Chapter 6 #2
‘As far as I can tell. I have emails from IT assuring me that if we run this type of query within our own systems, nothing will leak. We have NDAs in place and provision to move the information onto and out of our servers.’ She was still standing.
‘Well, then?’ Now Caleb was looking at Leo.
Leo uncrossed his arms and picked up his pen. ‘Fine. Fine, let’s try it,’ he said, with very bad grace. He gave Vidya a suspicious glare. ‘If you’re sure it’ll work.’
‘It’ll work,’ she said, with more confidence than she felt.
‘I’ll go talk to Stella.’ Vidya marched out.
The company had bought access to an AI service that came with secure storage.
She had been part of the first group that was trained in how to use it to write prompts telling the AI what to do.
The results were only as good as the instructions you put in.
She had been working on this one for a while now and she was pretty sure it would work.
It had certainly done well in the trial data set.
She would have explained all this to Leo if he’d taken a minute to listen, but no. He was not inclined to do that. Sarah had seemed fond of him. Vidya couldn’t for the life of her imagine why.
***
Leo braced himself. Sure enough, the minute Vidya left the room, Caleb turned on him.
‘Did you have to be so … you?’ Caleb said. ‘It’s our first day working with her. You could try being nice.’
‘We don’t have time for that, Caleb.’ He opened his laptop with the template to drop his notes into. ‘Besides, AI? Seriously?’
Caleb chewed the inside of his cheek. ‘It is a tool …’
‘But the results are only as good as the instructions and we don’t know anything about how good Vidya is at preparing them.
It’s not like she’s someone who specialises in working with AI.
She’s someone who happens to have taken a few hours training on it.
’ He shook his head. ‘What if it goes wrong?’
The sheer size of the job was stressing him out. Adding another unknown into the mix wasn’t helping.
‘I have nothing against Vidya,’ he added, just in case that wasn’t clear. She did weird things to his insides, but he wasn’t about to let that get in the way of work. ‘I’m only concerned about getting this done properly.’
‘You might want to let her know that,’ said Caleb. ‘Because from that last exchange you just sounded suspicious of her ability to do her job.’
To be fair, he always started from that position with people he didn’t know.
Ever since the time a new administrator had managed to miss three deadlines in the same week, he was wary of new people on his teams. He had been wary of Sarah too, until she’d been with them for a couple of projects without any mishaps. Now, he would trust her with his life.
‘I know she’s not Sarah,’ Caleb said. ‘But you can’t assume she’s the same as that idiot Rupert either. I mean, she’s clearly not here because her uncle pulled some strings.’
This was a good point. One of the reasons Rupert was so bad at his job was because he didn’t pay attention. Vidya presumably did.
‘Did I insult her?’ Leo didn’t think he had. He had merely disagreed with the use of AI. Sometimes people misunderstood and took things the wrong way. The sudden discomfort that Vidya might think ill of him was unexpected. Since when did he care what people thought of him when he was doing his job?
‘Well, you weren’t pleasant, put it that way,’ said Caleb.
Caleb could read people much better than he could, so he trusted his observation. ‘Okay. When I get a chance, I’ll apologise.’
His friend nodded. ‘You shouldn’t worry so much,’ Caleb said. ‘Who knows, the AI thing might work out. Why not take a punt?’
Leo didn’t bother replying. They had had this discussion before. Actions had consequences. He knew that better than most.
***
Leo hadn’t done a stint in a file room for a very long time.
He put the printout of the list on the table and faced the enormous rolling shelves.
It took a minute or two to work out which files would be on which shelf.
The shelves had been set so that the end one was visible.
He grabbed the list, found the files that were in the visible shelves and put them on the file trolley. That was the easy part.
Now he had to move the end shelf away from the one next to it, so that he could reach the files inside.
The heavy metal shelves were on runners.
Each row had a wheel at the end. You had to unlock the wheel and turn it, so that the shelves moved apart and an aisle opened up between them.
It was a great way to fit more shelves into a room, but he always worried about someone getting squashed between the heavy stacks.
He was the only person in the room, but just in case he said out loud, ‘I’m moving the stacks now.
’ Feeling a bit silly, he paused for a second, then unlocked the stacks and turned the wheel.
The end stack moved with satisfying smoothness, making a new aisle.
He locked it into place and pushed the kick stool into it.
He didn’t need the kick stool to reach the highest files, but it was reassuring having something solid as a buffer.
