Snake-eyed William Cheerslaughter meets with golden-boy Terry McMahon to discuss who will take the CEO job, now that their mentor is dead. Cornelius had been a father figure to his 'boys,' the four most successful of his proteges. But he did not announce a successor before he died. Perhaps he wanted his empire to go to the strongest. Perhaps he died before he could make a decision. Perhaps some supernatural destiny ordained that it should all go down like this.

Cornelius tried to warn Terry, in the final seconds of his life. "Be careful of William Cheerslaughter. He's more dangerous than anyone realizes."

But Terry doesn't believe in destiny, or the supernatural. And so the two men have their fateful sunset meeting atop a construction scaffolding, nine stories up. Gazing out over blazing LA in the gloaming of twilight, they engage in a contest of wills that leaves Terry feeling surprisingly . . . jumpy.

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