Chapter 3
On Friday morning, Emma Perez was in her workshop, running another test on version seventeen of her revolutionary field calibrator device.
Her best friend, Ronan Davis, had argued that it needed a sexier name and dubbed it the Flux Calibrator, or the Fluxibrator for short.
She’d rolled her eyes at the nickname, but in truth, she kind of liked it. It was a play on the name of the time travel device in one of their favorite movies.
The Fluxibrator was not a time travel device, however.
Emma had her doctorate in renewable energy with a focus on wind power, one of the fastest-growing sources of electrical energy.
Once the device was working the way she intended, it would vastly improve the efficiency of the wind turbines at the heart of the industry.
She’d been noodling with it since coming up with the idea in grad school. Though, nowadays, she had to fit in her tinkering sessions around her day job as head engineer at RRE, a major renewable energy company, located in Palm Springs.
Her computer pinged, and the androgynous voice she’d programmed it with announced, “Simulation complete.”
On the floor, her Australian shepherd sat up and chuffed.
“I heard it, Ari,” she told him.
She clicked on the report tab, and the screen filled with results of the test. She skimmed through most of the data, making sure there was nothing unexpected, then moved to the output efficiency line and sucked in a breath.
The result was within five percent of the goal she’d set so many years ago. Another few weeks or so of fine-tuning and maybe the Fluxibrator would finally be ready to reveal to the world.
As she was jotting down next steps onto a tablet computer, Ari knocked against her leg and whined.
“What is it, boy?” she asked, looking down.
Before he could whine again, she realized her phone was ringing. She rubbed Ari’s head, then picked up the cell and answered without looking at the screen. “Yes?”
“Good morning to you, too,” Ronan Davis said.
“Sorry. Good morning.”
Pleasantries and small talk were not Emma’s strong suits. People in general confused her, and she much preferred interacting with machines. The only exception to this was Ronan.
“It doesn’t sound like you’re in your car,” he said.
She frowned. “I’m not. I’m in my workshop.”
“Working on Fluxy, I assume.”
“We are not calling it Fluxy,” she said.
“It’s a lot easier than Fluxibrator.”
“You came up with Fluxibrator.”
“Which means I have the right to improve it.”
“Fluxy is not an improvement.”
“I think the jury is still out.”
“I’m telling you right now, I am not going to—”
“Have you checked the time?”
“What?” she asked, confused by the change of subject.
“The time?”
She pulled her phone away so she could do so, then swore under her breath. It was twenty minutes to eight.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m leaving now.”
“I thought you might be.”
Ronan knew Emma like the back of his hand and was well aware that she spent most mornings losing track of time as she worked on the calibrator. He’d made it a habit to call her most mornings so that she wouldn’t be late to work.
“Still on for dinner tonight?” he asked.
“Is it Friday already?” she asked, surprised.
“It is.”
“Then yes, still on. Where do you want to eat?”
“Lulu’s?”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there after I take Ari home.”
Before she could hang up, he said, “Wait.”
“What?”
“Put your computer to sleep.”
She sighed but did as he said. A good thing, too, because she likely would have become wrapped up in the results again. “Done.”
“See you tonight,” he said and hung up.
Emma hopped off her stool and hurried out from her workshop with Ari jogging behind her.
The spacious room was in the back half of a building that had once been a small machine shop. She’d bought the place with money she’d inherited from her parents and had transformed it into both a home and a workshop where she could work on her inventions.
After grabbing her messenger bag and setting the alarm, she and Ari went out to the carport and got into her all-electric Lucid Air Touring sedan.
Luckily for her, RRE was located on the northern edge of Palm Springs, not far from the I-10 freeway, making it only a fourteen-minute drive away. When she and Ari walked into the company’s fourth-floor offices, it was two minutes before eight a.m.
Ari immediately ran over to Brenda, the receptionist, who greeted him with scratches behind the ears and a kiss between the eyes.
“Such a good dog,” she gushed, then kissed him again. “Dr. Perez, remember if you ever need a dog sitter, I’m your woman.”
“Thank you,” Emma said, “I have not forgotten. I’ve also told you to call me Emma.”
“I know. But if I was a doctor, I’d want everyone to call me that. What if I call you Dr. Emma? Is that better?”
Emma cringed. “That is not better. Please, just Emma.”
Brenda huffed playfully. “I’ll try.”
“Ari, come.”
Ari chuffed at Brenda, then rejoined Emma as she headed for the door to the main part of the office. As they approached, it opened and Marty Lundstrom strode out.
“Oh, hey, boss,” he said, surprised.
Emma’s eyes narrowed. “I believe we’ve already discussed how I’d like you to address me.”
“Right, right,” he said, then bowed his head. “Good morning, Dr. Perez.”
Emma wasn’t sure how he did it, but every word that came out of Marty’s mouth sounded like he was making fun of her as he spoke.
“Good morning, Mr. Lundstrom,” she said.
Ari stared at him from Emma’s side, causing Marty to take a step back.
“I see you’ve brought your dog in again,” Marty said.
“This should not be a surprise. I bring him every day.”
Marty grunted in a manner Emma couldn’t quite decipher, then said, “Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit.”
He started to walk around Emma toward the exit.
“Which group are you going to?”
He stopped in his tracks.
