Three
Much later, Jade mused that it had been a very hostile afternoon. Word must have spread quickly since they only made it to the programmers' nests before she started getting dagger eyes shot at her. She half expected her car to be keyed by the time she walked out of Buzz. Though a Volvo EX30 isn't something they would expect a billionaire to drive.
The head programmer had possibilities, she conceded, if you could dig her out of her shell long enough to talk code with her. Which Jade had. She would be another talent she would want to keep around. The support staff were useless, and the coding behind the games was incredibly simple, but she supposed that was the appeal of these games. But any monkey could do that. Maybe cutting this department into a third of what it is, they could work the entire process. And it would leave space for Tori to work on the budget.
Tori Vega. Jade leaned back in her car's leather seats and allowed herself the luxury of a few minutes of quiet thought. Tori isn't stupid, and she was gutsy… But damn was she naive. She really hadn't been ready for this, but all in all, had handled the shock well.
What Jade couldn't get out of her mind was that nagging aftertaste of being near the woman. Tori's smell had invaded her nostrils, a subtle scent of vanilla and honey that up until now Jade hadn't been able to get out of her nostrils. It wasn't overpowering at all… it just seemed to reach out to her, and all Jade wanted to do was bury her nose in the woman's hair. Her Apple Watch chirped softly, and she glanced at it, surprised to see the time. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and placed a call to Maria before starting the car. "Hey Mari."
"Jade… Where are you?" Mariela said, lowering her voice.
"In my car, on my way back from Buzz… Why?" The CEO replied, a bit puzzled. "You knew where I was."
"Stay far, far away from the office," Mariela said and blew some air out of her mouth. "The AC is completely out, it's like an oven here, I'm roasting."
Jade flinched. "Yikes," she considered. "Are all the computers down? And the servers?" She asked because her online multiplayer games would be taken down. The backup servers are in a shared reserve in the server building down in LA, but they were bound to be running super slow. "What am I saying… Mari, get out of there before you pass out."
"I have a fan, but it's really bad today. So I will be taking you up on that," Mariela said.
"Are they trying to get it up?" Jade said.
"Please, no one seems to be able to stop arguing to get it done," Mariela said with an eye roll that Jade was sure she could hear from here. With a sigh, she directed her car toward the office.
"Alright, well tomorrow call in to make sure we are good, Mari. Okay?" Jade asked. "I don't want you coming in if the A/C is still out."
"I don't care what anyone says, Jade, you're an angel," Naira replied warmly. "They can all kiss my culo, you hear?"
Jade chuckled. "Something tells me you'd enjoy that a lot."
"You bet," Jade chuckled at her sassy secretary. "Good night, Jade, drive carefully, please."
Jade smiled. "Good night, Mari." It was nice sometimes to have someone be concerned about you even if they were doing it as part of their job. "I will."
She disconnected the line and settled back to negotiate the traffic. Putting on a soft, new age music track and rubbing her neck to try and relieve the nagging soreness that had overtaken her during her drive.
Tori walked back into her office after watching her unwelcome guest leave and closed the door. She stood silently in the middle of the floor for a minute, then looked around. Pale blue carpet, light gray walls, woodgrain desk… It wasn't much, but...
"I worked so hard for this," she whispered, sinking into her visitor's chair. "Damn it, this isn't fair." She let her head sink into her hands, bracing her elbows on the chair arms.
She heard the soft sound of the door opening behind her. "Tor?"
"Yeah," she replied, not bothering to move.
An arm slipped around her shoulders, and she looked up to see Ray's concerned face. "Boss, don't let it get to you like that… blow her off, the emo bitch," he clucked at her. "She looked like one of those scary Goth chicks from high school, remember?"
Tori let out a tiny laugh. "Ray…" she sighed, "Looks like Charles was right. They want to gut the company." She looked up at him. "She's giving me a chance to come up with a plan. If I can cut the budget in half, she will consider it. And maybe some folks will get to keep their jobs."
Ray put his hands on his hips. "She's actually giving you a shot?" he said incredulously. "That's like… unheard of from her reputation. How did you manage to do that?"
Tori paused and thought. "Really?" Her brow furrowed. "I don't know, I just… wasn't very nice to her, and you'd think that would piss her off, but it didn't. I think she kind of liked it."
He snorted. "Oh yes… she seems like the type," he remarked. "I see the leather and the whip cracking around that one."
Tori laughed at the joke, then sighed. "I don't know if I can come up with anything close, but I am going to try, Ray—try to save as many people as I can. But I think you'd better give Mona at Kelly a call. Tell her we might have some prospects for her to pull."
"Tomorrow," he said with a resigned sigh. "Come on… we are going to do some drinking at the bar. We deserve it. Come with us."
