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Saul looked past Julian and saw two women behind him.
One was a tall blond girl carrying an enormous instrument case, probably an acoustic guitar.
The other was covered from head to toe.
A scarf hid the lower half of her face, sunglasses covered the upper half, and another scarf wrapped her hair.
She looked like a celebrity trying to pass through a hostile city.
Both women kept glancing around as if they were wanted fugitives.
“Hello, Miss Hill,” Saul said, stepping forward.
“I am Julian’s lawyer, Saul.
I am a loyal fan.
I own every one of your albums.”
Faith lifted her sunglasses and smiled kindly.
“Julian told me about you.
He said you are an excellent lawyer.
Thank you for getting him out of the Nashville police station.”
“It was my pleasure,” Saul said, almost glowing.
Taylor lingered behind them.
When Julian approached, she had to admit that he really was handsome.
Up close, he had clear skin, clean-cut features, and a crisp, clean scent.
“Your ticket,” Julian said, handing her the printout.
“Business class.”
Julian did not mistreat his people.
Even Saul’s assistant would not be squeezed into economy.
Julian himself, of course, was in first class.
Beyond space, the main difference was that the flight attendants tended to be more attentive.
“Boss…” Taylor smiled awkwardly.
“There is something I want to ask.”
Julian understood immediately.
After a moment, he decided to grant the small wish.
He swapped tickets with her.
“Yeah.
You are the best boss in the world.”
Taylor nearly jumped in place.
For a second, she looked as if she wanted to kiss his cheek.
After boarding, Taylor separated from the other four.
Saul had originally bought paired seats for Faith and Taylor, with himself and his assistant across the aisle.
Now Faith sat by the window, and Julian took the aisle seat beside her.
Once the plane reached cruising altitude, Julian called over a flight attendant.
“Do you carry magazines?
Playboy, specifically.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Bring me several, please.”
The flight attendant looked momentarily embarrassed, but she nodded.
A few minutes later, a tall stack of magazines sat in front of Julian.
Some had already been read until the covers curled.
He picked one up and began flipping through it without self-consciousness.
In his previous life, he had made plenty of videos about the magazine and the company behind it, but he had never seriously read the original American editions.
Back then, complete scans of old American issues had been difficult to find.
Now he could study the originals.
The magazine itself was not mystical.
It was a men’s lifestyle magazine wrapped in glossy eroticism.
Strip away the brand mythology, and it belonged to the same broad family as glossy style magazines that taught ordinary readers how the rich supposedly lived.
One sentence summarized the business: a mid-level editor telling middle-class readers how millionaires spent money.
But as social networks grew, the way information moved would change.
Magazines would become less necessary, then less visible, and finally be consigned to history.
In Julian’s old timeline, the company had faced delisting pressure by 2009 and was ultimately taken private in 2011.
Change could not wait.
The question was how.
Julian fell into thought.
Beside him, Faith turned her head and quietly took his hand.
“I heard you told Taylor to open a Twitter account.”
“Yes.
As connection speeds rise and mobile internet matures, social networks will spread everywhere.
I need to position us early…”
Julian stopped mid-sentence.
In essence, every account he and Taylor opened on other social platforms helped build someone else’s kingdom.
‘Why not build his own?’
At its peak, Facebook would be valued near a trillion dollars.
He had dismissed the idea before almost automatically.
Internet companies burned cash in the early stages and required outside investors.
Worse, Facebook already had a clear first-mover advantage and millions of users.
To break through, he would need a different path.
A vertical field.
Early communities often grew around one deep interest before expanding outward.
Some leaned on animation culture.
Some leaned on literary taste.
His company’s natural vertical was obvious: desire, glamour, aspirational adult entertainment, and the male gaze that had once bought the magazine by the millions.
The shape of a project began forming in Julian’s mind.
He gave the potential social network a polished name:
Palace.
“We are beginning our descent into Chicago O’Hare International Airport…”
The announcement woke Faith.
Only then did she realize she had been sleeping against Julian’s shoulder.
“You looked comfortable,” Julian said when she blinked at him.
“I did not want to wake you.”
He called the flight attendant over and returned the magazines.
Faith kissed his cheek, then stretched.
When the group stepped off the plane, Taylor was waiting nearby.
“The seat in first class was like something from a spaceship.
It had a massage function.
And the meal had salmon.”
“Maybe it was rainbow trout,” Julian said.
“The menu said salmon.
If it was fake, Mr.
Saul can sue Northwest Airlines.”
Taylor waved a fist with great seriousness.
The cheerful mood lasted only until they reached the exit.
Beyond security, a black mass of reporters surged toward them.
Flashes exploded so violently that it was hard to see the path ahead.
Someone at the airport had tipped them off.
A desk agent, a cleaner, a store employee.
Anyone could have sold the news.
Julian really needed oversized sunglasses.
Faith’s disguise finally proved its worth.
Sunglasses on, face covered, she became nearly unreadable.
Taylor suffered the most.
She hugged her guitar case in front of herself and hurried along in a half-run that was, despite everything, a little cute.
Security guided them out of the terminal and into a custom Mercedes luxury van arranged in advance.
The rear cabin had six airline-style seats, a large screen, and a divider from the driver.
Whatever happened in the back would remain private from the front.
A few minutes later, Saul’s phone rang.
“Saul speaking.
Everyone is there?
All right, I will tell him.”
Saul covered the receiver and leaned toward Julian.
“William says the management team is waiting for you at headquarters.
They want a meeting.
It does not sound friendly.
We can push it to tomorrow.”
William was Julian’s professional manager and had been at headquarters for several days.
“They already know I landed in Chicago,” Julian said.
“If I dodge them now, I look afraid.
Tell William we are going straight to the company.”
He had planned to make his first formal appearance the next day.
He did not even have a place to stay in Chicago yet.
But if they were getting in his face this early, he had to answer now.
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I hope this chapter drew you further into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.