Millennium - 40. Chapter 40

December 20, 1999

 

I sat in Stef’s office with him and Luke, arguing about our course of action. I wanted to be candid with the employees about our opinion of the tech market, and Luke didn’t.

“We’re just going to alarm them,” Luke said. “There’s no reason to risk damaging morale.” What he wanted to say was that he was worried that we were wrong, and that we’d look like complete idiots.

I shook my head in disagreement. “They’re smart people. They can draw their own conclusions. I think we owe them our honesty.” I let that sink in. “Plus, we have all these other things we want to work on. How are we going to do that if we don’t tell them why we’re redirecting them?”

“What if we have a mass exodus?” Luke asked. “What then?”

Stef thought about that. “They would be sorry within six months, but I do not think they will leave. If they do, that will merely allow us to hire new people with a broader range of skills. We are going to have to help them re-orient away from only tech stocks. If they quit, we can hire people who are already familiar with other things.”

“That’s a good point,” Luke agreed. He usually agreed with Stef. He only really argued with me.

“Luke, I get that you’re loyal to these people, and that you want to protect them. I just think we best accomplish this by being straight with them.”

“Being straight with them? That is a new approach for you,” Stef said, making a stupid joke. We ignored him. I watched Luke digesting my words, working it through his brain.

“Who’s going to do it?” Luke asked, caving. I didn’t smile at him, because that would have looked triumphant. I just nodded, to show I appreciated him agreeing with me.

“I think Stef should talk about the status of the markets and his feel for it. They’ll want to hear it from him, and they’ll listen to him.” Luke nodded, while Stef said nothing. “Then I think you and I can talk about our projects and solicit people to help us. They can pick where they want to land.”

“I can do that. When will we schedule it?” he asked.

“I am ready to talk whenever you are,” Stef said.

“So am I,” I said. Luke looked at the clock. It was 8am. We’d gotten an early start.

“Alright, let’s call an employee meeting for 10:30am. That way they can digest it over lunch.” Or gossip, I thought. I didn’t like that, but I wasn’t going to argue over the little shit. We agreed, and all retreated back to our worlds to get ready. Of course, the announcement of a firm-wide meeting grabbed a lot of attention.

We actually shut the phones down, sending them to voice mail, so everyone could attend the meeting. Our conference room was just big enough to cram everyone in. Stef started off the talk by reviewing our amazing success over the past years. Then he started talking about the markets as he saw them. I noticed that he incorporated a lot of the technical data that Luke had pulled up when we’d been on our retreat, and I made a point to smile and wink at Luke so he felt like he got at least some credit for it. He painted a picture of markets that were unreasonably priced and highly speculative. I believed his vision, but by the time he was done, he’d scared the shit out of me. It was truly masterful.

Luke was next. He talked about his mission to find alternative investment venues for us. He largely talked about resource assets, like oil fields and land, and start-up funding for companies that weren’t tech driven. He emphasized that it wasn’t tech we didn’t like; it was the model, the new paradigm we didn’t agree with. This concept of running up huge losses to capture online market share was the problem. He wasn’t inspiring like Stef, but he was very competent. If Stef scared them, Luke calmed them down.

I got up to speak, and carefully scanned the room. I knew I was a more polarizing force here. Some people liked me, and some didn’t like me at all, probably because I was Stef’s nephew. Some people thought I was a bull in a china shop, a loose cannon, while others thought I was a tough, driven leader. I never really let any of that bother me. I kept my job because I did it well.

“All of you are aware that we’ve been under assault by Amphion,” I began. “You’re all aware of our recent problem with a mole, and how that resolved itself. Well, if Stef is the visionary of our group, and Luke is the brilliant planner, I’ll stylize myself as the warrior.” That got a laugh. “These people have been gunning for us, and we know who they are. It’s time to fight back. I’m going to pull together a team from within this room to go after Amphion and their parent company and take them down. That’s the mission. And I expect to make some money while we’re at it. If you want to join me, stop by my office after lunch and we’ll talk. I’ll need about five or six people.” I saw some grins and some nods. Stef came up and gave some upbeat closing comments, and then it was over. Forty five minutes, start to finish. Short and sweet, just like those types of meetings should be.

