Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel

Chapter 5

Thor Massino tried to make his voice as authoritative as possible. At the request of the police, he was still in New York, while everyone else was in the Palo Alto office, which meant holding the meeting over telepresence. Thor was in a special room at his hotel, designed specifically for high-powered executives to hold meetings like this. There was a big oak desk in front of Thor in the frame, but it was empty.

He said, "I'd like to call this emergency board meeting for Ancien to order."

The room on the other end of the screen was bustling. This was never supposed to happen. Half the people in the conference weren't expecting to even still be board members.

"Please, everybody, sit down. Let's come to order," he said. "Thank you all for coming together on such short notice. I know what an inconvenience it was setting this up. I'm told we have two board members on the phone. Are you there? Can you hear me?"

There was momentary pause.

"Yes, I'm here. This is Doug Kensington in Seattle."

Another board member from Los Angeles came on.

"Good. I think that's a quorum," Thor said. "As you all know, this morning there was an attack on the New York Stock Exchange, interrupting our IPO. The stock market has been shut down for the rest of the day, at least. This means we are still a private company, and you all are still Ancien board members. For the time being."

"Where's Luna?" asked Phillip Jones, a portly man in a gray suit sitting at the head of the Palo Alto table. Thor had planned to let him go in the first round of cuts. Nice guy, but he was in out of his depth.

"That's one of the reasons we called this meeting. Nobody knows. She disappeared after the attack and hasn't returned to the hotel. She hasn't been in contact with anybody that we know of."

"Did you go into her hotel room?" asked Phillip.

"No. But the hotel staff did, and she's definitely not there."

Phillip scoffed.

"Anyhow, as I was saying, Luna's missing. My hope is that she is just recovering from the shock, but there's a possibility that her disappearance has something to do with today's events. If so, we need to prepare for the worst. There is legal paperwork that she needs to sign immediately after the IPO is completed. Or more accurately, that the CEO of Ancien needs to sign. Therefore, as the first order of business, I'd like to propose to make myself acting chief executive officer."

"Pending Luna's return, of course," said Phillip.

"Of course. Whichever comes first."

There was a long silence.

"I'll second that," said Doug Kensington on the phone.

"All those in favor?" said the man sitting next to Phillip. "Let the record show the proposal of Thor taking over as interim CEO has passed unanimously."

Thor smiled broadly.

"Not unanimously," said Phillip. "I don't see any need for this. Once the company does finish the IPO process, you'll be CEO anyway. It's redundant."

"Corrected. The proposal passed nine to one."

Thor wanted to fire Phillip right then and there. He was CEO now. He could do it. But all in good time. Right now, he had more pressing concerns.