Chapter 6
The mood in the conference room, for lack of any better word, was tense. Phillip was not willing to look anyone in the eye. In truth, no eyes were meeting any others, but the four adults in the conference room all felt the pressure of each other’s imagined stares. The silence in the room did nothing to alleviate the feeling that their hypertachyic heartbeats were audible to everyone else.
“As I said,” Daniel announced suddenly, “that could have gone far better.”
“I should have told you to call him on his lies earlier,” Phillip said.
“How could I have missed the signs?” Katherine cried.
“This is an unmitigated disaster,” Chloe said.
None heard the other’s words– they had all spoken at once. Immediately, they turned away and spoke no more.
This pattern repeated itself twice more, with varying self-recriminations, before Chloe continued. “All right, this is getting us nowhere,” she said. “We’re not the kind of people who brood over our mistakes like–”
“Like children,” Phillip spat.
“Yes, exactly,” Chloe said. “We are being childish now. We should calm down and take a look at what happened.”
“Obviously,” Katherine said, “we picked a fight with a psychopath.”
“Perhaps those words are not as harsh as they are accurate,” Daniel said. “We should leave the diagnoses of Alexander for a later time. For the moment, let us focus on Twilight Wings.”
“Agreed,” Phillip said. “We blew it big time.”
“Maybe,” Chloe said. “I’m calling everyone in early on Monday, and we’re going to go over our alternates one more time. Maybe we can make do with one of them.”
“I highly doubt it,” Katherine said. “Rob was the only one who even came close to fitting into the current matrix.”
“Perhaps the matrix needs further analysis, as well,” Daniel said.
Phillip stayed calm, but inside he was furious. “I, uh,” he started. “Look, I don’t know what I can do, except–”
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