CHAPTER TWELVE
The package was unmarked except for being addressed to her. "A courier delivered it," Joan said.
She opened it and found a memory stick and a note. "Keep your guard up," it said. It was signed by Willa, with a flourish on the W.
"What the hell?"
"She's playing games with you."
"Even so … "
"You have to see what it is."
So, instead of jumping on the site problem, she dug out an old laptop and turned it on. Joan gave her an inquisitive look. She shrugged. "It's from Willa. This might be an attempt to hack my computer. This one isn't connected to any network."
When she scanned the disk, she found a few photos. Some were of Julio and Willa naked in bed together in hotel rooms. Then there were three of him with a tall black woman. She recognized the bar at the Park Plaza. The woman looked a lot like her. Somehow that didn't seem a coincidence.
Joan looked over her shoulder. "So the German bitch is showing you that she was screwing Julio and suggesting he might be fooling around now? Maybe that he likes black girls in America?"
"Seems something like that. Or maybe she wants me to believe she's still having an affair with him herself."
"Either way she's just trying to get under your skin."
The problem was that it did unnerve her. It had never occurred to her that Julio might have been sleeping with Willa-that she managed to do more to come between them than interrupt communications. Her brain didn't think it changed things at all. Her heart lacked that sublime confidence. Maybe Julio didn't make long-term commitments.
Julio reached her on a video call in the office. Seeing him gave her a rush that combined relief and apprehension. "How are you? How is it going?"
"I've managed to buy us a small window of opportunity. We have to move quickly because a number of the consortium are fed up with the project. But at least we have a clear field."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you have a solution to the basic problem?"
"I think so. I'm still getting some expert opinions to confirm things."
"Well, Tom Acker took no for an answer. Willa's hung around to watch things, but they have no interest in the project anymore. I think he's starting something in Chile next week. So I need you to fly over here right away. We need to make a formal presentation of how we can save the world."
"Or this small part of Italy. What about the family?"
"Bring everyone. Fly first class."
"What about my little contract problem? Working with you is still a no-no. Even if Acker doesn't make a bid, I can't work on anyone else's bid."
He smiled. "Well, first of all, we can argue you aren't working on the bid. You are working on a proposal that will allow there to be one."
"I'd still be in a situation where the contract might apply."
"What if I had an idea? The contract is between your company and Acker, and your company is a corporation."
"It is."
"Essentially, you are the major stockholder and an officer, but also an employee of your company-you work for you. So what happens if you take a leave of absence from your company, you and Abby both? What if you went to work for me on a limited-term contract?"
"I have no idea."
"I have my legal people checking it out, but unless you signed a contract with your own company, I think you can do that. Your company can't. But there's no way that anyone can sign away your rights for you as a person. Not without a power of attorney. I'll get my miserable legal people to earn their extravagant retainers."
"So my company shuts down for say, one year, with us on leave, and we take jobs with you?"
"Sure. You say that Willa is now being called Acker's project manager. Well, you could become my project manager. Equality is a beautiful and slippery slope."
"That just might work."
"Like I said, I need to have the experts sprinkle my crazed idea with their holy water, but I suspect that's an option. There might be some ambiguities. We also can battle this with another interesting twist that's in our favor. My company is a Spanish company. We don't even have an office in the US. If Acker wants to sue me for employing you, he'd have to file in Spain or Italy. Then the battle is fought where my guys have the home-court advantage." She smiled. "I see you like my sneaky thinking."
"I do. We also have Tina's statement, which can be something of a deterrent."
"Precisely. So let me know your flights."
She heard voices in the background. Women's voices. She tried to laugh at herself. He was around women all the time, and until Willa sent her those photos, she'd never given it a thought. Well, she needed to think, and see. But his idea was sound. She'd go over there and salvage the damn project, then they'd build something magnificent.
She'd decide if she had the strength to try for more than that later. When she could think.
Milan was exciting and busy. They settled Joan and the boys at the hotel suite. Abby, unused to jet travel, went to her room for a nap. "I'll meet with Julio," Lissa told her. "Rest, and we can catch up later."
Julio seemed excited to see her. She let him kiss her, but he caught her lack of enthusiasm. He said nothing about it.
"I've got it," she told him.
"A solution?"
"One they'll love. You know the changes we wanted to make for some of the infrastructure?"
"The access roads?"
"Right."
Julio sat up and folded his hands. "Okay, I'm listening."
"They wanted the building to face north to avoid solar gain in summer. That makes sense, but if we face it northwest, that will simplify the access roads from the A4-the main artery. We'd talked about that, and we can create a split-level system that will route the commercial traffic directly to loading docks, and the cars to parking lots."
"The traffic isn't really the serious problem here."
"Actually, there is no problem. They want to see innovation, right?"
"They say that."
"Then consider this. First, it we relocate things the way I've marked them, the building should stand forever. The problem, the structural problem, was that the center of mass was directly over the fault."
"And moving it a little bit changes that?"
"Entirely. We will ensure that by using some new support structures that are fundamentally iron-reinforced concrete, but with some additives that give them tensile strength bordering on the heroic. Some new anchors let us put them in the collapsed area, and then we fill the voids with a special foam, and before you can say ‘ain't technology grand,' the site is more stable than they thought it was before."
"I think they just might go for this."
"Especially when they find out that the company that makes the products will provide them at cost, along with technical expertise and safety shock-load testing just for the chance to show what their stuff will do."
"Now there is a good hook."
"Abby was putting together a snazzy presentation on the flight over that I think will sell them on the idea. There is some clever animation. Another part that works for you is that this doesn't require changes to anything you might have come up with for the building itself, unless you were planning an underground swimming pool."
"I'd entirely forgotten to put one in. How careless of me." He looked at her. "Your solution is perfect. Well done."
"When they bless it officially, we can start work on the project-do the work we wanted to do in the first place."
"Yes, of course. Now, unless there is anything else … What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong."
"No?"
"I'm unsure," Lissa said.
"What's changed since I left? It's only been a few days."
"I've learned a few new things. Like about you and Willa."
Julio became very still. "I see," he said, finally. "I assume she told you?"
"She sent pictures, actually."
A muscle worked in Julio's cheek. "Sneaky woman. I didn't know about them."
"I didn't think that was your style. She picked photos that showed your … enthusiasm."
"I've never said I didn't find her attractive."
"No."
"And I thought I'd lost you."
"See. That uncertainty thing."
He sighed.
"How do we get over that?" Lissa asked.
"How did you get over being uncertain about your analysis techniques?"
She gave him a grin. "I was never uncertain about them."
"Okay, that's a bad example."
"When I'm with you, I don't feel the uncertainty. But when you are away from me … " Lissa tried to explain.
"Then maybe we have to resort to extreme measures and have me never leave your sight."
"Or something close that's slightly more practical?"
He raised his eyebrow. "If I might suggest a starter course?"
"Please."
They'd been sitting in the grouping of chairs by the window in his room, looking out at the beautiful lights of the city. Julio rose and pulled the curtains closed. He reached for Lissa's hand and pulled her out of her chair. He put his large hands on her shoulders, then slowly moved his fingers to the buttons of her blouse. "I think it would be a good and positive step forward for us both if I were to tear your clothes off you and make wild love to you."