Page 82 of The Session

“Then she got a call from somebody associated with Summit Strategies who told her that if she was intent on leaving the organization, they would be happy to make sure it was as smooth as possible, with the implication that she should probably drop the thought of a lawsuit.”

“Damn,” said Mark, thinking of the island containing Summit’s vault of secrets.

“Rumor is Summit’s got information not available to anybody else, not just on us, but everybody, locked away somewhere. I don’t know how much of that I believe, but I think some of it is probably true. I’m pretty much an open book, so I don’t know if I care, but I can understand if somebody wants to put something behind them and it’s nobody else’s business . . . well, that could be a problem.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Kade asked as she entered the room.

“I was showing Bookmark our library,” Norm said, changing the subject.

“Impressive, I know. Too bad Norm already colored in most of the pictures,” Kade joked.

“Kade’s done Nova and Supernova,” Norm told Mark.

“And I’m up to a Level 9 Session,” Kade added.

“She takes this even more seriously than me,” Norm said.

“Max is my North Star,” Kade said. She pointed to Mark. “You know who he is, right?”

Norm flipped over a paperback showing a younger photo of Max Lightman. “I kind of put two and two together,” he said with a smile.

“What was it like growing up around him?” Kade asked.

Lying never came easy to Mark, but he also didn’t feel comfortable telling either of them that he’d met his father for the first time the day before.

“It’s complicated.” Rather than tell them about himself, Mark wished he could learn more about the dark side of Summit. But being Max Lightman’s son made that awkward, and he didn’t want to expose Norm for having already shared some of those secrets.

Mark glanced at a thick paperback Norm had set down on the table. On the cover was an airbrushed image of a man in a contemplative pose, staring out at an expansive chessboard stretching into infinity. The title was Master of the Game: Role-Playing Strategies for Life.

“I would say the hard part is having to explain Max and Summit Strategies to everybody who asks,” Mark said. “People read things online, get ideas in their heads, and the next thing you know, you spend the rest of the conversation trying to explain how things really work.”

“I get that all the time,” said Kade. “It sucks. There’s a lot of bullshit that goes on for sure, but nothing like the things that went on when I was in the Marines.”

“How did you get into the tech?” Mark asked.

Kade took a seat at the other end of the couch from Norm. “A friend of mine—the girl next door—her parents were really into the seminars. They were kind of nutty, to be honest. In my sophomore year I was struggling with grades, almost ready to drop out—something my grandmother would have killed me for.

“Giselle, my friend, said to me in class, ‘Come over to my house. Let me help you.’ I knew they were into something like Amway or Scientology, but I was desperate, so I went over. She pulled out one of Lightman’s books on studying and broke it down for me: vocabulary, memorizing, everything. In forty minutes she taught me how to learn—things no teacher had ever shown me.

“I wish I could say I became a star student—not quite—but at least I passed, thanks to her and what she taught me. I read the books, followed them more when I served, and after I got out, I got serious about it. When the opportunity to work for Constellation came up, I jumped.”

“So it was learning strategies for you?” Mark asked.

“At first, yeah. I’m sure Norm told you about his whole motorcycle ambition. Fun fact: He has yet to take a cross-country motorcycle trip,” Kade jabbed.

“My leg was too hinky back then. I did make the trip in my car, though,” he said.

“So you ended up at Constellation because of the tech,” Mark said.

“Yeah, although I thought about signing up for Andromeda,” Kade replied.

“I haven’t heard much about them.”

“They’re a little more hands-on, primarily working in the Middle East and anywhere there’s oil infrastructure,” Norm told him.

“Hands-on?” Mark asked.

“Let’s just say they’re a bit more proactive. If the government here had brought in Andromeda, we wouldn’t be worried about the checkpoints.” Kade waggled her eyebrows.