The main conference room was packed well beyond capacity.
Rows of chairs had been set up the night before, but there still weren’t enough. Employees lined the walls, some leaning against glass panels, others sitting cross-legged on the floor with laptops resting on their knees.
A few late arrivals hovered near the doorway, debating whether squeezing in was worth it.
Fronteer had grown too fast for its own space.
What used to feel like an ambitious startup now felt like something else entirely.
Under normal circumstances, an all-hands meeting would have been an opportunity to celebrate that growth.
But these weren’t normal circumstances.
For weeks, employees had watched Fronteer become the subject of national headlines. Some had begun questioning whether the company was growing faster than it could handle.
And with the announcement of an all-hands meeting, speculation had only intensified.
“This should have been done virtually!”
José Rivera stood near the back of the room, arms crossed, scanning the crowd with visible discomfort.
Vince Chung smirked from beside him.
“José, we can’t keep hiding behind the digital fortress you built. At some point, we actually have to show up in real life. You know, human interaction is important.”
“Human interaction doesn’t scale. We’re in the middle of a security investigation,” José replied. “The last thing we need is another spectacle.”
Vince chuckled.
“It’s an all-hands meeting, José. Not a congressional hearing.”
Before José could respond, Kieran stepped between them.
“Alright, children,” he said, clapping his hands once. “Let’s try to act like co-founders and not divorced parents at a school play.”
There was a lightness in his tone, but it carried authority.
He didn’t raise his voice unless he had to. He didn’t demand attention; he redirected it.
“Let’s get through this without embarrassing ourselves,” he added, glancing at both of them. “At least not in front of the entire company.”
Vince shrugged.
José exhaled slowly.
“Fine, but after this, we’re talking. There’s something I want to run by you.”
Kieran raised an eyebrow. “That sentence has never led to anything simple.”
Vince grinned. “You’re going to love it.”
“I already don’t,” Kieran replied.
Before Vince could fire back, Billy Maxwell appeared at Kieran’s side, holding a tablet and a small stack of printed notes.
“Here,” Billy said. “Updated your talking points. Cleaned up some of the transitions you flagged.”
Kieran took the notes, scanning them quickly.
“Did you update the slides too?” he asked without looking up.
Billy gave a quick thumbs up. “Already done.”
Then, almost instinctively, Billy shot a sharp glance at José and Vince.
José noticed.
“You should teach your assistant some discretion,” he said quietly. “He walked straight into our conversation.”
Kieran paused mid-read, then looked up slowly.
“Or,” he said calmly, “maybe he understands how to help keep the peace.”
Vince and José said nothing.
Kieran tapped the notes against his palm, then nodded to Billy.
“Good work.”
Billy gave a small nod back before slipping into the crowd.
Kieran turned toward the front and walked up.
“Good morning, everyone.”
His voice got lost immediately.
Conversations continued. Laptops clicked. Someone laughed in the back.
Kieran stood still for a moment, taking it in.
Reading the room.
Then…
“Hey!”
Slightly louder, but much sharper.
The room responded almost instantly. Conversations died down, heads turned, and within seconds, the energy shifted toward him.
Kieran smiled slightly.
“Thank you,” he said, more casually now. “That’s much better.”
Everyone focused their attention on him.
“First off, I want to say I appreciate all of you being here. Whether you’re in this room, standing in the hallway, or pretending to pay attention on Zoom… we see you.”
Light laughter rippled through the room.
Kieran paced slowly across the front, relaxed but deliberate.
“Now, I know there’s been a lot of noise surrounding Fronteer lately. Some of you probably have questions. Some of you are probably tired of answering questions from your friends and family.”
He paused.
“I get it.”
“But before we talk about what’s happening outside these walls, I want to talk about what we’ve accomplished inside them.”
“This last quarter,” he continued, “was the strongest quarter we’ve ever had. Not even debatable.”
He paused.
“We crossed fifty million active users.”
Applause moved through the room.
Kieran let it.
“Fifty million people online, using our platform. Playing. Communicating. Competing. Making decisions.”
He gestured toward the screen behind him.
“And every interaction teaches us something. What keeps people engaged. How they communicate. How they respond to each other.”
He smiled.
“No users, no data. No data, no product. No product…”
He looked around the room.
“No revenue.”
A few people laughed.
“So yeah. Fifty million matters.”
The slide changed.
“And for those of you working on Mafia…”
A few cheers came from scattered parts of the room.
“…you already know. But I’ll say it anyway. Mafia is officially the number one recommended social strategy game across multiple platforms.”
Now the applause came.
Kieran nodded, acknowledging it, but didn’t let it linger.
“Mafia started as something simple. A game people played in living rooms, at camps, with friends.”
His voice softened slightly.
“And we turned it into something global.”
He glanced across the room.
“People from anywhere in the world can sit down together, lie to each other, accuse each other, trust the wrong person…”
A few people laughed.
“…and somehow call it entertainment.”
More laughter.
“That’s the magic.”
He paused.
“But…”
The word cut through the room.
“As everyone knows, Fronteer was one of three companies recently targeted in a massive data breach.”
The room grew quiet.
“Across those three companies, more than two million people had their personal information compromised.”
