Page 84 of Smart Ass

Wallace eyed Ben warily—the one time that Ben was actually being friendly—as he started across the room.

Ben supposed he deserved that. He was starting to develop a little bit of sympathy… until Wallace opened his mouth.

“I know you did it.” Wallace pointed his chubby finger at Ben’s chest, leaning over him.

“Did what? You can’t possibly think I started a fire all the way over there. I heard it was a short circuit.” Ben put on his best innocent face—curious and confused, but not too much—while inside he was shaking.

Max could trick all the computers in the world, but neither of them could stop a human from exposing them both.

The only thing keeping them safe right now was Charles “The Douchebag” Wollencroft’s greed.

“The system overload, Curran. The data loss. The campus-wide blackout. Which also caused a fire and cost the company thousands.”

Ben looked around. “I’ve been hanging out here all night, except for the fire alarm. Nothing exciting going on.” He waved his hands at the console behind himself. “I think Dr. Sasaki and I are close to a marketable refinement on the vision project, though.”

He could give that one away. Wallace could steal the whole damn thing as long as Max was left out of it.

Wallace looked up eagerly for a second… but then his eyes narrowed on the console. “You have a spark in there. A dangerous one, that’s putting lives in danger. Wanna tell me about that?”

It wasn’t a question. He already knew.

Shit, shit, shit!

“Mr. Wollencroft, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you did this, Curran.” Wallace’s face was red. Drops of sweat bloomed on his brow. “And I’m gonna prove it.”

Ben gave him a bland look, like he got threatened all the time and he didn’t have a care in the world. “I dunno what you’re talking about, but knock yourself out, dude.”

“I should put you back on the day shift where I can keep an eye on you.”

Ben shrugged, though his heart was pounding. He wasn’t willing to lose all this time with Max. It would be almost as bad as not being able to see him at all.

“You mean, I get to manage my team again?” he asked, trying to sound eager.

“You’re going down, Curran,” Wallace snarled one more time, before he wheeled and marched out the door.

Ben spun his chair around so that Wallace couldn’t see his expression if he turned back.

They were so, so fucked.