The Woman Who Stopped Traffic Read Online Free PDF Page A

password and account history were yours, when that URL auto-completed. I’m guessing the laptop too, remembering how you liked to own a presentation at the old company. I gotta ask –”
    He pushed his still empty plate aside, his head into his hands. Then he looked up at her, his features crossed with stress. “Listen Nat, we’ve been having some real problems. Real problems. Not just the usual soft porn or even sex tourism stuff among consenting adults. Real, nasty, underage stuff… like what you saw. Maybe it’s just the times we live in,” and he shrugged confusedly. “We’ve been trying to keep track of it, but –”
    “But Tom,” she said, mystified. “You know better than to ever visit those places yourself…”
    “Of course. And if we had a solid head of security, I wouldn’t need to rake over that shit in my spare time. Namely two to four in the morning.” He took a gulp of beer.
    Natalie sipped her coffee, trying to keep eye contact.
    “Nat. I was wondering whether you’d be prepared to come on board. Not!” he added quickly, reading her reaction – “necessarily in a full time role, but instead for a consulting gig, well defined. Just through IPO.”
    “Tom, I’ve really moved on –”
    “Just consider it, Nat. The money would be amazing. We’re talking – I dunnow. Two fifty K? For four, six months work? It’s worth it to the company. You’re worth it to the company. It’s more than enough to set you up in private consultancy out of Nassau” – and he saw her reaction again – “or build your own yoga world, or whatever the hell you want!”
    She laughed again. “You know it’s not about the money for me, Tom. Besides, I walked away from the our former employer with enough.”
    “But it couldn’t have been a home run for you either. I mean, I’m sure they gave you a boatload of options when you made VP Security, but the stock price did nothing over that timeframe. This’ld be a great way to top up the tank. Not just financially, but in terms of your professional contacts. Keeping the doors open. Why not? C’m’on, it would hardly hurt the resume to have a prestige consulting gig with Clamor at the top. All of us are only as good as our last movie, Natalie.”
    “Who put you up to this?”
    “Myself!” he said. “OK, I got a call from the bankers handling the IPO, late last night. They suggested we get a crack consultant on board toute-d’-suite, and there’s only one potentially crack consultant I know of in this domain, and that’s you Chevalier.”
    She couldn’t help feel flattered. Frankly, it had been a disconcerting time the last 18 months, without the crutch of a big desk title, the status and self-esteem that went with.
    “I’ll have to think about it.”
    A couple scudded by on roller blades, their Jack Russell panting behind. Live for today …
    “And how would this work, when you already have a head of security?” she asked. “That’s just weird.”
    “I’m telling you, strictly inside the good ole ‘cone of silence’: it’s not working out with Malovich.”
    “Dead man walking?” Natalie resurrected another term from their previous chats.
    “Yup, he can’t be long for the job. He owns the problem. And the problem ain’t getting solved. Far from.”
    “So what does Wisnold have to say? Surely it’s his call in the end.”
    “Should be,” Nguyen slumped back, the stress becoming ever more apparent. “I guess he’s concerned about the Friendster experience.”
    “The Friendster experience? Huh ?”
    “You know, the game of ‘Whack-a-mole’ they got into at the end there. No matter how many times they whacked the mole back into the ground, another popped up someplace else on the screen. Shoulda turned it into a game on Clamor!”
    It seemed like a life-time ago, but for a brief period back in 2003, in exactly this kind of San Francisco neighborhood, it had been impossible to avoid the name Friendster. Natalie recalled flying down