I had lunch with Stef and Luke, where we all congratulated each other on our wonderful performances, and then I went back to find that I had a crush of people who wanted to help.

“Everyone wants to work with the warrior,” Grace teased me. “I’ve narrowed it down for you. I hope you don’t mind.” I looked at the list and smiled at the names. All the people I’d hoped for were there, slated for interviews.

“Nice job Grace. I guess that makes you my aide-de-camp.”

“That makes me sound like a camp-following whore,” she joked. “I’ll go for Lieutenant General instead.”

I spent the day in meetings with the ten interviewees Grace had lined up for me. I had a meeting with Stef and Luke at 5:30 to go over my choices and finalize them, and then I headed home with Stef.

“I talked to Robbie about us possibly funding some movie deals. He was pretty excited,” I said, harking back to our conversation over coffee in Santa Monica.

“That is wonderful,” Stef said. “I am assuming that you will not mind if we put that aspect of our business in Luke’s hands? It is not that you are not a good liaison, but it falls more into his area of responsibilities. You will be too busy being the warrior.”

I thought about that for a minute. At first it pissed me off, because I thought he was concerned that I had conflicts of interest and I would put our interests after Robbie’s, but then after I pondered it, I realized he was right. “That makes sense. It’s part of our quest for alternate investments. I had another thought on Anders-Hayes.”

“Go on.”

“This charter that requires the dividend payouts to be high could be amended.”

“It could be. I would personally have no problem with that. I think the only person who would is Marcel. It forms no small part of his income, I should think,” Stef said.

“I talked to him today, right before lunch. I offered to buy him out and he was receptive.”

Stef looked at me and smiled softly. “You are confident enough to put your money where your mouth is?”

“I’m not buying Robbie’s dick, I’m buying into his company,” I joked. He giggled.

“And how did Marcel react?”

“It seemed like he really wanted to. I don’t think he’s got a lot of confidence in Robbie after those two big flops,” I told him sadly. “We’re just trying to figure out a fair price.”

“Perhaps I can help referee something?” he asked.

“It would be great if you could, Stef. I want to land on the generous side of fair.” He nodded.

I got back home and ran into JP in the Great Hall. We just glared at each other, while Stef looked at us sadly. I didn’t get his attitude with Brian. All I wanted from him was a promise to let the asshole fall on his face when I brought him down. It was odd that I never questioned my ability to do that. I wasn’t sure if I could really bring down a company like Omega. That was a huge undertaking. But I was sure I could bring down Brian. He’d wear out his welcome in the Carmichael household eventually.

I stomped down to my room in a really bad mood. I opened the door and there, lying on my bed, stark naked, was Robbie. My bad mood evaporated. “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you,” he said. I was pulling my clothes off even as we were talking. “I brought some stuff up to work on, to keep me busy while you’re in meetings tomorrow, then I figured we could go back down together.”

Now I was naked with him. I climbed in bed and lay on top of him; grinding my dick against his while I kissed him. “Speaking of going down,” I said, and moved my mouth down his chest, kissing my way across his abdomen to his dick. I engulfed him, and really started to get into it when he stopped me.

“Make love to me,” he ordered, his voice filled with that irresistible combination of lust and desperation. I moved up and he spread his legs back, giving my dick a clear shot right into him. I lubed him up and moved into him slowly and lovingly. He let himself get used to me, and then put his heels on my back, urging me on. It was one of those slow, meaningful fucks, the kind that we both put our souls into. When we came, our orgasms didn’t come from our balls as much as from our hearts.

“God, I love you,” I said when we were done, and just lying there.

“I love you too,” he said. “You love me enough to get up and go eat dinner?”

I laughed. “I love you that much.” We took a shower and headed up to the dining room.

“We’re late,” Robbie said nervously, looking at his watch. It was 7:05.

“Good.” I was in the mood to piss JP off. We breezed into the dining room, and I was surprised to find Claire and Jack here as well.

