Hard Code by Misha Bell

Author:Misha Bell [Bell, Misha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mozaika Publications

Chapter Nineteen

My sleep is even more restless than the night before.

In the morning, I find an email from Sandra in my inbox. She wants to meet for an update.

I tell her I can be down at the office by 11:30 a.m.—time chosen because I, not so secretly, hope to bump into Vlad and have another lunch together.

Sandra thanks me and says that time works, so I dress in my favorite pencil skirt and blouse to look extra professional, put on my good eyebrows, and commute to the office.

As I’m about to step into our building, a classically beautiful woman catches my gaze. She’s model tall, has pouty lips, shampoo-commercial jet-black hair, and striking blue eyes.

When she passes by me, I understand what’s caught my attention.

It’s not her looks but her scent.

I recognize it.

It’s the perfume that was on Vlad the other day. It’s all over her, as if she took a bath in it.

Attack, the green monster commands. Kill first, figure out if it’s her later.

No.

I get it. Too many witnesses. Stalk her into a dark alley.

I have a meeting with Sandra.

Puny weakling.

Shut up.

Don’t tell me to shut up. I’ll kill you too.

A security guard looks at me suspiciously, so I get my ID out and finally enter the building.

As I step into the elevator, a guy stops the doors from closing and follows me in.

He looks familiar, but I draw a blank for a second. Then I recall that I saw him at the monthly meeting the other day. My app had decided he looks like Butt-Head; it’s just harder to place him without Beavis.

“You’re Fanny, right?” Butt-Head asks. “Fanny Pack?”

“That’s me.” I extend my hand. “And you’re…”

“Mike,” he says. “Mike Ventura.”

I press the button for our floor. “You work in the development department, right?”

I’ve tested his work, so I know this to be the case, but it seems polite to ask.

“Yeah, I do,” he says. “I hear you plan to join us from QA. Saw your code. Pretty elegant.”

Elegant.

Phantom keeps saying that about my code.

Could Mike be Phantom? Would it be weird to just out and ask?

The elevator doors open.

He gestures for me to leave first. “If you’d like, we can get together, talk about code and whatnot.”

“Sure,” I say, figuring that might also be a good time to learn if he’s Phantom without being late to see my manager. “Shoot me an email. It’s fpack at Binary Birch.”

There, work email.

Keeping things profesh.

“Sounds like a plan,” Mike says with a wide grin. “See ya.”

Waving goodbye, I sprint over to Sandra’s cube.

“Things are progressing ahead of schedule,” I tell her once we grab a meeting room and settle in our chairs. “Nothing to worry about.”

She exhales a breath of relief. “Thank you. I’ll have to give an update to Mr. Chortsky this afternoon, so this really helps.”

I redden. He already knows how things are going, but I obviously can’t give Sandra a heart attack by letting her know who my male tester is.

“Anything else?” I ask, eager to run to the pantry to see if he’s lurking there.

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