The Turning by Davis Bunn

“Everything.”
    She pulled another file from the briefcase open between them. “You need to buy some new clothes.”
    “No time.” He really didn’t mind her coldness. Or her cryptic way of measuring each word like gold. “Less money.”
    “Gayle.”
    “Yes, Ms. Mundrose.”
    “Give him the envelope.”
    The lovely secretary from Barry Mundrose’s office was riding in the front passenger seat. She turned around far enough to hand Trent a manila folder. “Sign, please.”
    He accepted the file, opened it, and found himself looking at a check for one year’s salary. He read, “Eighty-two thousand, four hundred and seven dollars.”
    Edlyn said, “We are closing out your current contract, Mr. Cooper. The page attached to the check is your termination agreement.”
    When he had first been offered the job, Trent had been astonished at the precise salary offer. It could not be divided into monthly amounts that made sense, then or now. Not that Trent had complained. “I don’t understand.”
    Barry Mundrose’s daughter did not even bother to look up. “You are no longer an employee of the advertising division. Where you go,
if
you go
anywhere
, now depends upon you delivering.”
    He stared at a check that represented his entire annual salary, and more money than he had ever held in his life. “So this check …”
    “Call it a golden parachute. Or maybe a signing bonus. It all depends.” She gave him two seconds of those glacial eyes. “You copy?”
    He signed the document, pocketed the check, and handed the file back to Gayle. “Absolutely.”
    “Good.” She plucked out another folder. “So make time and buy some new threads.”
    He looked down at himself. He had dressed for the trip in his best jeans, black, and what he’d considered a nice enough jacket, tan. Freshly laundered dress shirt, pale blue striped. Polished loafers, even if they were a couple of years old. He had never given his clothes much attention. The whole dress-for-success attitude was so dated. Only now, as the Bentley pulled up by the gates leading to the private aviation terminal, he felt like a hobo knocking on a stranger’s back door.
    Gayle must have noticed his unease, because as Edlyn stepped out and strode impatiently away from the vehicle, Barry Mundrose’s secretary said, “I think you look very nice.”
    He could have hugged her. “Thanks.”
    “Don’t let Ms. Mundrose get to you.”
    “All bark and no bite, is that what you’re saying?”
    “Oh, no, not at all.” She was very grave. “Edlyn’s bite is highly poisonous.”
    The Bentley’s driver hefted two Louis Vuitton cases from the trunk and followed Edlyn Mundrose inside. Trent was secretly relieved to see Gayle pull out a valise of her own. It meant she would be traveling with them. Even if she was there to serve Edlyn and not him, he liked the idea of having an ally on this first journey. Trent was fully aware that Gayle, if need be, would stand back and watch the corporate carnivores take him down. She had probably watched it happen any number of times. But she was the nicest person he had met inside the company’s HQ, and it felt good to have her along. Great, in fact.
    Of course, the fact that she was stunningly beautiful did not hurt at all.
    They followed Barry Mundrose’s daughter through the lobby and out the rear portal, where a pilot saluted Edlyn and took her cases from the driver. He smiled a brief welcome at Trent and Gayle, but his attention remained firmly upon Edlyn as they crossed the tarmac and climbed the stairway.
    The Gulfstream was the most ostentatious demonstration of power that Trent could have imagined. It contained a kitchen, a fully equipped bar, a conference room, twelve reclining seats, three bunks, a bedroom, and a bathroom whose shower was walled with alabaster tiles. All the bathroom taps were gold plated.
    They had settled into their seats and had taken off when a phone rang. Gayle answered with the ease of a woman well