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next to Todd and soaked up his surroundings. It took everything he had to suppress a childlike wonderment. It was a privilege to be invited to a meeting in the Falcon Room, and unheard of for new directors, such as Charlie, to be included in steering committee sessions. No doubt there had never been a gate-crasher before.
    The Falcon Room was the epicenter of the most high-powered, important meetings at SoluCent. It was a museum of sorts, with floor-to-ceiling glass shelves that displayed the company’s distinguished history of product successes with a peacock’s flair. Charlie couldn’t help but notice that the wall behind Yardley’s seat was devoted exclusively to the VidOX gaming system, one of SoluCent’s flagship products. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before InVision eclipsed VidOX in product importance and secured its rightful place of prominence on the wall behind the company’s CEO and chairman of the board.
    On the rare occasion when one of SoluCent’s major investors grew skeptical of the company’s direction or industry relevance, they had only to enter the Falcon Room for their opinions to change. The sea of blinking lights and illuminating glow from the two dozen brightly lit monitors dazzled away the doubts of even the harshest critic.
    Over the next several minutes other executives shuffled into the meeting, some staring at their BlackBerrys, thumbs firing off e-mails, others chattering on cell phones, finishing conversations. Charlie noticed how none of them spoke to each other. It amused him how out of touch people became the higher they climbed. Charlie vowed never to lose touch with his employees when he made vice president.
    As more executives entered the room and the seats around the conference table began to fill, Charlie’s confidence weakened, while his pulse quickened. He hadn’t realized the size of this meeting. The invite Anne Pedersen had forwarded didn’t contain the complete attendee list. As it turned out, everyone who was anyone at SoluCent was present.
    Charlie cast aside his anxiety with the thought of what was atstake. He had no choice but to counterstrike before Jerry Schmidt could poison his future.
    It was true that the move risked alienating him from the power source. If Leon Yardley disagreed with Charlie’s claims about how In-Vision would revolutionize SoluCent’s business, if he was dismayed by Charlie’s aggressive tactics, everything Charlie had worked so hard to achieve would be lost.
    Charlie took a breath and reassured himself. He had no choice.
    When everyone was seated, Leon Yardley spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “we have a full agenda, so I want to get started on time. For those of you who have not met Mr. Charlie Giles before, he is the wunderkind behind InVision. I’m sure you’ve heard me speak fondly of him.”
    Charlie felt twenty pairs of eyes boring into him. His heart still raced. He kept rubbing his hands against the cool leather chair to wipe away the sweat from his palms.
    “Hello, everyone,” Charlie said, greeting the room, hoping nobody noticed the slight waver in his voice.
    “Naturally, Charlie is here to speak about InVision,” Yardley said. “But I must admit that I’m not entirely sure what topic he is here to cover.”
    Megan Sullivan, vice president of North American sales, let out an audible sigh and asked, “Doesn’t Jerry have InVision on his agenda?”
    “I do,” Jerry said. “But apparently Charlie has something he wants to say as well.”
    Megan made it a point to look at her watch before responding. “Leon, I want to make sure we have time to discuss the MicroComp issue.”
    “Of course, Megan,” Yardley said. “It’s foremost on my mind. Charlie, if it wouldn’t trouble you, since we have a full agenda and you’re somewhat of a surprise guest, we’ll give you five minutes or so to discuss your topic. Can you cover what you need to in that time?”
    For a moment Charlie couldn’t look up.
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