Part 4 (1/2)
”No, you don't Stay”
”Trust me, if I could be two places at once, I would”
”I love you”
”I love you, too,” she said as she scurried down the gazebo stairs, her long dress flowing behind her
As Ada in her hair Like Cinderella's slipper, he thought, as he picked it up He walked out to the beach and sat in the sand, crossing his ankles and taking deep breaths of the fresh sea air
He listened to the waves and reflected on the night Lisa loved hiht of her lips in the ht-those lips that loved hied to hioodbye ”If I could be two places at once, I would” If only!
Wait, two places at once? With a start, hisAll the expo participants had been on the sa a woer? TechCrunch had purchased the tickets and made sure they would all be on that plane Why would they have made an exception for her?
Adam's mind suddenly felt alert He stood up, brushed the sand from his shorts, and walked, deliberately, back toward the hotel He thought about his conversation with the ht: choose who you want to be and start to act like it He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, but he pictured hiuys left and right-and let the thought lanced around to h the door to the conference roohts were out and the room was silent, save the buzz of the electronics in place Okay, he thought, ould Bond do? Adam tiptoed toward the Reht shot out from the corner An alarlare from a computer at another booth Calm down, he told hiled open the drawer under the booth, covering his hand with his shi+rt as he did so, so there wouldn't be any fingerprints He used the light fro into the corners of the room to be sure there weren't any security cameras
In the top draere a pair of scissors, soe-door opener, a television remote, and an MP3 player He shut the drawer carefully and squatted to open the bottom drawer It was empty, except for a small sobx in the back corner Adao,” he whispered
A pile of s and online article print-outs about Doreye were stapled together and folded neatly on top Beloas a shoddy device, opened, with switches and wires sticking in and out like so It resembled a control panel At the bottom of the box he found a slim, plastic container filled with little metal chips that looked like the SIM card in the back of a cell phone Adam wrinkled his brow What were these? There ernail to pull one out and slipped it into his pocket
Adam discreetly replaced the contents of the sobx and slid the bottom drawer closed He tiptoed back to the Doreye booth and checked the drawers: nothing unusual What could the chip be for? And as it in the RemoteX sobx?
Adam closed his eyes Think! What would Jaes of beautiful women and fast cars
His eyes snapped open: the toy car!
He looked across the devices at the Doreye booth until he found the radio-controlled toy car He picked it up and drunkenly snapped open the chassis to where the rechargeable battery was inserted He slowly pulled out the battery and squinted to seeyes! A small metal chip, just like the one in his pocket, was tucked behind the battery, preventing tires fro He wasn't sure what the wires were for, but he was pretty sure the chip was not supposed to be there
Adam looked across the other devices on the table He didn't have to disasseed those, too ”RemoteX, I'm on to you,” he said with a satisfied smile
Just then he heard a noise and a swath of yellow light streamed in from the conference room door Adam froze
Instinctively, he ducked behind the Doreye table and peered toward the door trying to figure out who it was His ht, ould people think? They'd probably think he was sabotaging Reet kicked out of the conference and everyone would think he was the fucked-up, add-nothing leech to his sister they'd suspected all along He had to get out of there nowbut how?
Ada as he crawled behind one booth, then the next Suddenly, the overhead lights snapped on and he peered out fro unifor an industrial vacuu headphones and looking away fro about his business Ada He quickly stood up and raced out the door
CHAPTER 11:
Footprints
After three hours of trying to find a solution, Ao to bed She sat staring out thefor a while, searching the Hawaiian stars for an answer and, finding none, took a deep breath and went to locate Adam She kneas upset, and she felt bad He'd only been trying to help But she'd also been relieved that George had had the guts to tell hione, but she guessed he'd wandered down to the Ugly Sweater party a group of conference participants were unofficially throwing in one of the ballroo she wanted was to be social with a bunch of dressed up, drunk conference goers, but she hoped it was late enough that they'd all be on the prowl for someone to hook up with and not bother her with questions about Doreye
Amelia arrived in the lobby and followed the cheesy Christ the door
The roo fro s across the back, which overlooked the beach and the crashi+ng waves illuhts and Christarland-trimmed tiki bar, and poinsettia blossoms were mounted on tiki torches A wooden dance floor had been constructed in the middle of the roos, all looking equally ridiculous in red and green turtlenecks, checkered suits, and oversized crocheted holiday sweaters
”Amelia?”
She turned around to find Sundeep, clad in a two-sizes-too-sreen turtleneck, red chino pants, an oversized reindeer pin clipped to his shi+rt, and a Santa hat in hand
”Sundeep!” She tried not to gawk at how ridiculous he looked ”I was just looking for”
”Adam?” he interrupted ”I haven't seen him, and I've been here for a while”
Amelia's shoulders dropped in disappointe?
”Do you want to get some fresh air?” Sundeep asked
”Yeah,” she said, and followed him outside onto the beach Fresh air was exactly what she wanted: lots and lots and lots of fresh air tothe war?”
Amelia pursed her lips and took a deep breath ”It was the expo today Doreye didn't work” She tried to stop them, but tears filled her eyes ”And I just spent three hours working on it, and I've done everything right, Sundeep! It should be working” She was sobbing now
He stopped her, gently holding her shoulders to steady her ”I heard about the other company,” he confessed ”And you knohat else I heard? That you're the sineer The next big thing You will figure it out, Amelia Of that I'm absolutely certain”
She shook her head and broke free of his grip They continued walking
”You knohat I think?” he asked
”What?” she sniffled
”I think wo as you don't cry over iPhone applications”
She sed
”Do you want to talk about the press conference?” he asked
”No” She kicked a conch shell and kept walking ”What is there to talk about? I did it I'uilty I hacked in and eht I spent three months in prison and it was completely and utterly horrible And now everyone knows and they're going to bring it up and I'll never escape it”