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Janet nodded slowly. “I recall reading that in an interview when the VERA shipped. She didn’t work with me, though; she might have been working with Hank…I’ll have to connect with HR.” She sighed. “Typical Hank. Can’t believe he didn’t hire her full-time. Our loss.”
“C’mon, let’s get lunch,” said Lexi, tugging gently on the back of her sister’s chair. “You guys won’t believe the dude we just met with. Total jerk.”
“Alexis!” Janet scolded, following the Miranda sisters out of Nadia’s room. “He was only ninety percent a jerk. The other ten percent was pure narcissist.”
“Fair,” Alexis laughed.
Nadia grabbed her phone, checking to make sure her phone charm was still attached. Dangling from the cord looped through a hole in the case was her little Wasp figurine—a miniaturized version of her Wasp suit ready to be expanded and donned at any moment. Nadia never went anywhere without it.
Mostly because she never went anywhere without her phone and she could really only remember to grab one thing before leaving the house. But at least she knew herself well enough to have everything on or attached to her phone she could possibly need, including her lab keycard, her ID, and her debit card.
And her super suit. Naturally.
Nadia stopped before she left the room. “VERA, can you send HoffTech’s address to my phone?”
“Already done,” said VERA. “See you later, Nadia.”
Nadia waved, walking out of the room. The hologram faded behind her—but the white light still blinked.
* Insects and arachnids like the fisher spider and the water strider use surface tension to walk on water. The water strider hits the water with a force of only 10 dynes per centimeter, for the record.
Nadia stood outside the seamless glass doors, squeezing her hands into fists and relaxing them over and over again. She’d still didn’t have what one might normally consider a “plan” for getting into the offices; she was mostly considering just waltzing in like she belonged and asking to see the head of their company. That would probably work, right? Big-money tech start-ups traditionally just let complete strangers off the street walk in and book meetings with their CEOs on a whim?
It will be fine, Nadia decided. It will have to be fine!
She relaxed her fingers and walked through the automatic sliding doors with her head held high, projecting a self-assurance she was mostly just inventing in her own mind. The building’s lobby was huge and airy—in fact, the whole building seemed to defy physics, being more glass than steel. It was like a bright and glittery crystal in the middle of an otherwise dull neighborhood. Trying not to raise suspicion by looking around too much like a gawking tourist, Nadia ignored her bright surroundings and marched right toward the front desk at the center of the hall.
“Hello?” she called out as she approached the desk.
No one responded. After all, there was no person sitting at the front desk. In fact, HoffTech’s front lobby was devoid of any humans at all.
Instead, a small, gold brick sat on the birch front desk, its sleek gold lines in sharp contrast to the live-edge countertop. The whole lobby was a similar story in contradictions. Half of the furniture was made of untreated wood, with plants covering almost every spare inch they could: hanging from the ceiling, covering tables in waiting areas, clustered in corners. The walls were a stark, clean, almost sterile white. The chairs, all empty, were finished with plush, dusty pink cushions. The rest of the furniture and all of the fixtures were metallic gold and glass, reminiscent of VERA’s design. Nadia didn’t know if she was supposed to curl up and feel at home or if she was in a dentist’s office for the very wealthy.
Nadia had convinced Janet to take them all for lunch in Queens. Yes, partially because she had wanted to indulge in her favorite soup dumplings and the free ginger tea that she could easily drink several gallons of in one sitting. But also because it was about forty minutes from Cresskill to Queens by car and easily another two hours on top of that by transit.
And Nadia wanted to make it to HoffTech HQ before they closed today. Now she had plenty of time to come find Margaret, and she was full of crab-and-pork dumplings.
Ideal.
Nadia eyed the gold brick on the desk and took a deep breath.
“Hi there!” Nadia said brightly to the front desk, full of false confidence, feeling a little foolish speaking to…no one. “I’d like to speak with Margaret Hoff.”
“Hi there!” As Nadia had hoped before she started speaking to the air, the VERA hologram sprang to life on the front desk and mirrored Nadia’s speech pattern, a completely normal thing for an AI receptionist to do, Nadia thought. This VERA looked not dissimilar from Margaret’s headshot. “If you have an appointment to see Ms. Hoff, please provide me with your name so that I can flag your arrival to her executive team.”
“My name is Nadia Van Dyne,” Nadia answered breezily, carefully ignoring the first part of VERA’s statement. She pointed to a fluffy pink cushion in the corner of the lobby. “I’ll just wait over here—”
“I’m sorry,” VERA said with a smile on her digital face. “I can’t seem to find you in our system. Can you please spell your name for me?”
Right, Nadia groaned internally. Shouldn’t have come without an appointment.
A group of people not much older than Nadia emerged from an elevator behind the front desk, laughing. Nadia turned her back to them, leaning against the desk in the most nonchalant way she could.
Looking cool. Looking like she was totally supposed to be there.
At least she was wearing a hoodie, just like all the employees.
“Nadia Van Dyne?” she repeated. “V-A-N-space-
