“There. I’ve stepped back five moves. You step through what I did and what it said.” And she thrust the thing in my hands.
Oh, God! I hoped to hell she was wrong. I couldn’t possibly delay the launch. But I hoped to hell she was right and I could mollify her anger and build her confidence.
I looked down reluctantly.
She leaned over me as I stepped forward a move. Hell, she’d got herself into a commanding position in very few moves. And she was on the expert level. She was a hell of a lot better than I’d anticipated.
“See.” She pointed. “Desperado is allowed. And so is conditional promotion. And if I use a sacrificial move there, it’s checkmate after two more moves and it won’t let me do them.” Her voice was vicious. I wasn’t surprised. If I was that close to winning a tricky game, I’d have been angry too.
She’d confused the thing by using a number of rare moves together. But perfectly legal. I dropped the pad and reached for her.
She stepped back. She wasn’t going to be soothed that easily.
I wasn’t either. Her reaction to me fueled my anger against my staff. I could blame them. I reached for my phone, then dropped it on the bed. I had to wait, had to control my temper.
I stood up and went to the window. Staring out, I made myself drop my anger level. I took some very deep breaths and thought about what we had to do to rescue the situation.
I closed my eyes to the cityscape. One final breath, and I could act now. In control.
I picked up my phone. “Lawrence? Make sure the car’s here even sooner. Get onto the team at the office, and tell them to make sure everyone’s in for a crisis meeting. They’ve got to bring in the programming team now and get the beta team ready for action in two hours. Tom’s got that long to pull a new rabbit out of his hat. Or we’re screwed for a Christmas launch.” I paused. “And, Lawrence?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Thank you. Sorry I shouted, it’s not your fault.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. “You haven’t blamed me, sir. But I’m sorry if there’s a problem.”
“True.” I rang off. Called the next number.
“Tom? Get your ass in gear, and the team. There’s a big problem with Chess. We’ll have to pull the beta and get upgrading.”
His voice was shocked. “What the hell is it?”
“It doesn’t allow for two or more rare moves together. Toni caught it out in twenty minutes. Hang on.” I looked over at her. “Toni, can I take your game in and show them? So they know where to start?”
“Sure.” She looked confused. “No problem.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Get your ass over there.” I rang off, grabbed my case and stuffed the offending iPad into it.
I looked over at Toni. She hadn’t moved. “You can leave your personal stuff. The staff will send it back to the house.” She still didn’t move. I tried again. “We’ll get breakfast sent up to the office, come on.”
She shook her head. “Should I go back home?”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. “Why do you think you shouldn’t come to the office? You’ve got your stuff to work on.”
She shook her head, looking anxious. “But won’t you need to take Paul back to the main team for this problem?”
So that’s what was worrying her. “No, Toni. He’s allocated to your app now until it’s completed and released with no problems. Until you don’t need a coder for it any more.” I watched her face clear with relief. I would have to work on her showing her emotions to others too obviously. But until then, it was useful that I could read her.
Toni
I grabbed a bagel from the counter along with the coffee, still feeling disheveled. James had been in such a tearing rush that he’d not given me any time to sort myself out, and ten minutes in the restroom before coming up to Suite Five hadn’t really been enough to make me feel really comfortable.
Still, at least my app was coming along better than his chess one. I grinned to myself. It might be a crisis to him, but I felt a naughty sense of satisfaction that I’d beaten it. If it hadn’t cheated, I’d have beaten its expert level, only two off the top. I didn’t think James had actually realized I was good. He probably thought I was a beginner. Maybe now I could challenge him to a proper game. God! I’d love to beat him. I wondered how good he really was. He probably wouldn’t play me if he thought I might win. He was a bit too much the alpha type for that.
I was still grinning when Paul hurried in apologetically. “Sorry I’ve arrived after you, Toni. I didn’t know you’d be in early.” He dropped his folder on the counter and went to get coffee. “What’s happened? The place is buzzing with a scared sort of twitch.”