"I wrote a little program. It cross-checks everything automatically."
I didn't say anything else, just pulled out the invoices and went through them one by one.
The six that the program had flagged as anomalies all turned out to have real problems.
After that day, Marilyn's attitude toward me changed.
Not warmer, exactly. She just started talking to me like she meant it.
Before, there had always been something in her tone, a kind of unspoken "you and I aren't on the same level."
That was gone now.
A week later, when month-end reports were due, I used my program to cut her data-processing time from half a day down to thirty minutes.
Marilyn didn't say a word about it, but that afternoon, when she went to the break room for water, she brought a cup back for me.
That afternoon, I went up to the fifteenth floor to deliver some documents.
On my way back, I waited for the elevator. The doors opened, and two people were already inside.
Manager Lambert and Finn.
Finn saw me and stiffened, his gaze sliding awkwardly to the side.
Paul, on the other hand, looked perfectly at ease. He even smiled. "Susannah! Long time no see. How's life in Finance treating you?"
I stepped in and pressed five.
"Fine."
"Good to hear." His tone was breezy. "That programming thing you do, though, they can't have much use for it over in Finance, right?"
"You should swing by Engineering when you've got a minute. We always have little issues popping up. You could lend a hand."
"You know what they say. The capable ones always end up doing more."
The elevator was quiet. Nothing but the low hum of the machinery.
I watched the floor number drop from fifteen to fourteen. "Manager Lambert, I'm in Finance now. I have nothing to do with Engineering."
"Same way I didn't get a single cent of that two million."
The elevator went silent.
Finn lowered his head.
Paul's smile didn't change, but his eyes did.
He stared at me for two full seconds, mouth still curved upward, but his voice had gone cold. "Susannah. What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," I said. "I'm Finance Department personnel. Engineering's business has nothing to do with me."
"You—"
The floor number hit eight.
Paul's expression curdled slowly.
The smile peeled away like paper, and what was underneath wasn't pretty.
"Susannah Simmons, I'm a department manager, and I'm talking to you nicely. Don't push your luck."
I didn't respond.
"Fresh out of college, know a little bit of coding, and suddenly you think you're hot stuff?"
His voice was low, but every word had an edge.
"Let me tell you something. In this company, what are you?"
"You're nothing."
"I've been here fifteen years. Fifteen. And some kid who's barely out of school thinks she can give me attitude?"
"Who gave you the nerve?"
The floor number hit five.
Finn reached over and tugged Paul's sleeve. "Manager Lambert, let it go."
Paul shook him off and kept his eyes locked on me.
"Hmph. You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Just wait. Sooner or later, you'll regret this."
The doors opened.
I didn't look at him. I walked out.
I'd barely taken two steps when his phone rang behind me.
He picked up, still seething. "Yeah, who is it?"
Then his tone changed completely.
"What did you say? Say that again."
"The client says the system has a major failure? The entire control logic is scrambled, the production line's been down for an hour, and losses are already past a million dollars?"
Paul's voice was shaking.
Finn froze. "How? Didn't everything pass inspection?"
"They said the system started acting up yesterday, and this morning all the data went haywire. The whole production line is shut down."
"On top of that, the client already complained to the CEO!"
I pushed the door open and walked into the Finance Department.
Behind me came the sound of Manager Lambert's voice, shrill with panic: "Get every single engineer back here, now! Move!"
I didn't look back. I smiled.
I'd written the core algorithm for that system.
Nobody knew where the problem was better than I did.
And nobody could fix it.
Except me.
