The Heaven Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kent.” The kid was a fool.
    Betty, the department secretary, and Mary Quinn held champagne glasses they now raised to him. Red and yellow crepe paper hung in ribbons from the ceiling.
    He dropped his case and laughed. He could not remember the last time the five of them had celebrated. There had been the occasional birthday cake, of course, but nothing deserving of champagne—especially not at nine o’clock in the morning.
    Betty winked one of those fake black lashes. “Congratulations, Kent.” Her white-blonde hair was piled a little higher than usual. She handed him a glass.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” Borst announced, lifting his own glass. “Now that we are all here, I would like to propose a toast, if I may.”
    “Here, here,” Mary chimed in.
    “To AFPS, then. May she live long and prosper.”
    A chorus of “Here, here!s” rumbled, and together they sipped.
    “And to Kent,” Mary said, “who we all know made this happen!”
    Another chorus of “Here, here!s,” and another round of sips. Kent grinned and glanced at the light glaring off Borst’s balding head.
    “Gee, thanks, guys. But you know I couldn’t have done it without you.” It was a lie, but a good lie, he thought. In reality he could have done it easily without them. In half the time, possibly. “You guys are the best. Here’s to success.” He lifted his glass.
    “Success,” they agreed.
    Borst downed the rest of his drink and set it on the coffee table with a satisfied sigh. “I say we close her down at noon today,” he said. “We have a big weekend coming up. I’m not sure how much sleep we’ll be getting in Miami.”
    Todd lifted his glass again. “To knocking off at noon,” he said and threw back the balance of his drink.
    Mary and Betty followed suit, mumbling agreement.
    “Betty has all of your plane tickets to the Miami conference,” Borst stated. “And for Pete’s sake, try not to be late. If you miss the flight, you’re on your own. Kent will be giving the address since he obviously knows the program as well as any of us, but I want each of you to be prepared to summarize the essentials. If things go as well as we expect, you may very well be mobbed with questions this weekend. And please, leave any mention of program bugs out of your comments for now. We don’t really have any to speak of at this point, and we don’t need to muddy the waters yet. Make sense?”
    The man was handling himself with more authority than was customary. No one responded.
    “Good, then. If you have any questions, I’ll be in my office.” Borst nodded theatrically and retreated to the first door on the right. Kent swallowed the last of his champagne. That’s it, Borst, go to your office and do what you always do. Nothing. Do absolutely nothing.
    “Kent.” He lowered his empty glass and found Mary at his elbow, smiling brightly. Most would tag Mary as chunky, but she carried her weight well. Her brown hair was rather stringy, which did not help her image, but a clear complexion saved her from a much worse characterization. In any case, she could write basic code well enough, which was why Borst had hired her. Problem was, AFPS did not consist of much ordinary code.
    “Morning, Mary.”
    “I just wanted to thank you for bringing us all here. I know how hard you’ve worked for this, and I think you deserve every bit of what you have coming.”
    Kent smiled. Brown-nosing, are we, Mary? He wouldn’t put it past her, despite the innocent round eyes she now flashed up at him. She went with the flow, this one.
    “Well, thanks, Mary.” He patted the hand at his elbow. “You’re too kind. Really.”
    Then Todd was there at his other elbow, as if the two had held a conference and decided that he would soon hold the keys to their futures. Time to switch their attention from the bald bossman to the rising star.
    “Fantastic job, Kent!” Todd lifted his glass, which was empty, and threw it back anyway. By the looks of it, Todd had a