38 An Unceremonious Wee
38 An Unceremonious Wee
The conference room door mmed shut behind Quentin’s dramatic exit, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.
Julian ran his hand through his hair, exhaling deeply. “Well, that was certainly… memorable.” He turned to address the remaining team members, who sat stiff and ufortable in their chairs.
“I want to apologize for that unpleasant scene,” Julian said firmly. “Quentin’s behavior waspletely unprofessional and doesn’t reflect ourpany values.”
No one responded. The silence stretched ufortably.
ra stood beside Julian, her faceposed despite the humiliation she’d just endured. Her hands were sped tightly in front of her to hide their slight trembling.
“Look,” Julian continued, his voice taking on a more determined edge, “I understand you all had good working rtionships with Quentin. But I need to be absolutely clear
ra Vance is exceptionally qualified for this position.”
–
A woman with short dark hair in the third row finally spoke up. “With all due respect, Julian, we’ve been through this before. Remember Daniel Thomas? Hired because he was someone’s nephew, and his ipetence nearly cost us the Rhinehart contract.”
Several heads nodded in agreement.
“This ispletely different,” Julian insisted. “ra is brilliant. She developed the core algorithms that YodaVision was built on.”
“Then why doesn’t she have a doctorate?” someone else called out.
Julian’s jaw tightened. “There are reasons for that which I’m not at liberty to discuss. Some of ra’s best work was for a ssified government project.”
The skeptical expressions around the room made it clear they weren’t convinced.
A tall man with sses leaned forward. “Julian, we respect you, but this feels like favoritism, Vivienne Dubois had every qualification on paper.”
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38 An Unceremonious Wee
“Sometimes paper qualifications don’t tell the whole story,” Julian replied. His gaze swept across the room. “I’m asking you all to give ra a chance to prove herself before making judgments.”
More ufortable silence followed.
Julian turned to a young man sitting in the front row. “Yandel, you were working with Quentin on the neuralwork optimization project, correct?”
Yandel Sanchez nodded reluctantly. “Yes, we were scheduled to present our progress report next week.”
“Good. ra will take over Quentin’s responsibilities on that project,” Julian decided. “Can you bring her up to speed on where things stand?”
Yandel’s expression tightened, but he nodded again. “Of course.”
Julian turned to ra. “Is that eptable to you?”
ra nodded calmly. “Yes, I’d be happy to step in.”
“Excellent.” Julian checked his watch. “I need to deal with the situation downstairs. The rest of you, please return to your tasks. Yandel, if you could spare an hour now to brief ra, I’d appreciate it.”
As Julian headed for the door, the other team members began gathering their things. Their nces toward ra ranged from curious to openly hostile.
ra took a deep breath and stepped forward. “I know this is an awkward situation. I appreciate your patience as I get settled in. I hope we can work well together, and I wee any guidance you can offer.”
Her polite words were met with stiff nods and mumbled acknowledgments. No one quite met her eyes. A few people stepped deliberately wide around her as they left the conference room.
Within minutes, only ra and Yandel remained. The young man closed hisptop with a controlled snap.
“We should go to Quentin’s office,” he said, his voice professionally neutral. “All the project files are there,”
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38 An Unceremonious Wee
ra nodded. “Lead the way.”
They walked in silence through the corridor. Conversations hushed as they passed, only to resume in whispers once they were beyond earshot.
Quentin’s office was meticulous – every item precisely ced, the desk surface clear except for a sleekptop and a single notepad.
“You can use this desk until IT sets up your own space,” Yandel said, gesturing to the chair. “Quentin was very… particr about his organization system.”
ra set her purse on the floor beside the desk. “Thank you, Yandel. I appreciate you taking time to help me transition.”
Yandel’s expression remained closed, but he nodded. “I’ll transfer the relevant files to you now.”
As he connected Quentin’sptop to thework, ra studied him. He was younger than most of the other team members, probably in histe twenties. His precise movements and careful maintenance of professional distance told her everything she needed to know – he had respected Quentin and viewed her as an unwee interloper.
“The project involves optimizing neuralwork responsiveness for real-time applications,” Yandel exined, pulling up severalplex diagrams. “We were hitting a wall with thetency issues.”
ra leaned forward, immediately spotting a potential issue in the architecture. “May I?” she asked, gesturing toward the keyboard.
Yandel hesitated, then slid theptop toward her.
ra quickly navigated through the code, finding the section she suspected was causing problems. “I see the issue. You’re using a traditional sequential processing model, but for this application, you might want to consider a parallel architecture with distributed nodes.”
She typed quickly, changing several lines of code, then ran a simtion. The response time immediately improved by 15%.
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38 An Unceremonious Wee
Yandel’s eyebrows rose slightly. “That’s… actually impressive.”
“It’s amon problem,” ra said modestly. “I’ve encountered simr issues before.”
For the next forty minutes, they went through the project details. Gradually, Yandel’s responses became less terse, though he maintained his professional distance.
When they finished, ra looked at him directly. “Thank you for your patience, Yandel. I know this can’t be easy. Quentin was obviously respected here.”
Yandel packed up his tablet, his expression carefully neutral. “Quentin is brilliant. He taught me a lot.”
“I’m not here to rece him or diminish his contributions,” ra said quietly. “I’m just here to do good work.”
Yandel paused at the door. “Ms. Vance… I don’t know what happened with you and Vivienne Dubois, or why Julian chose you over her. But Quentin was right about one thing – people here will judge you based on results.”
“That’s fair,” ra replied. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Yandel nodded, his expression softening slightly. “The team meeting is at nine tomorrow morning. The project files I sent include ourtest progress report. You should review it before then.”
As Yandel left, ra sank into Quentin’s ergonomic chair. The office felt foreign, hostile even – like she was trespassing in someone else’s territory. Which, in a way, she
was.
She nced at the photos on Quentin’s desk – one showing him with what appeared to be research colleagues, another with him shaking hands with a well-known tech innovator. Evidence of a career built on hard work and legitimate credentials.
ra turned to theputer and began reviewing the project files. Theplex algorithms were exactly the kind of challenge she’d been missing during her years away from the field. Despite the hostile reception, a small thrill ran through her as she immersed herself in the work.
Two hourster, ra had identified three major issues in the neuralwork design
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38 An Unceremonious Wee
and drafted potential solutions for each. She was so absorbed that she didn’t notice.
Julian standing in the doorway until he cleared his throat.
“You look right at home,” hemented.
ra looked up, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I found some interesting problems in their approach.”
“Already?” Julian smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “How bad was it after I left?”
“About what you’d expect,” ra admitted. “No one threw anything, so I’ll consider that a win.”
Julian sighed, dropping into the visitor’s chair. “I’m sorry, ra. I should have prepared the team better.”
“It’s not your fault. Quentin’s reaction was… unpredictable.”
“I managed to contain the press situation,” Julian said. “Our PR team issued a statement that neither confirms nor denies anything about your personal life, simply stating that YodaVision hires based on merit and expertise.”
ra nodded, grateful for his handling of the situation.
“You know,” Julian said quietly, “you don’t have to do this. We could find you another position, maybe in research where you wouldn’t be directly managing a team that’s predisposed to dislike you.”
ra straightened in her chair. “No. I didn’te back to hide in a corner. I’ve spent enough years trying to make myself smaller to amodate other people’sfort.”
Julian smiled, a genuine smile this time. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”
As he left, ra turned back to theputer screen, determination settling over her like armor. Tomorrow would bring more challenges, more skepticism, more whispers about Damien Thorne’s discarded wife.
But for the first time in years, ra felt like herself again – a woman with valuable skills and a sharp mind, ready to prove her worth on her own terms.