Stuart opened his mouth and then closed it. Janet looked from Darius to the two young project managers at the far end of the table, as if seeing for the first time the people who would have to live with the decision long after the executives had left the room. She asked for time to speak directly with Caliber's chief executive and the board. Darius gave her a brief deadline for a substantive response, not because he wanted to create a spectacle, but because his own company had scheduling and staffing commitments it could not leave suspended indefinitely. Then he closed his laptop.
Before they left, Stuart made one final attempt. "Are you really willing to put five billion dollars at risk over this?" Darius turned back at the door. "The five billion represents years of work, most of it by people who don't have a seat at this table," he said. "That's why I won't commit it to a partnership whose response to a serious mistake is to ask me to stop talking about it."
The elevator ride down was silent until Ethan finally spoke. "I've never heard anyone say no to that much money," he said. Darius looked at the young man, who had a graduate loan and a family depending on him. "Nobody said no to money sitting in a bank account," he replied. "We said we won't sign a deal under terms we can't responsibly defend. That's a different thing, and don't let the headlines make you forget it."
On the sidewalk, rain had just begun to darken the pavement. Tamika asked whether the company would still create the jobs it had planned to announce. Darius told her the decision would depend on what came next, including whether another partner could meet the same safety and commercial requirements. "I won't pretend the uncertainty is painless," he said. "You have a right to know that. But if we do this work with the wrong partner, a lot more people could pay for the mistake later."
Shelley walked beside him toward the waiting car. "You know they'll say you threatened them with a competitor," she said. Darius shook his head. He had not mentioned Ameris Sky inside the meeting, although he knew Caliber's executives were aware of the prior interest.
"Then they'll be describing the fear they carried into the room," he said. "I didn't need a threat. I needed answers, and I didn't get enough of them."
The car pulled away from the hotel, carrying them through traffic toward Freeman Systems' temporary office space across the river. In the back seat, Darius looked at his phone and saw a new message from Joy. It contained a photograph of Zion's science project spread across the kitchen table, a small paper grid divided into sections with colored arrows showing where electricity would move. Beneath the picture, Joy had written, She says a circuit works only if every connection does its part. Darius saved the image and put the phone away.