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“That’s not how I see myself at all,” she said.

“Good. Then let’s make a deal. Three months from now, if you haven’t driven yourself mad trying to get your arms around a story thisbig, and on the off chance that I can stand living with my sober self, let’s have another meeting.”

He was serious about this, Kate realized. Very serious. “You name the place. I’ll be there.”

Bass stepped closer to the 1939 newspaper on the wall, then smiled wryly. “I’m thinking of an air base in North Africa. The two of us taking a slow walk down a wet runway on a foggy night.”

The allusion was lost on her at first, but not for long. He was channeling a scene from one of the most famous World War II motion pictures ever.

“You’re thinking, ‘This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship’?” she asked, borrowing the famous last line ofCasablanca.

He seemed momentarily pleased that she’d caught his cinematic drift, but he quickly shrugged off the sentiment. “I don’t need friends. I need a script.”

Chapter 10

Kate’s first day of work was the last Monday of September. She arrived early to settle into her new office at Buck Technologies. It was a windowless rectangular box between the supply room and the mini kitchen. If ever she found herself running short of Post-its or fruit-flavored sparkling water from another continent, she was in the perfect spot. Someone had gone out of his or her way to send a message that there was no special treatment for the CEO’s daughter.

As much as her father liked to boast that he had left Silicon Valley behind him, the Buck compound looked as though it had been lifted from California and dropped in Virginia. The campus was spread across nine acres, complete with a first-class health club, a dining hall that catered to any culinary craving, a nature walk that would have pleased Thoreau, childcare facilities, and other amenities that served the type of employee who never wanted to leave work, which was exactly the type of people Buck hired.

Just before 8:00 a.m., the director of Human Resources poked her head into Kate’s office.

“Five minutes, Kate. Don’t want to be late.”

She was talking about the new employee orientation. Kate was one of about twenty new autumn arrivals.

“On my way.”

The director continued down the hallway toward the A/V room. Kate followed. She was certain that none of the other attendees had received a personal reminder from Human Resources, which was awkward enough. It was even more disquieting to find that she was the last to arrive. The room was nearly full, and Kate tried not to step onany toes as she squeezed into the last open chair in the back row. The lights dimmed and the murmur of conversation silenced. A projection screen lowered from the ceiling, and it quickly brightened with the trademarked logo of Buck Technologies—a dog, specifically a St. Bernard mix.

“Welcome,” said the HR director. “We have a special treat for you this morning.”

Scooby snacks?Kate wondered.

A side door opened, and Kate’s father entered. Kate’s heart sank. So much for conveying the message that she was like everyone else. The CEO never did new employee orientations.

Someone on the other side of the room started clapping. Others joined, as did Kate.

“Thank you,” said the CEO. “But it is I who should be applauding you.”

The orientation included everyone from a new deputy chief financial officer to the lowly intern in the legal department, aka Kate. Her father greeted them as a group and then singled out the key new hires, including the engineers they’d lured away from Google and Apple. Kate sank lower in her chair, trying to hide behind the large man in front of her. Thankfully, her father spared her the spotlight of nepotism and began the official welcome.

“People often ask why I called my company Buck Technologies,” he said. “No, it’s not because I started with just a dollar to my name—though that’s true.”

The group chuckled, as if on cue.

“The fact that our logo is a dog clears things up to some extent, at least to make it clear that our ‘Buck’ is not a deer.”

A few more chuckles from the group, then silence. The image on the screen transformed from the company logo to an old book jacket. It was simple artwork, almost primitive, laid out in three horizontal storytelling bands that were strangely reminiscent of ancient drawings on the walls of Egyptian tombs, except that this landscape wasanything but a desert: two men, eight dogs, and a sled set against the snowcapped mountains of the Klondike.

“Who here has read Jack London’sCall of the Wild?” he asked.

A few hands rose, Kate’s among them.

“It’s my favorite book,” he said, which Kate already knew. “And Buck is my favorite literary character. The story is set during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. Buck is a one-hundred-and-forty-pound mix of St. Bernard and Scottish shepherd that is stolen from his home in California and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska.

“Like Buck, my company was born in California. The technology we create here in Virginia isexactlylike Buck. Strong. Reliable. Dependable. Buck will never let you down, no matter who you are. Buck is neither good nor evil. Buck is pure. In the right hands, Buck can do wonderful things. Buck, however, is not always in the right hands.”

He paused, giving his new hires a moment to absorb his meaning.

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