Chapter 1
The next morning, at the team meeting, Vivian announced the new project assignments.
"Evan will be the technical lead for the Smart City Phase Two project," she said.
Some people in the room gasped.
It was a 27-million-dollar project.
Evan had less than two years of experience and had never even worked on the code for Phase One.
I sat in the corner, keeping quiet.
Mr. Jackson, sitting next to me, nudged my arm.
"Lucas, didn't you work on Phase One? How come you're not leading Phase Two?" he whispered.
"Shh," I whispered back.
Vivian swept her gaze across the room.
"Any questions?" she asked.
No one dared to speak up.
After the meeting, Evan caught up with me.
"Lucas, there are some technical challenges with Phase Two. Could you—" he started.
"Take it up with Ms. Lane," I said, not slowing down.
I kept walking.
"If she gave you the project, she must believe you've got what it takes," I added.
Evan stood there, looking a bit awkward.
Back at my desk, I opened my email and confirmed the interview invitation from Pinnacle Enterprise.
On Wednesday afternoon, I took a half-day off.
Pinnacle Enterprise's headquarters was in the CBD on the east side of the city, and they owned the whole building.
The receptionist led me up to the 38th floor.
When I pushed open the door, I saw three people sitting inside.
The guy in the middle was someone I knew, Peter Dawson, Pinnacle Enterprise's CTO.
"Lucas? I've heard a lot about you," Peter said.
He got up and shook my hand.
"We've been studying the distributed architecture you built at BrightCore for a long time. It's really impressive," he said.
I sat down.
"You're too kind," I replied.
"Not at all," said the middle-aged man with glasses next to him. "I'm Frank Yates, VP of Technology.
"Even with a team of twenty engineers, we spent three months on your architecture and still couldn't fully pull it off."
Peter didn't waste any time.
"Lucas, let's not beat around the bush. We want you to join Pinnacle as our Chief Architect," he said.
"What's the compensation?" I asked.
Peter slid a document over to me.
I flipped it open, and when I saw the number, my hand froze for a moment.
An annual salary of 1.6 million dollars, plus stock options.
At BrightCore, I was making 90 thousand dollars a year.
"This number shows how serious we are about bringing you on board," Peter said. "Of course, if you think it's not enough, we can talk."
I closed the document.
"Let me think it over for a couple of days," I said.
"Of course," Peter replied.
As I stepped out of Pinnacle, a light rain was falling.
I stood at the entrance and lit a cigarette.
1.6 million dollars was 35 times what Vivian made in a year.
And 35 times the 90 thousand dollars she put me on.
My phone rang. It was Vivian.
"Where are you? Are you coming home for dinner tonight?" she asked.
"I'm working late. I won't be home," I replied.
"Oh, okay. I'm heading out with Evan to meet a client."
"Yeah."
I hung up.
I stubbed out my cigarette and headed back to BrightCore.
By nine o'clock, I was the only one left in the office.
I fired up my computer and started going through all the project files I'd worked on over the past three years.
The core architecture, the tech patents, the system designs, all of it was mine.
But half those files had Evan's name on them.
I pulled up the internal system and checked Evan's performance reviews.
There were three straight quarters of A+.
And the one who gave him those grades was Vivian.
Then I checked my own.
There were only B, B+, and B.
I shut down my computer and leaned back in my chair.
Three years were enough.
The next day, I showed up for work like usual.
Evan came over with a stack of files.
"Lucas, I'm totally lost with the database design for Phase Two. Mind taking a look for me?" he asked.
I took the files and flipped through them.
It was so basic.
"You should ask Ms. Lane about this," I said.
"Ms. Lane told me to ask you," Evan said.
"So why didn't she hand the project to me?"
Evan looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't get a word out.
I shoved the files back at him.
"Deal with it yourself," I said.