Chapter 4 #2
I have a family, but my parents are always abroad, traveling for their careers and choosing their jobs over their son.
My grandpa raised me. He quit his job as a professor of law at Harvard, and moved back to Seattle to take care of me when my parents decided to up and leave when I was three.
He did an amazing job at that, but Misha and Oliver… they’re the family I never really had.
I’m snapped back to the present by Misha’s exasperated voice. “I can’t find it anywhere! It had all my notes from yesterday’s meetings. This is a fucking disaster!”
“I told you so many times to make notes on your phone or tablet.” I sigh.
We’re working in tech, for fuck’s sake.
“Would you come walk the hallways with me to look for it? It’s not in Jensen’s office, either. I already checked.” He looks at me with puppy dog eyes.
Rolling my eyes, I stretch my arms over my head. “We’re not going to walk down every damn hallway like peasants,” I grumble, turning the chair to sit properly in front of my monitor. “I’ll check the cameras. See where you went yesterday.”
Misha perks up, a glimmer of hope in his eyes, although his voice is wary. “You can’t just hack into the company’s cameras.”
I huff out a laugh, amused. It’s not my problem if Elysium’s security measures are laughable. But it’s not my job to point that out to them. I’m only responsible for the safeguarding of our AI’s integrity and user data privacy.
And let’s be honest, just because it’s easy for me doesn’t mean it’s easy for anybody else.
“We don’t hack into company assets. We give them free performance tests,” I tell Misha in an innocent tone, making him grin. “Also, they’re so far up our asses, they would never say a word about it, even if they did find out.”
As I pull up the footage, Misha leans over my shoulder, making me slightly uncomfortable with the proximity. “There! That’s when I went to Jensen’s office,” he points out excitedly as we watch him on screen. “God, I’m looking good from that angle.”
I ignore his nonsense and meticulously track his movements along the hallways, a skill honed from years of needing to keep everything tight and secure in our projects, until I notice he entered a room with his notebook and exited it without it.
Pointing at the monitor, I say, “Looks like you might have left it in the conference room on the third floor.”
Misha claps me on the back, his relief palpable. “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver, man.”
As I switch through the feed once more, Misha’s about to leave when the door bursts open, and Oliver comes in, eyes wide, panting. “Guys…” he gasps, catching his breath, “… I… I talked to Amelia.”
Well, that’s unexpected.
It’d be the first time in the two years that he’s been crushing hard on her.
Misha’s face splits into a wide grin. “Finally! So proud of you, bro! What did you say?”
“That’s not the point,” Oliver quickly adds, holding up a hand to stop Misha from hugging him, frustration edging his voice. “She said she would be beta testing the AI.”
All three of us exchange puzzled looks.
“What? Why?” Misha frowns. “No, the CEO said the chief of the Smart Home Development Department had to do it. That’s why we gave Dr. Langley that long introduction to the system and everything. Why would she do it now?”
“Does she work in the Smart Home Development Department?” I ask, looking at Oliver.
“I have no idea. I don’t know anything about her. That’s the fucking problem,” Oliver groans, rubbing his forehead. “Two years and I still don’t know shit.”
“Maybe they’re dating and living together?” Misha suggests, only half-joking.
Oliver pales at the thought. The idea of Amelia with that slimy Dr. Langley sends a weird twist into my gut too. She’s way out of Langley’s league.
Let’s be honest. She’s out of all of our leagues.
“If she really gives Langley the time of day, you should absolutely shoot your shot, Oliver,” Misha encourages, trying to lighten the mood again after his fuck-up remark.
I turn back to my monitor, unable to watch Oliver’s pained expression any longer, and spot the woman in question standing in the hallway. “Speaking of the devil,” I murmur, motioning Misha and Oliver closer.
“Why are we watching a live feed of her?” Oliver asks, squinting at the monitor.
“We’re not. That’s the camera feed from yesterday,” I explain as he leans in. “Misha has—”
“Probably lost something, sure, but what’s she doing?” Oliver interrupts, and a smirk tugs at my lips.
We all watch, intrigued, as Amelia stands there, looking around nervously. Suddenly, she pulls out a net and a bag and stretches on her tiptoes to fish something out of the tank.
What the hell?
Misha bursts out laughing. “Did she just steal some fucking fish from that aquarium?”
Oliver looks even more shocked than when he first walked in, which makes me smirk. “Seems like your precious Amelia isn’t as innocent as you made her out to be.”
“Never said she was innocent, just said she was perfect,” Oliver mumbles defensively.
“And does her stealing fish change that?” I ask, genuinely curious.
I always thought he was putting her on a pedestal she couldn’t keep up with in real life, no matter how nice she actually is. She’s beautiful but boring, nothing special. A shy loner.
Like everybody else in this damn company.
“It makes her a fucking badass,” Misha chimes in, still chuckling.
True. Not so boring after all.
“Why would she do that?” Oliver puzzles aloud.
“No idea, but I don’t really care, either.” I shrug. Well, that’s a lie. I would love to know what that was all about. “You sure she’s beta testing?”
“She said she was excited to beta. I don’t know. We’ll see.” Oliver sighs. “Langley said he will start to test tonight and over the weekend, right?”
“Right,” Misha confirms.
We all watch Amelia cautiously tuck the bag with the fish into her backpack and dart out of view on the monitor.
I discreetly delete the security footage of her taking the fish, looping a few minutes of hallway footage to seamlessly cover the gap, ensuring no one besides us will ever know.
Whatever her reasons, Amelia just got a whole lot more intriguing.