CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Recruit
I had Korrapati’s number but I didn’t call her out of the blue. I wasn’t a psychopath who cold-calls people without a heads-up. Instead, I sent her a quick text and asked if she was free for lunch. It gave her time to think it over, not to mention the option of ignoring me outright. Evelyn had been vague about her reason for taking a leave of absence. I hoped it wasn’t the same as O’Connell’s.
It took less than two minutes before Korrapati replied and said she’d love to. Not that I counted or anything. I took that for a good sign.
We decided to meet down at the Cluster Truck, one of our favorite food trucks that had taken up a semi-permanent haunt close to downtown. As much as I hustled to arrive promptly, Korrapati was already there when I arrived. She hadn’t ordered yet, fortunately, and I told her it was my treat. I’d invited her, after all. In spite of its name, Cluster Truck turned their orders around fast. In two minutes, we were juggling our hot lunches on our way to the nearest outside table. Mine was something like a rice-filled burrito on a bed of chips laden with unidentifiable cheese. But it was hot and smelled amazing. You never had a bad experience eating at CT unless you made the mistake of getting the nutrition facts.
We made small talk while we waited for the food to cool—weather, traffic, and the news about a new gene therapy breakthrough. Casual and safe topics all. Dancing around the real reason I’d asked her.
“So,” Korrapati said after a while, and she looked right at me.
“So,” I said, smiling. We both knew it was time to talk. To have that conversation. I figured I’d let her start.
“You’re back at Build-A-Dragon,” she said.
“You heard that, huh?”
“I saw the press release.”
“Yeah. I started last week.”
“How does it feel?” she asked.
“Weird.”
She laughed. “I can only imagine.”
“It’s going to take some time to get used to sitting in Evelyn’s old office. And I kind of miss being near the God Machine.”
“I suppose she’s moved upstairs?”
“To the C-suite, yes,” I said. “She got a new plant, too.”
“Ooh, what kind?”
“Darlingtonia californica.”
“No way, a cobra lily! They’re very hard to find. How did she get one?”
“She was vague on the details.”
“Ha! I’ll bet.”
“Her plant collection is equal parts impressive and terrifying.”
“You’re not wrong.”
I took a bite of my burrito. It was chicken and rice and melted cheese, and out of this world. “She said you’re on a leave of absence.”
“Is that what she called it?”
“Why, what do you call it?”
Her eyebrows went up.
“What am I missing?” I asked, mostly in self-defense. Maybe I somehow offended her?
“Noah, I’m not on a leave of absence,” she said. “I gave notice.”
“Wait. You . . . quit?” I set my burrito down.
“Well, resigned is what I’d prefer to—”
“So Evelyn announced that I was coming back, and everyone’s response was to quit? Jeez, am I really that bad?” I couldn’t meet her eyes. I didn’t really want to know the answer. She was the good egg, the neutral party among all of our designers. If she was against me, then I really was the problem. And it wouldn’t be long before Evelyn had to accept it.
Korrapati dabbed her mouth with her napkin in a show of cool composure. “I never said I left because of you.”
“I—” I lost my head of steam, and I felt a wave of shame for taking out my frustration on her. “Didn’t you?”
“Of course not. What gave you that idea?”
“It’s why O’Connell left and took the Frogman with him. Heck, I’m half-convinced Wong only stayed because of his visa.” I took a breath, still embarrassed but also relieved that it wasn’t me. Or at least, it wasn’t only me. “Well, then why did you give notice?”
“Because of what the company did under Robert Greaves.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling like a complete idiot. “You know about the dogs.” I wasn’t sure how many people at Build-A-Dragon knew the real story rather than the public-facing one. The real story was almost harder to believe. I was still trying to wrap my own head around Greaves sabotaging his own drug trial to keep canines out of the world.
“Not just the dogs. He ordered his men to shoot down your Condor when it tried to escape. And he let all those dragons die out in the desert.” Her voice trembled, and for a moment it seemed like she might break down. She took a breath. “Those things weighed on me.”
“I feel the same way.” Especially the ones that were my fault. “But that was all Greaves.”
She laughed. “I see the PR spin has done its job on you, too.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, a bit defensively.
“A company is more than its CEO. Do you really think he was the only one responsible for everything?”
I started to answer yes, but she had a point. Greaves was guilty as hell, but others could have been complicit. “I have to believe he was the driving force. We went where he pointed.”
“And who told him where to point?”
“If he wasn’t acting alone, I don’t know.”
“Then why did you go back?”
“It’s hard to explain.” From the outside, I supposed it did seem incongruous for the whistleblower who’d left the company after exposing its best-kept secret to suddenly return to work there. “When I started there, I didn’t even care about dragons.”
