Burning Midnight (7 page)

They headed for the elevator.

“Floor, please?” a tall, thin man with a crew cut asked as they stepped in.

“Five,” Sully said.

“I'm sorry,” the elevator operator said. He remained facing the column of buttons, their glow reflecting off his glasses. “There's a minimum credit score required for admittance to the upper floors during the holiday season. I'd be happy to take you to floors two through four, or you could sign up for a tour of the upper floors, although there's a three-month wait right now.”

Sully exchanged looks with Dom and Mandy. This place got more obnoxious every time Sully visited, although admittedly that wasn't often.

“How could you possibly know our credit scores?” Mandy asked.

“People's basic financial profiles are publicly available information.”

Sully couldn't help laughing. “Yes, but you don't know who we
are.
”

The elevator door slid closed, but the elevator didn't move. Still facing the buttons, the operator turned just his head to look at Sully. “Actually, Mr. Sullivan, we do. All of our stores are equipped with facial recognition software that identifies you as you enter.” He smiled tightly. “If we couldn't tell our rarity eight customers from those who can't afford a two, we'd waste a great deal of time, wouldn't we?” The operator tilted his head, touched his earlobe. Sully spotted a tiny transceiver wedged in his ear.

He turned to face Sully and his friends for the first time. “I apologize. You've been issued a waiver.” He pressed the button for the fifth floor.

“Who issued the waiver?” Sully asked.

“Mr. Holliday.” Although his expression hadn't changed, the operator's face was flushed. His Adam's apple bobbed as the door slid open. “Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Cucuzza. Ms. Toko. Enjoy your shopping.”

Sully stepped out of the elevator, regretting setting foot in the building. He didn't like that Alex Holliday knew Sully was visiting one of his stores. And why, exactly, would Holliday issue them, of all people, a waiver? Probably for the same reason he'd sent Sully the VIP invitation to the Yonkers store opening—to gloat.

A saleswoman was waiting, arms behind her back. “Welcome to the fifth floor. My name is Anna, and I'll be assisting you. What can I show you today?”

“We'd like to see something in a Hot Pink,” Mandy said.

Anna bowed her head, smiling ever so slightly to acknowledge Mandy's joke. “Right this way, Ms. Toko, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Cucuzza.”

It was nothing new that salespeople dealing with high-priced items treated customers with more deference than those who shopped at Walmart, but it was bizarre to see that difference so obvious inside one store. The salespeople on the ground floor were polite, but there was no bowing, no
Right this way, Mr. Sullivan.

As they walked Anna manipulated a handheld device that looked like a slim TV remote. The glass separating them from the Hot Pink on display slid out of sight as they approached. Using both hands, the saleswoman lifted the sphere from a pedestal shaped like a silver goblet and offered it to Mandy.

“Current population estimates for Hot Pink are one per one hundred eighty-five thousand people, actually making it closer to a rarity five point five.”

“How much is it?” Dom asked. Sully was grateful his friend had blurted out the crass question up there in the rarefied air of the fifth floor, so Sully didn't have to.

“At the moment it's…” Manipulating her remote, Anna looked up, as if the answer was on the floor above. Sully realized she was consulting some sort of virtual display in her glasses. “…sixteen thousand, six hundred.”

Sully nodded.

Dom looked at him. “Nice.”

Ignoring the comment, Anna accepted the Hot Pink from Mandy, restored it to its pedestal. “What else may I show you today?”

“That's the only one we wanted to see. Thank you for your time, Anna.” Sully wanted to get out of there. That Alex Holliday knew he was there gave him the creeps.

“My pleasure, Mr. Sullivan.” She winked at him, spun, and led them to the elevator.

The elevator doors slid open as they approached. The operator gave them a broad smile.

As the door slid closed behind them, the operator pressed the button for the tenth floor. Sully exchanged a confused glance with Dom and Mandy. Dom shrugged. Evidently they were picking up other customers before heading back to the ground floor.

The door slid open. “Right this way,” the operator said, gesturing toward a waiting saleswoman.

“What?” Sully said. “No, we're done.”

