Chapter 1

All over a three-hundred-dollar heat bonus that never went out, the summer interns ganged up and blocked me inside my own office.

Theodore Lambert, the ringleader, kicked my swivel chair over and stabbed a finger at me, shouting.

"Boss Sterling, we're breaking our backs in that workshop in a hundred-and-five degrees, and we haven't seen so much as a shadow of a heat bonus!"

"You think college kids are easy to push around? You make life hard for us, we walk right now, and your shipment can rot!"

Ruby Finch, who usually played the meek one, slammed down the water bottle in her hand to match him.

"Other plants don't just pay the bonus, they hand out free watermelon every day! And here you are, this stingy."

"If you don't pay each of us a thousand in emotional damages today, we're going to the labor office as a group, and we're putting you all over the internet!"

Outside the door, the several dozen summer interns I had bent the rules to hire were glaring at me like I was their sworn enemy.

A month ago, I'd taken pressure from every side to bring in this crowd of students who couldn't find part-time work and couldn't cover their tuition, and I'd paid them a high base wage to do it.

Knowing kids like this would blow through cash the moment it hit their hands,

I'd held back the monthly heat bonus in cash and quietly set up a ten-thousand-dollar scholarship for each of them instead.

I'd meant to hand it all over at once, at final settlement, as a surprise.

I'd figured helping them cover tuition beat a few hundred dollars spent on soda to cool off.

But looking at this pack of ingrates, I knew how badly I'd misjudged them.

I gave a cold smile, pulled out my phone, and dialed HR.

"Send Security up now. The office needs to be cleared."

"And cancel every one of the scholarships. Every intern making trouble today, fire the lot of them!"

...

Theodore didn't back down. He planted both hands on my desk, leaned in, and sneered.

"Boss Sterling, don't try to scare people with talk of firing!"

"Everybody here can hear you! We walk, and let's see how you deliver that batch of precision motors going to Dearborn next Wednesday!"

"This dump of yours is out in the middle of nowhere, the pay's dead flat, and even if you sold yourself off you couldn't scrape together fifty skilled hands in three days!"

The dozens of students out in the corridor jumped in at once.

"Right! You really think the world stops turning without her?"

"Without us sweating through that heat, she'd have gone bankrupt already, and she's still standing there playing the high-and-mighty boss!"

Ruby rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and gave me a face full of scorn.

"Boss Sterling, we happen to be top students at a name-brand vocational college."

"You bow your head and admit you were wrong now, pay the bonus and the emotional damages in full, and we might consider coming back to work. Otherwise, the breach penalty will bury you!"

Watching how righteous they looked, I only found it laughable.

When I hired this batch, it was because I'd seen them going door to door under a blazing sun trying to earn their tuition.

I'd overruled everyone to offer a base wage well above market, plus room and board.

One month in, and they'd decided they had the plant by the throat.

They'd even learned to gather in a mob and corner the boss.

I let my face go hard, grabbed the desk phone, and got Accounting on the line.

"Settle this month's wages for all fifty of them right now, not a dollar more, not a dollar less."

"Once it's totaled, wire it straight to their cards. The second it clears, they pack their things and get out!"

Ruby froze in place, as if she'd never expected me to go this far.

Theodore's face went red. He snatched the folder off my desk and hurled it to the floor.

"Fine! Sterling, don't you dare regret it!"

"Listen up, everybody! Since this heartless boss doesn't want us, then today we quit for good!"

"Let's see what she ships out tomorrow!"

He waved the crowd on and led the dozens of them toward the exit.

Rex Dickerson, the factory manager and production supervisor, came running from the workshop drenched in sweat.

Walking straight into the standoff, he panicked and threw himself into the doorway to block them.

Then he spun around, hurried over to me, wringing his hands, and dropped his voice to talk me down.

"Oh, come on, Theo, don't do anything rash, don't do anything rash! We can talk this out!"

"Ms. Sterling, your temper's too hot! That Dearborn order is our lifeline!"

"There's less than a week left on the deadline! These kids don't know any better, but they're quick with their hands."

"A few hundred dollars a head, just call it money spent to make trouble go away. Drive them all out and the line dies on the spot,"

"and with tens of millions in breach penalties, this plant shuts its doors, that's it!"

I pushed Rex's hand aside and looked at him without expression.

"Rex, I run a plant on rules, not charity."

"Give them three hundred today, and tomorrow they'll mob me for a raise of three thousand."

"Open that door once, and that's when the plant really closes."

Right in front of Rex, I dialed the biggest staffing agency in the state capital.

"Mr. Sterling, this is Adelaide Sterling. That batch of experienced hands you've got on the bench,"

"I want sixty of them. Yes, charter a bus and send them over tonight. I'll pay double on the labor hours."

I hung up. Rex stared at me, dumbstruck.

"Ms. Sterling... you're serious? That's going to drive the cost way up!"

I curled my lip.

"Spend a little for some peace. Beats feeding a pack of ingrates."

Just as I said it, a dull thud came from outside the window.

The next moment, the lights across the whole office building and the workshop flickered twice and went black.

The roar of the running machines cut off all at once, and outside fell into dead silence.

Rex stood stunned for two seconds, then slapped his thigh, his face bone-white.

"We're done for! Someone pulled the main breaker in the workshop!"