"Ms. Vega?" someone at the door said with a light knock.
The director looked up. "Oh… Come in Ana." She watched the slim accounting clerk bustle over, with a sheet printed of all the login information for the financial reports. "This it?"
"The budget, yes, and payroll, accounts payable and receivables," the woman replied, setting them on her desk. "Anything else?" she asked, pushing up her horn-rimmed glasses. "I just have the current quarter to finish up, but it should load for you real-time; it's in the cloud."
"No thanks, this will do it for a while," Tori smiled. "Go on, Ray, I am about to get started on this stuff," she said, turning to her IS manager.
The tall man blinked at her. "You're going to be at this all night. Why don't you start fresh in the morning?"
"Go on, get out of here," Tori said. "The sooner I start on this, the sooner we'll have answers." She moved to her computer and got going on the financials. It was going to be a long night. She looked at her watch and saw it was quitting time. "Better yet, my couch will probably be much more comfortable."
The car was silent as Jade drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on her way back to the island. She was hot and exhausted, more than a little fed up after spending the preceding ten hours in corporate with no air conditioning, doing what she could to get things fixed. When she'd finally browbeaten a contractor into obtaining a replacement panel and installing it at midnight, the few people left in the building had cheered and clapped for her.
All three of them—two cleaners and the security guard—stood there, their uniforms sticking to them and drenched with sweat, just like she was. She'd sent the rest of the staff home; they couldn't stay there and run the servers. She stayed herself, propping the large industrial windows open to get a hint of a breeze in the place. Calls to building managers, to her own facilities department, to infrastructure because the security panel links had been blown, had yielded no results, so she'd finally called the building contractors and gotten the building's owner on the phone at 10 p.m.
Thank God, they only had a five-year contract, and it was up for renewal. That had been enough threat leverage to get him off his ass and get a part out along with five grumbling techs. Her glare behind them had done the rest, and by 1 a.m., a low shudder passed through the building as the huge roof units hummed to life.
Now it was 2:00 am, and she was finally going home. Business would go on as usual tomorrow with no interruptions, and that was the important thing since they couldn't run the huge server cascades unless the air was on. She'd made a note on her desk to find a backup air unit for the computer room for the next time. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting the air conditioning in the Volvo hit her full blast. Another problem solved, and she was fairly sure not one person would thank her for it tomorrow.
Save maybe the cleaning ladies, who had timidly appeared at her office door, bearing a pitcher of cold lemonade and a plastic cup while she was hollering at a contractor. It was the only thing that made her smile all night. Well, almost. She'd waited for the building to cool down a little then went into the server room and walked the boards as she flipped the switches on the mainframes, and they whirred to life again. Then she sat down at a programming station with eight different monitors and four keyboards and programmed a little giftie for her employees in the morning.
"That oughta get their attention in the morning," she said with a smirk and picked up her phone. "Good morning," she said.
"What the fu… oh Shit," Sinjin said, very obviously dragged himself awake at her voice. "Jade, do you ever sleep?"
"Sleep? I don't know her," she stated. "You're up."
"Of course, I am, you woke me… oh… you mean the servers are back up," Sinjin cleared his throat. "Thought the air was down til noon tomorrow at least?"
"Why would you think that? Did you hack the AC?" Jade asked. "Now the busiest of us have 8 gigs of email to catch up on."
"Shit," Mark reacted. "I'll connect and route it. I bet most of it is people complaining about the heat. Go home, woman. Go to bed."
"Night," Jade replied, rubbing her eyes. "See you in the morning."
"Later," he said, and she headed toward her car. The night crew took care to secure the building as she sighed in her car and headed to her bed.
She navigated the quiet streets of her neighborhood, turned left onto Beach Street, and pulled into her driveway a few minutes later. She walked into her house, her keys sounding very loud in all that quiet. She was exhausted but not sleepy, even after a long warm shower and four Aspirin for her headache, so she trudged into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it with a bit of red wine. Probably not a good idea to mix with the painkiller, but it hadn't killed her yet, so… She gave the computer terminal a glance, then her brow furrowed as she saw the blinking box in the corner.
"I thought I emptied my inbox when I left the office," she cleared her throat. "Computer, read mail," she said.
"Mail. Jade West. One message, sent by Tori Vega, time, 1:20 am."
"Computer, stop," Jade said with a smirk and moved closer to the screen. She pulled up the email to take in what this was. It started off with: "I need some details clarified," and ended with "Please forward this information as soon as possible due to the deadline imposed."
Jade smirked. "Do I sense a little attitude, Miss Vega?" The questions were literate and tough, a touch on the naive side, intelligent and thoughtful. "Yup, I knew I'd want to keep you around," she thought aloud as she read. She pulled a bar stool closer to her and settled in to answer these questions while sipping her Shiraz.
