Chapter 5
"Bailey!" Jaxson shouted from his office, ripping the report to pieces.
The scraps drifted down like snowflakes.
Jaxson snapped, "You call this a report? Are you trying to blame me? I'm warning you. If you keep up this attitude, I'll fire you for it!"
I stood across from him, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and hit play.
"Are you trying to get back at me? Are you?" Jaxson's voice echoed through the room.
"If you keep slacking off, I'll fire you for it!" he shouted.
The recordings of Jaxson yelling and threatening me in my office yesterday and today played clearly in the quiet room.
Jaxson's face turned white as a sheet in an instant.
He stared at the phone in my hand, and for the first time, I saw real fear in his eyes.
He finally realized I wasn't some harmless sheep. I was the hedgehog who set the trap and waited for him to walk right in.
Jaxson tried sweet-talking me, but that got him nowhere. Then he tried to bully me, and that didn't work either.
Jaxson finally left me alone for a few days.
But Jaxson wasn't about to throw in the towel.
Pulling some strings at headquarters, he went all out, offering double the pay to poach a so-called "tech expert" named Isaac Read from a rival company in the next city over.
Isaac was in his forties, rocking a receding hairline and gold-rimmed glasses. The moment he walked into the factory, he strutted around like he was the hero sent to save us all.
Jaxson treated Isaac like royalty, making a huge deal out of introducing him to everyone in the workshop.
"Listen up, everyone! This is Isaac Read, the tech guru who's famous all across the state! From now on, any technical problem. He's the guy in charge," Jaxson declared.
Jaxson swept his eyes over me with a smug, challenging look.
The message couldn't be clearer: Bailey, you're out. Someone else is running the show now.
People around me sent me sympathetic glances.
Only Adrien looked genuinely worried as he leaned in and said, "Bailey, I've heard about Isaac. Guy's got a pretty bad rep, always full of hot air."
I just grinned and said, "Don't worry, bro. Let him brag all he wants. With all that wind, he might just end up biting his own tongue."
On his very first day, Isaac made a beeline straight for the A-t7 core machine.
He circled the unit a few times, pointing at this and that, spouting off like he was the expert of the century.
"Lanvian tech is top-notch, but the control logic is way too stiff. It doesn't really work for how we do things around here. Let me handle it. I'll sort this out," Isaac boasted.
Isaac sat down at the console, trying to log into the backend system.
But then he froze.
He couldn't make heads or tails of the code comments I'd left behind.
I'd written them in a way only my mentor and I could ever figure out, full of our own cryptic lingo and inside jokes.
For example, "Y_Comp" was our shorthand for "Morgan Compensation". Morgan Williamson was my mentor, and only he and I could ever make sense of that code.
Isaac stared at the screen, scratching his head, sweating bullets, and looking totally lost.
Roger hovered nearby, desperate to help but completely stumped, wringing his hands and pacing in circles.
But the real trouble was just getting started.
Later that afternoon, Jaxson's secretary burst into the office, clutching an email and looking like she'd just seen a ghost.
"Mr. Flores, it's an urgent email from Bracht Group in Lanvia! They want the latest performance data on the 'B-I Optimization Module' and said it's make-or-break for whether they place another order. We have to reply today!" she blurted out.
Jaxson shoved the email in front of Isaac.
Isaac stared at the unfamiliar term "B-I Optimization Module" in the email, looking totally lost.
"B-I Module? What the hell is that? It's not even in the equipment manual," Isaac muttered, scratching his head.
Jaxson was just as lost. He turned to me and barked, "Bailey! What is this B-I Module? Is this something you did?"
I looked up and met their gaze, completely calm.
"B-I, just the initials of my last name," I replied.
"That module? I built it myself, expanding on what my mentor started. It's a power optimization and precision compensation system, specifically designed for Bracht Group's custom products," I said.
"Oh, and one more thing," I added, my tone casual but dropping a bombshell.
"The software copyright and tech patent for that module are all registered under my name. All I did was grant the factory a free license to use it," I said.
The office went dead silent in an instant.
Jaxson and Isaac were frozen, their faces picture-perfect, like actors in a silent film, caught mid-scene.
I caught the shock, the fury, and a flash of panic in Jaxson's eyes. No way he could hide it.
A smug sense of payback, tinged with risk, bubbled up inside me.
Bet that stings, huh, Mr. Flores? Now you know what payback feels like.
There were just three days left before the final deadline set by Bracht Group in Lanvia.