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manager," Phil said. He stood up, smoothed his tie. "I think when you've had an opportunity to become reacquainted, you'll be very impressed. Give her a chance, Tom."

    "Of course," Sanders said.

    "I'm sure everything will work out. And keep your eye on the future. After all, you should be rich in a year or so."

    "Does that mean we're still spinning off the APG Division?"

    "Oh yes. Absolutely."

    It was a much-discussed part of the merger plan that after Conley-White bought DigiCom, it would spin off the Advanced Products Division and take it public, as a separate company. That would mean enormous profits for everyone in the division. Because everyone would have the chance to buy cheap options before the stock was publicly sold.

    "We're working out the final details now," Blackburn said. "But I expect that division managers like yourself will start with twenty thousand shares vested, and an initial option of fifty thousand shares at twenty-five cents a share, with the right to purchase another fifty thousand shares each year for the next five years."

    "And the spin-off will go forward, even with Meredith running the divisions?"

    "Trust me. The spin-off will happen within eighteen months. It's a formal part of the merger plan."
    "There's no chance that she may decide to change her mind?"

    "None at all, Tom." Blackburn smiled. "I'll tell you a little secret. Originally, this spin-off was Meredith's idea."

    Blackburn left Sanders's office and went down the hall to an empty office and called Garvin. He heard the familiar sharp bark: "Garvin here."

    "I talked to Tom Sanders."

    "And?"

    "I'd say he took it well. He was disappointed, of course. I think he'd already heard a rumor. But he took it well."

    Garvin said, "And the new stricture? How did he respond?"

    "He's concerned," Blackburn said. "He expressed reservations."

    "Why?"

    "He doesn't feel she has the technical expertise to run the division." Garvin snorted,
    "Technical expertise? That's the last goddamn thing I care about. Technical expertise is not an issue here."

    "Of course not. But I think there was some uneasiness on the personal level. You know, they once had a relationship."

    "Yes," Garvin said. "I know that. Have they talked?"

    "He says, not for several years."

    "Bad blood?"

    "There didn't seem to be."

    "Then what's he concerned about?"

    "I think he's just getting used to the idea."

    "He'll come around."

    "I think so."

    "Tell me if you hear otherwise," Garvin said, and hung up.

    Alone in the office, Blackburn frowned. The conversation with Sanders left him vaguely uneasy. It had seemed to go well enough, and yet . . . Sanders, he felt sure, was not going to take this reorganization lying down. Sanders was popular in the Seattle division, and he could easily cause trouble. Sanders was too independent, he was not a team player, and the company needed team players now. The more Blackburn thought about it, the more certain he was that Sanders was going to be a problem.

    Tom Sanders sat at his desk, staring forward, lost in thought. He was trying to put together his memory of a pretty young saleswoman in Silicon Valley with this new image of a corporate officer running company divisions, executing the complex groundwork required to take a division public. But his thoughts kept being interrupted by, random images from the past: Meredith smiling, wearing one of his shirts, naked beneath it. An opened suitcase on the bed. White stockings and white garter belt. A bowl of popcorn on the blue couch in the living room. The television with the sound turned off.

    And for some reason, the image of a dower, a purple iris, in stained glass. It was one of those hackneyed Northern California hippie images. Sanders knew where it came from: it was on the glass of the front door to the apartment where he had lived, back in Sunnyvale . Back in the days when he had known Meredith. He wasn't sure why he should keep thinking of it now, and he-

    "Tom?"

    He glanced