Chapter 40: Bonding with my disaster girl.
Sarah told him about the second session. The moment the breathing technique clicked and what it felt like physically. He listened and asked the right questions. She talked about what she wanted to do with the next year. Not campus showcases, something bigger, something that scared her slightly.
"Say the scary part," Xavier inquired..
She looked at him. "What?...."
"You stopped before the scary part," he said. "Say it."
She held his gaze for a moment.
"I want to record something real," she said. "Not a campus project. An actual EP. Something I’d put my name on properly." She paused. "I don’t have the budget. I don’t have the connections. And I’m eighteen and a first year so nobody is going to take that seriously."
"I’ll take it seriously," Xavier said.
She looked at him.
"I’m not nobody," he said simply.
Sarah Torres sat across from him at the small café table on Ardmore Street and looked at him with the expression that had been building since the first concert. The one that said she hadn’t figured him out and was beginning to think that might be exactly the point.
"Xavier," she said quietly.
"I know," he said.
She shook her head slightly. Picked up her drink.
They sat in the afternoon light for another hour without rushing any of it.
When she left she stood at the edge of the pavement and looked back at him.
"Thursday was good," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She almost smiled. Turned and walked away down Ardmore Street.
Xavier checked the gauge.
Sarah Torres — 74% → 79%
Five percent, he thought. From one afternoon.
79%.
One point.
He finished his coffee and ordered a cab.
One point, he thought. One deliberate move and she crosses the threshold.
He looked at the Ardmore Recording building two blocks down the street.
The EP idea, he thought. She said it scared her. Said she didn’t have the budget or the connections. He pulled up his phone. Both of those are solvable problems.
He opened his banking app.
One point, he thought.
Let’s close it.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $15,000 — Recording Studio Package — EP Production
Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x
Total Return: $30,000
[ Net Balance: $274,450.00 → $304,450.00 ]
He sent Sarah one message.
Xavier: check your email. Ardmore Recording. Full EP production package. Six months. Yours.
He put his phone in his pocket and got in the cab.
It buzzed before the car had moved two blocks.
@sarah.torres.official: XAVIER
@sarah.torres.official: XAVIER WHAT IS THIS
@sarah.torres.official: THIS IS A FULL EP PACKAGE
@sarah.torres.official: SIX MONTHS
@sarah.torres.official: XAVIER
He didn’t respond.
He checked the gauge instead.
Sarah Torres — 79% → 89%
Ten percent, he thought. From one transaction.
89%.
Above binding threshold. Then the system chimed..
[CHIME]
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Favorability Threshold Reached
Sarah Torres — 89%
Binding Now Available
[ Bind Sarah Torres as Target? ]
[ YES / NO ]
Xavier looked at the prompt for a long moment.
Second binding, he thought. Sarah Torres.
The woman who broke his TV, destroyed his savings, walked out without looking back and handed him a wedding invitation to her own future.
80% favorability.
Wants to record an EP he just paid for.
Doesn’t know any of it.
He pressed YES.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Target Bound: Sarah Torres
Binding Rewards Active
Weekly Targeted Spend Multiplier: 3x
[ Two active bindings: Amira Hassan + Sarah Torres ]
[ Binding reward cycles run independently ]
[ SIDE QUEST COMPLETE ]
Second Binding
Reward: +2,000 EXP
[ EXP: 15,250/50,000 ]
Two bound targets, he thought. Two independent weekly cycles. Two sets of 3x binding rewards stacking on the 2x base.
He leaned back in the cab seat.
Balance just crossed $300,000, he noted. Two bindings active. Sarah has no idea what she just walked into.
His phone was still buzzing with her messages.
He didn’t open them.
Thursday was good, he thought.
Everything was moving smoothly.
Ring! Ring!
Patricia called at 8AM on a Thursday.
Xavier was at his desk with his coffee when the phone rang. He answered on the second ring.
"The board made their decision last night," she said. No preamble. Just into it the way she always was.
"And...," he asked.
"Professor Daniel Ashworth has been permanently removed from his position at Riverside University effective immediately," she said. "The independent investigation found sufficient evidence of abuse of administrative privilege, criminal interference in academic processes and undisclosed conflicts of interest spanning multiple years." A pause. "The matter has been referred to law enforcement for further investigation into The Cardinal Circle’s operations."
Xavier was quiet for a moment.
Permanently removed, he thought. Fifteen years. Gone in eight weeks.
"The anonymous complaint against Amira’s project," he said.
"Formally expunged from the record," Patricia said. "The board issued a written apology to the students named in the complaint. It will be placed in their academic files."
"Good," Xavier said.
"There’s one more thing," Patricia said. "The Cardinal Circle’s financial operations are now under active law enforcement scrutiny. The group’s campus recruitment network has effectively collapsed without Ashworth’s institutional cover." A pause. "Anyone operating within that network at the lower levels is currently making themselves very scarce."
Femi, Xavier thought.
"How scarce," he said.
"I’m told the third tier operators cleared out within forty eight hours of the board’s decision," Patricia said. "Including one individual connected to a student at Riverside. First year."
Very scarce, Xavier thought.
"Thank you Patricia," he said.
"Xavier," she said. "Whatever you did to get that administrative account evidence. I don’t know how you got it and I don’t want to know." A pause. "But it was the thing that made everything else possible."
"I know," he said.
"Good work," she said. And hung up.
Xavier set the phone down and looked out the window.
The city was doing its ordinary Thursday morning thing. Traffic. People. The unremarkable machinery of a day starting.
Ashworth, he thought. Permanently removed. Fifteen years of operation. Institutional cover gone. Criminal investigation opened.
He pulled up his balance.
$304,450.
He looked at the EXP.
15,250 out of 50,000.
He looked at his notes.
Cardinal Circle — endgame, he read. Ashworth removed. Femi scattered. The network is finally collapsing.
He closed the note.
Done, he thought. That problem is done.