He liked to think that if the stacks moved, the kick stool would buy him some time to get out before the stacks squashed him.
The door opened. ‘Oh. Hi.’
Vidya stood there with a piece of paper in her hand. ‘I … er … need to get some files too. I’m running a test on a small batch first, to check if the prompt works.’
Leo gestured towards the open stack. ‘Feel free.’
She entered the room fully and stood still, her eyes flicking between the paper in her hand and the labels on the side of the stacks while she worked out where things were.
Leo thought about what Caleb had said. If Leo had upset her or got her back up, this was probably as good a time as any to put things right.
He cleared his throat. ‘I … I can be a bit blunt, at times. I gather I came across as doubting your ability earlier. I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention.’
Vidya looked at him, her face neutral, and didn’t reply. Such a serious gaze. It shouldn’t be making him feel things in his chest.
‘I am, I admit, a little bit apprehensive about the use of AI in general,’ he said. ‘But I do trust you to do a good job.’
Her mouth moved a little, as though she was working out what to say. Then she said, ‘Thank you. I appreciate that.’
There was one more thing he needed to say.
‘Since I’m the team lead, I have to be sure I’m comfortable with what we do as a team, because I’m responsible for the decisions,’ he said.
‘Now that we’ve agreed to try the AI method to sort the agreements, if something goes wrong, know that I’ll have your back. I’ll take the flak.’
‘I’ll do my best to make sure nothing goes wrong,’ she said. ‘That’s why I’m running a test on a bunch of agreements that are about to expire.’ She shook the paper.
‘That’s a good idea.’ Leo gestured again for her to go and get the files she needed. When she returned with a couple of files, he went in and got the ones he was looking for.
They worked in silence, which he appreciated. There wasn’t that much to say and silence didn’t always need filling. He moved the next set of stacks and they took turns again. When he reached to unlock the wheel for the next stack, she said, ‘Can I do this one?’
‘Sure.’ He stepped back.
Vidya took her place in front of him. Since she was much shorter than him, he found himself looking down.
He could see down her top. He quickly looked up at the wall and took a step back.
He suddenly felt like he was boiling. The image of the soft curve of her breast seemed to have burned itself into his brain.
He stared at the ceiling light in an effort to dislodge it.
Thankfully, she didn’t notice anything, she was too busy peering down the aisle between the racks. ‘I don’t know why I’m checking. I can see that we’re both out here.’
‘I always check too,’ Leo said, risking looking down again, now that she was a safe distance from him. ‘And I usually say, “I’m moving the stacks now”, just in case. It’s better than getting it wrong.’
Vidya hooked the kick stool out with her foot. ‘I’m moving the stacks now,’ she said, with a sidelong glance at him. He suppressed a smile. The shared joke gave him an unexpected hum of warmth.
She unlocked and rotated the wheel. The wall of files moved slower than when he was doing it. It clanged into the next stack and she locked the wheel into place.
‘That was so satisfying.’ For a second, a fleeting grin illuminated her face. Delight seemed to radiate off her. It transformed her, making her look young and luminous. Leo felt a flutter in his chest. This was worrying. Maybe he should leave?
She disappeared into the files. ‘I love moving stacks,’ she said.
He pulled himself together. He was an adult.
Surely, he was capable of working alongside an attractive female colleague.
He might not be able to banter, like Caleb could, but he could manage small talk.
A little, anyway. ‘Really? I find the nagging worry about being squashed to death between the shelves takes the edge off the experience.’
A laugh floated out. ‘It reminds me of being a kid. When we were little, my sister was a bit obsessed with The Pirates of the Caribbean, especially the ships. So, my dad found a big steering wheel from somewhere and fixed it to the wall in the garden so that it rotated. We used to spend hours playing with it, pretending we were steering a ship through a storm.’
Leo thought of the way she stood, feet planted firmly apart, and spun the handles. Yes. He could see that. ‘That’s a much better thing to think about. Much less anxiety provoking.’
Vidya emerged with a couple of files and they swapped places. In the shaded aisle surrounded by files, he took a minute to peer back out at her. She was leaning against the table, looking down the rows of spin handles, a soft smile on her face. He felt the sudden urge to smile back.
The file in his hand slipped and he tightened his grip. He needed to focus. Staring at this pretty woman was not focusing. Hitching the file up more firmly, he consulted his sheet and found the next file he needed to get.