“Eh, none. I’m going to Koffi.” Koffi was a local coffee shop chain.
She cocked her head. “Then can I assume the group C turbines report is on my desk?”
“Not yet. I’m planning on heading out there right after lunch. The report should be done sometime on Monday.”
He flashed her a smile as if that was the end of the discussion, but she pinned him in place with a stare.
“I believe my instructions were to have the report to me this morning.”
“Well, yeah,” he said, not quite suppressing a tone of annoyance. “But you said if feasible.”
“And you’re saying it’s not?”
“I had a meeting yesterday afternoon.”
“I’m aware. I was in that meeting. It lasted thirty minutes.”
“And I had other things I needed to take care of.”
She highly doubted that, but instead of pressing him on it, she asked, “And you can’t go out there this morning because…?”
“Um, because…well…”
“Mr. Lundstrom. I suggest that after you pick up your drink, you continue to group C. That should give you plenty of time to finish the report and have it to me before the end of the day.”
She held his gaze, her expression blank.
A whole series of emotions passed over his face, before his mouth settled into a plastic smile. “That’s a great idea,” he said stiffly. “I’ll do that.”
“Thank you. Come, Ari.”
She headed to the door, the matter settled as far as she was concerned.
Ari hesitated just long enough to give Marty a low growl, then ran through the door, happily greeting the other members of the RRE team.
—
Marty stewed all the way to Koffi, while he waited for his iced almond milk latte, and on the entire drive out of town to RRE turbine group C.
Dr. Emma Perez.
His life had been cruising along just fine until she showed up.
Okay, maybe not entirely fine, but he’d had a plan to deal with his financial issues.
All he’d needed was to become RRE’s head engineer.
And why wouldn’t he be given the job? He was senior in the department and had the backing of his buddy Carl Mason, one of the company’s VPs, who had all but said the job was his.
But then, out of the blue, the higher-ups went outside the company pool and gave Marty’s job to Emma. He’d gone to Carl to find out what the hell had happened, but it turned out that a day earlier, Carl had quit on the spot and taken a job on the East Coast.
Marty had felt like he’d been hit by a truck, sucked into a tornado, and then dropped into the path of a Category 5 hurricane.
Sure, Emma had an impressive résumé. And yeah, she had a doctorate, whereas Marty had only a master’s that he’d earned by the skin of his teeth. Still, he’d been with RRE for seven years and was a decade older than Emma. Those two things alone should have been enough to give him the edge.
And then there was the fact that she was a woman, for God’s sake. Engineering was a male-dominated field for a reason.
Marty had no idea how she’d hoodwinked the RRE brain trust, but she had.
And now he had to answer to her.
The only news he’d received recently that wasn’t horrible was the unexpected takeover of his mortgages by a company called VP Bela Capital.
The representative who’d called him said his two mortgages could be combined into one, which would lower his monthly payment.
The guy had even gone as far as to say that the company might have solutions that would help Marty manage all his debt.
Marty was hopeful it was true, but he wasn’t going to just sit around and rely on promises from someone he’d never met.
He’d recently come up with a plan that would both get himself out of debt and get some revenge on Emma.
It started with the set of keys he had in his bag.
A month after Emma had joined the company, Marty had been about to enter her office to go over another of her ridiculous reports when he heard her talking on the phone. He credited his superior instincts for making him halt just outside the door so that he could listen in.
“No,” she was saying. “I’m not doing that.
” A pause followed. “Because it’s not ready, that’s why.
” This time the silence went on for several seconds.
“It won’t change the industry if it’s not performing to my standards, so I’m not going to risk years of work by announcing it before I’m satisfied.
” She sighed. “No, I haven’t filed the provisional patent application yet…
I know, I know…I’ll do it soon, okay?…No, I won’t forget.
” Her next pause was the longest yet. “You always watch out for me. Thank you. And don’t worry.
I’m close. Another few months and I should be done. ”
Ever since eavesdropping on that conversation, Marty had been trying to uncover what Emma had been talking about, but she had never spoken about it again when he was within earshot.
Clearly, if she planned on getting a patent for it, it was something big. And something big meant money—lots and lots of money.
If he could figure out what it was, maybe even get his hands on a prototype, he was sure he could sell it for more than enough to get him out from under his debt.
Though he wasn’t any closer to learning about her invention, he had heard that she had a personal workshop at home. He was sure that’s where the answers would be.
Which meant he needed a key to her place. The opportunity to obtain it had proved elusive until earlier this week when Emma had been called away to a last-minute off-site meeting.
Like he did every time she was away, he peeked into her office for her messenger bag. She had the habit of taking it with her wherever she went. This time, however, she’d left it behind.
He found her keys inside and took them to a nearby hardware store, where he made copies of each, then returned the originals to her bag thirty minutes before she came back.
Now all he needed was the opportunity to let himself into her place when she wasn’t around. Since she had the habit of spontaneously calling him into her office, he decided that breaking in during work hours was probably not a good idea.
He just needed to bide his time for an opportunity to present itself.
He turned his company pickup down the road to group C. Ahead, the five wind turbines he’d come to check on rose into the sky.
He glared at them, not looking forward to climbing to the top of each one.
He could not wait until he didn’t have to deal with this crap anymore.