“You cared about getting an answer for your brother,” she said.
“Right, and finding a place where my biological simulator could have all the computing power it needed. But by the time I left, I sort of . . . started to care. About dragons.”
“I know what you mean.” She looked away from me and sighed. “They get to you.”
“It’s like Build-A-Dragon has a gravitational pull, and I can’t escape.”
She nodded. “Deciding to leave was really hard.”
“So it really wasn’t that you didn’t want me leading the design group?”
“Don’t be silly. You were the heir apparent even before you rescued the dogs.”
Noah Parker, rescuer of dogs. I couldn’t wait to tell Summer that one. “Tell that to O’Connell and the Frogman.”
“O’Connell has had a chip on his shoulder for a long time. Did you know he interviewed for Evelyn’s job?”
“He did?”
“Apparently he was one of the final candidates for triple-D in the early days.”
“What happened? Did he botch an interview?”
“I think it was more that Evelyn came in from California and dazzled everyone.”
“Wow. I had no idea.” It was before my time, but it cast O’Connell’s bad behavior in a different light. Maybe it wasn’t just me he had a problem with. “Well, he was a good designer. So was the Frogman. But you’re the one that Build-A-Dragon really needs. Which is why I’m hoping you’ll come back.”
Nothing changed on her face, which told me she knew where this had been heading. “I don’t know, Noah.”
“You know that I have enormous respect for you, right?”
She smiled a little. “I do.”
“If you’re hesitant because you think you should be running the team instead of me, it would be fair to say.” Then I swallowed my pride as best I could, and said, “Hell, maybe it should be you.” I could talk to Evelyn. If that’s what it really takes.
“I wasn’t the one who cracked domestication,” Korrapati said.
“That was Wong,” I said.
“It was Wong and you. I saw the code, Noah. You and he have very different styles.”
I opened my mouth, but then closed it again. There was no point in denying it, and she’d only be insulted if I did. She figured it out based on our programming styles. I knew she was smart, but sometimes I forgot how smart.
“You’re wrong about him, too, by the way,” she said, while I was struggling to find words.
“About Wong? How so?”
“I don’t think he only stayed because of his visa. He likes working with you.”
“It’s Wong. Who can really know what goes on in that guy’s head?” Even so, I really hoped it was true. “But so what? You were close behind us on domestication.”
“I didn’t design the best flying model we’ve ever seen, nor did I uncover a conspiracy that nearly deprived the world of dogs,” she said.
She’s got me there. “Your Laptop model flies pretty well.” It didn’t have the range, but to achieve flight on an animal with such a low metabolism was really an achievement.
“That’s very kind of you, but all it does is make my point.”
“Which is what?”
“You deserve this. And you’ll be a good leader for our team.”
I grinned and pointed at her. “You just said our team.”
Her cheeks colored a little, and she looked away. “It’s just an expression.”
“You said it. No take backs!” I let my smile fall away and adopted a more serious tone. “Robert Greaves is gone. We can’t erase what he did, but we can make sure the company doesn’t do something like that again.”
“I do miss the work,” she said.
“And we need you. Seriously.”
She cleared her throat and tilted up her chin. “I have conditions.”
“Okay.” Let the negotiations begin. Granted, I had no idea if I had the authority to agree to anything on the company’s behalf, but I’d damn well try. “What would you like?”
“Your workstation, for starters.”
“Wow.” I felt like I’d been kicked in the teeth for reasons I couldn’t easily define. “Why?”
“It’s closer to the action. I hate being on the far side where no one remembers me.”
“We remember you!”
“It doesn’t make sense for me to be all the way over there when I could be right there talking to Wong.”
She had a point. Our designers would need to talk a lot. And in fairness, now that I had an office, I didn’t technically need a workstation. It’s just a place to sit, I told myself. No matter the memories I’d made there, the scientific achievements, and the proximity to the God Machine. But it was also something I had the power to do. “Fine. Consider it yours.”
“And a pay raise, naturally.”
“Got to be honest, that’s Evelyn’s call, but I’m sure she’ll give you one.” Any organization worth its salt would pony up to retain a valued employee. That was Management 101. Literally. I’d recently bought the book.
“I’d also like to design a new prototype,” she said.
“What kind?”
She waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. Something interesting and difficult.”
“How about three new prototypes for our newest client?”
“Three?”
I held up three fingers, but otherwise let the bit of intrigue dangle. We hadn’t worked on three prototypes simultaneously since the early days after domestication. It meant something was up, and we both knew it. Come on, take the bait.
She bit her lip for two seconds, then broke. “All right, who is it?”
“Promise me you’ll come back, and I’ll tell you all about them.”