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Eureka.
Instead of eating the thing, the game cuts to smoke expelling out of my mouth—which, in hindsight, was a clue—and I become demonic, just like in the video.
“I reproduced,” I say.
Everyone snickers.
Vlad rolls his eyes. “Children.”
“As I was trying to say, I was able to reproduce the problem.” I show the screen.
Vlad stands up and comes over, invading my personal space. “How?”
Though it’s difficult to think like this, I explain about the cigarette butt.
His eyebrows furrow. Then he hurries back to the seat and bangs away on the laptop again.
Alex and I watch over his shoulder.
C++ covers the screen, and Vlad mutters something as he skims the code.
“Aha,” he says and minimizes the code window. He plays around in the source control repository until he has a code submission on the screen. One that, presumably, introduced the problem.
“This did it,” he says, confirming my suspicion. “Talk to Johnny Kove. If he did it intentionally—which seems to be the case—fire him.”
Does he own this company also? He sure sounds like he does.
Alex looks upset. “He’s one of my best developers.”
“You’re one of your best developers,” Vlad retorts. He explains to me, “Alex originally wrote this game, as well as a few other mega hits.”
“He’s being too modest,” Alex says. “We wrote it together, but now that he’s so busy with Binary Birch projects, I work on it with my dev team.”
“Well, it’s your call,” Vlad says, but his tone doesn’t match his words. “Keep in mind, though, if the guy does something like this again, I won’t come to the rescue.”
Alex says something in Russian. It sounds conciliatory, but it could be my imagination.
Vlad replies sternly, and they go back and forth like that for a bit. Something tells me the topic has shifted from games to something more personal.
“Thank you both,” Alex says when the sibling bickering comes to an end. “I’ll walk you out.”
That saves us from the Nerf gun attack. When the elevator opens, Alex glances at his brother with a mischievous expression, then faces me. “Fanny, we’re having a big 1000 Devils anniversary party at my parents’ restaurant next week. Could I ask you to please drag Vlad over there? It would mean the world to the family.”
“You don’t have to dignify that with a reply,” Vlad growls.
Since Vlad ultimately pays my salary, I take that as a hint to stay silent.
The elevator doors slide shut, and Vlad jabs the button for the lobby. “Back to our earlier conversation,” he says as we descend. “Did you think of a safe way to test the male batch of the hardware?”
I did, in fact, do just that. Running around as a squirrel is very conducive to plotting evil deeds, as well as testing procedures. The problem is, I don’t know if I have enough proverbial balls to voice my insane idea out loud.
“Look,” he says softly. “If you want to quit the project, I understand.”
This again? He thinks I’ve chickened out? That my prudish nature has won?
I straighten my spine. “Actually, I have the perfect male in mind for the testing. Someone you’ll think is safe, guaranteed.”
His lips thin into an angry line. “Who?”
