At exactly seven in the morning, Delinda placed a cup of black coffee on Ace's desk. The temperature was precisely sixty-five degrees Celsius.
Ace didn't look up from his monitors. "I need a full M&A risk assessment on Soren Tech. You have two hours."
This was the final test. Whoever delivered it would officially take the Chief Assistant position.
Delinda walked out of the office. She sat at her desk and began pulling massive datasets from the server. Her eyes scanned the numbers, her brain categorizing the risks.
Warren Petty walked up to her desk. He leaned over, his cologne smelling sour mixed with his nervous sweat. He tried to look at her screen.
Delinda snapped her laptop shut. The loud click made him jump.
"Go back to your desk, Warren," she said, her voice devoid of emotion.
Warren's eyes flashed with pure venom. He turned and walked toward the breakroom.
With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Delinda stood up to grab the physical copies from the secure printer down the hall.
The machine beeped. Paper jam.
Delinda crouched down, pulling the tray open to clear the crumpled paper. Her eyes were off her desk for exactly forty seconds.
Warren walked past her cubicle. His fingers darted across her keyboard, hitting a few keys with practiced speed.
Delinda walked back to her desk with the printed report. She sat down to do a final check against her screen.
Her pupils dilated. Her stomach violently contracted.
The core valuation parameters in her model had been altered. The numbers were completely inverted.
If she handed this to Ace, the multi-billion dollar merger would fail, and she would be escorted out of the building by security.
She had three minutes before she had to walk into the CEO's office. There was no time to run the calculations again.
Delinda closed her eyes. She dug her nails into her palms. She forced her breathing to slow down, pulling the raw data from her photographic memory, rearranging the numbers in her head.
Her desk phone rang. Julian told her to come in.
Delinda grabbed the sabotaged report and pushed open the heavy oak doors.
Ace sat in his leather chair, watching them like a predator waiting for a mistake.
Warren spoke first. He threw out buzzwords, his voice overly loud to cover his lack of technical depth.
Ace's jaw ticked. He held up a hand, cutting Warren off instantly.
He looked at Delinda.
Delinda didn't open the folder in her hands. She looked straight into Ace's dark eyes.
She recited the complex financial ratios and risk hedging strategies entirely from memory. Her voice was steady, the numbers flawless.
Warren scoffed loudly. "She's not even reading from her own report. She's making it up."
Delinda turned to Warren. She threw her printed report onto the desk right in front of him.
"The parameters in that report were manipulated," she said coldly.
She pulled her tablet from her bag, syncing it to the office screen. But instead of a covert camera feed, she displayed the raw server access logs for her own workstation. The system-generated data showed her user ID logging out at the exact moment she went to the printer, followed immediately by a new login from a different terminal-Warren's assigned station-and a series of commands altering the core file. The timestamp glowed red on the screen. "The IT department confirmed the login credentials," she stated, her voice flat. "The physical terminal is logged to your desk, Warren.
Warren's knees buckled. He collapsed into the chair behind him, gasping for air.
Ace's eyes were dead as he looked at Warren. He pressed the security button under his desk.
Two guards dragged Warren out of the room by his armpits.
Ace leaned back in his chair. He looked at Delinda, the corner of his mouth lifting in a barely-there smirk. "Congratulations on the promotion, Chief Assistant."
