shifted on the seat, toying with the handle of his cane. “They say it could go off any second.”
Fazil snorted. Typical Eli, sounding too pleased at the thought of sudden catastrophe.
But the mountain was beautiful and awe-inspiring. The whole place was gorgeous. Hills and water and green and freaking mountains everywhere. God, wait until he told Kris. She would love this.
Then reality hit him like a wash of ice water. She wouldn’t care. He wasn’t dating Kris. Hadn’t been for a month.
That was part of the reason he was here in Seattle on business with Eli—to get away from that mess. Sure, the split had been mutual, but he hadn’t expected her to dive right into another relationship, least of all with his friend Lance. Had it been someone else, someone he hadn’t known, that would have been easier. Watching them drape themselves all over each other at pinball league had been a bit much.
Hell, watching them drape all over each other at every single event their social circle held had been way too much, too soon. Sure, he and Kris had been going down the tubes for a while, but it still hurt to see.
So when his boss, Sam, had asked for a volunteer to travel to Seattle with Eli to do some due diligence at Singularity Storage, Fazil had jumped at the chance to get the hell out of Pittsburgh and away from old history, especially if S. R. Anderson Consulting was footing the bill to fly him across the country. Even if it meant spending today in a suit and two weeks stuck in the corporate hell he hated. He was, after all, a blessedconsultant. Thank God. The work seemed interesting. Singularity was a start-up that had developed a new way of storing and accessing big data—twice as fast as its competitors.
Plus, he’d never been to the Pacific Northwest. Visiting a new place seemed like the best way to mark a change in his life to never dating another soul again.
He sighed and leaned back into the seat.
Eli lifted an inquisitive brow, but Fazil shook his head. Even if he’d liked Eli better than he did, he wasn’t going to talk about his personal life with a coworker. Especially not a recently happily married one. Time to change the subject.
“Are you ready for this?”
Eli’s smile was bright and devilish. “More than. But are they ready for us?”
“Are they ever?” He’d yet to see a company truly understand what they were getting themselves into when they hired Sam Anderson’s team. The fact that Eli, Anderson’s CFO, was here spoke volumes. That Eli was downright gleeful meant Singularity was very screwed in the finance department.
Eli chuckled and the car pulled up to a typical boxy office building, one of the types that held several small companies. After getting their laptops from the car, they were escorted into the office by Dr. Sandra Jackson.
Sandra was one sharp woman, from her suit—which almost outdid Eli’s for style—to her technical knowledge. Hired on recently to set the company back on track, she was the reason they were here. “The agenda is fairly open today. Sam said you both like to hit the ground running. We’ll get you into an office, introduce you to the senior staff, and then to engineering, and after lunch, you can dig in.”
“Perfect,” Eli said.
After a whirlwind tour of the office, they settled into a large conference room that overlooked a parking lot. Not a spectacular view, but off in the distance were yet more mountains that put the ones near Pittsburgh to shame. Though he’d been introduced to them, Fazil forgot half the names of the upper management by the time they’d all entered the conference room.
Thank goodness for nameplates on cubes and offices. That and the list Sandra presented would save his ass, though he would only interact with the head of engineering—Stephen Davidson. It was the technical staff he’d work with and need to convince he wasn’t here to get them fired, but to improve what they were doing.
Fazil made his way to a side table that held bagels, pastries, and enough different forms of caffeine to power an entire IT department. He grabbed a cup of coffee for himself and one for Eli, who was in an intense but quiet discussion with Singularity’s CFO.
Neither looked to be enjoying the talk. Fazil sat the coffee down near Eli, breaking up the awkward conversation.
“Thanks, Fazil.” Eli took the cup, drank, and turned back to the other man. “You might not like it, but that’s the law.”
Singularity’s CFO rose and towered over the sitting Eli. “You keep saying that, but I have yet to see proof.” He glanced at his watch. “I have another meeting to attend to. We can discuss this more after lunch.”
Eli smiled. “It will be my pleasure.” Soft words, but they held the sharpness of a knife. The other CFO faltered for a moment, then walked away, and the expression on Eli’s face shifted—not to a frown, but something more intense and calculated. He sipped his coffee.
That was why Eli had flown out here, to bring the financials into proper alignment, but the strains of an awkward silence descended around the table, and that wasn’t good. Fazil cleared his throat. “The technical teams are first up, yes?”
Sandra glanced at the clock. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.” She rose and stepped over to the table of coffee and bagels, and that was all it took to break the tension.
Stephen slid a piece of paper across the table to him. “Here’s a list of the engineers you’ll be working with.”