"That will do… for now," she muttered as she paused at the end of her reply. Before she hit send, she added a little snarky remark of her own and her initials. The little airplane sound of a sent email rang out as she walked out of the kitchen and toward her living room, looking out of her enormous windows out to the bay. The skyline lit up like Christmas in the background as small ferries floated past her island. She took a deep breath and turned from the view; she really needed to rest. But she just wasn't sleepy.
Tori stifled a yawn as she checked her front door lock, a habit before going to bed. Her apartment looked a mess, as she had sat on her couch with her computer, several pieces of scrap papers, and some takeout as she worked on her assignment. Not that she had done much at all, but at least she knew which questions to be asking. To prove it, she'd shot off a list of them to Gothica, her pet name for Jade West.
"Nice surprise for her in the morning, huh?" she said with a satisfied smirk. Her place was cozy, a one-bedroom in Palo Alto, more expensive than anything, but it was hers, and she was paying for it on her own. Not that she would be able to afford to live here soon. She looked around her cozy living room, which was open to the galley kitchen. She had a comfy sofa and two overstuffed chairs in the small living room, along with two large bookcases overflowing with books. A small desk usually held her laptop. The room was bright and cheerful, pastel fabrics and Indian-style throw rugs bringing in a touch of color, while the walls were hung with scenes of subtropical surroundings. A picture she'd taken in Puerto Rico when she'd been there with her family hung above her TV stand, flanked by two small embroideries—a dolphin her aunt had made her and a teddy bear from an old friend of her mother's.
"Oh… shit," Tori sighed, remembering she'd forgotten to send mail to the staff regarding West Tre's visits by procedures people the next day. She walked over and flipped her laptop on again, flopping down in her desk chair and pulling one leg up under her as she waited for it to boot. She went into mail and composed a quick note for her staff, telling them to cooperate nicely with the people coming in, and told the system to send the mail.
As she sent the message, she noticed an incoming message. "Seriously? Who would email me at three o'clock in the morning?" she muttered and clicked on the email. "But of course, it's her."
West, J. Re: Your questions: Time 2:55 a.m.*
"I swear this chick has to be some sort of robot or something," she muttered as she trained her eyes on the words in the body of the email. She read through the sections, noting that the executive hadn't bothered responding to the snarky comments that Tori could admit had been the undercurrent of her questions. They were great answers, and she would truly have a good start with what she had been given. And she appreciated the way the answers lacked a certain condescension that she had been expecting from her. Then her eyes dropped to the sign-off and blinked. "This..."
"Corporate policy states that all personnel achieve a reasonable amount of sleep in every twenty-four-hour period. Please adhere to the regulations from now on. JW"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tori spoke out loud. "What is she, some kind of lunatic? She gives me a mountain of work due in a week, and I'm supposed to make sure I sleep?" Tori shook her head. "Fine, two can play at that game," she said as she highlighted the time on Jade's header and made it boldface, then dropped down below the executive's last line and typed in a comment. "I'll keep that in mind."
With a smirk, she sent the message then turned off her laptop and trudged over to the lamp, shutting it off and heading to bed.
Her bedroom featured a neatly made double bed against one wall under the small window. The bed was covered with a striped comforter in Southwestern colors. A five-drawer dresser stood against one wall, and there was also a long three-drawer dresser with a half-height mirror, all in white wood. The carpet was pale blue pile, and she wriggled her toes into its softness with a contented sigh as she crossed the floor, then got under the covers.
She could see the stars from there, and she watched them twinkle, trying to dispel the awful feeling of doom that had settled on her chest since Jade's visit. For her people, sure. She felt horrible and hoped she could help them. But for herself... she glanced around the neat bedroom and swallowed, remembering how good she'd felt when she'd finally got things just how she wanted them, and how proud she was of how nice everything looked. She liked it here; her neighbors were nice, and the complex was friendly. There was a mall close by for shopping, and she even had a little grill on the porch for when a few friends came over and barbecued.
It was a space to be proud of, she reflected. People here never questioned if she stayed out late or criticized how she dressed or who she talked to; she was very happy here.
Now this.
Part of her hated WestTrek Media. Part of her also wanted to hate Jade West, but she was intelligent enough to understand that the woman was only conducting business as shrewdly as she could. Though it would be easier if she didn't look like she enjoyed it so much. It was obvious; Jade was smart, and she had an air about her that made Tori believe she didn't get crossed much, and when she did, the results were unpredictable. But on the tour, she'd asked some very sharp questions, and those incredible blue eyes hadn't missed much.
Whoa… incredible? Tori pulled herself together. She firmly closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up around her chin. The only thing incredible about Jade West was her incredible arrogance.
So there.