As soon as we walked in, the tension in the room soared. “You’re late,” Ace said playfully, trying to ease things.

“Punctuality at dinner seems like a low priority right now,” I said coldly, shocking him. We sat down at the table.

“Will went out with John,” Claire said. “I told him you wouldn’t mind.”

“How was he today?”

“I think he is better,” she said. “He and John hung out, went riding, and then I took them to the mall.”

“I’m sure he was fine up until you took them to the mall,” I joked. She gave me a fake dirty look.

“We had an interesting meeting at work,” Stef said.

“I really don’t think we should discuss our plans here,” I told Stef.

“You don’t want to talk about business at dinner? Since when?” Ace asked, still trying to be pleasant.

“Since I can’t be sure that what we discuss won’t be relayed back to Brian,” I said, staring at JP.

“You would join me for dinner and then insult my integrity?” he asked, pissed off.

Claire looked at us both with exasperation, and then intervened. “What are you two angry about this time?”

“Dad was lamenting about how he felt responsible for Brian being such a pain in our collective asses, and I told him I didn’t give a crap about that. I just wanted him to promise me that when I brought Brian down, and he was broken and destitute, Dad wouldn’t help him out. He was unwilling to give me that assurance.”

“Why not?” Claire asked JP.

“The implication is that I should let him starve on the street,” JP said.

“You should,” Matt said, chiming in.

“He is a human being, and a member of this family,” JP argued.

“I disagree on both counts, although you may prove me wrong on the human being part. He has forfeited any place he has here amongst us.” I was adamant about that.

“I cannot be as cold and dismissive as you,” JP said, really pissing me off.

“How much money or support have you given him since last Thanksgiving?” I asked him.

“I don’t see where you feel you have the right to ask me how I spend my money,” he said, frustrated.

I looked at him, and his strange behavior suddenly became understandable. It was like the blinds were pulled off of my eyes. “That’s what this is about. That’s why you feel guilty. You feel guilty because you helped him out even after that nightmare with Matt,” I accused. “You think you’re responsible because you helped him out. How much?”

“You gave Brian money?” Stefan asked him. JP glared at him, but that was a mistake. “You will not even be honest about this with me?”

“I gave him $5000 earlier in the year so he could move back to West Virginia,” JP admitted.

I was furious. “Then you are responsible, and all this is your fault,” I told him. Even I could hear the rage in my voice. “Your poor judgment and short-sightedness has caused me and my family an immeasurable amount of pain.”

“Bradley, please calm down,” Claire said authoritatively.

“No, I won’t calm down,” I said. “No way. You aren’t living it Claire. What happens when I take him down, and Dad does this thing where he doesn’t want Brian starving on the streets and gives him another $5000? You OK with that? Are you?” I was yelling now, I was so mad. “What happens when Brian messes up your life? What happens when he tries to drive a wedge between you and Jack? What happens when he does something to John or Marie? Will you be calm? Will you be relaxed about that?”

She looked at me, but it was Jack who spoke up. “No, we wouldn’t be calm and relaxed about it at all. In fact, I think I’d be more pissed off about it than you are right now.”

I made a mental note to thank him later, for being the guy that he was, the friend and brother-in-law that was always in my corner. But I couldn’t do that right now. I was too pissed off at JP. “And after all this shit, you seem to think that I’m asking you for the world! That I’m asking you to make some huge sacrifice. After what you’ve done, you should be groveling to me and to Stef, begging us to forgive you for being so fucking stupid. Instead, you’re telling me you might just do it all over again. Have you lost your mind? Are you insane?” I’d totally lost it now, come completely unglued. I was sitting there, screaming at JP at the dinner table, breaking all the rules. I felt Robbie squeeze my leg, as if to tell me to calm down.

“I will thank you to keep a civil tongue in your mouth and control your volume when you are at my table,” JP said. He was mad and guilty, all at the same time.

