The Last Network - Chapter 59
Stateless
Paolo closed the door and collapsed on his office couch. It was hot out and smog had settled over the Valley. He wished he was at Zion, his foot jammed against rock, his eyes scanning for the next hold. Instead, he had just wrapped an all-hands meeting with his team. He listened with the rest of the group as Terry Walker broke the news. Automata had bought NAM for an impressive $1.3 billion in stock. As part of the transaction, all non-core businesses would be wound down.
The news was hard to take. Terry had already notified Peared they were done with them. He hadn’t told the team anything about their future. Maybe there’d be opportunities here. Maybe there wouldn’t be.
Kendra always treated Paolo like talent first and a manager second. He returned results, he didn’t set HR policy. If she was doing this, they’d have information packets with severance details, job placement resources, and transition milestones in it. Instead he had Terry who wanted nothing to do with this stepchild account.
“You have the money and the means. Figure it out. The only thing I care about is that the doors shut on July 14th,” he had told Paolo.
Meanwhile, he was pressing Paolo hard to join Automata. Paolo politely told him to go fuck himself. The narrowness of Terry offered no appeal. He knew Paolo produced and that was all he cared about. He didn’t care about the mess Paolo had to clean up first. He didn’t care about the personal promises Paolo had made, promises that were now empty. Paolo resolved to strip this place to the bone, load the employee bonus pool up, and give his people the largest walking package he could muster up. His share included.
Paolo didn’t need that money anymore. He had $3 million waiting for him in Panama. That was the silver lining. Money changed his feelings about hanging around for his green card. Without a need to earn in USD, he was starting to see the world with new eyes. He had a lot more options whether he wanted to stay here or go abroad.
Earlier in the week, Rabbit had come calling looking for him to join Peared. He turned him down, too. Kendra had been right. Without those centaur jobs, he’d be facing much harder choices. Now, he was looking at the situation on his terms. Whatever was next for Paolo, was what Paolo wanted. No one else. All his life he had served. Family, school, work. In six months, he’d have no masters and no obligations. If he was smart and took a couple more jobs, he’d have $4, maybe $5 million waiting for him. At that point he could do whatever he wanted. He could finally become his own man.
Maybe Monica would be by his side, maybe not. He hoped so, but he’d been alone long enough to know it wasn’t a fatal condition.