Dangerous by Default

17. The CFO

Useless. Hiding behind thick black sunglasses, the morning light still seared into her tired eyes. The message on her phone read:

buzzed the lab, you there?

need to talk

It was common for her CFO to come knocking in the early morning hours. Her days were filled with CEO stuff. Meetings about, should they offer free yoga classes. Can she do an interview with W Magazine. She just wanted to be in the lab. But they agreed, if it was important, he was allowed to interrupt her during her precious mornings. Maybe she was sentimental about Rupert. He didn't have a key to her lab - only Ami, who worked alongside her, had that privilege - and Mina usually kept her phone in a faraday cage that blocked all cell transmissions in or out. But he did have a doorbell, made just for him. He deserved that much. She'd barely had time to brush her hair, throwing off the catsuit for a cotton onesie and a leather jacket. Now she was racing back to work and her eyes stung.

Rupert wasn't going to chastise her, was he? Do you really have to spend $20,000 a day on surgical dummies? He asked her once. Well, obviously. So very frugal. No dollar amount was too small to be weighed, considered, questioned. That's what she liked about him. It kept things disciplined. Na, today was about something far more consequential. About how they were going to get Jeff Stanson to depart with $150 million. She knew how it would happen. Her muscles felt loose as she jogged the two blocks from her apartment to Dimensions. Mina visioned herself on the roof of a car shouting to the street: I'm ready for you motherfucker! A driver honks. I'm invincible! Her mind flashed to the look on Joseph's face when she landed the dart in his collarbone. She had made it through the night. She was fear-free.

She let herself in, the guard sleeping behind the desk. Taking long sips from a rejuvenating mocha, slow footsteps guided the way to the dawn-lit office. His door was open. Lost deep in thought, her CFO gazed into the day's fresh sky. He wore the same furrowed expression as the day before. Blindly cleaning the same lense of his glasses, Over and over.

Paying no mind, a cat-like stretch seized her back before Mina closed the door and plopped into the leather seat in front of his desk.

He remained silent. A noise fell from his throat, the start of a sentence that didn't catch, he dropped it. A minute passed. Mina rubbed her face drowsily.

"Do you recall the day we met?" he asked. The question was soft. Personal.

"How could I forget? I was going crazy, living with my uncle. He told me about you. Swore we had to meet. I'm pretty sure you were the only other trans person he knew. Good thing, can't imagine what I'd be doing now if you turned out to be a lawyer."

Rupert laughed. Returning spotless specs to the bridge of his crooked nose, "You were.. I thought I was dropping by your uncle's garage to do him a favor, talk to this tempestuous little teenager who seemed on the verge of ... well, you know. But girl how you surprised me."

"You believed in me. And here we are. "

"I would have been crazy not to. Here we are."

He spun to face her. Red eyes met Mina's. A weak smile. "I've always been upfront with you."

"Always..." She said, fidgeting with the buttons of her onesie.

"There's no other way to say it. Jeff Stanson was found dead in his apartment late last night. Murdered actually."

A serrated can opener to the hand would have been easier to take than that news. "Fuck!" she shouted, leaping up from her chair. It teetered and fell to the ground.

"I had a similar response." Wiping his glasses again, he slowly swiveled back to the window.

"You know the situation. We won't be making payroll at this point." he said gravely.

Mina could not hear him. One thought stuck in her mind, like a beam of light caught in a house of mirrors. Ami's dreams. Her dreams. They were so close, damn it. All of the breakthroughs to get here, only to fail now. She remembered the pregnant woman who had contacted them through the agency. Her skin began to crawl. I don't need another woman to live my truth!

"As we've heard time and time again. The black hole in our finances is just too great. I've tried to advise you through this, but I'm afraid it's gone beyond the point where I think I can be useful in my role here as your CFO."

"You can't backout now! We have so much to do. You made this happen with me, this dream. You can't just quit because it got hard."

"There are people's lives to think about Mina! People who will wake up to a very difficult reality tomorrow! And you are responsible for them, too. It's not just about your dream."

"I am responsible for them. WE are responsible.

"But I don't even know what I'm fighting for. You kept me out."

Mina sat up straight, her eyes fixed on Rupert. She breathed in deep, and her poise and charisma filled the room like an overflowing milkshake.

"These are the times when we earn our keep. I need your trust now, more than ever. Ami and I are this close to making history. I know what you are capable of Rupert. You believed in a 19 year old T-girl who didn't have a patent to her name. You saw me. Maybe in some ways I saw you too. Now we've created all of this"

Her arms spread to her sides. "This came from both of our imaginations. We made it real. We've helped millions of lives. From this, from our brains, and from our guts. Cut my salary, sell anything we have to. Keep it alive. Get investors in here. But we face the danger and we keep our cool. We will fight!"

Rupert thought for a moment. "I'll give you the week. Not longer. Don't expect me to stay and watch you burn this place to the ground."

"No.... I don't. Get me another investor in here and you won't have to." With one last flash of determination from her eyes in his direction, Mina left with her head held high.