Kieran paused.
“And while we still don’t know who’s responsible, I want everyone in this room to understand something.”
He looked around.
“We take this seriously.”
“We’ve brought in outside cybersecurity experts. We’re cooperating with investigators. And we’re doing everything we can to understand how this happened and prevent it from happening again.”
Kieran’s tone didn’t waver.
“We don’t run from problems here,” he added. “We face them.”
He took another brief pause.
“Now, with all that being said…”
The slide changed.
“And this is where things get interesting. We’ve officially closed our Series B.”
Kieran paused as the next slide appeared.
$5.4 BILLION
“At a valuation of $5.4 billion.”
The room erupted.
When the noise settled, he nodded.
“Now, as we enter this next chapter, there are going to be some changes.”
Kieran glanced toward José.
“When we started Fronteer, José built the foundation that made everything we’re celebrating today possible.”
A few employees turned toward him.
“And as we continue growing, José will be transitioning out of his role as CTO and taking a seat on our board.”
The room erupted in applause.
José gave an uncomfortable nod.
Kieran smiled.
“Don’t worry. We’re not getting rid of him that easily.”
A few people laughed.
“And joining us as our new CTO will be George Maxey.”
More murmurs.
“We’re growing,” he said simply. “And growth requires evolution.”
He stepped back slightly.
“And I expect every single one of you to evolve with it.”
With that, everyone applauded and he walked to the side as the rest of the meeting carried on.
After the meeting, Kieran briefly spoke with several employees, then escaped into the “Iron Man” conference room, closing the door behind him with a quiet click.
The room was smaller.
Vince leaned against the whiteboard, arms crossed again.
José sat at the table, legs crossed, spinning a pen between his fingers.
Kieran didn’t sit immediately.
He looked at both of them first.
Then took his seat.
“Alright,” he said. “This meeting is the only thing standing between me and a drink. So make it worth it.”
Vince leaned forward, grinning sarcastically.
“Oh, you’re going to just love what José has to say.”
José ignored him.
“As you both know, our data is extremely valuable.”
Kieran leaned back slightly.
Here we go.
“We’re not just collecting information about what people buy or where they spend their time,” José continued. “We’re collecting information about how they make decisions.”
Vince rolled his eyes.
“Translation. We’re sitting on a gold mine.”
José ignored him.
“How people respond to pressure. How they establish trust. How they react when someone challenges their beliefs.”
Kieran watched him.
“And with fifty million active users, we’re collecting that information at a scale most companies can’t.”
Vince shrugged.
“Which is why we’re worth billions.”
José nodded.
“And why other people want access.”
“At the engineering conference, I was approached by a group interested in purchasing access.”
Kieran’s expression didn’t change.
“This is confidential,” José added.
Vince groaned. “Oh my God, just say it.”
José exhaled.
“It’s a political firm.”
Kieran’s jaw tightened slightly.
“They want to use our data to build psychological profiles of voters,” José finished.
Vince immediately leaned back.
“I told him no,” José said quickly. “Before you even ask.”
Kieran looked at Vince.
Then back at José.
“You told them no?” Kieran asked.
José nodded. “We agreed—no politics.”
Kieran exhaled through his nose.
“Good.”
Vince stood up. “Great. Conversation over. Let’s go.”
But Kieran didn’t move.
“Who was it?” he asked.
José froze.
“Why does it matter?” José said. “We said no.”
Kieran looked at Vince.
“Who?”
José hesitated.
“An agency connected to Lyons.”
Kieran leaned forward.
“Marty Lyons?”
José nodded.
“The mayor’s campaign?”
“Not directly. A firm working with people connected to his campaign.”
Vince threw his hands up.
“There it is. Exactly why we don’t do this.”
Kieran leaned back.
“Montoya’s up ten points.”
“And Election Day is a month away,” José replied.
Kieran looked at him.
“They’re desperate.”
Kieran didn’t speak immediately, but stood up.
“Absolutely not,” he said finally.
Vince nodded. “Thank you.”
José frowned slightly. “You’re not even considering—”
“No,” Kieran cut him off. “We don’t manipulate people at that level.”
José tilted his head. “But we already do.”
“That’s different,” Kieran said.
“Is it?” José replied.
Kieran started walking away.
“Conversation’s over,” he said. “We’re not doing it.”
Vince opened the door immediately. “Finally.”
They both left José in the conference room by himself.
When Kieran got back to his office, Billy was already there, sorting through the day’s mail.
“Anything important?” Kieran asked, loosening his collar.
Billy shrugged. “Mostly fan mail. People love you.”
Kieran smirked slightly. “They love the idea of me.”
He sat down, and Billy left.
He started flipping through envelopes.
One after another.
Until one envelope stood out.
Handmade.
No return address.
He turned it over slowly and opened it.
Inside was a card.
On the front:
“A pawn moves at the request of the king.”
Kieran’s expression shifted to puzzlement.
He flipped it to the back.
“But it’s the pawn that chooses to move nonetheless.”
Then the final line.
“I choose the pawn.”
Kieran read the message again.
He turned the card over, looking for a name.
Nothing.
He shrugged and tossed it onto the growing pile of mail.
Then reached for the next envelope.
