“What?” Samuel started to ask, but Graham shook his head and beckoned him to follow, leading Samuel into one of the meeting rooms that surrounded the floor.
“Right, I’m not going to mince my words here,” Graham began, the opening that allowed Samuel to sigh with satisfaction. “Let’s cut to the chase: Trident is ruined, Sam. This wasn’t ransomware as the statement originally said. We’ve been hacked and all the money is gone. Claire Manning has topped herself over it, she’s been found dead in her office upstairs.”
Graham paused for a moment, letting what he’d said sink in but not stopping long enough for Samuel to respond just yet. “We’ve all heard about the other crashes this country has suffered but they are like a blip on the map compared to this. We’ve already spoken to the President and there’s zero chance of a bail out. The economy is ruined, Trident is ruined, and we need you to help us figure out a way to tell everyone that.”
Samuel exhaled slowly, trying to process everything that Graham had just told him. Claire Manning was dead. Trident was bankrupt. The country was… ruined? It didn’t make sense in his head as Samuel tried to piece everything together, all the while the ending of Graham’s speech lingering in the air. They wanted him to tell everyone? That didn’t make any sense. Confused and caught incredibly off guard, Samuel looked at his friend, trying to figure out how to respond.
“It’s all gone?”
“Every last penny,” Graham nodded. “Damn impressive job apparently. Jasper and Olivier have looked over it inside and out and they can’t figure out how it happened. They’re working with the cyber experts now, trying to track down the culprits, but between you and me,” Graham lowered his voice, “I doubt they’ll ever find them. This has got to be the most calculated, highest bounty hack to ever happen! We have literally lost hundreds of billions of dollars. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to get through this one. I don’t think it’s possible.”
“I don’t understand,” Samuel shook his head, realizing how much he sounded like everyone else after the initial shock of the money disappearing. “How could this happen? How can everything just be gone?”
“You got me, pal,” Graham shrugged. “But that’s not our puzzle. It doesn’t matter how or why – there are other teams tasked with that – what matters to us is what the public knows and we have a broadcast scheduled for 6 a.m. to tell them the truth. That is where you come in.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Samuel gasped, a hand going to the collar of his shirt and tugging on it as the room seemed to heat up several degrees. “Why me?”
“You’re the Marketing Director, pal,” Graham grinned. “It’s your job to make this place look good; to spin stories and keep us in the public favor. Are you up to the challenge?”
Samuel shook his head in awe. “That’s ridiculous. There’s nothing we can say to stay in the public favor now. What do you really think we can offer them? An apology?”
“Perhaps. If that’s all we’ve got. I’ll leave that for you to decide.”
“No way, Graham,” Samuel stood up to leave. “I didn’t ask for this job.”
“None of us asked for any of this, Sam,” Graham chuckled. “But we owe this to the people at least, wouldn’t you agree? The truth has to go out to them in some manner. You have a chance to be a part of that now; to make a statement. Don’t you want that?”
Samuel paused, still completely stunned by what had just transpired between him and his colleague. Graham was more senior than Samuel was, but until this last conversation, Samuel had always seen them as equals. Now he was confused. He couldn’t tell whether this was a direct order or an offer – either way it didn’t seem like he had a choice. Graham was right. The public needed to be informed and Samuel had been so determined to get back into the office, now that he was there again, he couldn’t just walk away. This was the biggest disaster to ever hit the United States and it was up to him to report the truth. The big question now was, just how was he going to do that?
Chapter 15
“Use whatever resource you need,” Graham offered, trying to sweeten the blow he had just delivered to Samuel. “I can get Caitlin in here if you’d like? Or any of the other guys, there are quite a few people from administration who might have some insight into the best way to break this to the public.”
“Do you want me to give the statement? Who’s running this place now that Claire…” Samuel trailed off, unable to finish his sentence after what Graham had just told him about Claire Manning. Among everything else, the CEO of Trident Banking Corporation killing herself had somehow passed by like insignificant news.
“Don’t worry about that just yet,” Graham replied, shaking his head. “We haven’t got many people left up here since the route out became clear, but we’ll figure something out. You just concentrate on deciding what we need to say, okay? I’ll deal with the rest.”
“Okay,” Samuel nodded, grateful at least that it wasn’t going to be him in front of the camera. Claire Manning had always been quite a public face of Trident, so whoever replaced her would have to make a big impact. He wondered whether Graham would do it – hence him being so involved at this stage. Samuel wasn’t even sure who else was left inside the building, their resources considerably less than they
