Pittsburgh City Hall, second-floor conference room.
It was a special day: Christmas Day.
But this room had no Christmas tree, no colorful lights, and no joyful laughter from exchanging gifts.
On the long table in the center of the conference room, documents were stacked as high as a fortress wall.
Ethan sat at one end of the table, his tie loosened and hanging around his neck. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing veins bulging on his forearms.
His eyes were glued to the three monitors in front of him, a red pen in his hand as he constantly marked up the paper documents.
Across from him, Marcus Thorne sat cross-legged in a swivel chair.
His sticker-covered laptop rested on his knees, his fingers flying across the keyboard at an astonishing speed.
Besides the two of them, there were five or six other young people in the room—the first recipients of the "Pittsburgh Future Leaders Scholarship."
