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“And this is Alison Harker. My wife.” Harker’s deep voice filled the office. “You’ll report directly to her.”
She turned as Harker walked into the room followed by a young, geeky looking guy. He was thin, wore an old sweatshirt and worn jeans. He had black hair and thick glasses that almost concealed his intelligent green eyes.
“Alison, this is Cormac O’Reilly,” said Harker.
“Hello.” She smiled and stood, holding out her hand to the young man. She was going to kill Harker. She’d told him she’d contact any possible new hires.
“Hi. It’s great to meet you.” The kid shook her hand. “And call me Mac. I can’t wait to start. Harker’s told me so much about the project and the speed that you’re getting is amazing.” His eyes darted to her computer. “May I have a look?”
“Ah…no.” She closed her laptop. “This is proprietary.”
“He’s already signed the non-disclosure papers,” said Harker. “Mac has access to everything.”
“What?” This time she didn’t try to hide her annoyance. Mac would just have to deal with it.
“He’ll be working mostly nights. He has classes during the day. Mac’s going for his second doctorate. It was easier to give him full access. Plus, I trust him.” Harker nodded at the kid. “I’ve known him for a few years now.”
“Since high school,” said Mac. “Harker helped me get the scholarships so I could go to college.”
“That’s great.” She forced a smile. “But can you excuse us please?”
“Sure.” The kid glanced between the two of them.
“We’ll only be a minute.” She hated making the guy feel unwelcome. She knew that feeling too well. Programmers were notoriously competitive, and no one wanted anyone smarter than them at the office. Since she was usually smarter than everyone else, she’d often been made to feel unwelcome.
“Go ahead and log in.” Harker pointed to a spare laptop that sat on a table in the corner. “Tobias gave you your account information, right?”
“Yeah.” Mac walked over and grabbed the laptop.
“The network drives should be mapped. You can find the code under Angel Face—”
“Harker, we need to talk.” She was going to strangle the man. She gave him a look that meant they had to talk now as she strode out of the office.
“Get familiar with what’s been done and—”
“Now, Harker.” She grabbed his arm as Mac sat and opened the laptop.
“We’ll see you tomorrow.” Harker didn’t budge as she tugged on his arm. “You’ll be here around four in the afternoon, right?”
“Yep,” muttered Mac, already focused on the computer.
“Tomorrow?” She pulled harder on Harker’s arm. “No, we’ll see you in a few minutes.” She hated firing the kid because of Harker’s blunder but she would.
“Okay,” Mac mumbled, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“Don’t change anything.” She wanted to yank that laptop from him. It was her code. Her baby.
Harker gave her a funny look. “Change whatever you need to but make backups first and note what you changed so you and Alison can discuss it tomorrow.”
“Harker, I mean it. We need to talk.” She stormed down the hallway. She was going to kill him…slowly.
CHAPTER 27: Harker
As soon as Harker closed the door to his office. Alison started in on him.
“What do you think you’re doing? You actually hired him? To do what? Because he’s not working on Angel Face. What were you thinking?” She almost shook with anger.
He kept his face impassive as he walked to his desk. “I don’t understand your question. Or more precisely, I don’t know which of the hundred questions you asked me, you want me to answer.”