Somehow, and I’m not sure why, his words were calming. I turned to my mother. “I’m sorry for yelling and using such foul language,” I told her. “I guess if I planned to have one more meal in this house, I would worry more about it.” I picked up my napkin and tossed it on my plate, and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Claire asked.

“I’m going to stay at a hotel. Somewhere more honorable than this. Maybe there’s a branch of the Watergate in town somewhere,” I said, being snippy and slightly funny at the same time.

“You can stay with us,” she said.

“No one is going anywhere,” my mother said. We all stared at her. She tended to be passive in these things and not get involved. Her look told me to sit down, and I did. “JP, I warned you once before that Brian would cost you your family. You did not listen to me, and I was right. I am a nice person, a good person. I try to help people who are down; I have devoted a good part of my life to charity work. But if I were to go up to the City, to shop where Stefan shops,” she said, making a small joke, “and I saw Brian on the sidewalk begging for money, do you know what I would do?”

“Give him money?” Ace asked.

“No, I would kick him as hard as I could, and if I had the chance, I would drive my stiletto heel right through his hand.” The venom in her voice was scary, but I’d forgotten about her maternal instincts. She’d always been there to fight for us when we needed her. Brian had hurt Matt, me and Stef: our whole family.

“That’s simply not how I was raised,” JP said, his arguments weaker now. “If a member of your family is down, you help them up.”

“He’s not a member of our family,” I said. “I guess I thought I was. I guess I’m not.” I couldn’t stop the tears when I said that, and that really pissed me off. “There’s a man out there that is a mortal enemy to me, and I’m asking you for help, and you’re saying no. Is it because your blood flows through his veins?”

“That’s unreasonable,” he said.

“Is it?” I asked. I stood up to leave.

“Brad, please sit down. You are not the one who is unwelcome here,” my mother said, glaring at JP.

“I am unwelcome in my own house?” JP asked her, pissed off.

“You have not heard of community property laws?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow. “I have decided that the dining room is in my half of the house. You can have the Great Hall. It is ugly anyway.”

Claire ignored this latest argument. “Daddy, you keep asserting that Brian is a member of this family. He’s not.”

“He is my half-brother,” JP said authoritatively.

“Let’s take a vote,” I said. “How many of you acknowledge Brian as a member of our family?” I looked around and no one said anything. “How many agree that Brian is not a part of this family, and has no right to be here with us or derive any benefits from any of us?” I raised my hand. Robbie, Matt, Jack, and Ace followed like lightening, followed by everyone else except JP. Wade and Frank remained reticent, even though their faces revealed strong antipathy toward Brian. None of us would have denied their right to vote. I saw JP look over at Stefan, with his hand raised and his expression defiant. “So it is unanimous except for you,” I told him. “You are now absolved of your need to support him, since he is no longer part of this family.”

“You think you can just vote someone out?” JP asked. He wasn’t so pissed about that. He was pissed off because of what that vote said. It had sidelined him, and it was a clear vote of ‘no confidence’ by the entire family.

“Absolutely. What were we supposed to do? Were we supposed to wait for some imperial edict from a leader to do it for us?” I asked back. “We don’t seem to have an imperial leader, at least not anymore.”

“If that is how you feel, then I will leave you all to eat in peace,” JP said. His cheeks were red, he was so furious. He stood up as he said it and slowly turned to walk out of the room. He was trying to seem majestic, but in the end, it made it seem as if he was waiting for someone to stop him. No one did. We just watched him leave.

“He’ll figure this out,” Wade said. It was funny how everyone took his words as gospel, because he understood JP so well.

“I hope you won’t carry a grudge when he does,” Claire said to me.

“It’s hard to feel loved when you get tossed aside for a piece of…garbage like Brian,” I said. I’d remembered to say ‘garbage’ instead of ‘shit’ at the last minute, and got a small grin from my mother for doing so.

“I don’t think it’s about love. There’s never been any doubt about how much he loves you, Brad,” Robbie said. “I’ve watched him through the years. You can’t possibly think he doesn’t love you.”

“I know,” I agreed grudgingly. I was still mad, and I wanted to stay mad, at least for a little bit longer.

