Lucas was driving. He seemed to enjoy it, which was good, because there was no way Ash could concentrate on the road. He was too furious.

No, fury was the wrong word for it. Because what happened yesterday humiliated him. Everyone knew his business, and he hated that. Callum knew. So did Lucas’ friend Rex. If there was one thing Ash couldn’t stand, it was everyone thinking they knew his business. He was a private person, used to being in control, and now—

He shook his head. He’d gone over all this again and again last night, and there was no sense going over it again. It was a distraction from today’s task: Confronting Ricky Talbot.

“This is a really smooth ride,” said Lucas. “Especially compared to my truck.”

“Thank you for putting on a suit,” Ash said. “The car really isn’t made for overalls and muddy boots.”

“Rowr, someone woke up on the wrong side of the catbox this morning.”

But Ash could tell Lucas felt it too. His conversation with Rex had left Lucas shaken, uncertain what to do.

“Sorry,” said Ash. “I’m just so pissed off. Life has gotten complicated, and there’s only one thing to do: Make somebody pay for all this trouble.”

“By which you mean, we’ve got to take it out on somebody.”

“Isn’t that what I said? I am going to destroy Ricky.”

“You sure do throw that word around a lot.”

“It’s a good word.”

* * *

Unlike The Cray Building, with its Renaissance Revival features carved out of the local granite, 808 Avenue B was an anonymous slab of glass and steel, stretching up three times as high as Ash’s building. It could have stood anywhere, any city, and been unremarked-on. Ash immediately felt hostile towards it. No local masons had worked to give it character and personality; it had no soul. He wondered what kind of person would choose to set up shop here, even temporarily.

They emerged onto the top floor. “All right,” whispered Ash. “Remember, you’re a salesman.”

Lucas stiffened. “The only salesmen I know are seed and farm supply guys. They wear short-sleeved shirts.”

“Then just stay silent and follow my lead.”

There were no signs on the door of the office suite, nothing to indicate that a billionaire software developer had brought his operation to town.

There was a receptionist at a long counter that curved over half the floor-space of the lobby, and Ash approached.

“Hello, we have an appointment with Mr. Talbot. My name is—”

“Yes, Mr. Cray, Ricky is expecting you.”

Wait, how did she know my name? He’d set up the appointment through his lawyers, using a fake name. He was supposed to be Jerome Fortner, here to offer big discounts on office supplies while Ricky’s business was in town.

Lucas gave him a look. Something has gone seriously wrong. Already.

“I’m not—that is to say, there may have been a mistake—”

“Ash! Lucas!” called a familiar voice from the other side of the room. “It’s a goddamn high school reunion in here! How are you guys?”

Time had not treated Ricky Talbot well. Or maybe, when you have Silicon Valley shoveling money at you, things like your clothes and hair don’t matter as much.

If someone’s going to ruin my life, I’d at least like to think he took care of himself, thought Ash.

There was no sign of that thick black forelock that used to fall down over Ricky’s brow. His hair was a chaos, pushed back from his face but hardly able to stay back; it was like a mad scientist wig perched on his head. A small goatee tried to hide the softening of his jaw, and a shabby cashmere turtleneck emphasized his programmer’s stoop.

Lucas looked as shocked as Ash at Ricky’s transformation.

Ricky, though, look pleased as punch. He grabbed their hands. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard you guys were coming to see me! Hell, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you hadn’t moved in all these years! Still living in the old hometown, eh? Well come on, come see what virtuous living and hard work will earn you!”

Wordlessly, they allowed themselves to be led further back, until they reached Ricky’s office.

It had surely started as another blank, characterless room…but Ricky had thrown enough money at it that it had become something else entirely. Rows of enormous screens cluttered one wall, showing video games paused at various stages. A bar at the other end, only instead of whiskey bottles, it was lined with fruits and powders, with a series of large blenders arrayed in a line. The furniture was all beanbags, ergonomic chairs and stools. There were no desks. Nothing that suggested work could get done.

“Just sit anywhere,” said Ricky, heading to the bar. He poured himself a green concoction into a tall glass. “Can I get you anything? Kale smoothie? Acai berry blend?”

Lucas gazed at the bar. “Do you have…coffee?”

“I will soon. I hate making the stuff myself, though, so I’m buying Perky Pete’s. For now, I’m afraid it’s only healthy drinks. Sorry about that…Ash, I know you’re a scotch man, so this must be disappointing.”

“I’ll live,” said Ash, still very confused by what he was seeing.

“So you guys, this is just amazing!” said Ricky, once he had taken a sip of his smoothie. “I was so glad when I heard you were coming to see me.”

“About that,” began Ash.

“Oh, I know, I know, you’re supposed to be here under another name. What was it, Jerome Fortner? Is that the best fake name you could come up with? Lucas, who were you supposed to be, did you pick a bad fake name too?”

“Um…I was Montague Worthington,” said Lucas bashfully.

“You guys are so bad at this!” said Ricky, his voice full of glee.

“Apparently so,” said Ash. “You clearly saw through us.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a problem. First off, I knew you’d be coming to see me eventually, once you figured out it was me buying up your land. Second, one of my conditions for leasing this office was that I get to install my own security. We’ve developed some great facial recognition software, so I knew you guys were here the minute you pulled into the parking deck.”

“Great,” said Ash. “You’ve become Big Brother.”

Ricky smirked. “It’s not quite that bad. It’s not like I was tracking your phones to see where you are. I mean, I could, but I didn’t.”

“Then you know why we’re here,” said Ash.

“I had a few theories. Fortunately, the densitometers I installed in the elevators didn’t pick up any gunpowder or explosives in your briefcase—so there goes one of my guesses.”

“You didn’t bring all the bombs?” Lucas asked Ash. “I specifically reminded you to pack bombs.”

