The King Read Online Free PDF

connections. But in doing everything at every level to make PushThrough work, he was unable to make any connections, himself. Until the IPO.
    The Initial Public Offering of stock in PushThrough required Billy to do something that he was very uncomfortable with: public speaking. Billy struggled to talk to individuals, let alone rooms packed with potential investors, constantly picking through company financials that Billy had no clue about. PushThrough had hit a brick wall in terms of capacity, and if they wanted to make the jump to the next level they needed the influx of cash that an IPO would bring in.
    Josh Bond and Bill Johnson brought in Tom Francis from The Agency, a top- notch public relations firm, to work with Billy on making presentations. At first, Billy ducked his meetings with Francis to write code. Eventually, Francis had Billy abducted by Blake Fitzpatrick.
    The abduction scared Billy half to death: a hood was thrown over his head, he was tied up, and driven blind to The Agency offices. The shock of it woke him up to what could happen to someone in his position. He had Josh hire Black Hawk, and started listening to Tom Francis.
    “This was extreme,” Tom had said when the hood was pulled off Billy’s head. “I get that. But you needed to understand – really understand – the importance of what you’re about to do.”
    Billy was shaking. “Did you really have to do this?”
    “You were avoiding me,” Francis said.
    “I don’t want to do this.”
    “You’re the only person who can.”
    Billy shook his head. “I don’t see–”
    “Do you even know what a mythological creature you’ve become?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Let me show you…” Francis threw article after article onto the conference room screen, each one talking about Billy as if he were a wonder child – the second coming of Steve Jobs – a mystery, an enigma that no one knew anything about. “Most of what you see here,” Francis said, “are articles that we here at The Agency floated out to the general public as a run up to you coming out of your digital cave and introducing yourself to the world.”
    The thought of the world knowing who he was unnerved him. When he thought about being known, he thought about being bullied.
    “Stop!”
    “What?”
    Francis looked right into his eyes. “I can see the thoughts running through your head. The self-doubt. The uncertainty. The fear.”
    “I just don’t–”
    “You have to look at this as the opportunity it is!”
    “What?”
    Francis smiled. “This is your opportunity to be anybody you want to be! Spending years cooped up in your office, not seeing anybody has left the world wondering who you are, and that mystery has created anticipation for the moment when you walk out in front of the cameras. We can use that spotlight – you can use that spotlight – to remake yourself into a brand new person!”
    Part of Billy wanted to say that he liked the person he was, but even he wasn’t sure he believed that. “Well…” he said slowly. “What did you have in mind?”
    Francis grinned, and as he described his vision for who Billy could be, Billy found himself grinning right back.

Chapter 12
     
    Social Services is one of the most overworked and underserved branches of the government, so making them believe that he’d reformed his obsessive ways was a fairly simple task for Russell Scott. After a few, in-home visits, some talks with the nanny, and a final chat with the psychologist, Russell was left alone to be with his daughter as he pleased.
    But he still had to work. There was just no getting around it. He didn’t try to grow his business, didn’t try to get new clients, and he did the bare minimum for his existing ones, but more work kept rolling in. He decided to make the jump to working from home. He closed down his office and moved everything into his house. He remodeled a room downstairs for client meetings and just like that, he could spend his