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She didn’t get the chance.
Clara burst through the door, her hands waving about hysterically. “Ms. Voss, you’ve been asked to attend the Global Gaming Convention’s sponsor panel,” she panted, dashing forward to hand me the invitation. “It starts in ten minutes!”
“And it’s five minutes away,” I said, lifting my hands to keep her from jumping out of her shoes.
She shook her head. “The main servers have crashed and the dev team needs your authorization to get in, it’s a mess!”
I frowned, but Mia stepped in, her voice melodic and calm.
“You head to the panel,” she said, putting a hand on Clara’s forearm comfortingly. “I’ll head across town to deal with the servers.”
Clara just about deflated, the relief on her face as clear as day.
“You sure you want to deal with Delia?” I asked, a smirk playing about my lips.
Mia cringed. “I’d rather not, but I’d sooner spend a few hours listening to her complain about cyber security than sit on Jerri’s panel.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Coward.”
“I’m guessing the sponsors had a lot to talk about?”
I muttered something unintelligible and gratefully accepted the bottle of iced water that Mia offered.
“Six hours,” I breathed, thoroughly wrecked. “I thought we were just talking about how we’d be sponsoring the event, but Jerri was adamant about finding out everyone’s upcoming projects, like we’d unveil them right then and there just ‘coz he asked.”
Mia snickered a little and I lifted my tired gaze to her.
“How did your afternoon with Delia go?”
“Better than your evening with Jerri,” she teased. “But I authorized their request for an expansion. The fault ended up setting a few of the frames on fire and there was no way to get them back up on the same grid.”
“Thanks.” I sighed. “They’ve been bugging me for an expansion for weeks now. Should have seen this one coming.”
“The damage was minimal; they were more concerned about gaming downtime or loss of data.”
I dragged in a lungful of air and blew it out slowly. “Let’s wrap it up for today.” I yawned. “We can deal with the paperwork tomorrow.”
She nodded and grabbed her stuff.
Before she reached the door I looked up. “Mia.”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” I said again. “And don’t throw in the towel just yet; there’s a way outta this and I’ll find it.”
Chapter 3
The End of One Rope
MIA
Iglancedupatthe sound of the main office doors opening and closing, spotting Reid as she walked in. Her heels dragged a little on each step, her shoulders rounded with a lack of sleep I felt personally responsible for.
“Morning, Mia.” She yawned, her access card jangling against the other keys in her hand. “Doing okay?”
“Are you?”
“Course I am,” she said, walking past my desk and into her office.