“He needs to get this, though,” Jack said. “He needs to get it now, before this idiot does anything else. I’m not willing to risk having that nutcase out there plotting against me and my family.”

“Brian pulled this crap with me, when he slept with Cody. He came to me, all full of remorse, begging me to forgive him. He’s a damn good liar,” Matt said. “JP seems to have a blind spot for him.”

“That’s why I made it an issue. If he swears, if he gives his solemn oath that Brian is cut off and on his own, he won’t go back on that, no matter how much whining Brian does,” I told them.

“I think he should tell Brian to go whine to Claire if he wants something,” Ace said, teasing Claire. Finally, his attempts to lighten the mood paid off.

“All he’d get is a used Gucci handbag,” I teased, using Claire as a humorous foil.

“Dooney and Bourke is the best he could hope for,” she said, playing along.

Stef hadn’t said anything for quite a while. I looked over at him and saw the rage on his face, as he sat there, boiling. He caught my eye, and then looked away. Everyone else seemed to tune into our interchange, and that made him uncomfortable. He got up and put his napkin on his plate. “Please excuse me,” he said, and strutted out of the dining room. A few minutes later we heard loud voices in his and JP’s bedroom. None of us said anything; we just ate our food in silence. The loud voices stopped, a door slammed, and we heard a car engine roar as it tore out of the garage.

“Sounds like the Aston Martin,” Ace said. That meant JP had left. I got up and went to their bedroom and knocked, then went in.

Stef was there, rooting through drawers, taking things and putting them into a suitcase. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“I am planning to impose on you and spend some time in Malibu, if that is not asking too much,” he snapped.

“You’re always welcome. If it’s for a day, a week, or the rest of our lives,” I said. He looked at me and nodded, and then he broke down crying. I pulled him in and hugged him tightly.

“How can he do this to me? How can he sit there and let Brian hurt me?”

“I’m sure he didn’t know Brian was going to do this,” I told him, and I meant it. “I think he was trying to get him out of our lives.”

“Yet his plan backfired, and he said nothing about it until tonight.”

“I think we have misinterpreted his guilt. We thought he was taking responsibility for something he didn’t do. He was in fact taking responsibility for something he had done.”

“I cannot believe he gave Brian money,” Stef said.

“I really don’t care that he gave him the five grand,” I said. “It was a mistake, but none of us are perfect. What really pisses me off is that he won’t promise not to do it again.”

“The older he gets the more stubborn he gets,” Stef groused.

“I don’t know what it is about Brian that screws up his mind. He’s normally so logical. I just don’t get it.” JP was normally one of the best decision makers I’d ever met.

“I remember something you said to me years ago,” Stef said. “You were trying to explain the difference in your outlooks about family. You said JP sees the family as an entity where he must make decisions based on the individual members. You said you see it as an entity where you must make decisions based on the whole.”

“That’s certainly true here. And the ‘whole’ has spoken, and tossed Brian officially out.”

“It remains to be seen as to whether JP will honor the wishes of everyone else,” he said. “If he does not, he will find himself ostracized. Ultimately, he will fall in line. I am trying to forgive him for not doing so at once.”

“I have learned that it’s hard to forgive someone who doesn’t ask you to,” I said. He’d stopped packing, as if he’d come to the realization that he wasn’t going anywhere, at least not for long. I went out onto the patio and smoked a joint.

I sat there alone on the patio, the frigid winds whipping around me. To me, it was invigorating. The skies were clear, and for some reason the coldness seemed to make the stars in the sky and the lights of the Bay Area blink that much brighter. I heard the roar of an engine and watched as JP shot his Aston Martin back into its garage. I waited until I saw him walking across the walkway and lit another joint. I’d just taken a hit when he walked up onto the patio. I handed it to him.

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem.”

“It seems the family has spoken, and they have expelled Brian. I will act accordingly. He won’t get another nickel out of me.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said. I knew he’d get there in the end, I just didn’t see why he had to make it such a big issue. Was the decision that tough? Was it worth the damage he caused to his own credibility?