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“And what does he do?” Taina picked at a hangnail.
“Theodore Hoff currently sits on the board of Altas Oil.”
Taina finally looked up. “And his father founded that company and his father was attorney general of New Hampshire, and they’re all three times wealthier than the Starks and three times as lily-white.” She turned to look at Nadia. “Must. Be. Nice.”
Nadia shook her head. She knew what Taina was getting at. But didn’t using your privilege for the public good, to further the pursuit of technology and the status of women in tech, mean that Margaret was different from her father? “She had advantages, but it sounds like she’s still a brilliant woman.”
Taina finally gave in to the eye roll that had been building for the entirety of this conversation. “Please,” she scoffed. “She’s no smarter than you or me or Ying or any of us in this lab. The difference is, none of us grew up burning blood money on the fire for entertainment while our seventeen household staff members washed our feet with twenty-four-carat soap. Imagine what we could have done with that kind of privilege? Where we could have been by now? Where G.I.R.L. could be?”
Nadia felt the familiar tingle in her brain—a good idea was burbling there, just under the surface. She needed to grab it before it fizzled out. She snapped her fingers two, three, four times, putting it together. “Okay,” she told Tai. “Okay, you’re right. So…what if we did get her involved with G.I.R.L.? Maybe get her help?”
Taina looked at Nadia like she had four heads. “No way. I don’t trust this lambona as far as I can chuck her shiny little F.R.I.D.A.Y. knockoff. We don’t need her or her money. We’re doing just fine on our own.”
Nadia didn’t respond. Taina had a point, much as it clashed with the narrative Nadia had been constructing in her mind.
“She’s not some benevolent techie savior, Nadia. She’s a rich white girl in serious need of some perspective.” Taina wheeled closer to Nadia. “Do you realize how vulnerable a network like that is? How easily it could be manipulated? It’s in people’s homes. Collecting data all the time. Medication schedules. Routines. Bad habits. Your data, Nadia.”
“HoffTech’s a reputable company,” Nadia said, a response on the tip of her tongue before she even gave it a conscious thought. “It has to be safe. Secure.”
Taina scoffed. “It’s only as safe as the people who own it decide to keep it. You’re confident that HoffTech’s safeguarding your secrets, the data that makes up your entire life? That it has your best interests at heart? That data’s valuable, Nadia. You really think that HoffTech believes your well-being is more important than their profits?” Taina shook her head. “You know better than that.”
“But—” Nadia was interrupted by a voice floating in through the door to her room.
“Hellllooooooo?” it called. “Anybody home?”
“In here!” Taina called. She rolled, turning her back on Nadia. “We were done anyway.”
Nadia sighed. Tai had been so skeptical of everything she’d brought up with her lately! Nadia knew it came from a place of love; Tai was always worried that Nadia was taking on too much, especially since she had been diagnosed with bipolar. But Nadia found herself talking to Tai almost every day; they were more and more the only two G.I.R.L.s regularly in the lab.
Ying and Shay were always headed off together somewhere trying to make sense of dating, and Priya was either working or out in the gardens trying to make sense of her plant powers. And Nadia would explode if she didn’t have someone to share the exciting events in her life with. So, even though she was usually skeptical, it was all Tai all the time.
Tai just didn’t understand that everything Nadia had on her plate right now was of equal importance; it was impossible to give any one thing up or to put any one off until later. Stop taking driving lessons and put off her dream of becoming a normal Cool American Teen? Stop following Maria’s list and lose the new glimmer of hope for reclaiming her past and connecting with her mother? Stop working on Like Minds and let down all of her friends at the lab? She could do it all; she just needed some help.
And if her friends weren’t around, VERA would be that help. She was a start, anyways.
And Margaret could be just what Nadia needed to get past her science block on the Like Minds project. If anyone knew how to take an idea and make it big enough to change the entire world, it was Margaret Hoff. Sure, she’d had help; but if Nadia could just talk to Margaret, maybe she could convince her to use some of her priv
ilege and brilliance on behalf of G.I.R.L. Maybe she could even help Nadia figure out what to showcase at Like Minds.
Nadia swung her legs off the bed and stood up just in time for Janet to walk in with Tai’s older sister, Lexi. Nadia’s machekha always dressed so well, but today she looked especially sharp in an emerald-green suit. Lexi was in a suit, too, but hers was covered all over in florals. It made Lexi’s athletic shoulders stand out in a way that Nadia thought made her look like she could kick your butt both on the field with a hockey stick and also in the boardroom.
“Big meeting?” Nadia asked, walking over to hug them both.
“Oh, you know.” Janet hugged her back. “Always looking for investors.”
Nadia smiled. She did know.
“You look like a linebacker who fell into a funeral arrangement,” Tai said by way of greeting her sister.
“Thanks, Tai.” Lexi ruffled her sister’s hair as Tai tried to bat her away. “Thought you’d like it.”
“Oh!” Janet pointed to the gold brick on Nadia’s desk. “VERA! You’re using it!”
“I am,” Nadia said excitedly, trying not to notice Tai’s second exaggerated eye roll of the day. “I am actually regretting not opening it sooner. She’s already helping me get things done.”
“I’m so glad to hear that!” Janet smiled while Alexis picked up the little gold brick and turned it over in her hands, admiring how the hologram always stayed upright.
“Did you know Margaret Hoff used to intern here?” Nadia asked, as casually as possible.
