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“Mm. Nice show. The presentation went well.”
I don’t have time for this. “Where is she?” I loathe having to repeat myself.
Marina blinks. “She had to leave.”
“You let her go?”
“She did what I asked her to do. I had no reason to keep her here.”
“Where is she now?”
Marina takes a slow breath through her nose and looks hard in my eyes. “How should I know?”
A rage starts to boil inside me. “The hook lines. She said that she wrote them. Is that true?”
“She did, actually, yes.”
“So she’s in your creative department?”
“No. Not unless she’s a new hire.”
“But you have a contract with her?”
Marina’s face drains pale.
My voice flattens. “She wrote the lines? The lines I just used to brand that phone in the world’s ever biggest product launch, watched all over the world?”
Marina gulps. “Kind of amazing, isn’t it?”
“Kind of a legal time bomb, Marina. You don’t own the copyright.”
Marina’s lips thin. Then she makes a cute shrug.
“Okay,” I tell her. “You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me.” She laughs. “In case you forgot, this isn’t your company.”
“In case you forgot, Marina, the customer is always right. Even more so in this case. In case you forgot, The Main Event has hemorrhaged money for a year. You’re hoping a golden angel investor will sweep in and buy you up.”
“That’s… confidential.”
“Yes. Between you and the golden angel consortium.”
Her eyes widen.
“I’m ninety-eight percent of the consortium, Marina. So if you want to keep the value of your investment, you’d better either resign or fire yourself, right now.”
She pouts. “Good luck finding her without my help.”
“Good luck getting another job without mine.”
I turn and go to hunt for one of the executives I met earlier.
Eventually I learn from Raphael, the production director, that just two people were in the creative department this evening. Both of them left before the show. They claimed exhaustion. Went to take advantage of a suite that the company keeps at the Sheraton Hotel, just a few blocks away.
I make a mental note. When The Main Event is mine, it won’t be hosing money on that extravagance.
The production director doesn’t want to come to the Sheraton with me. I don’t give him a choice. “I am your company’s biggest client, Raphael.”
