AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did neither of you have dinner yesterday?” James asked before he broke his burrito in half and offered it to Zi. A gesture that was very James and only made Zi blush more as she shook her head.
“That man eats like a horse. That’s already his third. Take it, Zi,” Cory encouraged, using my name for her already. It warmed my heart to see them accept her so easily. Zi looked my way for help, but I just smiled and shrugged.
“He’s not wrong. James always ate the most out of everyone. I’d take it if I were you. He doesn’t share his food with just anyone,” I said, making James blush this time.
“I’m not that bad,” he grumbled, but smiled when Zi finally took his offering.
“Alright, before I leave you guys, I need to tell you what I’ve tried on those cell phones. No need to waste attempts on things we already know don’t work,” Dad interrupted our teasing as we finished with breakfast. We sat down, listened, took notes and asked questions. It looked like he’d tried just about everything known to man to get the information, but I was sure Zi and I could figure something out between the two of us.
“When do the others start to arrive?” I asked.
“The offices will begin to get furnished sometime next week. We’re hoping to bring people in then, but we won’t be a hundred percent fully operational until sometime in the next month or two. We do have your offices furnished, though, and a lab your dad said you would need, right next to it.” Cory showed us.
“I only brought the necessities for now. There’s a lot of stuff due to arrive in the next few days, Munchkin. You should have everything you want and more,” Dad said with a sparkle in his eyes that I was sure was reflected in mine. This was basically a no-budget, one-time funding of toys. What more could I possibly want?
A hot alpha to go with it? Tozi answered my rhetorical question. I did my best not to blush and instead cleared my throat and walked over to the computers already set up for me.
“Are these with the specs I requested?” I asked.
“Yep. Built it all myself,” Dad answered.
“Great. I should be able to get started with all of this. Is there anything else I can do for you, gentlemen, or can I get started with my work?” I asked, eager to start working.
“No ma’am-I mean. Evie. No. We’ll leave you to it.” Cory answered, blushing.
James snickered at him on the way out, and I could hear the slap upside the head before they got into the elevator, as well as James’ complaint and Dad’s attempt at getting the boys under control. It was a losing battle. I was sure they would be bickering with each other well into their eighties. It was just who they were.
I looked over to Zi to ask if she was ready to start, but the look on her face made me narrow my eyes at her.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said, turning around thinking I didn’t see the smile on her face.
I walked over to my new office.
We have an office. We’re officially the boss! Tozi yipped, her tail wagging as we took in our new office.
We’ve both dreamed of something like this. Through all the hard work and late nights. From all the times we didn’t go to a party or missed a gathering. All the holidays we were away from home. This was it. This was our reward.
Now we can focus on finding someone to share it with, Tozi said, sighing dreamily and flashing me images I didn’t need to see.
I focused instead on the pretty bouquet of carnations of all colors on the desk. Carnations were my favorite. They lived a long time naturally and smelled amazing until the last petal fell. Dad must have put them there when he set up my computers.
I put my snacks on my desk and my purse away. My green apples and Nutri Grains went right in front of my keyboard. It was the only way for me to remember that I needed to eat when I went down the rabbit hole on a project. I turned on my computer and began arranging my applications the way I liked them.
It was a process every time I got a new system. I liked things a certain way. It made it easier for me to find what I needed without wasting time. I found often that my own ideas left my head if I took too long to look for tools.
Once I had it organized to my liking, I grabbed the tablet Dad left for us and started watching the videos of his attempts to extract the data. It looked like the usual removal of SIM still triggered a data wipe when it reconnected to a reader. Turning the phone on didn’t work. The moment another face showed up on the screen, the phone would fritz and wipe. When trying to get the data via SIM, the USB cord wiped the file when it requested the connection. Dad tried a few other things that also didn’t work.
I started doing some research. I had fifteen chances to get this done. If I failed... I couldn’t fail. This was more than just a job. These people harmed my pack, my friends, my family. I dumped all of the phones out on the table. Maybe there was something about the phones used that would help.
“Zi...” I called out. Since it was only the two of us for now, we were working with open doors. Soon, she was walking inside my office.
“What’s up?”
“What do you see?” I asked her.
“Phones.”