“Mr. Holliday instructed us to give you a private viewing of the Midnight Blue.” The elevator operator gave them an intent look, raised one eyebrow. “You'd be stunned at some of the people who've asked to come up here and been turned down.” He gestured again. “Please.”

Sully stepped off the elevator. The waiting saleswoman (although that title wasn't quite right, because the Midnight Blue was not for sale) extended her hand. In a delightful French accent, she said, “Cosette Amiot. How do you do, Mr. Sullivan?” Evidently the employees on the tenth floor got to keep their last names.

As they followed Cosette along the catwalk, which looked to be made of marble bordered with gold, Sully wondered what this was about. Maybe it was Alex Holliday's way of saying,
I see you. I know you're here.
He guessed they wouldn't be up here if not for Dom's outburst at Holliday's talk. That had gotten Holliday's attention, because it embarrassed him.

The Midnight Blue was balanced on a simple gold cylinder that resembled a candleholder. Cosette Amiot lifted it, offered it to Sully.

He couldn't help but feel awe as he held it. It was the most valuable object on the planet, and in Sully's mind, the most important. Who knew what it did when paired with its match? Maybe it was the key to understanding the spheres. By reseeding the world with new spheres, the Cherry Red had done something miraculous, and it had been normal-sized. That the Midnight Blue was twice as large must mean it did something even more miraculous.

Sully wished he could be there after its match was found, when the secret was unlocked.

“I wish I could tell you where we found it,” someone said from behind them. Sully immediately recognized Alex Holliday's voice. “I know you'd appreciate it more than just about anyone.”

Holliday stretched out his hand as he approached, as if Sully was an old friend he was glad to see. Or an old enemy. At another time and place Sully might have refused to shake Holliday's hand, but he shook it now, stunned and a little confused.

“Ms. Toko,” Holliday said, turning to Mandy. He placed his hand over his heart as they shook. “I swear to you, I had nothing to do with the accident at your aunt's store. You know, I lived in Philly, not ten blocks from where your aunt's store was, before I moved to Yonkers when I was twelve.”

“It was probably just some kids who got hold of sophisticated timers and fuel mixes,” Mandy said.

Chuckling, Holliday shook his head. “Wanmei has a store in Philadelphia, if I'm not mistaken. Why don't you go bust his balls?”

Mandy didn't answer; she didn't even nod, just went on looking at Holliday sporting a tight half smile.

Holliday shrugged. “I don't know what I can do to convince you. How do you prove you
didn't
do something?”

“Thanks for the tour,” Sully said, gritting his teeth but determined to be polite. “I've enjoyed getting a chance to see the Midnight Blue up close.” He wasn't about to give Holliday the satisfaction of playing the part of the reasonable man hosting immature kids.

“When I heard you were here, I had to do something to welcome you.”

Sully offered the Midnight Blue to Mandy, but she shook her head, so he set it on the marble counter. Holliday reached over and retrieved it. “David, let's take a walk.” He gestured down the hall, then handed the sphere to Cosette, who had reappeared with a tray of drinks in glasses made of stained glass.

Sully exchanged a glance with Dom, then turned down the hall, leaving his friends with Cosette. He was astonished by the attention Holliday was giving him and curious as to why. Holliday led him down a hallway that opened onto a vast lobby with a glass ceiling and lavish fountain, then on into a room that looked to be a combination luxury suite and control room. The walls were screens displaying data, scrolling stock prices, and camera feeds that showed various parts of this store and others.

“My office.” Holliday raised his eyebrows. “You want anything? We've got pretty much everything.”

Sully shook his head.

“Been doing a little Christmas shopping?” Holliday gestured at the bag holding Hunter's gloves.

“That's why we came down,” Sully said. “We stopped in here on a whim.” What the hell was going on? Holliday was acting like they were old buds.

Holliday folded his arms across his chest, studied a screen of numbers that kept updating. It resembled a stock feed, but Sully quickly recognized that the letters in the columns weren't stock symbols, they were abbreviations for sphere colors.

“This is where it all happens, all the strategizing,” Holliday said. “Three years from now I'm going to be the biggest seller in the United States. In five I'll be bigger than Bao.”