“What I didn’t come here for,” said Ash, “is for you to try to impress us with your great technical prowess.”

“That’s a shame,” said Ricky. “There’s so much prowess to show off.”

“Let’s cut to the chase,” said Ash. “We want you to leave our land alone.”

Ricky frowned and set down his glass. “You’re no fun, Ash. But I guess you never have been fun. We could be sitting here catching up on old times! I could ask what’s become of all the guys from high school, and you could give me answers, and then I could surprise you by showing how much I already know about everything that has happened to them! For example, Lucas, your friend Karl, did you know he ordered not one but two screwdrivers at breakfast this morning? He’s living it up on his honeymoon.”

“Well, that’s creepy,” said Lucas. “It’s also irrelevant. You can’t buy my land.”

“The fact it isn’t your land, but rather your father’s, makes that a somewhat misleading statement,” said Ricky. “Your father is willing to sell. As is yours, Ash. I'm a little surprised by how eager your fathers are. I thought they’d put up a fight. But no, they’ve outsourced that to the next generation. By the way, I hope this isn’t an awkward question, but: Aren’t you two enemies? You seem very chummy this morning.”

Ash sighed. “Look, just tell us what it’ll take for you to back off this land deal. I’ve got my damn checkbook here. Name a number.”

Ricky threw his head back and laughed. “Name…name a number! Oh, god, Ash, you haven’t changed a bit! You really think of yourself as a big fish in a small pond, don’t you? Throwing your weight around. Such a serious look on your face! Did he look like that the whole drive over, Lucas?”

“Should I just punch him?” Lucas whispered to Ash.

Ricky walked in front of the wall of screens. One by one they flickered, no longer displaying the video games they had been showing, now switching over to satellite imagery of the county. So easy to see the Cray land this way, all the many quarry lakes dotting the area. And there was the Phelps land, too, as the land gradually changed from rocky to hills and overgrown pastures.

“The thing they don’t tell you about small ponds,” said Ricky, “is that they only grow small fish. You guys are so used to being the lords of the county, you forgot that there's a whole world out here, far richer than you could imagine. Here’s an example. In the time you two have been here, my company has made more money than Cray Reliable made all last year. Yet my staff is less than a tenth the size. Actually, that gives me an idea, maybe I should buy your company, as well as your land. It would be pocket change for me.”

“I didn’t realize we were just whipping out our dicks to compare them,” said Lucas.

Ricky turned on him. “And you, Lucas Phelps, with your big dreams of becoming a farmer…is that still something you dream of? Farming seems like an interesting hobby, doesn’t it? I’ve got a couple thousand acres out west, a little organic thing, you’d love it.”

Ash glanced over at Lucas, who had paled. He knew how sensitive this topic was to Lucas, how the battles with his father over the fate of the farm had gotten under his skin. Ricky understood that too, and was using it against him.

Maybe I should let Lucas punch him.

“If you’re done bragging,” Ash began.

“It’s hardly bragging,” said Ricky. “What I’m doing is showing you that I’ve moved on. I’m living a perfect version of your lives—gentleman farmer, a successful businessman—and doing it effortlessly. Because I escaped. You two chose to stay in a suffocating situation, watching the walls of the town slowly cave in on you. I pity you, really.”

“Yet, here you are, back in our lives,” said Ash.

Ricky nodded. “It was your father’s trial that caught my attention. It was so small-town sordid, you know? I always hated your dad. Archibald Cray, imperious businessman, greatest man in town, everyone bowing and scraping to him. Yet it turns out he’s just a crook, the same as a cashier stealing cash out of the till. When I saw that, I thought how wonderful, the truth has been revealed. Then I thought, I wonder how Ash is taking all this? It made me curious. Made me remember old times. Which of course brought you to mind too, Lucas.”

“Great,” said Lucas. “Glad to be on your radar, I guess.”

Ricky turned and stared at the screens. “Once I started thinking about you two, I couldn’t get high school out of my mind. You made my life dreadful back then. Terrible. It should have been great. The two hottest guys in school, fighting over me. Instead it was stressful. Nobody else would even look at me after that. They were too scared of you. It wasn’t just dates…I had no friends after that, either. I ate lunch alone every single day. No study partners, nobody to hang out with. Your all-important feud left me more isolated than I had ever been.”

“So what is this, payback time?” asked Ash.

Ricky shrugged. “As revenge plans go, it was fairly simple. What would be the easiest way to hurt you? Simple, go after the great legacy neither of you could ever stop talking about. And what better way to do that, than a plan that would thrust the two of you together, so you would be at each other’s throats?”

Ash and Lucas glanced at each other.

“But,” said Ricky, “I suppose that part of the plan backfired. You don’t look like enemies right now. Your body language is so much different than highschool. You’re standing interestingly close together. You keep looking at one another as though for emotional support. It occurs to me…you two always talked about yourselves as bitter enemies, but were you simply wrong? Deep down, maybe you were something else. Something symbiotic. You required each other for mere survival. There’s no Lucas Phelps without an Ash Cray lurking somewhere in the background.”

“I love that we get a free therapy session during this appointment,” said Lucas.

Ricky smiled. “So glad I could help. At least you two will have each other to cling to, as I buy up every bit of your legacy, until your names are obliterated from the land.”

“You were lonely in high school, so you’re going to destroy us,” said Ash. “That seems like overkill.”

“You rich guys really do like the word destroy,” said Lucas.

Ricky sat in one of the ergonomic chairs and twirled it until he was facing the men. “Sure, sure, it’s disproportionate revenge. But when you’re a billionaire, it’s hard to do small and subtle, you know? Now, if you don’t mind, I have another appointment. Be sure to tell your fathers hello. I hope they enjoy their role in utterly impoverishing you.”