HANNAH (Silicon Valley Billionaires 3)

I was headed for my office, composing an email to Biyu in my head, when Lauren caught up to me, almost out of breath. I knew something had been percolating in the vast recesses of her brain.

“One other thing—we need to move fast. If Li Na’s already working on the prototype, she’s going to start testing soon. It could happen as early as next week. We need to stay out in front of her and make sure they’re not tipped off that the reporting’s faulty. Because if that happens, this all blows up.”

“Got it.” My stomach tied itself in a knot.

Lauren read the expression on my face and sighed. “No pressure or anything.”

I laughed. “Right. None at all.”

I dashed off a quick email to Biyu, but with the time difference, I didn’t expect to hear back right away. I was wrong. My email notification went off immediately.

Working on the prototype nonstop. The staff has been sleeping in the lab. Please don’t contact me again. I won’t be in touch for a while.

I sent a note back. Why not?

She replied a moment later. I’m having second thoughts.

I waited for some further explanation, but that was all she wrote.

I paced my office for the rest of the morning, unsettled and fretting. I didn’t know what to do about Biyu. I finally dragged myself down for lunch with Lauren, Brian following close behind. “I miss Wes guarding me,” I told him, “and I’m still pissed at you for making fun of me the other day.” The fact that he’d mimicked me pleading with Wes stuck in my craw.

Brian frowned. “I said I was sorry.”

“Don’t make fun of me for getting emotional,” I said, getting emotional. My nerves were fraught, close to snapping.

“I was just teasing Wes—which I consider part of my job. For the record, I think it’s good that you get emotional. It makes you human.”

I shot him a look, perplexed and touched. “Thank you?”

“You’re welcome,” he said easily. “Does that mean you forgive me?”

“Sure.” I refused to hang on to any more grudges at the moment, as I only had time for a particularly mammoth one.

I collapsed into a seat in Lauren’s office. “Biyu already emailed me back.”

“And?” It was her turn to pick up lunch; she pushed a salad across her desk to me.

I ignored it. “And she said they were working around the clock on the prototype. She also said she wouldn’t be in touch for a while, because she’s having second thoughts about our arrangement.”

Lauren blew out a deep breath. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Not as sorry as I am.” I grabbed the salad and angrily pushed it around with my fork, as if all this were the bib lettuce’s fault. “I don’t know what I can do for her.”

“Just let it lie for now,” Lauren suggested. “Maybe she’s being paranoid?”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t blame her. I’d be paranoid if I worked for that tyrant.”

The phone buzzed with a call from Stephanie, Lauren’s assistant. “It’s Leo.” She patched him through.

“I’d love some good news.” Lauren waited.

“It’s sort of good, in a twisted way. The Protocol files hit Jiàn’s servers. We’re ready to set the virus on it, when you give the word.”

Lauren didn’t hesitate. “Do it now. I’d rather get to the files before the lab workers have a chance to thoroughly examine them—this way, they’ll be seeing the technology fresh. They won’t have anything to compare them to. But Fiona will still have her copy of the intact files from the initial transmission, so she’ll appear innocent—there’s no way she can be blamed for this.”

“We’re on it.” Leo hung up without saying anything further.

I smiled at my sister, impressed. “I have to say, you’re pretty good at this reverse-hacking thing.”