Sully wasn't sure how Holliday expected him to respond to such an egotistical pronouncement. He went on looking at the screen.

“Want to see what I really do in here?” Holliday lifted a little remote like the one Cosette had used to open the case. The data disappeared, replaced by a hyperrealistic prehistoric jungle scene. In the distance, a T. rex was prowling among the trees. “Video games.” Holliday pointed a finger at the T. rex, pretended he was shooting.

The screen switched back to data.

“You know, I was raised by a single mother in a shitty neighborhood, just like you.”

“Yeah, I'm familiar with your biography,” Sully said.

Holliday looked at him. “Oh, really? Why is that?”

Because rage had been boiling inside Sully since the day Holliday cheated him, and he couldn't help but want to understand everything he could about the bastard. “Everything sphere-related interests me.”

“I'm glad to hear that. Me too.”

Sully turned to face Holliday. He was getting tired of this game. “Why are you glad? What difference does it make to you?”

The door opened and a woman came in carrying a bottle of water on a tray. As soon as Holliday plucked the bottle up, the woman disappeared back through the door. “Because I'm always on the lookout for good people.” He shrugged. “You've been on my radar. Why do you think I invited you to that opening?”

It took a moment for the words to register. When they did, Sully was sure he'd misunderstood.

“Are you offering me a job?”

Holliday took a swig from the bottle. “You can start on the third floor. If you do well you can advance to higher floors, or move out of sales into acquisitions, marketing, research….”

He wasn't talking minimum wage; he was talking real money. Benefits. A salary. Enough to take all the pressure off Sully's mom and erase all possibility that they'd have to move to Pittsburgh.

Just the thought of pulling on a silver suit each morning, standing at parade rest to help Holliday make money, made Sully's skin crawl. But he and Mom were in serious financial trouble, and he'd just been offered a way out.

What about school, though?

“I'm not sure I could work with school—”

“Drop out,” Holliday said immediately, as if he'd been anticipating the question. He gave Sully a wry smile. “I didn't graduate from high school.”

“I know.”

Holliday pointed at him. “Right. It's in my biography.” He took another swig of water. “To bastardize a saying, people who can't do, learn.”

Sully couldn't work for this guy. What would Dom say? What would
Hunter
say? She'd never speak to him again. And he wouldn't blame her; he'd be a sellout. Holliday would own him.

Sully had a flash of his mom, giving Sully a high five after the fight outside the auditorium. Would she be happy if he took a job from Alex Holliday, even if it solved their problems?

No. No, she wouldn't. She especially wouldn't like it that he was dropping out of school. She would hate that.

But they were in trouble. Could he really afford to be proud?

Holliday pointed at the screen displaying sphere prices. “Hot Pink is up another five.” When Sully didn't respond, he said, “What can I say? I see a lot of my younger self in you.”

Sully didn't see how Holliday could know much of anything about him. Maybe he saw benefit in having the kid he'd cheated working for him. The Cherry Red was one of the few PR black eyes Holliday had taken. If Sully was working for him, it would look like there were no hard feelings.

“No, thanks,” Sully said. “I think I'll keep on wasting my life learning for a while.”

Sully wanted to let Holliday have it. When else would he have a chance to tell him off right to his face? The problem was, Holliday was rich, and powerful. It wouldn't be hard for him to make Sully's life miserable.

“I am sorry about what happened with the Cherry Red. I didn't have a chance to apologize when it happened, because you were suing me and my lawyer advised against it. But I felt bad about how that played out.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Sully could still picture that check, with all those zeros. He could still remember the elation he felt holding it, like it was a balloon rising higher and higher. He clutched that check with all of his might as it lifted him higher and higher….

And then it popped, and Sully had come crashing to the ground.

“I hope you can see my side of it. I got nothing from the Cherry Reds, either. I didn't receive any benefit when I burned them.” Sully was pretty sure Holliday was reciting directly from the legal arguments his lawyer had drawn up. “
My
Cherry Red became just as worthless as yours, so you could argue I lost two point five million dollars in the transaction as well.”